KATHY GRIFFIN AT THE PALACE

Hello there, my friends:
Last night, the bride and I went with the lovely Sansone couple of Rensselaer to the Palace Theater in downtown Albany, to see comedienne Kathy Griffin. I have always loved going to the Palace for shows, especially rock concerts, because it is an older, beautiful place that has really great sound and great views. Since the refurbishing project of a couple of years ago, the old place is really a stunner.

If you know Kathy Griffin (from her standup routines, or her Bravo reality show, My Life On The "D" List, you'll know she is a wicked, acerbic wit that isn't afraid to dish about ALL of the celebrities she comes in contact with. She was famously banned from "The View" on ABC for revealing to an audience that Barbara Walters prefers Astro-Glide personal lubricant to KY Jelly. Needless to say, she doesn't pull any punches.

If you know her work, then you know that most of the crowd that goes to see her is either female or gay (gay and lesbian). We found this out when Ms. Griffin took an impromptu poll during the show and we found out that only about 10% of the audience was actually Straight men. To those men, she surmised that they were at the show purely because their wives or dates promised them a certain sexual favor for escorting them to the show. Sansone and I were pleasantly surprised to find we'd be getting lucky that night, because we had NOT made that bargain with our wives, so luckily there was going to be a bonus. (My apologies to our family members and, most of all, my fahter-in-law for revealing the previous info. Oh yeah, and Patty and Deb, too.)

We began at the Victory Cafe, which is a short walk from the Palace. The place was packed and we couldn't get a table, so we ate appetizers and had cocktails at the bar. During this time, we ran into an incredibly drunk former classmate of mine who we spoke to for a while despite his copiously impaired demeanor. For those of you who went to school with me, I won't name this guy, but will identify him as the Cadet Colonel and Valedictorian of the CBA Class of '81. He has actually become balder than I am. Hey...it can happen!

On our walk to the Palace, Mrs. Sansone, who was wearing fairly sexy heely shoes, re-injured her knee, which has a torn ACL and it was a painful, hobbling, assisted walk the rest of the way. The show was nice, but I expected deeper digs from Ms. Griffin, although I've gotta give her props for having super-fresh material (she had just written stuff earlier in the day about Jamie Lynn Spears and her new baby and Michelle Obama's appearance on "The View." All-in-all it was a good show. The lesbians in the crowd were VERY vocal. I was somewhat surprised at how much some lesbians ACTUALLY look like men. And I mean more manly than ME!! And I'm a hairy guy. So, you do the math.

Afterwords, we made a stop at Applebees in East Greenbush. I enjoyed the show, but what I really enjoyed was hanging out downtown with good friends, good food and drinks, on a beautiful night in Albany. Can't wait for the next time.

NEXT UP: The RUSH concert on July 5th at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center.
ALSO: I HAVE CONCERT TICKETS FOR SALE ON eBay RIGHT NOW.
There are 2 tickets for Rush 7/5/08 at SPAC....2 tickets for Rush at Mohegan Sun on 7/7/08 and 2 tickets for Neil Diamond at Albany's Times Union Center (formerly the Pepsi Arena) for August 20, 2008. My member name is NYCROWN99, so if you see the auctions, you'll know to bid on mine.

As always, please remember that LEN IS RIGHT.
I am,
Len Tollerton