Kathy Griffin’s career has been a never-ending story of resistance, determination, and resilience. One might think that almost losing her career after a spat with the former President would be enough – but overcoming cancer and addiction in the past couple of years was perhaps a more significant challenge.
The Emmy and Grammy Award-winning comic will be holding court at The Vets in Providence on Thursday, February 15 as part of her “My Life on the PTSD List” tour. Tickets are available here.
Griffin was rather spirited in a recent phone call, where she shared stories about hanging out with A-listers, B-listers, Paris Hilton’s Christmas party, women in comedy, and, let’s just say, her “run-in” with the federal government.
“I can’t wait to be there – it’s my first tour in six years. I just want to get back to telling my hilarity and spreading joy to the peoples,” she joked. A triumphant return is long overdue – her cancer battle included surgery to remove part of her left lung. She now jokes about having one and a half lungs, resenting the “two lungers” among us.
“I know it sounds very corny, but I really do feel at home on stage,” she said. “The show will include some celebrity stories in the Kathy Griffin tradition. I actually just got back from Australia; I went there for two weeks with Sia, the singer. A few months prior, we had gone to Mexico on vacation, and I have a great story about that because everything went wrong. It was like Lucy and Ethel go to Mexico.”
On a serious note, Griffin, who shunned alcohol most of her life, became addicted to prescription painkillers, which led to an overdose and lengthy hospitalization during the pandemic.
“The reason I call the show ‘My Life on the PTSD List’ is because I talk about all that stuff I went through. There’s a place for that, because there’s still some good healthy bad behavior,” she joked. “I also found in the handful of shows I’ve done, people actually do want to talk about cancer and prescription pill addiction.”
“I’m not planning on talking about my divorce because it’s so new, but I certainly am going to describe what it was like for me the first few days looking at the laundry machine and not knowing how it works. I found, and this has been factually confirmed, I am too famous to do laundry,” laughed Griffin.
“I say to the audience, clap your hands if you’ve ever been touched by addiction in any way, and most of the audience claps. So I tell stories about the 51/50 cycle, it was like Britney and Kanye combined, and parts of it were just funny. I legit didn’t know that the doors lock from the outside,” she quipped, referring to her hospital stay. “It’s just funny that I would have, what they call in AA, your bottom, at age 59 years old; I mean, talk about a late bloomer. I couldn’t just be a normal person who overdosed when they were 20, 30 or 40.”
In 2017, Griffin made national headlines after posting an image of a bloody mask that looked like the severed head of the former President. Intended as a joke, it wasn’t seen that way by most, including some of her (former) friends. She was promptly “canceled” by many in the industry, and at one point, was interviewed by the Secret Service. “I was apparently perceived as an actual threat to the life of the former administration. It was just insanity.”
As a trailblazer for female comedians, particularly those who push it to the edge, Griffin is used to criticism. She drew attention to the double standard that still exists for female comics.
“I’m always rooting for the other ladies,” she continued. “I know Amy Schumer’s tour grossed a large amount last year, but she was still like number 12 on the list. That’s the biggest part of the uphill battle now,” she said. “There are still a lot of people that say either chicks aren’t funny, or chicks shouldn’t curse. I curse a lot, and I’m vulgar. When I was hanging out with my dear departed friend Joan Rivers, she would say, that’s how it was for Phyllis Diller… and that’s how it was for Joan. And I’d say, Joan, it really hasn’t gotten better.”
“Let’s face it, my audience is ladies and gays; I’ll never be in with the Joe Rogan crowd, but the thing I can’t quite figure out – there is still such a stigma to going to see a female comedy show. One of my straight bro’s confessed, ‘if I were with five of my guys and we were all going to go out to a comedy show in the city, would anyone of you think let’s get tickets to Amy Schumer or Chelsea Handler or a Wanda Sykes? They all would say absolutely not. We’d be looking for Dave Chapelle, Chris Rock, the usual suspects.’”
“It has been wild; I’m canceled, I’m blacklisted, I’m toxic, nobody will touch me,” continued Griffin. “And then I got a call from the folks who used to book me at The Mirage in Vegas, and they said we’d like to have you back for a couple of dates. I don’t even mention Trump in this new show at all; it’s not that I’m scared or anything, it’s just that he will be in court, which gives me a little pleasure, I’ll be touring, while he’ll be in court. I’ll take that as a win.”
Griffin is looking forward to performing live again. “I’ll be there, bells on … laughter. Providence, get ready.” Click here for tickets to the show.