Is Not Nicole Kidman

Kathy Griffin turns minor public embarrassments and awkward greenroom encounters into high-drama performance art. Her comedy functions like a debrief from an untrustworthy friend who just came back from an exclusive party they were barely invited to, trading heavily on the petty indignities of mid-level celebrity. The highlight of the show is her recounting of a disastrous co-presenting gig at the American Music Awards alongside Ryan Seacrest, which culminated in an on-stage clothing mishap and a surprisingly tender backstage welfare check from the rapper Nelly. Filmed at the Orpheum Theatre in Los Angeles, this 2005 special caught Griffin at a major turning point in her career. It aired on Bravo just before the debut of Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List, the reality series that would solidify her brand of self-deprecating opportunism. The set also includes extended takedowns of contemporary reality-television fixtures, ranging from an incoherent meeting with Anna Nicole Smith to Barbra Streisand’s highly orchestrated appearances on Oprah.