If you have a working funny bone and a finely honed sense of the absurd, Christmas came early again this year in the form of Target's Black Friday ads featuring comedian and Eagle Rock resident Maria Bamford as a too-tightly-wound, red-track-suited hausfrau training for Target's 4 a.m. sale by riding a tinsel-decked elliptical—backwards—and hauling shopping baskets up a hilly Eagle Rock street.

"I really enjoyed making them," says Bamford.  "I really enjoyed having income."  

This is the second year that Target has tapped Bamford for its 12-plus days of (pre) Christmas ads. "Last year, I was working at NBC 4 when the commercials came out, but no one at work realized it was me except Fritz Coleman, the weatherman, because he's a comedian," says Bamford. "Of course, I looked considerably grimmer—I was answering phones and people would call and say, 'There are devils coming out of my eyes!' and I would say, 'I'll transfer you to sports.'"

Bamford is definitely getting more attention this year even without the Target-mandated side ponytail and a holiday-induced rictus of a grin. Judd Apatow called the comedian "hysterically funny … one of the few people who really makes you laugh hard, who's doing something so interesting and insane," in a recent article in the Los Angeles Times. 

Bamford will be cracking wise on Late Night With Craig Ferguson on Dec. 17.  And on the first Wednesday of every month, lucky Eagle Rockers will be able to catch their neighbor (and pet her fiercely fashionable pugs Bert and Blossom) at the Center for the Arts, Eagle Rock, at "Maria Bamford's Eagle Rock Singalong and Comedy Show." The event will be produced and emceed by Monique Moreau, who will be participating in the 1st Eagle Rock Comedy Festival this week and is "very funny and has lots of energy," according to Bamford.

The singalong and comedy show isn't Bamford's first comedy event in Eagle Rock.  Soon after she moved to Eagle Rock in 2007, she hosted monthly comedy shows at READ Books. Eagle Rock Comedy Festival co-producer Bobbie Oliver was a frequent guest, as were Jackie Kashian (Last Comic Standing) and 15-year-old comic Julian Axelrod (First Hollywood Comedy Fest).

All three will be performing at the comedy festival as well. READ Books remains one of Bamford's favorite places in Eagle Rock. ("I buy many books there!" she says.) And she thinks Society of the Spectacle is so much fun that she shops at store on York Boulevard even though she doesn't wear prescription glasses. ("I have three pairs of sunglasses!")

The Comedians of Comedy alumna's civic-mindedness also extends to neighborhood beautification projects. Bamford's attempt to plant a tree outside Ralph's Country Store near her house was thwarted when the owners of the property took it down. "They're not very country," sniffs Bamford, so Bamford has focused her efforts on her Hazelwood Avenue abode. "I built a bench in my front yard," she says. "I want to make it like a public park. So far there are some cigarette butts next to it—and half a cherry pie."

Despite those setbacks, Maria Bamford remains optimistic about her ability to make a difference. As she puts it: "I want to be the eccentric in my neighborhood who joins people together."