During her 75 minute set at the Majestic Theater last night, Lisa Lampanelli did everything she could to make audience members groan with the outrageousness of her jokes: Jokes about Lupus, mental retardation, older gay men and their twink boyfriends, shiftless blacks and illegal Hispanics. And all she got was laughs. It seemed to surprise even her, leading her to declare the city “completely unoffendable.”
Well, almost. She got cheers — but seemingly fewer — when she came out in favor of same-sex marriage (“but I think they should outlaw gay divorce” she added), and when she announced at the end her support for the gay community with the directive that any straight people who did not abandon their homophobia would not be welcome at her shows, the straight man in front of me seemed to yawn.
Nevermind. The show was a hoot, ultimately an indictment of hatred and bigotry that uses seeming hate-speech to dilute its impact. A great concert.
