You Had To Laugh

Kathy Griffin sure has grown on me over the years, like hair on my back except less of a hindrance in the summer.

I remember finding her a bit obnoxious, kind of like a younger version of the late-career Joan Rivers. Her humor struck me as a bit lazy—it's easy being mean.

But over the years, her act has evolved into something that, in its best bits, is a lot smarter than just reading the blogs and reacting. She still has some easy jabs, but they're mere punctuation marks in a set that is an exhilaratingly clear-headed take-down of all that is not real. Telling it like it is has never been more satisfying than in this day and age, when those in the spotlight, aided and abetted by the media, seek to pull the wool over our eyes.

That was what I thought seeing her live for the first time last night at Madison Square Garden. She came out to a rousing reception, played on by Britney's "Gimme More," a taste of what was to come.

Her best material, which melded her sheer outrageousness with socially-redeeming smack-down, was centered on her obsession, Oprah Winfrey. She admits to worshiping Oprah (suggesting the cross needs another prong so she can cohabitate with the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost), but can't pretend Oprah is not sometimes "completely full of shit." Her remembrances of recent Oprah shows had the crowd howling and will have Oprah grinding her veneers.

The flat-out funniest part of the show has to be her first-person account of finally meeting Liza Minnelli, who warms to her instantly (identifying her as "one of my very best friends!" from the stage before they'd even met), and who winds up inviting Kathy into bed with her. The sense is that you're hearing about the temporary crossing over—Lewis & Clark-style—of a woman who would be the first to point and laugh at the three-in-a-bed pow-wows of stars like Minnelli, Michael Jackson and Elizabeth Taylor.

Other highlights were her unexpected (the whole show was new material) dissections of Marie Osmond ("Can we just stop pretending Mormons are normal?") and her staged fainting spell, the obscure Oxygen show called Bad Girls Club and her relationship with billionaire Steve Wozniak, the latter of which brings her act a lot of heart.

The show's weakest segment is surprising—she promises a killer Scientology story, but it peters out into a well-worn telling of some of the crazy components of that pseudo-religion. Still, she scores by suggesting a Hey Tom show for Mr. Cruise based on Ms. Abdul's Hey Paula, and with zingers like this:

“So she joined Scientology to get a TV pilot, which already makes me laugh...because you’re not supposed to join your religion to get a TV show. But—God love ’er—she did. And you know in L.A. their big, iconic building is called The Celebrity Center, which is a little bit of a red flag if you’re a religion and you’re calling your building The Celebrity Center. At least the fucked-up Catholics know to name it, like, St. Andrew’s or some bullshit, you know what I mean? They don’t just call it The Kid-Fucker Center, you know what I mean?...Cheers, New York!”

Just the fact that she sees Scientology in the same way many of her fans do (hilariously miming how someone like Giovanni Ribisi goes down several notches in your mind when you find out he's a member) makes an overall ho-hum sequence anything but a failure.

It's the recognition that she sees things as her audience sees them that makes the laughter flow, and makes the bond strong. It's also what makes her painfully unfunny if you don't see quite why Britney Spears, Ryan Seacrest and Anderson Cooper are worth examining in depth.

Personally, while I'm not sure she'll be a comedian who goes down as one of the greats due to the timeliness of her observations, I had a fucking blast and I hope she keeps her momentum going long after people stop caring about Britney.

"LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, PLEASE WELCOME THE HILARIOUS KATHY GRIFFIN..."

"FOR ONE NIGHT IT'S LIKE THE GAY DISPUTED TERRITORY OF KASHMIR..."

"[ANDERSON COOPER] IS LIKE A YUMMY, MELTY PANINI THAT I WOULD JUST EAT..."

ANDERSON COOPER'S FRIENDSHIP WITH RYAN SEACREST IS "SHAME-BASED..."

Keep reading below for more hilarious snippets on Scientology, Liza Minnelli ("Did you fuck Fosse?") and other newly-minted Kathy classics...

"TO ME, TOXINS ARE LIKE A WARM BABY BLANKET..."

"HERE'S HOW I KNEW [BRITNEY] WAS NUTS..."

"WHEN YOU'RE OPRAH, WHO THE FUCK'S GONNA BE WILLING TO TELL YOU THAT YOU'RE FAT?..."

"I AM CALLING BULLSHIT ON THE FAINTING RIGHT NOW..."

"WE HAVE TONIGHT ONE OF MY VERY BEST FRIENDS..."

"IT'S JUST MYSELF, LIZA AND HER GAY...SO, DID YOU FUCK FOSSE?..."

"I GET IN BED WITH [LIZA] LIKE I'M MICHAEL FUCKING JACKSON..."

Comments

[DetachedJosh]

Thanks for that! Love your blog so much. Thought you should know. :)

[Matthew Rettenmund]

You have good instincts—I really should know that! Thank you!

[Hephvescent]

Cheers Matt!!

I´m loving the clips!!!

Btw are you familiar with Maria Bamford by any chance?

[Matthew Rettenmund]

No! I'll have to investigate her.

[Hephvescent]

You must Matt! There are not a lot of great clips on you tube, there is some stuff though on mariabamford.com.

She is not really a stand up - she does voices including gaawd ol´ smiteee!

[sAm]

Hilarious! Thk u so much for the clips. I love Kathy as well and I agree, the secret to enjoying her is to endear yourself to her. If u don’t care about celebrities u can’t enjoy her act. I would love to be one of her Gays as well!.

[Matthew Rettenmund]

One day, some upstart comedian will be talking about meeting the legendary Kathy Griffin and being alone with her in a room with her gay, her MAIN gay, just as reverently as Kathy describes her encounter with Liza.

[Jack]

I for one would LOVE to examine Anderson Cooper in depth.

[Matthew Rettenmund]

Going inside Anderson is called "CNNtry."