Kathy Griffin: Boroughing Through Queens and Brooklyn

Trigger warning: Woolgathering and emotional waterboarding were in abundance this past weekend: Two-time Emmy Award winner Kathy Griffin performed a limited "borough engagement" at Brooklyn Center for the Performing Art sat Brooklyn College on Sunday, April 10, at 6 p.m., one day after making an appearance at the Kupferberg Center for the Arts at Queens College on April 9 at 8 p.m.

A profusion of laughter, mild disenchantment and star-struck awe were all on display from devotees and admirers of the comedienne's Hollywood velvet rope satire. Zigzagging through the country on her 80-city tour, the rowdy stand-up humorist tackled millennials and political correctness, Caitlyn Jenner and the fight for LGBT equality, fame in a post-Kardashian Hollywood, the stultiloquence of the presidential contention of Donald Trump and her catfight rivalries with pop stars Miley Cyrus, Taylor Swift and actress Gwyneth Paltrow, whom she lovely nicknamed "Goop-ie."

Without a doubt, the paramount moment of the night was Griffin's behind-the-scenes observations of an unlikely trifecta: At a charity event produced by the Donald Trump foundation, Griffin recalled golf cart shenanigans with The Donald (as he would like to be addressed) and EGOT Broadway legend, Liza Minnelli, in which the business tycoon turned presidential candidate drove the women to their backstage dressing quarters.

Griffin, who earlier discussed her dislike of the Republican frontrunner and the time she supported her friend and mentor Joan Rivers when she appeared as a contestant on Trump's "Celebrity Apprentice," said she knew the billionaire was not worthy of the White House when he was underwhelmed at witnessing Liza's transformation into the shimmering bright star for which she's become legendary.

An additional highlight included Griffin's experience with another EGOT winner, Barbra Streisand. Last December, Griffin attended The Hollywood Reporter's 2015 Women in Entertainment breakfast at Milk Studios in Los Angeles where film legend Robert Redford present Streisand with the 2015 Sherry Lansing Leadership Award. Griffin had the best seat in the house, seated at a table alongside "Girls" star Lena Dunham, Grammy winner Meghan Trainor, film actress Selma Blair and reality star Kris Jenner, all of whoml provided amusing stories of their own.

But Griffin -- who finds hilarity in the senescent reveries of Maggie, her 95-year-old mother -- was also seated across from Streisand who has grown even brassier as a septuagenarian. Redford, who tried and failed at back-and-forth banter with the icon, could not hear Streisand's replies from the stage, forcing Griffin to yell her responses to Redford as if her interpreter.

Love her or hate her, Griffin is a class act who deserves her spotlight and the various accolades she has received over the course of her 30-plus year career, and she's not exactly modest about it. In fact, she relishes in it. She notes that she made history with her sixth consecutive Grammy nomination and first win for Best Comedy Album ("Kathy Griffin: Calm Down Gurrl"), where she joined comedy legends Whoopi Goldberg and Lily Tomlin as the only comediennes to have ever taken home the coveted title.

Nor did Griffin stray away from letting her audience know that she was inducted into the Guinness Book of World Records for writing and starring in an unprecedented 20 televised stand-up comedy specials, more than any comedian in history. But unlike most traveling funny people, Griffin constantly changes her set, tweaking and reimagining new material based on the trending news, her Twitter feed and the tinsel town rumor mills, offering new insights and brand new material daily.

The set, which meandered thanks to multiple asides, was best when the rib-tickling funny lady stuck to what she knew best, allowing followers into her twisted world of television.

A wickedly witty improviser, the flamed-haired joker cruised through the 140-minute set at mach speeds with lucid yarns and rambling anecdotal digressions, speaking on Taylor Swift's "Bad Blood" lady squad with half-hearted vitriol and co-hosting alongside CNN correspondent Anderson Cooper during annual New Year's Eve and his Vanderbilt elitism with warm �lan.

Her routine isn't built on a stack of punch lines or double entendre; it's ribaldry celebrity gossip, the kind of insider intel and satire that TMZ or The Onion would kill for, and being a nexus for bridge and tunnel people and Hollywood's constellation of stars, Griffin is more than exhilarated to share behind-the-scenes diatribes. For those of us who could care less, stay home and watch Netflix; Griffin will be around for another three-plus decades as popular culture's master of ceremonies.

"Kathy Griffin: Boroughing Through" ran through April 10 at the Walt Whitman Theatre in the Brooklyn Center for the Performing Arts at Brooklyn College, 2900 Campus Rd in Brooklyn. For tickets or information, call 718-951-4500 or visit http://www.brooklyncenter.org/