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Lisa Lampanelli interview for Cobb Energy Centre show Oct. 9

5:42 pm October 6, 2009, by Rodney Ho

I’ve done hundreds of celebrity interviews. This will likely be the only one I ever do in which the subject asks me, “What type of dirty Asian are you?”

Thank you Lisa Lampanelli . She's our generation's "insult comic." That's a sub genre of a sub genre of comedy legitimized by the still vibrant Don Rickles.

Lampanelli basically takes stupid (and sometimes semi-true) stereotypes and spins jokes around them. “We’re all really the same,” she siad. “I really hope people get it on that level.” Sure, some people may actually deep down believe those stereotypes and laugh. But she says she no control over that.

She gets away with a lot of the nasty stuff because she fundamentally comes across as likable: “They know you don’t mean what you say. Bad intentions are in your heart.”

She also uses those stereotypes to mock celebrities – or reporters. If you find these types of jokes offensive, stop reading. Now.

Lampanelli became a big star worthy of selling 2,000-plus seats at the Cobb Energy Centre this Saturday thanks to her ability to roast celebrities, then saute them, fry them, and leave them for dead on the side of the road. She grew up watching those Dean Martin roasts and aspired to do that.

The first one she did on TV that got her attention was a Comedy Central Chevy Chase roast n 2002 and away she went, going afterPamela Anderson, Jeff Foxworthy, Gene Simmons and Jerry Lewis (the latter at a Friar's Club event). She likes to give it to the other celebrity roasters as much as the host. "If I'm up last, all the obvious jokes are already taken so I go after everybody else."

When other celebs roast her, they make light of her penchant for black men. She recently came out with a jokey memoir entitled “Chocolate Please,” which plays off that time in her life when she realized black guys liked “thick” white women like her.

Ironically, she recently got engaged to an Italian guy named Jimmy. “But Italians are tough,” she reasoned. “We’re blacked than black!” What do the two have in common, I dare asked. “Italians and blacks? They all still live with their mothers. Blacks run from cops. Italians run from the mob.”

Does she miss black guys? “I kinda miss posting bail every Monday.”

Did black women hate her for going after their guys? “They know I never took the good ones!”

Is her fiance intimidated by her past? “He takes it all in stride. When you know you’re in love with someone, they’re not threatened by anything.” And she’s not worried about the revelations in her book. “He doesn’t read. He hasn’t read a book since college!”

White guys, she noted, will also more likely take a visit downtown. “With black men, you’d have to grow a chicken wing,” she said. And does it take long to hit the apex for Lisa Lampanelli? “Yes! I’m not all about lollygagging around, laying in bed. I have work to do, people to insult!”

Does anybody get truly insulted by this type of humor at her shows? “They just laugh. They don’t care. They already paid their money for the book or the ticket. So let’s go with this ignorant beeyotch. It’s kind of like Archie Bunker. We laugh at them. You know how ridiculous they are. Not every Asian has a small weewee or every black doesn’t work. The only thing is – you folks can’t drive!”

The book only barely references her fiance because she met him just as she was proofreading it. But she did have time to throw him in the credits and mention him in passing. She knew even six months ago after she met that she’d marry him.

Besides the fusillage of jokes, she does talk about three different types of rehab she went through, including one to break her codependency on a string of bad boyfriends and her unhealthy use of food to deal with her emotions.

“Food rehab,” she explained, “isn’t that different from drug or alcohol rehab. It’s just more fun to write about. The people in there are super creepy. It’s just a blast! I actually didn’t hate writing that part.” The toughest chapter was about her super-lousy boyfriend Tommy. Good thing is he hasn’t texted her in eight months. “That’s done,” she said.

She doesn't have a huge number of friends among comics because "they're all crazy." But she makes exceptions for Larry the Cable Guy and our own Jeff Foxworthy. During Foxworthy's roast (the highest rated one so far on Comedy Central), "he looks embarrassed but at the heart of it, if it's a good joke, he likes it. He rolls with it. He doesn't act holier than thou. During a break at the Larry the Cable Guy roast, he told me, 'My Mom's going to watch this!' He cares what his parents think. He's such a gentleman!"

Lampanelli sounds happy but don’t worry, she still keeps two therapists – one in Tucson, another in New York. “You gotta be covered on both coasts,” she said. She also has a spiritual advisor, an astrologer and a tarot card reader, not that she believes all that stuff. “I go for fun. We have a blast with it!”

IN CONCERT

Lisa Lampanelli

Saturday, October 10, 2009

8 p.m.

Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre

2800 Cobb Galleria Parkway

$37.75

www.ticketmaster.com , 404-249-6400