Kathy Griffin ready to take Omaha stage

Kathy Griffin has some stuff to get off her chest.

Nine days will lapse between her last performance and Friday night’s show in Omaha, and so much has happened.

A woman vandalized Orlando Bloom’s house, the anniversary of Michael Jackson’s death passed, and Griffin’s reality show has aired on Bravo.

Griffin, whose stand-up comedy is all about skewering celebrities, called The World-Herald from her California home to talk about her coming show, Warren Buffett, who she will mock here, and what celebrities she’s been stalking.

Q. Are you excited to come to Omaha?

A. How am I going to get there when Warren Buffett has a restraining order against me? I’m obsessed with him — not just because of his financial wealth, but because I really think he’s hot.

Q. Will you stop by his house?

A. I heard he’s very accessible. I’m not.

I’m sick and tired of people stopping by my house. I’m like the Osbournes. They ring the bell, leave weird (stuff) at my house.

You know, the best (one) is that I have a painting — I’m looking at it right now — that I got in the mail through my business manager. It was a portrait of myself and I thought, “What kind of a (person) hangs a portrait of themselves in their home?”

Then I looked down and saw the artist is Eric Menendez of the infamous Menendez brothers who killed their parents. Just keep in mind that Eric is the one that reloaded.

Over the years, I’ve gotten this prison correspondence and it starts off real rosy — there’s a honeymoon phase — and inevitably it ends up with (them) asking if I can help with the appeal.

Q. Do you get any stalkers?

A. I think, unfortunately, I’m the one who’s stalking celebrities because I’m always looking for material. Always.

For me to have great experiences like going on the Ryan Seacrest radio show after years of being in a rivalry with her, that’s where I specifically am going looking for material.

Many, many times, material finds me. More often than not.

I can’t resist a situation where I may have a bizarre celebrity run-in. Sometimes I’m legitimately invited to awards shows, like the Emmys, and then other times I will (talk) my way into one of these events. I have been a “plus one” many times, and then there is a little bit of a look of horror on the host’s face.

Q. What are you going to talk aboutin Omaha?

A. We are going to be doing a lot of trash talking about anything and everything that’s been happening in the news, in pop culture. Of course, we’ll be talking about the important issues, like “The Hills,” Kate Gosselin’s new hair. Oprah has been on vacation this week. We can at least be doing some fantasizing about what we think Oprah and Gayle (King) have been doing.

We will certainly be talking about the “Real Housewives” of every city and all of their budding music careers and my run-ins with them last week.

Q. With your material, are you constantly watching news to stay current?

A. Absolutely. That’s why I tour so much. I’m touring year-round. Regardless of what I’m doing, touring is my first love. I’m looking forward to (Friday) night because I actually haven’t done a show in nine days, and that’s a long time for me.

There’s a lot of stuff that’s happened between my show at Milwaukee Pride (the gay and lesbian festival) to this show in Omaha. I can’t get onstage fast enough. And who knows what will have happened between the time that you and I are talking and when I hit the stage.

I kind of have some staples, some things I kinda know I’m going talking about. But a lot of it is up in the air. I am going to talk about the thing that happened a week ago, two weeks ago.

Q. What about your show, “My Life on the D-List”?

A. Last week we aired a show where I infiltrated the toddler pageant world, which is about as twisted as you can get.

What’s great about doing stand-up at these times is I can give all the backstage dirt. Obviously on “The D-List,” we tape and tape and tape and tape and tape, and a tiny amount of it makes the show. When I go live, I can really spill the (stuff) that couldn’t get on the show either because it was too scandalous or because we simply ran out of time.

Episode one, I’m going to Liza Minnelli’s apartment and I’m doing a guest spot on “Law & Order: SVU” so I’m mixing it up with Christopher Meloni and Mariska Hargitay. Episode two, I’m going underground in the kiddie pageant world. Next episode, I go to Wasilla, Alaska, to visit my lover, Levi Johnston, who I now realize is cheating on me with Bristol (Palin), who I call “that woman.” Everything from my trips over to Iraq and Afghanistan to my mom drinking out of a box of wine — getting all the backstage dirt and those experiences.

Q. You seem to have a lot of interaction with fans through Twitter and other avenues.

A. Guess what I’m going to do after this? One thing that I do to prove that I’m still on the D-list, is that I cold-call people sometimes. I just think it’s really fun.

When I’m done talking to you, I’m going to call people in Omaha. Some of them have tickets, and I’ll say, “I know you have tickets. Do you want to come and say hi?” Some of them don’t have tickets because they can’t afford them and I’m going to say, “Here’s free tickets. Come and say hi.” It’s fun.

I do my own (tweets), and I like it because I think limiting someone, certainly a celebrity, to 140 characters is the key to success. We can’t have Kirstie Alley blogging for days. We can’t have Courtney Love going on and on and on saying she only took a diet pill one time.

I love (tweeting) because, for me, it’s an opportunity to do a quick little joke. I love hearing people’s feedback. The (tweets) that I get from my followers are (expletive) hysterical. I will sit there and read them and laugh so hard. They’re really funny.

Contact the writer:

444-1557, kevin.coffey@owh.com

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