‘Queen of Mean’ takes Toledo

Famous for her edgy, racial, style of comedy, Lisa Lampanelli doesn't hold anything back.

"The words and language during a show is to be ironic and point out how stupid stereotypes are," she said. "

Lampanelli, otherwise known as the "Queen of Mean," is appearing at the Stranahan Theatre Saturday night.

Aside from comedy, Lampanelli is also currently collaborating with Alan Zweibel on her own one-woman Broadway show.

Zweibel is an original writer of "Saturday Night Live" and worked with Billy Crystal's successful one-man show "700 Sundays."

"We're about to pick a director, we have a huge producer and it's insane; when you put your mind to it, you really can accomplish anything," she said. "I can't believe I made something happen from nothing."

The 2008 Grammy nominee went into comedy in the 1990s and got her break in 2002 as the only female comedian at the NY Friars Club roast of Chevy Chase.

"I always had in the back of mind I wanted to go into comedy and I'm lucky enough to have it take off," she said.

She quickly became famous for being a hit at roasts, insulting celebrities such as Dennis Leary, Flavor Flav, Pamela Anderson and David Hasselhoff.

When choosing her roast victims, Lampanelli said she goes for people she likes and respects because it's easier to pick someone apart when there is a known mutual respect.

"I could say the same joke to two people, but if I think I had something in my heart that I really didn't like the person I'm not that great of an actor where I can pull off the ‘Oh we're just kidding around,'" Lampanelli said. "So in a way, I was really happy I was absent for the Charlie Sheen roast because I think he's freaking insane."

Lampanelli said throughout her career, the gap between her personal and stage life is starting to close, allowing more opportunities to establish an intimate relationship with her audience.

"The audience knows when you're full of it and when you're not," Lampanelli said. "They're going to know I'm holding back if I don't talk real. Audiences don't like people who aren't real. It's not this put-on character or put-on act. They stay loyal to you and they stay with you longer and they can relate to you."

With regards to her 2009 memoir "Chocolate, Please: My Adventures in Food, Fat, and Freaks." Lampanelli said it was a struggle thinking about her "bad stuff," such as ex-boyfriends, divorce and diets.

She said writing the book "sucked" and was "the worse thing ever," while at the same time being a rewarding experience.

"But the cool thing is you have this product that has a lot of humor in it, but also people send you emails saying, ‘Oh my God, I went through that, too' and ‘Oh my God, it was so funny the way you put it,'" she said. "It helps people not taking their problems as serious. It doesn't come off as ‘Oh, poor me.' I hate that."

Lampanelli said her style of comedy — which audience members should expect to see Saturday — although is part of her job as a comedian to continually push the envelope.

"If you want to watch somebody boring, then you stay home and watch your wife," Lampanelli said. "You want to see someone say something you're not going to or [say] something you're thinking. It's comedians' job to cause the audience to think more and differently. It's natural for comedians to do it."

As someone who moved from her career in journalism to comedy and now to Broadway, Lampanelli's advice to college students is to relax.

"It's like, ‘Who cares?' Major in something that tickles you, and it's not the end of the world if you don't know what you want — nobody knows what they want," she said. "Don't sweat it; you're going to change your career path three times anyway."

The show starts at 8:00 p.m. at the Stranahan Theatre and tickets are $34.75. The show is for mature audiences only.