Insult comic Lisa Lampanelli performs in Sarasota
She's known as an insult comedian, one whose stand-up routines are liberally seasoned with profane racial and ethnic slurs and still, somehow, her fans can tell it's all good-natured fun.
"I honestly think that I have always been observed in the same way as people like Don Rickles and Howard Stern in that people, I think, can perceive an underlying warmth," Lisa Lampanelli said. "People feel like we're family. If I'm insulting the audience, they feel like they're part of my act." Lampanelli will be in Sarasota Friday night, bringing her comedy to the Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall.
Her fans, or at least most of them, never took offense to her comedy in the first place, but they might perceive a somewhat warmer Lampanelli this time around.
"I kind of try to do new material, different material, every time I go back to a city," she said. "So people will see new material, and I think the tone is a little different because now that I've lost the weight I'm feeling more comfortable and confident in holding people's attention."
Lampanelli said she had tried every diet there was, but couldn't keep weight off. Finally, she had weight-reduction surgery and dropped 107 pounds. She still has to be constantly vigilant to keep from gaining the weight back.
One way she does that, she said, is by realizing that eating was, for her, largely a way to subjugate feelings.
"Ninety percent of people are fat because the eat their emotions," she said. "Food is the one substance you can abuse without being arrested. You're not going to go to jail for driving while fat."
The weight wasn't the only thing Lampanelli lost recently. Her father died not long ago, and that has made an impact on her comedy as well. People have started to compliment the "human" side of her act.
"They like me a little bit more now," she said. "The standing ovations started again after my father died."
In other Lampanelli news, she's finishing writing her first play, "Fat Girls Interrupted." It revolves around four women discussing weight issues, from anorexia to overeating. A table reading -- in which a group of actors sit and read the script aloud for the playwright and others, to everyone involved can get a sense of how the play sounds -- is scheduled for the coming weeks in New York. She's hoping to expand the play into a series, with the same four characters dealing with such issues as anger and relationships.
"It's really fun," she said of the play. "But it's also dead serious. People will come away from it feeling entertained, because no one wants to see a show that's not entertaining. But they'll have something to think about, too."
Details: 8 p.m. Jan. 15, Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall, 777 N. Tamiami Trail, Sarasota. Tickets: $35-$50. Information: 941-953-3368, vanwezel.org.
Marty Clear, features writer/columnist, can be reached at 941-708-7919. Follow twitter.com/martinclear.
This story was originally published January 13, 2016 at 6:15 PM with the headline "Insult comic Lisa Lampanelli performs in Sarasota ."