The absurdist comedian Steven Wright is always in my head. When I was a kid, before I became a writer, I saw one of his TV stand-up specials, and that’s when the immortal one-liner, “What’s another word for thesaurus?” became permanently lodged in my brain. Every time I try to find the right word to type on these pages, I hear his deadpan delivery.

With Wright performing in Las Vegas this week for the first time in a long time—he waited until April of this year to resume touring, the longest break from the stage in his entire career—I decided to seize the opportunity to try to get into his head.

It worked. Maybe.

Since you’ve been back onstage, have you noticed any difference in audiences and their reactions and behaviors from before the pandemic?

I noticed that they’re two years older. Actually, I didn’t notice any difference in response other than the political correctness that keeps [growing], but maybe that was happening more than two years ago. It’s a freaky thing. It’s too much.

And you don’t really dive into political or cultural issues much.

What could I possibly have that would do that? I’m talking about the speed of light or about lint. But it did affect a couple of jokes. I’m sick of it. It’s like I left on a spaceship and came back five years later and a lot of the rules are different. If George Carlin was still around, I would love to see what he would be doing with this sh*t. He would put it in a blender and make a fruit drink.

You’ve been visiting Vegas for a long time. Do you like being here?

I love going there. I don’t gamble, but I love surrealism and I think the way it looks is just amazingly bizarre. It’s like Salvador Dali built the skyline, with the Eiffel Tower and the New York buildings. The whole thing is fascinating.

And now you can add the MSG Sphere.

What is that?

It’s a new arena-theater being built behind the Venetian that’s just a big globe. It’s pretty crazy.

That’s what I’m talking about. This is great.

You’ve been in lots of movies—big and small—but when I go through the list, I realize how many great directors you’ve worked with. Any favorites?

Well, Reservoir Dogs with Quentin Tarantino. Years ago I made a short film called The Appointments of Dennis Jennings [which won an Academy Award in 1988]; it was edited by Sally Menke, and her husband [Dean Parisot] directed, and I became friends with them. A few years later, she was working on Reservoir Dogs. Quentin knew there was going to be a guy, this voice on the radio, the K-Billy DJ, but he didn’t know who it would be. She suggested me, and he liked it. That was the first movie of his career, but it really changed things into this whole other version of movies, so I was happy to be involved with that because it was more than just a movie. It was like an exit ramp to another world.

I’ve seen that movie many times and I’ve seen you in Half Baked many times, with Dave Chappelle.

Half Baked is fun, because people have either never seen it or they’ve seen it 50 times and they own it. There’s no in between.

STEVEN WRIGHT June 25, 8 p.m., $40-$60. Orleans Showroom, ticketmaster.com.