Kathy Griffin at The Mirage Aug.1, & Sept. 7
Special’ K from reality series, ‘My Life on the D List’ posted on July 30, 2013 by Michele LaFong
Kathy Griffin, who first made a name for herself on Bravo’s two-time Emmy Award- winning reality series, “My Life on the D List,” and recently had her own talk show, “Kathy,” on Bravo, has broken the record for having the most comedy specials, male or female, with her latest called “Calm Down Gurrl.”
“I just love Las Vegas,” Griffin proudly admitted. “I love everything about it…slots and all! If you come see me at The Mirage, you will hear different material than you’ve heard before. If you come see me a month later, you’re going to see different material than I did last time! I just can’t keep up with all the crazy celebrities. Amanda Bynes with the blue wig…Lindsay Lohan doing a show with Oprah…I mean, we have a lot to talk about.”
This prompted the question, “How do you remember everything?”
“It’s a very free-flowing form,” she said without skipping a beat.
“It’s been so improvisational for so long, I couldn’t do it any other way. Most comedians write an act and memorize it, and it’s all perfect. My show is very imperfect. I’m in the middle of one story, and I get distracted, and then I start another story, but go back to the first story, and somehow I try to tie it up in a filthy, dirty, offensive row.
“And these stories are real things that have happened to me,” she continued. “I actually saw Kris Jenner on the night of the birth of little baby North West.
“And so I really try to focus my act on things that I personally have witnessed or that have happened to me. So you get something a little bit different than a joke about something…like my very own run-in with Amanda Bynes.”
But how do you have such reckless abandon of the consequences when talking so publicly about everyone?
“I just don’t care! I have a 93-year-old alcoholic mother. She loves her box of wine, and you get a little Franzia in Maggie, and she’ll just say anything,” Griffin said. “So I blame her. It’s all her fault!”
Kathy admits that when suffering humiliation of any kind, it feels like the end of the world at the moment.
“Like yesterday was the first time in seven years where my stand-up special wasn’t nominated for an Emmy and I cried like a baby,” she said. “I mean, you would have thought that I was in the middle of a genuine tragedy, as opposed to a ‘Hollywood Tragedy.’
“And then I just started thinking about how to make it funny. You lick your wounds, and then boom! Your mind starts to think about how do I put this in the act; how do I make it funny, relatable, and enjoy a good tragedy?”
So how does one deal with the Gate-Keepers who won’t let you in?
“I have a ‘kill list!’ It’s very long, and has the names of the people I want to push off my balcony,” Griffin said.
Kathy’s favorite comedians are Joan Rivers, Don Rickles, Bill Maher, and Howard Stern.
“All the people who are fearless,” she said. “I love that experience, especially in Vegas where anything goes…and I can go see comedians that just don’t give a (bleep) and will say anything and genuinely feel that way.”
What of the rumors about Kathy and Anderson Cooper doing a show together on CNN?
“I love doing New Year’s Eve with him on CNN…It’s how the straight guys know me,” she said. “Straight guys only know me from being on Seinfeld twice, and New Year’s Eve with Anderson Cooper.
“But I wish CNN would just one time film the commercial break. They are just filled with Anderson sometimes begging me not to say certain things.
“He actually has a Mental Ninja mind-game he does on himself where he just goes to a ‘safe-place,’ and then knows it will be over in a couple of hours and then he’ll have to clean up my mess,” Griffin added.
“It’s a whole system and he’s confided that he gets more nervous with me on New Years than he does when he’s in a war zone…So what do you think that says about me?”
Griffin is appearing at The Mirage on Aug. 2 and Sept. 7 at 10 p.m. Her full interview can be heard Thursday on “Las Vegas Backstage Talk,” with Comedian Michele LaFong on 1230AM in Las Vegas, and The Web.
Visit Michele’s webiste at LasVegasBackStageTalk.com. Contact Michele at MicheleLaFong@GamingToday.com.
