Kathy Griffin at The Chicago Theater

You may remember that I finally came around to liking Kathy Griffin earlier this summer after I happened upon one of her stand-up routines that Comedy Central was re-airing. She hadn't crossed my mind again until I received an email about a month ago touting her upcoming performances in Chicago. Before I could think twice about it, I purchased two tickets to one of the shows.

This did not please my husband, who cannot stand her. He basically refused to accompany me, so I emailed my friend Nerdy P on the off-chance that she would be able to make a trip to Chicago and take my now-extra ticket. Nerdy P has long been a fan of Kathy Griffin, but was unable to find decent seats to her Detroit performances this coming weekend. Three cheers for the MegaBus, because Nerdy P was able to secure seats on it to get her out here on the cheap.

We went to the first of Griffin's four Windy City performances last night at The Chicago Theater... you can see an outline of Nerdy P's face in front of the marquee in the picture above -- yes, I have awesome picture-taking skillz..

Anyway, I have to say that I didn't think Kathy was as funny as she was in her "I'm Not Nicole Kidman" routine that I saw on TV. I figured (and hoped) that she was only going to talk about celebrities and pop culture news, but she also ended up ranting about the election and talking a lot about her mother. It was still all funny, but I lived for the moments were she dropped some good gossip on the crowd -- like how Conan O'Brien is a jerk (which truly shocked me) and how Tracy Morgan is just as insane as his character is on "30 Rock."

Of course, we still had a good time listening to her, and now I feel like I have to catch an episode of "My Life on the D-List" so that I can see the elder Griffin... she sounds like quite a character. My favorite line of the night was actually one Kathy's mother apparently always shouts whenever she is running low on her Franzia wine-in-a-box: "TIP IT!"

I have a feeling I'm going to be saying that every time I drink anything in the future. My husband is going to be pouring me a glass of milk in the morning and I'm just going to randomly shout "TIP IT!!!!!!!!" and scare the crap out of him. That's what he gets for missing out on the show!

- e