Hot Cup of Talk

Kathy Griffin treats stand-up like a highly publicized venting session, trading in entertainment industry war stories and celebrity takedowns. Her first hour-long broadcast establishes the blueprint for the pop culture commentary she would eventually turn into an empire. She takes aim at the absurdities of nineties fame, spending time on Madonna’s sudden adoption of a British accent and the theatrical behavior of Celine Dion and Mariah Carey during VH1’s Divas Live. Griffin positions herself as an outsider looking in, entirely willing to burn bridges for the sake of a punchline. Filmed at the Variety Arts Theatre in Los Angeles in 1998, the special took its name from a weekly alternative comedy night Griffin had co-founded with Janeane Garofalo. At the time of recording, she was known primarily as a regular on the NBC sitcom Suddenly Susan. Between roasting the boy band Hanson and recounting an encounter with President Bill Clinton, Griffin introduces audiences to what would become a staple of her act: complaining about her mother, Maggie.