Kathy Griffin Alert!

Kathy Griffin will be on Larry King Live tonight to promote her hosting duties on the Bravo 2008 A-List Awards and the premiere of the new season of her show My Life on the D-List. The new shows will be on Thursday June 12th.

Her interviews with Larry King are hysterical because she's always saying crazy things to see if she can shock him or get him flustered. It never works — I think most of what she says goes right over his head. We get it, he doesn't, which makes it even funnier.
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It's A Kathy Griffin Lollaxtravabonanza

Today will leave a wet spot in the front of your pants if you're a fan of Kathy Griffin. Starting at 10 pm EST, Bravo will begin running all of her stand-up comedy specials in marathon.

Then, at 11 pm EST, she joins Anderson Cooper on CNN to ring in the new year. Six degrees of separation: Anderson hosted the first season of The Mole and Kathy won first place in Celebrity Mole: Hawaii.
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Hero Of The Week: Kathy Griffin

Long-time readers of this blog know I love me some Kathy Griffin. In fact, Rich and I went to see her perform live in Albany about a year ago. I did a big review at the time that was one of my first posts and continues to be one of my most popular that is found via Google searches.

Now she's at the center of another brouhaha. Which, by the way, she absolutely thrives on if you've ever seen her Bravo show My Life on the D-List that chronicles her never ending quest for media coverage. You know, the same show she won the Emmy for...

Firstly, she's no stranger to controversy at the Emmy's, whether it's her coverage of the event on the red carpet or her display last year when she didn't win in her category. Timing her "outrage," she hopped up when the cameras went by, flipped off the crowd, yelled her catch phrase "Suck it!", and stormed out of the venue.

Now she's at it again by making provocative comments during her acceptance speech after she won this year.

"A lot of people get up here and thank Jesus for helping them win this award, but I have to say nobody has been less helpful in getting me to this moment than Jesus. I don't know what I ever did to him, I just think he doesn't like me that much, and if he had his way, Caesar Milan would be holding this statue right now, but he's not and I am! So I guess all I can really say is, 'Suck it, Jesus! This statue is my God now!'"

The speech drew fire from a leading Roman Catholic group, the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, which condemned Griffin's remarks as "obscene and blasphemous."

This makes me so happy I could just shit! I can't tell you how pissed off I get whenever I have to listen to people thank God for their award. I feel like they are pushing their religion in my face. The same religion that they proudly use to beat me over the head for being gay. I still have a hard spot with my favorite tennis player Serena Williams who thanks her "God Jehovah" when she wins a tournament and has a microphone shoved in her face. I always have to laugh at the myopic view the winner has when they say this. The same God that helped them win is also responsible for the others losing.

So Kathy Griffin's comments bother people. Too damn bad. I don't see anyone worried that it bothers me when the reverse happens. And I have yet to see anyone be reflective and say, "Gee, this really bothered me. Maybe I shouldn't be so trite and ridiculous and thank God because that may bother people in the same way."

No, it's 'I'll do what i want regardless of how you feel, until you do the same to me, then I'll bitch and cry a river, but never acknowledge that I may have caused you pain in the past when I did the same thing to you.' [This little tirade brought to you courtesy of the thinking of my two egocentric ex-partners.]

The comments will be cut from the televised version to be shown on E! so all is well in Jesus America.
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Kathy Griffin / Larry King Podcast

Kathy Griffin was in rare form on Larry King Live last night. Watch the CNN podcast and see her get the master host flustered.
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It's Kathy Griffin Day

If you're a Kathy Griffin fan, you're in hog heaven today. She's guest co-host on The View and Bravo is re-running her first two seasons of Kathy Griffin: My Life On The D-List all day. This is all leading up to an all-new comedy special at 9 pm EDT called Kathy Griffin: Everybody Can Suck It followed by the premiere of Season 3 at 10 pm EDT.

I think the show is going to revolve around her last comedy tour. Read my Kathy Griffin Dishes The Dirt review from last September.
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Why Are You Searching For Kathy Griffin?

In the past 24 hours, I've got a ton of hits from people googling "Kathy Griffin, Rosie O'Donnell, Sharon Stone." If you are one of those folks, would you tell me what prompted your search? I know Kathy did a stand up routine about these ladies in a comedy special quite a while ago. Did that just come out on DVD? Was it repeated on Bravo? What? Tell me, tell me!!

The reason that Google returned my blog to your seach query was because of my review of Kathy Griffin when she appeared at the Palace Theater in Albany, NY last November.

Update: I believe the traffic came from a question posed on Rosie O'Donnell's blog regarding Kathy Griffin's bit that I mentioned above. The Q and A post didn't give the whole story so I believe that people searched to find the story.
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Review: Comedian Kathy Griffin Dishes The Dirt At Albany's Palace

Kathy Griffin, self-proclaimed member of the 'D-List', brought her comedy act to a packed house at The Palace Theater in Albany, NY on September 22. [More on the theater below...]

Kathy was true to form. Her comedic style — gossiping about Hollywood stars from her unique vantage point of an outsider looking in — gave her two hours of material that she covered in rapid fire. There were times that she seemed breathless because she was so excited to let you in on all the secrets. So much to tell, so little time. I've seen her stand-up comedy DVDs and both seasons of her Emmy-nominated show "My Life on the D-List" on Bravo, and while many of her celebrity targets were the same, the material was all new.

She started out with Jessica Simpson and quickly transitioned to Sharon Stone, Barbara Walters, Star Jones, Whitney Houston, Clay Aiken, the Olsen twins, Larry King, Katie Couric, Oprah and Gayle, and so many more.

Kathy spent some time entertaining the troops in Kuwait and Iraq earlier this year and she had some funny behind-the-scenes, not-for-TV stories to relate.

The Scientologists were skewered, including Tom Cruise and John Travolta. Kathy gave the audience an inside view into the crazy 'religion', started by a science-fiction writing hack, by relating the experiences of a close friend that had gotten swept up with them but was able to get out.

Her politically liberal slant wasn't too prominent. Although a quick slam of Ann Coulter turned the psycho political pundit into the masturbatory fantasy of Donald Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney.

The most hilarious segment involved Kathy's Irish Catholic 89 year old father and 85 year old mother. Anyone familiar with her show already knows they are portrayed as booze hounds that provide no end of irritation and entertainment to their daughter. According to Kathy, no group takes the Lord's name in vain more than the Catholics, choosing to ignore that commandment. To illustrate her point, Kathy tells how she tried to persuade her parents to accompany her on a lesbian/gay family cruise to Alaska sponsored by Rosie O'Donnell's R Family Cruises. As more details of the trip are disclosed to her mother, the skit escalates until her mother is swearing a blue streak and the audience is roaring!

If you like Kathy, you would like her show. For those others, probably best to stay at home!

I can't believe what I've been missing. In all the years I've lived here, I have never been to The Palace Theater. That is clearly my loss. The Palace has been refurbished and the work shows ... it is an absolutely stunning venue. Besides the ornate decor, I sat in the front section of the balcony and the sight line was incredible. Best I could tell, every seat in the house was a great one.

In the 60's and 70's, all the major acts played at The Palace. With around 2,500 seats, it was the largest performance theatre in the area. Now it seems most musical acts play arenas with capacity for 20,000 people or more. That increases the chance you'll get a seat, and the act's bottom line, but the intimacy provided by a smaller place is lost.

There's a happening night life scene within walking distance of the theater. Lots of restaurants and bars located adjacent to one another, encouraging folks to hop from one place to the next with live music in several of them. The area reminded me of the West End in Dallas and Sixth Street in Austin. Weather permitting, there is additional seating and standing space on the sidewalks so patrons can mix and mingle. This was a Friday night before a show at the Palace so things were quite busy. The crowd appeared to be mostly 30 to 50 year old professionals. If this sounds at all appealing, it is definitely worth checking out!