I had lunch today with Judy Tenuta, the brash, accordion-wielding comic who rose to fame in the late ’80s with her funny, feminist take on relationships and has remained a staple on the stand-up circuit while also manning the mike at heaps of Pride events. She’s in town this weekend for a two-night stand at the Lakeshore Theater.

I had no idea that Tenuta is from Oak Park, where two other funny ladies (Betty White and Kathy Griffin) also hail. She’s also one of 12 siblings (no wonder she went into comedy, she was probably jonesing for some attention). When I asked her if her gargantuan fam would be attending her shows this weekend, she told me the few who weren’t in prison probably would. Hmm, good to know she’s still funny 20 years after I first saw her on the 1988 HBO special Women of the Night hosted by Martin Short and featuring up-and-comers Paula Poundstone, Ellen DeGeneres and Rita Rudner (not too shabby company).

We ate at the Lockwood in the Palmer House Hilton and gorged on chef Phillip Foss’s signature lobster hot dog, chicken quesadillas, bruschetta and brownies for dessert (”I came in Judy Tenuta and I’m leaving Roseanne,” she quipped) while gossiping about celebrities. According to Tenuta, Candy Spelling looks as if her face has been through a wind tunnel, Kirstie Alley is only semi non-planet-like in her current weight and Lick Me Blow Hands—er, Lindsay Lohan—needs to get her shit together. We pontificated over Carol Channing’s age (old enough to have cave drawings in her likeness), talked about her emceeing drag-queen softball for charity and reminisced about Chicago (yep, she loves the city but can’t stand the weather).

Tenuta still has that angry (okay, some might say obnoxious) punch in her cadence where she’ll hit the last word of every sentence hard as if she’s weary that she’s telling a story about her ex husband a-gain! But a feisty, fiery lady she remains, and we can only assume Tenuta fans will be pleased with this weekend’s helping of Judyisms.