Thursday night my friend JF and I went to see Kathy Griffin live at the Warfield. The show was absolutely fantastic. I thought I was going to have a stroke from laughing that hard for 2 solid hours. She worked hard for two hours and the audience adored her.

I also thought I was going to die from physical discomfort. The Warfield is one of the theatrical jewels of San Francisco. It’s an embarrassment. The seats are too narrow, too shallow, and too hard to sit in for a long show (except for the filthy velvet seat covers). And holy shit was it hot. No A/C. Very few places in San Francisco have air conditioning mind you—it’s only uncomfortably hot for a few weeks every year, but a theatre should be one of them. The Warfield officially seats 2,250 people. Great entertainment comes through here regularly, and it is always packed to the rafters. Even on a cold night this place is hot, and it was unbearable on Thursday. I was pickled by the time the show was done.

Like lots of other folks I know, I’ve fallen completely in love with her thanks to her reality show “Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List”—a reference to the fact that she works her ass off in the entertainment business, and still gets the shit work, like corporate gigs for Alka-Seltzer and other places where the straight, white male demographic clashes rudely with her primary topics.

I’ll set up this clip. Kathy went to Iraq to entertain the troops. Her act is delightfully bitchy with plenty of references to homos and sex and other “inappropriate” topics (like most people would want anything else). The Army sent her a contract that theoretically ruled out about 90% of her act. She read the more ridiculous parts of the contract to the audience. (This is not from the show I saw, but it gives you a taste):

Stuff to check out:

• Kathy Griffin’s official web site
• More Kathy Griffin clips on YourTube
• My Life on the D-List web site