What do Paula Abdul, Barbara Walters, Paris Hilton and Larry King have in common?
They were all major targets of Kathy Griffin's stand-up act on Saturday night... and I'm thinking she might have to re-think the whole D-list thing!
When you are performing in a theater that require video screens on both sides of the stages so everyone can see you... you are starting to move up the alphabetic status list. The last time we saw Kathy in Arizona (almost two years ago), she played a tiny intimate theater in Tucson... and now even Kathy (and her people) seemed genuinely impressed that she sold out Phoenix's Dodge Theater... it's a flexible seating venues, but I am guessing a crowd of nearly 3,000. And while her beloved "gays" were certainly out in force, it didn't have quite the "is this a comedy show or a gay bar?" feel of that previous show. I would almost say the crowd was primarily women ("girls night out" sort of thing), the gays, and quite a good ratio of hetero couples.
We did have this quite darling young 20-something gay couple (ah, youth!) a couple of rows ahead of us. A concert/show is pretty much a gadget event... cell phones, digital cameras, and various combinations of the two keep everyone quite entertained with themselves before a show these days. These two guys attracted quite a bit of that media attention with their "Team Kathy" shirts.... with one have "Kathy's Whore" and "Kathy's Bitch" emblazoned across their backs... ah, times they are a changin'!
There's no sense trying to go into her nearly 2-hour routine... she had the audience rolling... only losing the audience for a mere millisecond during an American Idol backstage story, when she said she missed seeing Sanjaya walk by because he was eclipsed by our home-town girl Jordin Sparks and her flowy dress. Oh, she did more than suggest (allegedly!) that a certain beat-boxing contestant may be a part of a segment of her core audience... hmmm?!
Kathy also briefly mentioned the death of her father ... which will be addressed in this week's episode of My Life on the D-List. She mentioned her thanks for all the kind words that have been left on her website and that she has received in person. Certainly the break-out stars of this reality show, the crowd gave father John a well-deserved ovation.
She ended her night of comedy with some backstage dish on The View... the morning ABC gal gabfest that she has recently been guest hosting (pre- and post- Rosie, who she had nothing but nice words for). I think Kathy may actually be gunning for a permanent spot, she was just a wee bit more careful with the Barbara Walters, who she admits she loves to tease (and she does if you have seen her on the show), than some of her other focal points. Nevertheless, even if she does land the job, Kathy predicts a tenure of about three weeks.
... and a gig on The View would start edging her off the D-List as well... plus she's becoming a Larry King favorite too (Programming note: she will be on again later this week! Thursday?)! Kathy called Larry, the oldest person she's ever met... who spends his time yelling and firing people during commercial breaks and, even after two appearances on the show, she's not quite sure Larry knows who she is.
We saw her at Radio City -- you know, the show Bravo was too cheap to film. Our crowd was way "girls' night out" too.
This week's "D-List" sure was a three hanky affair, huh? You could really feel the love between Kathy and her dad. I've never met the man and I'm gonna miss him :-(
Posted by: kenneth | Thursday, June 21, 2007 at 09:04 PM