Lisa Lampanelli is an equal-opportunity basher.
Blacks, whites, Asians, Jews and Hispanics are all in the cross hairs of this up-and-coming insult comic. The only demographic she doesn't lampoon on stage? Europeans.
"You only hurt the ones you love," she said. "That's why I don't make fun of French people and Europeans - because they smell and I hate them. They do. Try smelling one. I have. Horrible."
Tomorrow, Lampanelli brings her stinging stand-up act to Meyerhoff Symphony Hall. She has about a week to refine her live routine before she tapes a one-hour special for HBO at the Wells Fargo Center for the Arts in Santa Rosa, Calif.
The special is one of several big projects Lampanelli has in the works. In addition to her live shows, the comedian, 47, is writing an autobiography and working on the pilot episode for a prospective HBO series with comedian/actor Jim Carrey. The secret to her blossoming success, she said, is her stubbornness.
"I was always like, 'I'm going to do it how I'm going to do it,' " she said. "This is my path, and that's life. And if they don't like it, too bad."
When it comes to stand-up, Lampanelli was a late boomer. She didn't start seriously pursuing a career in comedy until she was 30. Up until then, the Connecticut native made a living as a journalist. She earned a journalism degree from Syracuse University and worked as a copy editor for Popular Mechanics and an assistant at Rolling Stone. But Lampanelli grew tired of journalism and abandoned it.
In hindsight, Lampanelli is glad she delved into stand-up later than most comedians.
"A lot of people start when they're really young and don't have their personality already," she said. "They keep getting talked out of what they really want to do by people. They take too much advice because they're young and insecure."
Lampanelli cut her teeth on Friars Club roasts, during which a panel of comedians and celebrities lampoons one of its own. She shone in roasts of Star Trek's William Shatner and KISS front man Gene Simmons.
Lampanelli's cutdowns got the attention of Carrey. Last August, he signed with Lampanelli's agency and recruited Lampanelli to work with him on a TV pilot. So far, she said, it has been a blast.
"I knew he was smart, but I didn't know he was this smart," she said. "I love it. It's so cool to be like, 'Oh, my God, Jim Carrey is in my cell phone.' "
