Pegged as comedy’s “Queen of Mean,” Lisa Lampanelli is prime time bound to show us there is more to her than filthy words and ethnic stereotypes. But why, Lisa? I find those two items to be a recipe for hilarity!
The Las Vegas Review-Journal reported that Lampanelli visited the Palms Casino in Las Vegas on Saturday “slinging her signature insults because ‘I just can’t stop. It’s like I gotta take chances every time I do this damn show. It’s so much fun to, you know, say words nobody’s supposed to say,’” says the comedienne.
But come February 12, it’s going to be a different story. We’ll be seeing Lampanelli on Donald Trump’s NBC reality show, “Celebrity Apprentice.” The comic says, “the competition is a calculated move in a new direction, to let fans see more of the real person behind the one-dimensional act.” She also revealed that there is a Broadway show slated to begin next fall “so this is like a good transition [in letting] people know there’s more to me,” she commented. “It’s like, wow, I’m being who I am at home.”
Lampanelli has had a fantastic career on stage and later on TV highlighted by a series of Comedy Central roasts that took her fame to a new level. But why a reality show? “First of all, I wanted to show people that I’m really smart and I work really hard… Anybody who’s talked to me knows that’s how I am anyway,” she says. “I wanted to show that comics are really bright, that we’ve run our own businesses for years and we could do it by ourselves if we have to, which most of us have to until we get a little bit of notoriety.”
She may be the queen of mean on stage, but wants people to remember she is still a kind woman with a soul. “I also wanted to show that I have a lot of feelings people might not imagine I would have [including some competition drama that] hurt my feelings and stuff.”
Now let’s talk about her Broadway show for a moment. “It’s going to be autobiographical and yet, we’re comics right? We have to be funny. Even stories that have a little sentimental part and a little tear in the eye, ten seconds later you’re laughing your ass off,” she said. “Now that I’m working on the Broadway show, it seems like comedy is more fun than it used to be, because I was getting bored of it.” LVRJ reported that the theater production will be “overseen by Alan Zweibel, who helped Billy Crystal craft his Tony-winning ’700 Sundays.’”
All sounds like a plan… but I’ll say one thing as a fellow comic and Lampanelli fan… Let us all hope she does not get too comfortable with this demur persona because nobody delivers a dirty ethnic stereotypical one-liner like Lisa!
