America’s favorite gossip risked a flash flood to flash her panties for DC on Saturday night, but that is Kathy Griffin for you. As the unpretentious superstar says, “Wherever people want to laugh, I’ll be there,” whether in Iraq or a stage in a small and muggy auditorium in the Deep South. However humble Maggie Griffin’s daughter is, she is now very far from the D List and is selling out shows from coast to coast for her Like a Boss tour.

Kathy Griffin has come a long way from her humble Irish Catholic, Midwestern roots, but she did it the old-fashioned way. She didn’t just work hard, she WERKED for her Grammy, her Emmys and her record-breaking number of televised comedy specials. And when she isn’t preparing for her next guest role or accepting awards, she is doing what she does best: dressing up, getting onstage and making people laugh so hard that they gasp for air.

She did her typical act which consists mainly of revealing what is said on the red carpet and backstage, but with completely new material. Most of her set was worthy of the slow clap she started at several points throughout the evening. Her favorite targets these days are young celebrities and reality show stars, such as the Kardashians. She holds nothing back with this family, openly voicing her irritation with their success and popularity. “What do they do?!” she screamed, and when we all murmured noncommittally and shrugged, she thanked us for proving her point. Griffin was as bold as ever, focusing on the moment when the Kardashians “accidentally got real” – Caitlyn Jenner’s transition. “I love all my LGBTQUIA2’s but if you’re not a T, no one gives a s***! It’s not about you! It is all about the T’s.” She had a running joke throughout the night of calling every action transphobic. As a tireless advocate for equality who has received numerous awards from GLAAD and the like, Griffin can tell jokes like this without anyone mistaking her humor for hatred.

Some people are easily offended by her jokes, however. Her knack for storytelling came in handy when riffing on ultra-sensitive pop sensations such as Demi Lovato and Taylor Swift. I have to say she won the night with her hilarious impression of an intoxicated Harry Styles trying to strike up a conversation with Tom Hanks. Her ridiculously accurate Tony Bennett and Joan Rivers impressions also killed, and Griffin proved she can do a lot more than just spill Hollywood secrets.

Whether you admire Griffin for being a sincere humanitarian or an outrageous comedienne, you HAVE to see her perform live. She is excellent on TV, but there is nothing like feeling her energy in the room and having a show tailored to that particular venue (she kept calling it Ken Cen, referring to its Twitter handle) and that particular night. She will make you laugh about what you just read in the news that morning or the weather conditions during the show, all while making you feel like a close friend, and no one in the business is doing that as well as she is. *Slow clap*

Tour updates: http://www.kathygriffin.net/tour.php
Follow Kathy Griffin on Twitter: @kathygriffin
Follow Kennedy Center on Twitter: @kencen

About The Author

Stephanie Taylor

Co-Editor/Entertainment Reporter

She may be a traffic engineer by day (hence the ‘stopsigngirl’ alias), but do not let her technical skills or multiple calculators fool you. Stephanie Taylor has a way with words. She will destroy any opponent in Scrabble, and get 50 points for using all 7 of her letters in the word “destroy.” She can a-n-n-i-h-i-l-a-t-e you in a spelling bee, having competed in no less than ten as a child. She uses correct punctuation in her text messages. It’s no wonder that copy editing comes naturally to her, and she is happy to fine tune the work of other writers before it reaches TRR readers.

Proofreading is not all that Stephanie loves to do. Regular reading without the proof is just fine, and she also loves to write. In fact, Steph has been writing since the tender age of 6 when she penned her would-be bestseller Mouse in Jail. It “would be” if all literary critics were in Kindergarten. Since elementary school, Stephanie has helped publish newsletters, yearbooks, and the Arts & Entertainment section of The Rice Thresher, Rice University’s student newspaper.

Stephanie’s other gigs have included singing her heart out in the chorus of My Fair Lady in Houston, doing improv comedy in front of hundreds of people in Atlanta, and teaching A.P. English in Los Angeles. She loves to travel and have cultural adventures like tubing down a river in Ecuador, dancing in a South Asian festival, or riding a ferry from Italy for 19 hours just to get real Greek food. Cooking and Yoga are also among Stephanie’s list of favorite things to do, but she cannot do them at the same time.

This native Texan genuinely adores reporting on entertainment as much as she loves to entertain, and is looking forward to learning more about what the D.C. area has to offer and sharing that news with you.

Stephanie Taylor also likes to write about herself in the third person.

See author's posts