Stormy Daniels effectively labeled Donald Trump a criminal in a hilarious skewering in a comedy club in New York on Tuesday, though she didn’t directly call for the president to be impeached.

Daniels, proud pornographic film producer, director and actor, and the woman at the center of one of the most high-profile scandals besetting the White House, was performing at the second stop of a limited city tour of speaking engagements labeled “intimate evenings with”.

For a woman who claims to have had sex with Donald Trump a dozen or so years ago – which Trump denies – and who was paid $130,000 in hush money during the 2016 election not to talk about the matter, the personal and political appear inextricably linked.

In answer to an audience question, should Trump be impeached, Daniels said: “Well, I think it’s unfair that the president of the United States isn’t held to the same rules that any other citizen would be held to. Allowing someone to get away with things that are definitely illegal sets a terrifying precedent for anyone who comes into office after him.”

She didn’t specify what crimes she thought he had committed, but federal prosecutors in New York are investigating Trump on several fronts, including in relation to the hush money, while several hundred former federal prosecutors think he only escaped an obstruction of justice indictment following Robert Mueller’s recent report on the Trump-Russia investigation because he is protected by his office.

Daniels added: “It’s basically a green light to do whatever the fuck you want if you get elected.”

The audience packing the small Stand Up NY comedy club in Manhattan clapped and cheered.

Daniels said she had embarked on the tour because she wanted to tell stories that had been edited out of her book, Full Disclosure, last year.

She has been accused by comedians on social media, she said, especially women, of stealing precious spots in comedy clubs by booking her engagements in such venues.

“But I never said I was a comedian, I never said I wanted to do standup, clearly I do my best work lying down,” she said. Then, pointing to her sparkly stilettos, she said: “These? Much better up in the air. Working on your feet is for the birds.”

She admitted she was shaking with nerves, then told anecdotes from her porn career as the crowd chuckled supportively. But despite citing untold stories as her motivation for appearing, it was her frank and funny answers to questions submitted by the audience that added up to a strong performance.

Reading from cards handed in from an estimated crowd of 75 or so, she said: “‘What’s your biggest regret?’ Seriously, do you not watch the news?”

Then was: ‘Did you have sex with the president with or without a condom?’

“Buy the book,” she said.

She called her alleged sexual encounter with Trump in 2006, when he was already married to Melania Trump, “the worst 90 seconds of my life”.

At one point she lamented that the mainstream media often refer to her as a former porn star.

“I’m not former!” she yelped. “I’m not retired or washed up. I’ve directed over 100 movies, including three of the five most expensive porn movies ever made, and I wrote, produced, directed and starred in them.” She added: “And I’ve been stripping for 20 years.”

She begged to be referred to as Stormy Daniels, not her birth name of Stephanie Clifford.

“The only people who call me Stephanie are my mother and the IRS and I hate them both,” she said.

In response to one question she said that, no, she never had sexual chemistry with her former lawyer, Michael Avenatti, who once spoke of saving the Democratic party and bringing down Trump but is now facing criminal charges.

“He’s too short for me, and he thought he was prettier and that’s a huge problem for me,” she said.

Did she think Donald Trump would be re-elected?

“I hope not.”

Then: does she get offended that Donald Trump denies they had sex?

Quick as a streak of lightning, she said: “It doesn’t offend me. I mean, he also thinks climate change isn’t real.”