Hitting the Town with Lisa Lampanelli and Jimmy Big Balls

Since I wasn’t able to spend Valentine’s Day with my beloved, I took comfort in the fact that I was yukking it up the night before with the one and only Lisa Lampanelli.  Damn, that girl is hysterical!  As my friend Marci Faye said of Comedy’s Loveable Queen of Mean, “She’s so wrong, in all the right ways!” 

Après the concert (which, as expected, brought the proverbial house down), I’d arranged with Lisa to go out with her and her fiancé, Jimmy (aka “Jimmy Big Balls”).  Now, unlike many people who have attained her level of fame, Lisa still holds meet-and-greet sessions, and graciously signsevery book, t-shirt, DVD, and rubber-ducky (all of which she shamelessly plugs on stage at the conclusion of her show).  So, my friend Adrienne and I waited for the herd to thin-out, then made plans with Lisa to rendezvous upstairs, in the Playboy Club.

When the party arrived, Lisa and I spoke briefly about how much we both enjoyed our two-part interview (see the Archives page), and discussed the elements of what goes into a good interview (from both sides of the equation).  Lisa is very “real” when off-stage (I giggle whenever she calls me “Man”), and she cracked-up when I recounted having one of the queerest moments of my life en route to her show, that evening – wherein I was driving up Flamingo Road, and due to the trees in front of the billboard at Palms, I could only make-out the last five letters of her last name, and thought to myself “OMG!  Is Liza, here?!?!”  Shameful, I know... 

Meanwhile, that Jimmy is what is referred to as a “mensch” by my people (and here, I’m talking about the Jews, not the gays, although a certain amount of crossover between the two groups is not unheard of...).

I always forget how much I enjoy the Playboy Club.  It’s dark, it’s sexy, it’s got four black Baccarat crystal chandeliers (major), and it’s a throwback to another era (albeit with much louder music).  Plus, you can play Blackjack as a beautiful woman in a Roberto Cavalli-designed “bunny” uniform serves you a cocktail, while you groove and move to the sounds of Rihanna.  And if that’s not a wonderful take on living in “Disturbia” then I don’t know what is!