Lisa Lampanelli, the “queen of mean,” isn’t known for keeping mum. She said her parents taught her never to talk about who she is voting for or how much money she makes. Everything else is fair game.
Animal adoption and body issues are two topics the comic will talk about freely and on Thursday you can chat about both with her outside of the McGinn Cazale Theatre, where Lampanelli’s play Stuffed is running.
North Shore Animal League America, the world’s largest no-kill shelter, will roll a mobile adoption unit full of adoptable cats, dogs, puppies and kittens into Manhattan on Broadway and 76th Street.
The adoption event, which will be held from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m., is a celebration of Lampanelli’s first foray into theater unless you count “high school crappy versions of ‘West Side Story’ and ‘Annie Get Your Gun,’” Lampanelli joked during an interview with Metro.
Lampanelli, who said she hopes her pup Parker will remain the only man in her life, adopted her dog from Animal League.
On Thursday, Lampanelli and the rest of the cast of Stuffed — Ann Harada, Zainab Jah, Jessica Luck — will be doling out love for the adoptable pets before the evening’s performance of the off-Broadway show.
Lampanelli said she was inspired to write Stuffed based on her own fight with food and body image.
“I have terrible body image even after losing all the weight four years ago,” she told Metro. “I eat out of emotion. I think I gained 20 pounds overnight. It will be something I work with my whole life.”
“And my character [the chronic dieter] is 100 percent true because it’s all my experiences that went into the play,” she added.
The other characters include an anorexic/bulimic woman (Luck), a confident overweight woman (Harada, formerly of “Avenue Q”) and a woman that is too skinny (Jah, formerly of “Eclipsed”).
If you are rolling your eyes at the women who can’t gain weight, Lampanelli said that struggle is real, too.
“At first, you don’t feel sorry for her, but eventually you come to understand her,” Lampanelli, who lost 107 pounds four years ago after having gastric sleeve surgery in 2012. “I like that everybody is represented.”
Lampanelli, who joked she has only met three people that don’t have body image and food problems, said food isn’t just woman’s issue, either. Men come up to her after the show with their own tales or stories of loved ones.
“It’s definitely resonating with more people than I thought it would,” she said. “It’s affecting more than women.”
Lampanelli said she plans to write three more plays starring the same characters: love/relationships, anger and grief.
“Those are the things I talk to my friends about the most but, food comes first. You gotta get that out of the way before you talk about any other subject.”
Stuffed opened on Oct. 7 and yes, Parker took his curtain call and attended the opening night party with the tails the costume designer made him. His proud mama called his look “very ‘Hamilton’.”
“If you told me five years ago that I’d be searching online for a shirt that matches mine in a dog size, I’d say you’re an idiot,” Lampanelli said while laughing.
Finding Parker was a gift for Lampanelli and she said she hopes others find the same love.
“You can’t walk away from that [Animal League] truck without owning a pet,” she said.
For more information on the adoption event, click here.
For more information or tickets for Stuffed, visit the Women’s Theater Project page.
