Seven years removed from a backlash unleashed by protesting Donald Trump’s first election when she held up a mock severed head of the president, Kathy Griffin remains defiant and unbowed despite the fact no streaming service will give her a comedy special.
“I have to outlive them all,” she told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution before her upcoming show at the Buckhead Theatre on Friday, Dec. 6, as part of an 80-city tour. Tickets are available at Ticketmaster from $75.50 to $97.50. “All these executives who are too squeamish, who think I’m too toxic, I just have to wait until they all die.”
Griffin was once a staple on Bravo and HBO, generating 20 stand-up specials between 1996 and 2013. She financed her own film in 2019, but the emotional and professional cost of that photo ran deep. She lost friends, endorsements and a CNN New Year’s special. She became addicted to painkillers and was briefly suicidal. She got married and divorced.
“I make fun of my own PTSD,” she said. “I kind of think collectively we’ve all had PTSD on our team. The other team is happy as a clam. They’re dancing a jig.”
One topic Griffin won’t spend much time with is Trump himself. “I did a whole tour about it already,” she said. “Even if he does something especially crazy that day, I may acknowledge it for 90 seconds, but I’m moving on, baby!”
And while most comics are on stage 60 to 75 minutes, Griffin typically hits the two-hour mark and in the past has approached three. “I try to do every show like it’s my last,” she said.
Her show will feature her patented stories about celebrity encounters, whether it’s vacationing in Mexico with Sia or attending Paris Hilton’s birthday party. She will tell a story about visiting Jane Fonda, another female entertainer who faced the ire of conservatives in 1972 when she visited North Vietnam during the war.
“I’m giving them that Kathy Griffin razzle dazzle,” she said. “I want to provide a service and give folks some crazy stories to laugh at.”
Griffin is aiming to sell out the theater, which fits about 840. She knows she is no longer drawing crowds the way she did 14 years ago when she performed at the larger Fox Theatre. Not having a fresh special on a streaming service, she said, makes it harder to drive sales. “I’m going to keep grinding it out,” she said. “I’ll do more social media. I’ll do Instagram Live. I’ll do whatever it takes.”
She said she has been sober from her pill addiction since 2020, but in 2021, she was diagnosed with lung cancer. She lost half a lung but survived. Unfortunately, the surgeon paralyzed her left vocal cord and she needed additional surgery this year to get her voice back to some semblance of what it used to be.
“I sound like me again,” she said. “Shouting and cursing are my love languages. I tend to yell at the audience even though I love them.”
Working keeps her depression at bay, she said. “I haven’t lost my hustle,” Griffin said. “I love the stage. It’s the only time I’m fully relaxed. That sounds corny, but I get anxiety attacks. I can’t stop vomiting. I was in a restaurant recently and had to go into a corner. I had flop sweat. I was hoping nobody would recognize me. I had to get it together and drive home.”
She said the late Joan Rivers told her to keep on working and never leave a blank page on the calendar. “I’m cut from the same cloth,” Griffin said.
Griffin, despite rumors to the contrary, has no plans to leave the country like Ellen DeGeneres and Portia de Rossi. “I’m not moving,” she said. “I own a house in Malibu I love. I have four dogs. I’m going to keep touring after the inauguration.”
And financially, she said she’s OK despite barely working for more than six years.
“I’m good at saving money,” she said. “I have no debt. My house is paid off. I work with [famed financial adviser] Suze Orman. She never steers me wrong.”
IF YOU GO
“Kathy Griffin: Life on the PTSD List”
8 p.m. Friday, Dec. 6. $75.50-$97.50. Buckhead Theatre, 3110 Roswell Road NE, Atlanta. livenation.com.
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