My big Friday night birthday surprise from Todd were tickets to see Kathy Griffin! I became an even bigger (huge!) fan of Ms. Griffin during her Bravo reality series My Life On the D-List, so you might be wondering why exactly I couldn't figure out that we were going to see her?!
Well, the show was out of town!
About a month (??) or so ago, I looked up Kathy's tour dates on her website. The closest she was going to be to Phoenix was Tucson... but since it is about a 1.5 hour drive each way... I didn't even bother to look at the date (or the day of the week). So Todd gets big brownie points, (a) for picking up on it (honestly, I was not intentionally dropping a hint... and I am more than willing to admit when I do!), (b) tracking it down, (c) realizing that we could swing it on a Friday night... (d) that it was conveniently around my birthday... and (e) keeping it a secret for an extended period of time!
Kathy was just great! She came out wearing a shower cap after Tucson was hit with a freaky deluge of rain... saying that she had perfected her bangs and didn't want to ruin her hair.
With an stand-up act that is largely based on celebrity foibles and misfortune, I have to give Kathy credit for almost immediately putting her own impending divorce out there. She did not linger on it, and seemed genuinely depressed about it... but hoped getting out on the road would help her get through this tough time. The cheering (dare I even say... raucous!) audience certainly did not let her down.
It was a very gay crowd... I told Todd that I thought every gay person in Tucson must have been there (along w/ some of us from Phoenix). But with Kathy flip-flopping between adoring and mocking (destroying!) pop culture icons, it only makes sense that she has a big gay following... and as a D-Lister she is also has the "outside looking in" perspective. So her humor is right up my alley... and we agreed that I certainly could be one of Kathy's "gays"... though I am sure I can just get in line with probably a million other gay men who think the same thing.
If you have seen Kathy, you know this chick has some balls... just fearless! Her biggest targets of the night included Tom Cruise (he has gone so whacko even the gays don't want him), her former E! red carpet colleague Star Jones (she said Ms. Jones upcoming book on finding love should just be titled "How To Make It Work With A Gay Guy"), and celebrity/right winger Patricia Heaton. I was particuarly thrilled with the Heaton rant, since she really bugged the crap out of me going on Entertainment Tonight (or as Kathy calls it "the news") during the Terri Schiavo case... and even "big fish" like Oprah, Mel Gibson, and Republicans (You have the White House, the Senate, the House... so shut the f&ck up!) were not left unscathed.
Kathy puts on a very spontaneous show... if you saw the Bravo series, you know she comes out with her own notebook of brain-stormed notes of current hot topics. I would guess you never get the same show from night to night and definitely get the feeling that you are meeting up with an old friend who has all this juicy gossip to tell you about. At times, Kathy would just go off on tangents... holding out her hands and going "Oh wait... I have to tell you this!" Even after doing nearly an hour and a half of material, the audience still seemed to want more.
So just a very fun evening and I don't think Todd could have come up with a more perfect (or fitting) gift... though it still kills me a bit that I didn't guess what it was (guessing right is one of my strengths).
The rest of the weekend was fairly low key... which was totally fine... we are both still recovering from our East Coast trip and getting ready for the Vegas trip in a couple of weeks... and flirting with some kind of head cold... so catching up on TiVo was a perfectly acceptable activity!
Oh, I do have to tell you about Saturday... I am on the verge of a *major* splurge... which, the more I think about it, really smacks of an impending mid-life crisis... stay tuned!
It sounds like a great surprise. I hope you have a great birthday tomorrow, but when are you going to give us your take on the past 2 episodes of The Amazing Race?
Posted by: Gail | Monday, October 17, 2005 at 12:03 PM
Sounds like you had a great time. I love Kathy!!! Nice that Todd was able to keep a secret. M usually figures things out, so I don't say anything anymore. Hope you day tomorrow is WONDERFUL!!
Posted by: Scott C | Monday, October 17, 2005 at 01:38 PM
What a wonderful surprise! Sounds like you had a great time.
And I hope Todd got lucky that night as a reward. ;-)
Posted by: Scott-O-Rama | Monday, October 17, 2005 at 01:52 PM