On a cross-country drive between northern Maine and Seattle, lightening struck Michael Daisey’s car. A few years later, he retold the story of his road trip as part of his comedic one-man stage performance – including the fact that his car worked better than ever after having been electrified during that storm in the Nevada desert.

Mr. Daisey’s pieces are two hour-long twisting tales, where he self-deprecatingly reveals the intimate and often hysterical details of his life. He pushes his voice from a deep and commanding bellow to a panicky squeak to bring to mind different characters. While most stage performers stick to fictional scripts, Mr. Daisey weaves fables from his life experiences. He works from an outline, continuously improvising. More of a storyteller than an actor, Mr. Daisey taps into an oral tradition.

Next month, he’ll be performing his newest monologue, “Ugly American,” at PS 122 in the East Village. The bittersweet yet persistently humorous piece focuses on Mr. Daisey’s college semester abroad, studying theater in London. After his official drama instructors disappointingly typecast him in the role of a slovenly, dim-witted fellow, Mr. Daisey decided to discover another side of English theater. He joined an experimental acting troupe living communally in an abandoned church. His fellow thespians gave him the role a rapist due to his “menacing” American accent. But the monologue’s real twist comes when he discovers his loving, English girlfriend – also a member of the theater ensemble – moonlights as a prostitute.

Although involved in theater for years, Mr.Daisey, 31, had a tenuous relationship with the art. He even managed to flunk his university semester abroad in London.

“I am the only person who has ever failed the study abroad program,” Mr. Daisey explained. “People go there to get the A.”

The elements of his work that are truest to life could be worrisome to Mr. Daisey’s friends and family, who end up as part of his performances. He takes great pains to depict his nearest and dearest as accurately as possible.

“I always worry that everyone will be totally offended, and instead everyone is flattered,” he said. “It’s very strange.”

The monologue that put him on the map – “21 Dog Years,” a retelling of his experience working at Amazon – is a lighthearted show about cubical life in the dot-com era. Although also funny, “The Ugly American” and another piece, “Wasting Your Breath,” are more poignant. Both touch on subjects rarely associated with laughter, such as Maine’s impoverished economy and an unplanned pregnancy. Yet he expertly mixes seriously topics with life episodes seemingly made for comedy, like his job gutting cows in a butcher shop.

Mr. Daisey studied theater at Colby College, but he credits much of his personal performance style to his high-school hobby of extemporaneous speaking – pulling a random topic from a hat, researching the subject for 30 minutes, and arguing for or against the subject. He also credits New England’s storytelling tradition, which he believes stems from isolation, darkness, and a need to entertain.

“There’s something very dark about Maine,” Mr. Daisey said, forcing his face into an expression of exaggerated terror found in spoof horror flicks. “There’s an inexplicable element that I don’t want to figure out or put my finger on.”

After breaking up with his high school and college girlfriend in Maine, Mr. Daisey moved to Seattle. There, he continued doing theater pieces, and met his wife and future director, Jean-Michele Gregory, while acting in a “terrible, misguided” German expressionist play. He quit traditional theater after performing a disturbing masturbation scene with an young girl in the audience. (There were posters outside warning viewers that the play was sexually explicit).

“That was the moment I really made the decision,” he said. “I should not do projects I am not 100% on. The only person I had left that I completely trusted was myself.”

In 1997, Mr. Daisey performed his first monologue, “Wasting Your Breath,” which evolved from a conversation he typically had in Seattle bars. First, a fellow beer-drinker would ask Mr. Daisey where he was from, followed up with a question about how he came to live in Seattle. At this point, Mr. Daisey would launch into the story of his cross-country road trip and his ex-girlfriend – the principal subjects of the monologue.

But the performances didn’t bring in enough cash, and Mr. Daisey desperately needed health insurance. So he got a job in customer service for Amazon. He worked the long hours associated with the Internet boom and was quickly promoted during his two years at the company. Afterwards, he took a trip to Spain, relaxing in plazas and baking under the hot sun. He also developed a monologue about Amazon.

“21 Dog Years” became a hit on the West Coast, and eventually pulled Mr. Daisey back east. He moved to New York in 2001 when he received a book deal for “21 Dog Years.” Shortly thereafter, the show went off-Broadway.

Is he afraid of running out of material?

“Life is really, really full, and there’re lots and lots of stories,” he said.