Thursday night was one of those dream nights -- the kind where you finally get the chance to see one of the stars you love "live and in person" and get to see and hear them unedited. In Kathy Griffin's case, it's great to hear her in all her glory and I was impressed with seeing the opening number from the A List Awards at the Just for Laughs festival. Kathy was a pretty good host, and the overall feeling was that she did a great job (they rated her at the Gazette after and want her to do a full show next year)...Kathy said she had been here all week (umm not true but I guess that is creative licence for performing) but she pulled out more french than expected. I do appreciate that local touch and she did a nice job -- the only thing that really shocked me is how much she loves Celine. I had never really pegged Kathy as a Celine fan but she managed to zing her (and the Cirque de Soleil) several times during one of her monologues.We loved the show but were extremely disappointed that Kathy vanished right after the show and we didn't get the chance to say hi.... we saw all of the other stars (and I felt bad chatting with Shaun Majumder of 22 Minutes and asking him about Kathy -- that was kind of a D List moment for him I think -- oops!). I do think that Kathy let her gays down in Montréal though... there were lots of us waiting for our moment with the goddess and she left us hanging.... and that is not good when have a whole bunch of your gays that are a little miffed that she vanished after the show. I have not quite decided yet if this will affect our relationship over the long term ... I am trying to be understanding about schedules and deadlines and all of that crap but it's not like Kathy comes to Montréal very often.
We did rush home (after waiting for more than an hour to get a glimpse of Kathy- alas to no avail) to see the latest episode of the D List, but still felt let down and disappointed that Kathy didn't take any time for her fans , and that is not D List behaviour. I am not sure if the Emmy win has gone to her head but if this continues she will loose her gay fans (we are a fickle bunch) and she will be a couple of steps back. I think that someone might need to remember the lean times and not forget who was there for her when no one else was. Remember that old saying about biting the hand that feeds you? There must be some cute gay analogy that can say the same thing.
The episode was a riot and we were overdue for another edition of the "Red Headed Oprah". I find it interesting that Kathy tries to have such contradictory public images (she is the Queen Bitch or she is the Red Headed Oprah) and I while I appreciate the kinder,gentler Kathy, I worship the Queen Bitch persona even more. It's just more honest and interesting. Only Kathy would think of exploiting her vacation to milk some publicity out of it, but in the long term it was a great thing for the school she helped out.
So Kathy has decided to open her "Kathy Griffin Leadership Academy" a la Oprah and it's a hilarious knock off of the original idea. It's all harder than it looks and Kathy's ass is saved by Woz and his miraculous Apple Team. I am still really digging Woz, and was in hysterics with his tech guy who was translating for Kathy, but who drew the line at tearing a strip out of Oprah.
We also learned that Kathy has a housekeeper, Minerva (huh??) and her and the whole gang (including the dogs) end up in Acapulco.The whole sun burned and peeling Kathy terrifying the children was only made better by the children destroying her pinata effigy at the end of the episode. Team Griffin seemed right into getting that one done (and took a lot of hits on her them selves) and after that night I think we all felt like giving her a good whack after the day we had been through. Seriously Kathy, don't turn on your gays or you might regret it.
