Las Vegas Backstage Talk

Lisa Lampanelli, The Queen of Mean…is Newly Lean!

By Michele LaFong- “Getting Personal with the Stars” in Gaming Today-  Feb. 12, 2013

Lisa Lamanelli, the self proclaimed “Queen of Mean” is returning to The Pearl Concert Theatre on Feb. 16, at 8pm at The Palms Hotel & Casino. “Expect to see a whole new hour of material,”promised Lisa.   “Much of it will be about the craziest experience of my life…  spending sixteen weeks competing on “Celebrity Apprentice,” Donald Trump’s Reality Show on NBC,  “I LOVED it!”   Lisa screamed.  “I watched myself on TV afterward.  I was such a Mental Patient on that show!  I got SO much material though, and it’s such great exposure.  It raises your profile.

Here’s the only problem.  The minute I finished doing The Apprentice, I was getting recognized every single day, in the city of NY, and I was loving it…Then I go and lose 105 +lbs, and no one recognizes me!  I’m not getting free coffee anymore… I’m not getting FREE anything!  So it’s a double edged sword, this weight loss. I’m less famous, cause I don’t look like me anymore… but maybe now I’ll  live till I’m 70, instead of dropping dead.”

Perhaps it was that philosphy that led to Lisa’s decision to get Gastric By-Pass Surgery.

“I just got tied of hating the way my body looked in the mirror!”  There were a couple of incidents that happened on The Apprentice that triggered me to want to do something about it.  It wasn’t that alone, of course.  It was many things over the years, from my past.  In fact, we’re working on A One-Woman Broadway, show about my life, and we get into this, and explain how it came about…”

At age 51, Lampanelli, is making the effort to live a life of balance.  She takes time off to enjoy her home, on the water in Connecticut, and has three assistants, and has a few dollars!
I really think that comics are afraid to improve themselves, because they’re like: I won’t be funny if I get thinner, or I won’t be funny if I go to the shrink and get more healthy mentally, and emotionally.  But there’s always gonna be so much twisted stuff about us, that I don’t think we ever have to worry about being too healthy for comedy.

I’ve been in-therapy for many years. I think I took a cue from Howard Stern.  He has become a better human being, and performer by going to therapy three or four times a week.  I don’t do that, but I  take a lot of workshops, I also have a house at Kenya Ranch Health Spa, in Tuscon, where I work on myself from a spiritual, and psychological point of view. I’m also going to a six day retreat for emotional eating because I don’t want to gain the weight back.   Weight is about emotion and not about food.”

Lisa Lampanelli…she’s still a heavy-weight in comedy, and would never be one to be  accused of doing a “half-assed” job!
Her full interview can be heard on Las Vegas Backstage Talk Radio & Web Show, Thursday, Feb. 14 from 6pm-7pm PST on 1230AM in Las Vegas, or stream live on-line.

Lampanelli is also featured in Michele LaFong’s Monthly Syndicated Column, “Las Vegas Backstage Talk,” in June’s issue of Casino Player Magazine.  (CP Magazine.)