Kathy Griffin at Massey Hall in Toronto

I attended Kathy Griffin's sold out stand-up comedy performance at Massey Hall in Toronto yesterday night (Friday August 8). I was seated in the right centre floor section near aisle 3 toward the back of the orchestra level under the balcony overhang, which (given the box shape of the theatre) afforded an excellent sight line to the stage. This was Kathy's first live appearance in Toronto. The show started promptly after its advertised early (7 PM) start-time with a video clip montage of Kathy's many TV appearances-- on the talk show circuit, on reality TV, as well as on her sitcom guest starring appearances (Seinfeld, Drew Carey, Suddenly Susan). The clip of her movie appearance in Pulp Fiction seem to catch many in the audience off guard. As the montage wrapped up with a clip of her accepting her recent Emmy award, she bounded out onto the stage, to a standing ovation.

She opened her set with some topical local references featuring Iggy Pop (who had performed at the venue a few nights prior, Prime Minister Stephen Harper (or "R"purrr as she heard him referred to in her recent visit to Montreal) whom she lambasted for his boredom, socialized medicine ("don't you have to run out for a free doctor's appointment or something?") and Canadian Idol. Dispensing with the "local colour", she then moved on to launch into her well-honed comic attack targeting her usual list of major Hollywood celebrity victims, including Britney and Jamie-Lynn Spears, the Lohans, Tomkat, The Jacksons, Madonna, Oprah, Kirsty Alley, Paula Abdul, Miley (and Billy Ray) Cyrus, Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban. Her attacks on Nancy Grace and Pam Anderson (with whom she recently shared a dressing room with on a USO tour) were especially well targeted. As were her attacks on celebrity baby names (Sunday and Suri) and white-boy rappers hangin' with the home-boys (Eminem and Justin Timberlake). Her attacks on the inexplicably popular and entirely vacuous tv series The Hills resonated especially well with me.

At one point in the act a technical glitch caused the spotlight on her to dim for several minutes. She used that element to good effect to improv by dissing her stage manager and kibitzing with the audience. The burly security guard seated at stage front was also targeted for a good taunting earlier in the evening.

The audience certainly got its money's worth in terms of set length, although some of the material (particularly the references to her (wine in a box loving) mother and being fired over her irreverence (joking about Dakota Fanning entering rehab hosting a red carpet show) came off as a bit stale and could have been skipped over in favour of fresher material.

She received a (second) standing O at the end of her set. Overall I found her supremely entertaining in her own patently offensive unPC style. I will look forward to her return to Toronto.

Here's another view on Kathy's show (from another fan I attended the concert with)