Raunchy comic Lisa Lampanelli, who appears at the Borgata in Atlantic City this President’s Day weekend on Sunday, Feb. 19, is interviewed in this week’s Atlantic City Weekly.
Although the cover story interview will offend some folks — that’s what she does best, earning her the title of the “Female Don Rickles” — Lampanelli didn’t mention her debut this Sunday on the new season of Celebrity Apprentice on NBC.
AC Weekly columnist David J. Spatz did, however, get some dirt on the show, in a separate interview with the comedian.
Here it is:
Potty-mouthed insult comedian Lisa Lampanelli didn’t mince words or pull any punches as she described her teammates on the latest edition of Donald Trump’s reality series Celebrity Apprentice, which debuts Sunday night on NBC.
She hates most of them.
“If I could say the ‘c’ word [in the newspaper], I would,” Lampanelli fumed. “I really hate lazy and I really hate stupid, and the combination of stupid and lazy I can’t abide ever. So I had problems with those types of people who don’t want to work hard and bring nothing to the table creatively.”
On stage and off, Lampanelli has long had a reputation for speaking her peace. So she wasn’t holding anything back when she discussed a team that includes, among others, one-time pop stars Debbie Gibson and Tia Carerre, model Cheryl Tiegs, famous mob boss daughter Victoria Gotti and Real Housewives of New Jersey star Teresa Giudice.
Lampanelli’s team competed against a men’s lineup that had everyone from magician Penn Jillette and American Chopper star Paul Teutul Sr. to pop singer Clay Aiken, former Incredible Hulk star Lou Ferrigno and original Star Trek cast member and gay rights activist George Takei.
When it comes to her work — whether it’s her stand-up act or a reality TV series — Lampanelli is in it to win it. Unfortunately, she said, most of her teammates didn’t have that same attitude.
Although the entire competition has completed production and awaits only the live finale in May during which Trump will choose his winner, Lampanelli is bound by a confidentiality agreement.
So she can only speak in generalities and can’t get into the specifics of the individual competitions and challenges. And she certainly can’t discuss which of her teammates — including herself — were fired by Trump during production of the series, which whittles the men’s and women’s teams down to two contestants before the finale.
But during a phone conversation last week, Lampanelli left the impression that she made it deep into the competition and could even be the last woman standing.
Celebrity Apprentice was the hardest gig she’s ever had.
“And you know me, I’m a really hard worker,” she said. “I spent 22 years working 20 hours a day, driving anywhere to work. But this was so hard, and really intense. It was six days a week [with] personalities you wanted to put through a friggin’ wood chipper and hate. It’s the hardest thing I’ve ever done.”
Lampanelli, 50, is the former magazine writer, editor and fact checker who left her journalism career in the early 1990s to try her hand at stand-up comedy. She developed a raunchy performing style that focused on racial and sexual insult humor and got a big break a decade ago during a Friar’s Club roast of comedy actor Chevy Chase.
She also made a friend out of Trump, whom she’s roasted on a couple of occasions.
A big fan of reality television — especially Celebrity Apprentice and Dancing With The Stars — Lampanelli was thrilled when the producers of Apprentice offered her a spot in the current series.
“They courted me, which I’m not used to,” she said. “I’m used to knocking on doors and having people not answer. So it was really cool that they came after me.”
The plus-sized Lampanelli said once the producers of the series assured her they wouldn’t film her “to make me look fat on purpose,” she quickly agreed to be on the show.
Lampanelli also had an ulterior motive for doing Apprentice.
Next fall, or possibly in the spring of 2013, Lampanelli will star in a one-person show on Broadway. But she won’t be bringing her stand-up act to the legitimate stage.
Instead, the show, written by former Saturday Night Live writer Alan Zweibel, will consist of mostly humorously true stories about Lampanelli and her lifelong struggle with food addiction and relationship issues she’s had with men.
Doing Apprentice will show the audience there’s more to Lampanelli than just being a heavyweight comedian with a vocabulary that would make Teamsters truck drivers blush with embarrassment.
“There are some definite moments of emotion in the [Broadway] show,” said Lampanelli, who will be on stage at Borgata at the same time as the season premier of Celebrity Apprentice.
On Apprentice, audiences will get a glimpse of a side of Lampanelli she doesn’t show when she’s doing her expletive-peppered stand-up act.
“I did [Apprentice] to show that comics are smart and work hard,” she said. “I waned to show there more to me than just an insult comic. “People will be seeing that I can get my feelings hurt…and trust me, it happens a lot.” — David J. Spatz
Casual conversations with the stars. Watch the Emmy-winning Curtain Call with David Spatz, Saturdays at 6pm on WMGM-TV NBC40.
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Billy Currington, the laid back country singer whose claim to fame has come from such engaging story songs as “People Are Crazy” and “Good Directions,” is brings his first headlining tour to Atlantic City’s Trump Taj Mahal on Saturday, May 5, 7:30pm.
