lisa lampanelli

by ERIC STANIFORD


     
Lisa Lampanelli’s standup is hard-hitting, raw and brutally funny. Her appearances on Celebrity Roast and audience-jabbing standup earned her fast growing fame and an upcoming one-hour HBO special. Her newest tour brings her to the Florida Theatre on October 3. We were lucky enough to talk with Lisa before her arrival.

EU: Thanks for taking time for this interview.

LL: I guess we’ll see if it’s worth it.

EU: So did you find this style of comedy or did it find you?

LL: I think it finds you, but you have to listen and look for it. When you’re starting out you’re just going to do basic comedy like everybody else does. Because you don’t know where it’s going to lead. So what happened is, I just started listening to my tapes. Listening to what made me laugh and what I thought was funny – finding what tickled me when I was listening. It was always some kind of insult to the audience or to the MC or to the other comics. If it’s making me laugh, it’ll make these retards laugh. So I listened for it. But it kind of makes it happen for itself.

EU: I recently saw the skit you did with L.L.Cool J. for MTV where they made fun of the movie “Misery.”

LL: Grrrrrrrrrrrr… That was hot.

EU: It was brilliant. How did that come about?

LL: MTV has these things like artist of the week. L.L. was the artist of the week so he’s a funny guy and a great actor. MTV pitched the ideas to me and him. I loved it. Are you kidding? I got to paw LL’s chest, even if I was dressed like that “Misery” twat. You know? Any up close and personal with that guy and it’s like ‘wet spill on aisle nine.’ Even straight guys would f**k him. Admit it bitch, you would!

EU: You have an HBO special coming up. How does that feel right now?

LL: That’s like when you know you made it. You feel like you’re up there with Chris Rock and George Carlin. But I’m not dead or black so I’m better than them. It’s really going to be cool, I’m taping November 21. I’m so excited! I can’t believe it. It has been a really good year obviously.

EU: Who influenced you coming up in comedy, and who do you look up to?

LL: Well I didn’t have many influences, because we never watched comedy as a kid. We watched the Dean Martin roast. You’re probably too young to remember, but they were these roasts of all these celebrities like Sinatra and Lucille Ball and people like that. That’s all we watched in my house. We didn’t watch standup comedy. But I really still look up to Rickels, he’s an 83 year-old Jew and he’s still running around like a nut. Hell, he’s still younger than any of us at heart. So, him and Stern are really my heroes. And probably Bubba the Love Sponge, that fat f**k.



EU: What do your fans have to look forward to?

LL: I have the upcoming HBO pilot for a sitcom I’m shooting. And it is produced by none other than the genius Jim Carey, who discovered me a year ago. This will be a very edgy sitcom. We are writing the script. I just saw the 2nd draft. It’s pure genius. Hopefully we’ll begin shooting in the first quarter of next year. If the Jews at HBO like it, it will become a series. That’s a pretty big deal! —


     
For more on Lisa, check out her website insultcomic.com.