If there’s one thing Kathy Griffin wants her audiences to know in 2017, it’s that she’s out to make a statement, regardless of what others think or feel.
That’s not news to anyone who has seen the red-haired comedienne in the past, or to anyone who has followed her career for years. Griffin’s show at Borgata’s Event Center on February 17 opened with a video montage that highlighted just how explicit the star has been through the years, from her hilarious confrontation on The View to political commentators criticizing her remarks after winning a Grammy Award (“Suck it, Jesus”).
But if there’s anything that fans of Griffin’s comedy could see during her latest set here in Atlantic City, she’s not only unchanged but almost seems liberated by the fact that, to use her words, she doesn’t “give a f*ck anymore.” I’ve seen Griffin several times before, and she seemed so much more at ease and natural this time than in previous shows.
That doesn’t mean she held back. Her signature celebrity gossip was as sharp and as biting as ever, and she tackled everything, from playing an incoherent, drunken cell phone message from Andy Dick’s companion at a holiday party to dishing over Griffin’s new next-door neighbors, Kim Kardashian and Kanye West. There was also plenty of talk about Griffin’s beloved mother and her affinity for seniors, which she discussed in the context of having Thanksgiving this year with Phil Donahue and Marlo Thomas.
There were, of course, plenty of political jokes, too, and Donald Trump wasn’t spared. Besides the typical anecdotes that you’d expect from Griffin (jokes about his hair, his weight, his kids), probably the most intriguing story was that she once road in a golf cart with Trump and Liza Minnelli. Truly, you have to wonder how Griffin gets herself into these situations!
She ended her set with a play-by-play recount of witnessing Mariah Carey’s now infamous New Year’s Eve performance debacle. Griffin had a unique perspective as she was hosting her annual New Year’s Eve show on CNN with Anderson Cooper in Times Square and could see the action first-hand. Griffin concluded the evening the same way she claims Carey ended her performance (an ending no one on TV could see)—she took off her shoes and threw them off stage. That seems to be a pretty fitting conclusion for both Mariah and for Kathy.
For information on upcoming comedy shows at Borgata, click here.