Comedy review | "D-List" star Kathy Griffin brings her "A" game to the Paramount

Comedy Review |

Maybe it's our gloomy weather, but Seattleites love to be cheered up. We love our indie comedy (thank you Laffhole), we love our Bumbershoot comedy (hello two-hour wait to get in), and when the big guns come to town, we snatch up the tickets and prepare for serious sidesplitting.

Maybe that's why celeb skewerer Kathy Griffin is poised to sell out four shows at the Paramount this week, the first of which was Thursday night. Or it could have something to do with her recent Emmy award, her hit reality show or her gargantuan gay following.

Or maybe it's because Griffin is just really funny.

For the uninitiated — and it does help to be "in the know" to appreciate her style of Hollywood insider dish — Griffin is the carrot-topped, foul-mouthed, wisecracking star of (her own) reality TV show "My Life on the D-List." She's famous for trying to be famous, while at the same time parodying the Hollywood surreal life.

Her brand of gossip snark isn't for everyone. If you don't know Carson Daly from Carson Kressley, you might be annoyed, lost or just bored as she rattles off names and flaws. But for the vast number of us obsessed with celebrity — especially with dissecting the lives of anyone gracing the pages of US Weekly — Griffin has found a sweet spot.

Griffin not only has pop culture savvy, she's also a gifted stand-up comedian. She knows how to play off the crowd, keep up the pace, and reel off jokes that feel impeccably fresh and timely.

Thursday night she gave Sarah Palin a good ribbing (to the particular delight of the crowd). She dished hanging out with Don Rickles at the Emmys — where she took home her second statue for best reality show. And she trash-talked Trump daughter Ivanka Trump (apparently she has an unnecessarily firm handshake).

She interrupted herself to tell a side story about a side story about this one time that she was on "Larry King Live" and she got him to tell his real Social Security number on the air.

The funny thing (funny interesting, that is) is that Griffin (whose claim to fame until recently was a supporting role on NBC's "Suddenly Susan") is actually a bona fide celebrity now. "Larry King Live"? Spending her birthday with Cher (who, according to Griffin, actually really does have "Cher hair")? Throwing a fit at Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas because her suite was smaller than Rosie O'Donnell's?

But Griffin is so good at self-deprecation that she really feels like your girlfriend who somehow, by some weird fluke, knows famous people. And her excitement when faced with those "real" famous people ("Oh my God, it's Cher!") makes her incredibly endearing.

Seeing Griffin do stand-up is like hanging out with her in her bedroom, surfing PerezHilton.com and eating Twinkies. Her riffing feels completely spontaneous: "Oh! I gotta tell you this!" she exclaims. Or "You came on a good night, I have soooooo much dirt."

And she does. And it's hilarious.

Joanna Horowitz: jbhorowitz@gmail.com