Kathy Griffin July 3, the Mirage.
“What I love is that Jerry Seinfeld and Amy Schumer and a lot of really great comics have been really vocal about saying stand-up comedy shouldn’t be held to the standards as, like, elected officials. So I’m just warning you, I’m gonna say some sh*t tonight that’s really inappropriate, and I’m not gonna feel like I’ve really done my job until someone storms out.”
Though I agree with the first half of that statement completely, the second proved to be a problem for Kathy Griffin Friday night at the Mirage. Earlier in her career, Griffin might have been shocking, but those days have passed. Her openness about her celebrity encounters helped catapult her to fame, along with her old TV show, My Life on the D-List, but those celeb stories seem rather tame at this point.
Griffin, now 54, certainly gave a major effort. She stood next to a podium in the center of the stage for just under two hours. Her energy stayed high, but her material didn’t match her spirit. Actually, calling it material might be a stretch. At this point, what the redheaded comic does is expunge on the issues of the day in a way most similar to a morning radio DJ. That might be an excellent next move for her.
Griffin takes on subjects like Rachel Dolezal’s “transracial” claim and Bristol Palin’s hypocrisy for making six figures as a pro-abstinence lecturer while once again getting pregnant out of wedlock. These are ripe topics for lots of comedians, but Griffin only recounts the facts in a humorous way, instead of putting a new slant on them.
She has always been a champion for gay rights and has earned a massive gay following, but when she breaks down the LGBTQIA2 community as “Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Intersexual, Ally 2 Caitlyn,” referring to Bruce Jenner’s open transformation, it feels like the simplest take possible. Maybe if she didn’t repeatedly remind us she’d crossed a line by saying things like, “You don’t think I’m gonna hold back on Caitlyn, do you?” it wouldn’t feel as forced.
Griffin is currently on an 80-city tour, which is impressive, as are the 23 specials on her résumé. Maybe it’s time for her to step back, however, and like her diva-hero Cher, find some way to reinvent herself.
