Lisa Lampanelli (Best of, Part 1 of 2)

If Don Rickles were a woman with a slight weight problem and a well-documented fondness for having sex with African-American men, he'd sound an awful lot like comedienne Lisa Lampanelli, comedy's lovable queen of mean. Lampanelli studied journalism at Syracuse University and Harvard, and briefly enjoyed a successful career in the magazine industry, working at 'Popular Mechanics," "Spy Magazine," and was contributor for "Hit Parader" and "Rolling Stone." Deciding journalism was not for her, she quit and became a party DJ in 1990, entertaining partygoers via the microphone. Following a trip to a comedy club, she took a course in improvisation, which led to her first successful stand-up performances in New York City in the early 1990s. Lampanelli's real rise to fame began in 2001, where she made a stand-out appearance on Comedy Central's Friar's Club Roast of Hugh Hefner and was invited back in 2002 as the only female comedian invited to roast Chevy Chase at the New York Friars club which would air on Comedy Central. One of the few white comedians to perform on BET's comic view, she became a regular guest on Howard Stern's radio show, produced her first stand-up special, "The Queen of Mean" in 2002, and her first album, "Take it Like A Man," tied into another cable special with the same title in 2006 peaked at #6 on the comedy charts. In 2006, Lampanelli made her movie debut along side fellow comic Larry the Cable Guy in his film "Health Inspector," and issued her second album, "Dirty Girl," in early 2007, with the simultaneous release of a concert DVD featuring the same material, which reached #4 on the charts and was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Comedy Album of the year...culminating in being named "Maxim Magazine's" Bachelorette of the year. In 2008, she served as roastmaster for the Larry the Cable Guy Roast, and also performed at Carnegie Hall and Radio City Music Hall. In 2009, Lisa published her first book, a memoir "Chocolate, Please: My Adventures in Food, Fat, and Freaks." Lampanelli's other comedy albums include "Long Live the Queen," "Tough Love," and most recently was again nominated for a Grammy Award-her second- for "Back to the Drawing Board." She was a contestant on "Celebrity Apprentice," where she raised $130,000 for gay men's health crisis.