Lisa Lampanelli
Lisa Lampanelli (born Lisa Marie Lampugnale;[1] July 19, 1961)[3][4] is an American former stand-up comedian, actress and insult comic.
Lisa Lampanelli
Queen of Mean[1]
Lisa Marie Lampugnale
July 19, 1961
Trumbull, Connecticut, U.S.
American
1990[2]–2018
Early life and journalism career[edit]
Lampanelli was born in Trumbull, Connecticut, to a middle-class family.[5] Three of her grandparents were of Italian descent, and the fourth of Polish ancestry.[6][7] Her mother, Gloria (née Velgot), worked for the local police department, where "she typed in all the arrests made", and her father, Leonard Lampugnale, worked for Sikorsky Aircraft and later became a painter.[8][9][10][11] Lampanelli attended Roman Catholic schools,[9] studied journalism at Boston College and Syracuse University,[5] and attended the Radcliffe Publishing Course.[12][13]
She worked as a copy editor at Popular Mechanics and an assistant at Rolling Stone.[14] She was also a fact checker and the first chief of research for Spy magazine; a book about Spy describes her then as "your average decked-out-heavy-metal-head-next-door."[15] Speaking later to Maxim Magazine Online, Lampanelli remarked, "I was a real journalist for Rolling Stone, Spy, Hit Parader. I interviewed those fuckin' hair bands: Cinderella, Slaughter."[16]
Career[edit]
Comedy[edit]
Lampanelli began her stand-up career in New York in the early 1990s.[17][18] She had a break-out role at the 2002 New York Friars' Club roast of Chevy Chase,[1] and went on to participate in the roasts of Denis Leary, Pamela Anderson, Jeff Foxworthy, Flavor Flav, William Shatner, David Hasselhoff, and Donald Trump and to serve as Roastmaster for Larry the Cable Guy.[19] Lampanelli was frequently on the dais for The Howard Stern Show roasts, including appearances at the roasts for Gary Dell'Abate, Artie Lange, Andy Dick, and A&E's "Gene Simmons Roast" in April 2008.
Lampanelli released a comedy special on DVD entitled Take it Like A Man in 2005, appeared in the 2006 motion picture Larry the Cable Guy: Health Inspector, and had a cameo appearance in the VH1 sitcom So NoTORIous. She also landed a deal with Fox for a sitcom pilot with the tentative title Big Loud Lisa, which was considered a candidate for the network's 2006–07 television season. Lampanelli taped her stand-up special Dirty Girl in the fall of 2006, which aired on Comedy Central on January 28, 2007. Her Dirty Girl CD and Dirty Girl—No Protection DVD were released by Warner Bros./Jack Records on January 30, 2007. Lampanelli was also featured in the movie Delta Farce starring Larry the Cable Guy, Bill Engvall, and D.J. Qualls, which was released early in 2008, and in Drillbit Taylor starring Owen Wilson.
Her style of humor was influenced most by the Dean Martin roasts that televised when she was growing up; she did not start watching other stand-up comedians until she became one herself.[8][20]
Personal life[edit]
Lampanelli married in 1991 and divorced soon afterward.[1] She married Jimmy Cannizzaro, a former tavern owner from Valley Stream, New York, on October 2, 2010, at the New York Friars' Club.[1][31] In May 2014, she filed for divorce from Cannizzaro after three and a half years of marriage.[32]
Lampanelli is a supporter of the LGBTQ+ community.[33] When members of the Westboro Baptist Church planned to protest against a show she held on May 20, 2011, in Topeka, Kansas, she promised to donate $1,000 to Gay Men's Health Crisis (the same charity she contributed to during The Celebrity Apprentice) for every protester that attended. After an initial count of 44 protesters, she rounded up the donation to an even $50,000, crediting the donation as being "made possible by the WBC."[33]