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Welcome to the Tango with Kyle Ridley.
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Happy October.
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Hope you're enjoying the month so far.
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I'm enjoying it as we head into this fall weather, which is my favorite.
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I hope you enjoyed last week's episodes.
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We gave you a double dose of Real Housewives of Salt Lake City's Heather Gay, also an acclaimed author.
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She has a new book out, Eternal Glow, and then also country musician LGBTQIA plus country musician Chris Hausman.
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Hope you checked out that interview and his new album, Dodge City.
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He's also heading back out on tour.
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As for this week, I am speaking with the legendary, iconic, controversial at times, but I'm always on her side, Kathy Griffin.
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I have been an admirer of hers for 30 years at this point, all the way back to the mid-90s when she was on Suddenly Susan.
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And uh I really fell in love with her with her Hot Cup of Talk comedy special, which I believe was HBO back in the day.
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Uh, and it's on YouTube, so I encourage you to go stream it.
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And then while you're at it, she has 20 plus other specials.
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She's a record breaker in that sense.
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Remember those days in the early 2000s when she would have multiple specials on Bravo every year and My Life on the D-List?
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Of course, we talk all about that era.
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We also talk about the past decade where she has just had a harrowing journey.
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It's hard to encapsulate it all in an hour conversation, but we did what we could.
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Of course, we talked about that controversial photo that is still making headlines and how she feels no regret over it at this point, no apologies.
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But of course, it resulted in and is still resulting in a lot of backlash.
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She was on the no-fly list, she was kept at many airports throughout the years, she could not tour for many years.
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She is finally back on her new face, new tour, and uh she's coming to DC.
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She's playing DC's Warner Theater October 17th.
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It's a funny conversation, but of course we get into some politics.
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We can't avoid that when speaking with Kathy Griffin, and she is a voice for so many, a defender of democracy.
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We also talk about her YouTube special, which you can catch right now, My Life on the PTSD list, because naturally she has struggled with PTSD in the wake of that controversial photo and everything she's been through since.
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She's gone through a divorce, she became addicted to pills in her 50s.
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She had an attempt to take her own life.
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It's a hell of a story.
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And you can also watch a hell of a story, that documentary that she released in 2019, which captures the moments after that photo and her comeback tour at that point, where she went on a global tour, and it's a haunting documentary, everything that she goes through.
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It's very vulnerable.
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She couldn't find distribution for it, and still can't find distribution for most of her work because, as she says, streamers don't want to touch her.
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She is considered, I guess, too controversial.
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Yet many podcast pros and people that are, in my opinion, controversial are making millions, hundreds of millions.
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Can't wait for you to hear this conversation.
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As far as what I've been tangled in, I was back on TV last week.
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I did one of those what-to-watch segments that I love to do with uh stuff that I am immersed in.
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And of course, I included a new show that I'm loving.
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It's called Youth.
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It's on HBO and it's with Sharon Horgan, who created Bad Sisters and Catastrophe, and she wrote on divorced.
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And I just think that she is a stellar actress, writer, one of a kind.
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And I really hope that you watch this show.
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It's about women in their 50s and sort of struggling with age and dating and having an empty nest and weird body issues that you're that you go through as you're getting older.
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So definitely give that a watch.
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I said it was kind of like what Angus like that hoped it could be, but fell short of.
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I, of course, am watching Real Housewives of Salt Lake City as we had Heather Gay on the show last week, and I am speaking with another one of those housewives tomorrow, so stay tuned for that.
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I'm also giving the new New York a try.
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I'm actually enjoying it, so we'll see how long I stick with it.
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And what else am I watching?
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Oh, I watched a new show on HBO called War, and I am enjoying it.
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It's a one of those weekly series, so I don't have to binge it all, but gave the first episode a try and we'll stick with it.
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I also have some exciting news to share, but for that I want you to keep on my Instagram.
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I will talk about it more next week on this show, but follow me at Kyle Ridley with an underscore because I am dropping little hints and we'll make that announcement later this week, hopefully.
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Of course, like, rate, subscribe.
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Love to drop that.
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And you know what?
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Please leave a comment.
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Can you leave a comment either on my Instagram or if you really could leave a rating on Apple?
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That really helps, and I haven't gotten many ratings or any in the last few weeks, so step up, my new listeners.
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I love you.
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I want to connect with you.
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Drop me a line.
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I'm nearing 100 episodes soon.
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Anything else happening?
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Well, I'm going back tomorrow to get my tattoo redone.
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I just wasn't happy with it, so I'll give you an update on that.
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Hopefully, if it's viewable, visible, that I'm happy with.
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And then tonight I'm gonna go see probably my all-time favorite group, The Chicks.
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And they are on their 20th anniversary tour of taking the long way, that classic album at one album of the year at the Grammys.
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This was the album.
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Post those bush comments that really just seem so minuscule at this point, and I hope they feel vindicated because they have been on the right side of history, and there are no apologies from them, and there shouldn't be.
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So I'm looking forward to seeing that show.
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They're doing the whole album, and then they come back for an encore of six or seven songs of some of their hits.
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So can't wait to see that, see them, and give you my report on that.
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But for now, let's get back to another no apologies personality.
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She was on my dream list when I launched this podcast, so this was such a pleasure.
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My 45-minute conversation with the stellar Grammy winning, Emmy winning, iconic, trailblazer, unapologetic.
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Kathy Griffin.
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You look gorgeous.
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I have full hair makeup on.
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I'm so thrilled to speak with you.
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It's my honor.
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When I started this podcast a little over a year ago, I made a dream list and you were right up there.
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Yeah, well, you've been DMing me that, which is so sweet.
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I am an OG fan.
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I want to show you a couple things before we get started so you're not nervous.
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Okay.
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Read them both, love them both.
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Both.
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We'll talk about both, but not only that, look at all these DVDs.
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Honey, the collection.
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The collection.
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And now I own them.
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I know.
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I'm really proud of that.
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I'm really excited about that.
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We'll talk all about that.
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Fun fact, I was at your very first show in DC when you were playing at the DC Improv in like the basement.
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The first year of my life on the D list was on.
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That was a rough improv.
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I remember that show too.
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That's set to this day.
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Because when you that's why I don't do clubs anymore.
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I only do theaters, and I'm the only act.
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I don't even have an opening act.
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Because in clubs, when you're a girl, you're still so much in the minority that you're following the guy who's like, my wife, the old ball and chain.
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I don't even want to have sex with her anymore.
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Now Kathy Griffin.
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And I'm like, have you guys seen Britney Spears?
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And they look at me like I'm from the moon.
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And then the guy after me is like, what was that about?
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Anyway, women, you can't shoot them, you can't kill them.
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You know, like, so I just said, no, I gotta do my own thing.
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Yeah, that was back in my uh print journalism days.
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So I did a phone interview with you, but it's so nice to see you face to face.
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And yeah, I go all the way back to Hot Cup of Talk.
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So we're gonna cover all your decades.
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Hot Cup.
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I burned it on a CD back in the day.
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You're gonna send me that CD, my friend.
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You're gonna make a copy on a hard drive or whatever you kids do.
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And I'm dying to see that hot cup of talk.
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It's also on YouTube now.
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I love it.
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What?
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Isn't it on YouTube, Hot Cup of Talk?
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I think it is.
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I don't know.
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I'm too famous to check my own YouTube.
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I got I got 35 years of work behind me.
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I don't have the time.
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We're gonna start off a little deep because I know you're politically minded as everyone should be, but I've also seen you live at the Kennedy Center.
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Beautiful venue, historic venue.
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It's been taken over.
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I know, and I've seen you, I think, probably twice there.
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It's been taken over.
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It's shut down for the time being.
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What's your whole take on that?
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Good.
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It shouldn't, if it's not the Kennedy Center, it shouldn't exist.
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And when he's out, they'll rebuild it, they'll probably even refurbish it.
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All that money is gonna be shifted around.
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There's not gonna be doge, there's not gonna be ice.
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And, you know, if the Dems take control November 3rd in the midterms of the House and the Senate, we need both because they have the oval, but he'll just be a full lame duck.
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And then when we win the presidential and we maintain the House and the Senate, which is what the Republicans have now, they have the trifecta.
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When we get the trifecta, we're gonna have to spend most of our time undoing the policies that this illegitimate cabinet has put into place.
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And I do believe they are illegitimate.
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ICE is an illegitimate agency.
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You can't be a government agency if Congress didn't vote for you.
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So they're just illegit.
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So I think we're gonna be getting rid of those things first, but there's a lot of rebuilding to do, and there's also a lot of um kind of blowing up institutions in a good way to do and starting over with a more modern approach.
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Well, fortunately, we have many venues here, and you are coming back to DC to play the Warner's Theater, another historical.
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It's a beautiful venue.
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It's been a staple on your tour coming to DC.
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Well, how does it feel to play the nation's capital now compared to years prior?
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First of all, I wasn't allowed in 2017.
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So when I got in trouble in 2017 for the famous Trump decapitated head photo held up by Kathy Griffin, which I thought everybody would think was a riot and totally have my back.
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And instead I was blacklisted.
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Um, did you know that on the board of directors for the Kennedy Center automatically is Floatus?
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So I was not allowed to play the Kennedy Center when Trump was in office, and now I wouldn't because it's not the Kennedy Center, but people don't know that.
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And so um I love playing DC because I haven't been protested there in a while, which is a good thing.
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I used to get a lot of MAGA protests, but that picture is now nine years old, and yet it is the thing that I am most known for.
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Jane Fonda told me it would be on my tombstone, and she's right.
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And so I embrace it.
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I refer to it.
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I don't tell the whole story anymore, but I refer to it, and I get a very, very different reaction.
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I mean, Governor Gavin Newsom of California, I did a podcast like this with him on camera, and he said, if you released that picture today, you'd be a hero.
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A governor said that to me.
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I was on the no fly list.
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I have a whole section.
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We're gonna talk about it, Kathy.
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First, I want to go back to your early days.
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We started, we started with some hard topics.
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Let's go back to the 90s.
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I remember it was like you and Janine Garoflo and Margaret Show.
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Were you playing like it was like alternative comedy?
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And weren't you doing like dollar dollar shows?
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Yeah, I started an idea because I knew I couldn't do well in standard comedy clubs.
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It just wasn't my vibe and it wasn't the audience's vibe.
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But I knew I could tell a story and hold people's attention, even if it was very tangential and went all over the map, but I would always circle back somehow, and that's kind of my style.
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And so I uh found a loophole in the constitutions of the Groundlings Theater, which is still an amazing theater on Melrose in Los Angeles, an improv theater like Second City.
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And um, I would get them to give me the theater if there were five Tuesdays in one month and they didn't have any other events going on those Tuesdays, they gave me the theater for free.
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So I talked to Gorofalo, and she was a storyteller like me, and we had a couple other storytellers, and I had every show three women and one man.
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And um I we were so convinced that nobody would come to see us that Garaffalo and I decided to charge a dollar, and I had an egg timer, like a click, click, click, click egg timer.
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So the entire show was only an hour.
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So each comedian got 15 minutes, and when that bell went off, they had to stop whatever they were talking about and go, and now Jean Garofalo, and now Lisa Coudreau, and now Quentin Tarantino, or whoever was the next person going up.
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It was a riot and we did it for years.
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What do you miss most about stand up in the 90s versus the early 2000s and today?
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Not really anything, and I'll tell you why.
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I'm not one of those comics, even though I'm 65, I'm not one of those comics that bitches about the woke mind virus.
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When I look at some of my old old specials, which I don't, I would probably be appalled at some of the language I used or the things I said that we just don't say anymore because we know better or I know better.
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And so I want to evolve along with the times.
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That certainly obviously doesn't mean I'm politically correct.
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I mean, I tried to decapitate the president, and so I still have my edge, which was just satire.
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Just satire if anybody's paying attention.
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Anyway, um, I want to be uh in tune with what's going on in the culture.
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I don't want to be tone-deaf.
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So sometimes I'll be doing a show and I'll stop and I'll do a rant about ice for a few minutes and then I'll go back to the funny and I inject the politics in through humor.
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And every so often I'll stop and just have a serious moment, and the show ebbs and flows like that.
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But I always get my political points in somehow.
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But in DC, at The Warner, every one of you guys gets every single reference.
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I mean, I can name a congressman from 20 years ago.
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We can talk about Josh Hawley being gay, and you guys still get every single reference.
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I love it.
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With smart crowds, and it's a tough, tough place to live right now.
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We're resilient, so we're ready for some laughs.
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Yeah.
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Good, good.
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Who is in your comedy community right now?
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Because you just mentioned you don't really go to clubs, so you're probably not stopping in the in the comedy store.
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I go on the road myself.
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I don't have a comedy community.
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You know what's terrible?
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I don't I don't know the other comics.
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Like all these other comics.
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I did a podcast of this guy named Bert Kreischer.
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I never even heard of him.
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He's huge.
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He plays stadiums, he had five bodyguards with him.
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I'm like, hi, are you in the mafia?
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And so I did his podcast with my friend Lunel, and it rated really well.
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And I had a blast, and he thought it was funny that I didn't know him because of course we met like 15 years ago when he was a baby comic and we had a conversation, and he said he always remembered it because I was very encouraging, and I'm this is me the whole time.
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Oh yes, that was I remember that very well.
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I didn't, I'm the worst, I'm the worst.
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So you're pretty independent.
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I mean, I've had several comedians on this show who have and I write all my own shit, so don't fall for those comics that can't even write their own material.
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If you can't write your own material, if you need your bros off stage helping you or working during the week, then you shouldn't be a comic.
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You're not a real comic, you're a monologist, you're reading a pre-written monology.
00:16:00.080 --> 00:16:04.960
Now, this is a little controversial take, and some comedians will disagree with me.
00:16:05.120 --> 00:16:16.480
And I think if you're a talk show host like Jimmy Kimmel, that's different because you have so much volume, you've got to get timely jokes every single day, and they have to be in a joke fashion.
00:16:16.720 --> 00:16:22.559
But when you go see a comic, you know, try to make sure you're going to see one that actually writes their own shit.
00:16:22.720 --> 00:16:24.799
And that's how I don't get stolen from.
00:16:24.960 --> 00:16:28.879
Nobody steals my stuff because it's stuff that only happened to me.
00:16:28.960 --> 00:16:29.600
It's all true.
00:16:29.840 --> 00:16:31.279
Yeah, you have a very singular voice.
00:16:31.440 --> 00:16:40.879
I've spoken with many comics who who say that you're one of their biggest inspirations, like Lisa Traeger and uh Heather Shaw and others on my show, but you're not immersed in the comedy community right now.
00:16:40.960 --> 00:16:42.320
You kind of feel outside of it.
00:16:42.559 --> 00:16:51.360
I hang out a lot with Lunel, I hang out a lot with Otsko, Lorraine Newman, original SNL cast member legend.
00:16:51.600 --> 00:16:54.320
Margaret Cho and I have been friends for decades.
00:16:54.559 --> 00:17:00.159
Started out in alternative comedy, Mo Collins from Mad TV and Parks and Wreck.
00:17:00.320 --> 00:17:02.639
So I do have a lot of Jane Lynch.
00:17:02.799 --> 00:17:07.440
I have a lot of comedy girlfriends, but I don't do the road with anybody.
00:17:07.680 --> 00:17:17.279
So I often don't see their act and they don't see my act because we uh Wanda Sykes and I had a show on the same night in the same city.
00:17:17.440 --> 00:17:19.920
So we just emailed each other like, good luck.
00:17:20.000 --> 00:17:22.559
I wish I could go see you, vice versa, kill it.
00:17:22.880 --> 00:17:24.160
Yeah, mutual respect.
00:17:24.400 --> 00:17:25.200
Oh, I love her.
00:17:25.359 --> 00:17:26.559
She's one of the greats, man.
00:17:26.640 --> 00:17:27.519
She's one of the greats.
00:17:27.680 --> 00:17:40.559
I remember interviewing you a couple decades ago in print journalism and you when you were playing the DC improv and you were talking about we, you know, we always talk about women in comedy, but how it's you look at any venue website, it's 10 to 1, 10 men, one woman.
00:17:40.720 --> 00:17:42.079
It really hasn't budged much.
00:17:42.160 --> 00:17:43.119
What do you make of that?
00:17:43.440 --> 00:17:44.240
Thank you.
00:17:44.480 --> 00:17:45.759
Thank you, Jesus.
00:17:46.000 --> 00:17:47.119
I'm not religious.
00:17:47.359 --> 00:17:51.759
Thank you for saying that because I'm so tired of bros denying that.
00:17:52.000 --> 00:17:59.279
Call your comedy club, especially if you're not in a big blue city, and ask them for the Friday or Saturday lineup.
00:17:59.359 --> 00:18:02.160
And it's gonna be 10 dudes and one chick.
00:18:02.400 --> 00:18:13.440
And she is gonna be the cheese who stands alone because that testosterone energy, that Roganization of America has taken over.
00:18:14.000 --> 00:18:26.319
And, you know, we're in a world where people idolize the rapist Tate brothers, and female comedians are still uh an anomaly.
00:18:26.480 --> 00:18:30.160
And I'll tell you something that is truly honest.
00:18:30.400 --> 00:18:34.799
Do you know what my biggest obstacle is to selling tickets in my tour?
00:18:35.200 --> 00:18:36.319
That I'm a woman.
00:18:36.559 --> 00:18:53.839
Because I've asked all my straight bro friends, okay, if you bros were going to like Vegas for the weekend or whatever, and you were going for drinks, and then you wanted to go see a big star comedian, would you ever go see Chelsea Handler?
00:18:54.720 --> 00:18:59.279
Every one of them was like, to be honest, I go, be honest.
00:18:59.440 --> 00:19:04.160
And they all said, No, we'd probably go see Chappelle or Chris Rock.
00:19:04.319 --> 00:19:08.319
And they just even if they're I saw her in Vegas last year.
00:19:08.480 --> 00:19:09.279
I love Chelsea.
00:19:09.519 --> 00:19:11.839
I love Chelsea and they like Chelsea.
00:19:11.920 --> 00:19:19.920
And many of them that I asked said, I love Chelsea Hamler, but I admit, if I'm with the guys and we're going out, we're going to Chappelle.
00:19:20.160 --> 00:19:22.720
And Chappelle's the goat, he's amazing.
00:19:22.960 --> 00:19:29.119
But just being a female, I'm still trying to convince people we're we're still as funny as guys.
00:19:29.519 --> 00:19:36.720
What do you make of you just mentioned, Rogan, the new era of podcast bros kind of influencing elections and getting involved in politics?
00:19:36.960 --> 00:19:39.519
I think it's disgusting because Joe's an idiot.
00:19:39.680 --> 00:19:42.319
He's a middler, he was never even good enough to headline.
00:19:42.640 --> 00:19:44.319
Now he can because he's so famous.
00:19:44.559 --> 00:19:51.519
He's got a$200 million a year deal, and all he does is open a laptop and go, I'm just asking questions.
00:19:51.759 --> 00:19:53.200
Do vaccines work?
00:19:53.759 --> 00:20:00.000
And I read the Kamala Harris book 107 days, and I went to see her speak about it.
00:20:00.240 --> 00:20:05.839
And she tells in detail about how it was actually Rogan who kept canceling on her.
00:20:06.079 --> 00:20:13.200
And she tried to do the show something like five times, and yet he gives Donald Trump three hours.
00:20:13.440 --> 00:20:16.480
So, yes, I'm not a fan of Joe's.
00:20:16.720 --> 00:20:22.240
Um, I do believe he believes I deserve a First Amendment right.
00:20:22.559 --> 00:20:24.480
So we have that in common.
00:20:24.640 --> 00:20:34.640
I think he thinks I took too hard of a hit for the Trump photo, and I think that's something I will always have in common with Joe is First Amendment stuff.
00:20:34.960 --> 00:20:37.759
But the fact is he's not very bright.
00:20:37.920 --> 00:21:02.319
He doesn't, he's not intellectually curious, and he's got the bro culture, and he's got these nut jobs like Jordan Peterson and, like I said, the Tate brothers, and Donald Trump and Theo Vaughn, and all these guys that are such misogynists that if that's all you're in taking, and I know some bros that only listen to Rogan as their news source.
00:21:02.640 --> 00:21:14.240
And I admit Joe is a very, very powerful figure in all parts of the culture because he has such a large and vast audience.
00:21:14.640 --> 00:21:15.680
Thank you for sharing that.
00:21:15.839 --> 00:21:17.119
We're gonna bounce around a little.
00:21:17.200 --> 00:21:24.160
You did mention Lisa Coudreau who you worked with in the groundlings, and she actually encouraged you to do more stand-up and storytelling as opposed to improv.
00:21:24.319 --> 00:21:27.119
You can sort of credit her to going out on your own, kind of.
00:21:27.279 --> 00:21:27.440
Yeah.
00:21:27.599 --> 00:21:32.960
I always ask, because it's one of my favorite show of all time, what did you make of the comeback and Lisa Coudreau and Valerie Cherish?
00:21:33.039 --> 00:21:35.839
Because it sort of relates to life on the D- List in a way.
00:21:36.160 --> 00:21:36.559
Sort of.
00:21:36.960 --> 00:21:40.079
They admitted it in an interview in the LA Times.
00:21:40.319 --> 00:21:47.839
Finally, somebody goes, Okay, you got the red wig, you she's D List, she's got the ups and downs, just like Kathy Griffin.
00:21:48.000 --> 00:21:51.039
My life is it a little bit based on Kathy Griffin?
00:21:51.200 --> 00:21:55.119
And then they were like, Oh, Kathy was definitely an influence.
00:21:55.359 --> 00:22:07.039
And so I'm very proud of that because I feel like even if I was like Little influence on a show that brilliant, and Lisa is brilliant as Valerie Cherish.
00:22:07.519 --> 00:22:10.559
Um, then I am nothing but honored.
00:22:10.640 --> 00:22:12.640
And Lisa is still a good friend.
00:22:12.799 --> 00:22:14.319
We still see each other.
00:22:14.480 --> 00:22:28.240
And yes, all those years ago, she came up to me and she said, I think you're good at doing characters, but I think you're funniest as yourself talking about your life and the take you have on the world.
00:22:28.480 --> 00:22:33.599
And then Janine Garofalo said the same thing, and then I was off and running.
00:22:33.759 --> 00:22:47.039
And so, you know, I got on a TV show, so I started being able to headline clubs, and then I had enough of that heckling nonsense, and I'll never play a club again.
00:22:47.279 --> 00:22:57.359
And uh, it's just a different environment, it's not for me, and I'm not for it, and I'm too old for clubs, and I don't want to be bothered by the drunks and stuff like that.
00:22:57.440 --> 00:22:59.200
I'm really strict in my shows.
00:22:59.359 --> 00:23:06.000
My ladies and gays are so well behaved, they know to shut the fuck up or they're getting bounced, and they don't get a warning.
00:23:06.240 --> 00:23:16.000
Bounce! But my hecklers are also loving, so instead of yelling like you suck, they're like, talk about share, bitch.
00:23:16.400 --> 00:23:20.720
So it's it's kind of a loving, it's an enthusiastic heckle.
00:23:20.960 --> 00:23:29.440
But um I'm sure it's much better to play a 2000th seat theater once and not, you know, two shows for 100 people and you know, five shows a weekend.
00:23:29.519 --> 00:23:32.079
So and you know, they don't all go well.
00:23:32.160 --> 00:23:41.200
You know, sometimes the audience is in the mood for a certain kind of vibe, and then I thought they were in the mood for more of a pop culture vibe.
00:23:41.359 --> 00:24:00.480
You know, when I'm in DC, thank God I know it's gonna be politics, politics, but also a lot of pop culture because as you know, DC people are secretly fascinated by everything from the Kardashians to the, you know, Sabrina Carpenter or what's going on with Madonna.
00:24:00.720 --> 00:24:02.640
So it'll be a nice combo platter.
00:24:02.880 --> 00:24:07.599
You mentioned that you don't re-watch your old specials, but do you ever rewatch My Life on the D-List?
00:24:07.759 --> 00:24:10.720
Six seasons, Emmy Awards, it's now streaming.
00:24:10.799 --> 00:24:12.400
How do you encapsulate that era?
00:24:12.559 --> 00:24:17.599
I think it's an amazing time capsule, and I'm very glad it's on Peacock.
00:24:17.680 --> 00:24:32.079
I don't get a penny, of course, but I'm glad people can rediscover it and rediscover my hilarious parents because, you know, what I'm proud of about my life on the D-List is it was really real.
00:24:32.720 --> 00:24:44.160
I would build my yearly schedule, purposely putting myself in gigs that were D-List or situations like, you know, I'm gonna date a backstreet boy.
00:24:44.319 --> 00:24:49.200
And I would call Nick Carter and I'd say, I'm begging you, will you go on a date with me?
00:24:49.359 --> 00:24:50.960
And he'd be like, What?
00:24:51.119 --> 00:24:52.319
What do you mean, a date?
00:24:52.480 --> 00:24:55.359
I'm like a date where at the end of the night you kiss me.
00:24:55.440 --> 00:24:56.799
And he's like, All right.
00:24:57.039 --> 00:25:03.599
And you know, it turned out to be a great episode, and I did all kinds of crazy things on there.
00:25:03.920 --> 00:25:08.000
Um, I got a public pap smear at a hotel lobby.
00:25:08.160 --> 00:25:17.839
They had curtains around me, but there was a whole group of women that I invited who were grown women that were too afraid to ever get a pelvic exam.
00:25:18.000 --> 00:25:24.000
And I wanted to show them that it's not painful, it's quick and easy, but it's essential.
00:25:24.319 --> 00:25:26.559
So I did it in a bikini.
00:25:26.720 --> 00:25:32.640
I covered my whole body with uh early 2000s very dark spray tan.
00:25:32.880 --> 00:25:50.880
I looked ridiculous, spread my legs, put my feet in the stirrups in heels that were this high, Lou Batons or whatever, and just made a joke out of the whole thing while I got an actual pelvic exam in real time holding the microphone.
00:25:51.200 --> 00:25:53.599
It was a groundbreaking show, and yeah, deserve those Emmys.
00:25:53.759 --> 00:25:56.240
And you also showcased divorce separation on the show.
00:25:58.480 --> 00:25:59.839
That was hard.
00:26:00.319 --> 00:26:01.039
But you know what?
00:26:01.119 --> 00:26:03.599
I was up for doing the same with my act.
00:26:03.759 --> 00:26:09.279
Like I said, if I do a rant about ice, I I spoke at Alex Predi's memorial.
00:26:09.440 --> 00:26:18.160
I played the Twin Cities right after the murders of Renee Good and Alex Predi, and they still have a beautiful vigil of Mr.
00:26:18.240 --> 00:26:20.799
George Floyd, which I think is essential.
00:26:21.039 --> 00:26:47.920
And it was wild to play to an audience in Minneapolis at the height of the ice brutalizations and murders when I knew many of the people sitting in those seats at my show, my little show, had not left their homes in maybe weeks, or were sheltering undocumented folks, or going to the grocery store and using their whistles.
00:26:48.079 --> 00:26:49.440
Everybody gave me whistles.
00:26:49.519 --> 00:26:52.559
I still have my whistles with me in my purse everywhere I go.
00:26:52.720 --> 00:27:04.480
And I think Minneapolis was a great model for how the rest of the country should act when the shit goes down with these concentration camps because they're not just building them for nothing.
00:27:04.640 --> 00:27:06.720
And the same with the data centers.
00:27:06.880 --> 00:27:15.039
So I think that the revolution is not going to happen online because the social media company owners are Nazis.
00:27:15.200 --> 00:27:18.480
And so they're to they don't want you to know what's really happening.
00:27:18.720 --> 00:27:20.240
I'm very suppressed.
00:27:20.400 --> 00:27:23.359
I'm very active on threads and Instagram.
00:27:23.680 --> 00:27:29.839
TikTok, not so much, since uh I think David Ellison and Larry Ellison bought it, those criminals.
00:27:30.079 --> 00:27:33.200
And of course, I'm off shitter with Elon.
00:27:33.519 --> 00:27:40.079
Um, but I do hate that Zuckerberg owns Meta, which is Facebook, Instagram, and Threads.
00:27:40.480 --> 00:27:43.759
And he shadow bans me or whatever they call it.
00:27:44.000 --> 00:27:47.119
So half my feed is people going, where have you been, girl?
00:27:47.279 --> 00:27:56.799
And I'm like, I'm here, I post every day because it's sort of the closest thing to old school Twitter before Elon ruined it.
00:27:57.119 --> 00:28:02.559
And that's still how I have to promote shows on social media, whether I like it or not.
00:28:03.279 --> 00:28:04.640
Thank you for sharing that.
00:28:04.960 --> 00:28:09.119
You are in the Guinness Book of World Records for breaking the number of comedy specials.
00:28:09.200 --> 00:28:09.759
How many is it?
00:28:10.000 --> 00:28:10.880
21.
00:28:11.359 --> 00:28:16.960
I just re-watched your latest special this morning, My Life on the PTSD list on YouTube, a two-hour special.
00:28:17.119 --> 00:28:21.359
Is it true after all this success, record breaking, no streamers bought it?
00:28:21.599 --> 00:28:22.880
Nobody will touch me.
00:28:22.960 --> 00:28:24.799
I'm still too controversial.
00:28:24.960 --> 00:28:26.720
And they say it to my face.
00:28:26.960 --> 00:28:32.480
Like one big network said to me, You're an earner, which is my highest compliment.
00:28:32.640 --> 00:28:33.759
You earn money.
00:28:33.920 --> 00:28:41.119
You earn money for us, you earn money for companies, you cause buzz, you're constantly in the press.
00:28:41.279 --> 00:28:44.079
I mean the tabloid press, but the press.
00:28:44.400 --> 00:28:52.799
And you are a name that everybody knows, and you're very polarizing and you're divisive, but that's why people tune in.
00:28:52.960 --> 00:28:59.119
However, we still have Midwesterners that voted for Trump and they will never forgive you.
00:28:59.359 --> 00:29:01.680
So I've had several check signers.
00:29:01.839 --> 00:29:03.279
I don't call them buyers.
00:29:03.440 --> 00:29:07.920
I only go to the highest ones because the lower level ones always love me.
00:29:08.000 --> 00:29:13.039
But then the highest level one is like, you know, remember Jeff Zucker, that piece of shit?
00:29:13.279 --> 00:29:19.920
Some old white middle-aged guy having an affair on the side from the wife, not doing his job.
00:29:20.160 --> 00:29:33.039
And yet he rejected me just like everybody else after I had done so many specials for Bravo that finally with this latest special, it was a long story.
00:29:33.200 --> 00:29:41.359
I had a lot to talk about because I had not been on stage for seven or eight years, and I lost my mind.
00:29:41.519 --> 00:29:47.440
And I needed to tell the arc of that story, and I needed to take two hours to do it.
00:29:47.599 --> 00:29:51.519
So that's another reason it didn't sell, that it's that's on me.
00:29:51.839 --> 00:30:03.680
But I also didn't have one of these fucking yokel network executives, David Zaslov, or one of these guys, saying, You can say this, you can't say this, you can't say this about Trump.
00:30:03.839 --> 00:30:05.200
And that's how I work now.
00:30:05.279 --> 00:30:07.039
I am fully independent.
00:30:07.279 --> 00:30:11.440
You're not gonna probably ever see me on TV or a streamer or a movie again.
00:30:11.680 --> 00:30:14.400
Well, that's why you have this excellent YouTube show, Talk Your Head Off.
00:30:14.559 --> 00:30:16.160
So there's no notes being passed along.
00:30:16.240 --> 00:30:25.759
I just think it's I mean, there's a lot of freedom in that, but everything that you've done, and you see, like we talk about the prod podcast pros, how much they're getting paid for their specials, it's it's it's not right.
00:30:25.839 --> 00:30:26.559
It's not right.
00:30:26.799 --> 00:30:29.599
It's sexist! That's what it is.
00:30:29.920 --> 00:30:37.599
If I was a dude who talked about how women are ugly pieces of fat shit, then I'd be getting a hundred million bucks a year.
00:30:37.920 --> 00:30:43.359
The special deals with your complex PTSD resulting from that 2017 photo, nearly a decade.
00:30:43.440 --> 00:30:44.720
I'm gonna encapsulate it all.
00:30:44.799 --> 00:30:50.400
So you're on the no-fly list, FBI uh watch list, uh the uh terrorist watch list.
00:30:51.920 --> 00:30:55.359
The Interpol, which is the international no-fly list.
00:30:55.839 --> 00:30:56.559
Ridiculous.
00:30:56.720 --> 00:31:01.279
You had cancer, you had a divorce, you were addicted to pills, you had a suicide attempt.
00:31:01.599 --> 00:31:05.200
I was on a psych hold in the psych ward for three days.
00:31:05.359 --> 00:31:06.559
I'm legit crazy.
00:31:06.799 --> 00:31:09.200
You lost your mom, you couldn't tour, you're not sorry.
00:31:09.279 --> 00:31:10.480
You took back that apology.
00:31:10.799 --> 00:31:22.240
The apology was the only mistake I made, and I got very, very bad advice from two people who I thought were friends, and they said, go and apologize.
00:31:22.480 --> 00:31:35.200
And I was a wreck, and I was sobbing, and I was getting calls from members of Congress telling me my life was over, and some of the names of the people that called me would really shock you because it was heartbreaking.
00:31:35.440 --> 00:31:44.880
One time I just burst into tears and I had to hand the phone to somebody because I couldn't even keep listening to you've ruined the Democratic Party.
00:31:45.119 --> 00:31:51.759
American troops are gonna be beheaded in your name, they're gonna make videos, you're gonna be the face of ISIS.
00:31:52.079 --> 00:31:54.960
ISIS is gonna use you to recruit people.
00:31:55.200 --> 00:31:56.799
None of that happened.
00:31:56.960 --> 00:31:58.799
I'm a D-List comedian.
00:31:58.960 --> 00:32:00.160
Come on, get a clue.
00:32:00.319 --> 00:32:02.960
You think ISIS is watching my life on the D list?
00:32:03.680 --> 00:32:13.680
So everybody bought into that narrative, which I found out through my Freedom of Information Act, my FOIA, all came from the Oval Office.
00:32:13.920 --> 00:32:14.480
All came.
00:32:14.640 --> 00:32:16.799
It was Kushner, it was Don Jr.
00:32:17.039 --> 00:32:25.519
It was Dan Scavino, it was Donald Trump, it was probably Ty Cobb and the other lawyers that were working personally for Trump.
00:32:25.759 --> 00:32:27.839
Imagine coming from the Oval.
00:32:28.160 --> 00:32:30.240
That's worse than Nixon's list.
00:32:30.480 --> 00:32:34.079
And I've been audited every single year since.
00:32:34.400 --> 00:32:36.319
I remember that uh press conference.
00:32:36.400 --> 00:32:37.359
It was harrowing to watch.
00:32:37.440 --> 00:32:40.640
I felt uh clearly not in a good state.
00:32:40.720 --> 00:32:41.759
Yes, no, you're not in a shape.
00:32:42.160 --> 00:32:43.599
I was out of my mind.
00:32:43.920 --> 00:32:47.039
Do you feel vindicated now or does it feel, does it still sting?
00:32:47.279 --> 00:32:47.920
You know what?
00:32:48.079 --> 00:33:08.799
I feel kind of vindicated because now way more people come up to me and think I'm a freaking hero and think it was the greatest picture and tell me it's their screensaver on their phone than, you know, eight, seven, six, five, four years ago when people were still saying I went too far, blah, blah, blah.
00:33:09.039 --> 00:33:18.640
Like, I'll be going to like an oncology appointment in the hospital and I'll get in an elevator and I'll just hear a woman go, Good for you.
00:33:18.880 --> 00:33:23.119
I'm glad you took that picture in an elevator full of people.
00:33:23.359 --> 00:33:27.599
And then one time everybody else in the elevator went like this.
00:33:28.000 --> 00:33:29.599
I mean, that's a big change.
00:33:29.839 --> 00:33:36.960
That's a big change because the FBI was coming to my house like twice a week to tell me about credible death threats.
00:33:37.200 --> 00:33:40.240
Coming to my house, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang.
00:33:40.400 --> 00:33:41.759
You have to let us in.
00:33:41.920 --> 00:33:46.559
One time I answered, I had so many visits from the FBI about death threats.
00:33:46.720 --> 00:33:48.640
I answered in my fucking pajamas.
00:33:49.039 --> 00:33:50.480
And I go, now what?
00:33:50.640 --> 00:33:52.799
First of all, it was like cheers because I know them.
00:33:52.880 --> 00:33:55.680
I'm like, hi Norm, how are the kids?
00:33:56.079 --> 00:34:08.159
And they told me that there was a death threat on me for a live show that I had that night, which I was also taping for another independent special.
00:34:08.559 --> 00:34:13.760
And it was called Kathy Griffin, A Hell of a Story, which you can see on Amazon.
00:34:14.079 --> 00:34:15.039
That was my next note.
00:34:15.119 --> 00:34:16.079
I want people to watch this.
00:34:16.239 --> 00:34:16.800
It's on Amazon.
00:34:17.039 --> 00:34:20.079
I watched it, I rented it when it came out because it was like for purchase.
00:34:20.239 --> 00:34:23.119
But was that something you also couldn't get distribution on?
00:34:23.360 --> 00:34:23.920
Not at all.
00:34:24.079 --> 00:34:28.079
And yet it did so well at film festivals, it won awards.
00:34:28.239 --> 00:34:37.840
I did keynote speeches with the biggest names you've ever heard of from all walks of life, from academia, from famous people on and on.
00:34:38.239 --> 00:34:42.000
And everybody thought this movie will get picked up in a heartbeat.
00:34:42.159 --> 00:34:57.519
And not unlike Eugene Carroll, my good friend, who was raped by Donald Trump and prevailed against him in civil court twice and won a judgment of$88.3 million by two juries of her peers.
00:34:57.920 --> 00:35:02.880
She has a documentary called Ask Eegine.
00:35:03.039 --> 00:35:13.199
And it's been winning awards like crazy at all the big festivals, and not one distributor will pick it up because they're still scared of fat ass.
00:35:13.599 --> 00:35:15.039
Well, it's a harrowing documentary.
00:35:15.119 --> 00:35:16.719
I encourage everyone to watch it if they can.
00:35:16.880 --> 00:35:17.280
It's very wrong.
00:35:19.760 --> 00:35:21.760
And it was where I was at the moment.
00:35:21.920 --> 00:35:23.519
And it is a hell of a story.
00:35:23.679 --> 00:35:28.159
It's never happened like this in the history of the United States to a comic.
00:35:28.320 --> 00:35:34.000
Even Jane Fonda and Lenny Bruce were bothered, and Carlin, they were bothered by local PD.
00:35:34.159 --> 00:35:42.000
But I had the Attorney General of the United States and two agencies within the Department of Justice, the U.S.
00:35:42.159 --> 00:35:51.199
Attorney's Office ready to make an arrest, and the Secret Service investigating me for conspiracy to assassinate the president of the United States.
00:35:51.440 --> 00:35:56.079
Oh my gosh, Kathy, and we haven't even gotten to your addiction, divorce, or suicide attempt.
00:35:56.960 --> 00:36:00.320
Well, I I am I am happily divorced.
00:36:00.400 --> 00:36:01.920
I'm I'm finally over him.
00:36:02.000 --> 00:36:03.599
It's been two and a half years.
00:36:03.920 --> 00:36:06.800
You've been very candid about being heartbroken and very vulnerable.
00:36:08.079 --> 00:36:09.360
I get heartbroken.
00:36:09.679 --> 00:36:10.639
I've been divorced.
00:36:10.719 --> 00:36:11.840
It's it takes years.
00:36:12.000 --> 00:36:16.000
And I assume the cycle of grief, there's never one stage.
00:36:16.159 --> 00:36:19.679
You're constantly going between depression, bargaining, acceptance, right?
00:36:19.920 --> 00:36:22.000
And you have to you have to take actions.
00:36:22.079 --> 00:36:26.320
Like I reupholstered every piece of furniture in my house.
00:36:26.480 --> 00:36:36.639
I didn't buy anything new because I didn't need anything, but I just had everything reupholstered to be a little more quirky, a little more mid-century, uh, a little more kaffy.
00:36:36.960 --> 00:36:39.599
Because I was like, it was never his fucking house.
00:36:39.760 --> 00:36:43.440
I bought this house cash and he just lived here for free.
00:36:43.679 --> 00:36:50.480
And so one day he came to me and he goes, Well, my friend said that you can't say this is your house anymore.
00:36:50.559 --> 00:36:52.079
You have to say it's our house.
00:36:52.239 --> 00:36:53.440
And that was it.
00:36:53.679 --> 00:36:55.599
I was like, You don't fuck with my money.
00:36:55.679 --> 00:36:59.519
You can fuck with my heart, but you don't fuck with my business or my money.
00:36:59.679 --> 00:37:00.559
So that was it.
00:37:01.199 --> 00:37:06.480
If he had watched your first in divorce information about money, he would have learned.
00:37:07.519 --> 00:37:08.159
I know.
00:37:08.639 --> 00:37:11.840
But I'm still, I'm still, this is so corny.
00:37:12.239 --> 00:37:26.320
I still have hope that there's like a nice guy out there to just have coffee with in the morning and make love to and watch movies with and hold hands with, and that's that's what gets me.
00:37:26.480 --> 00:37:29.199
Not the money stuff and all that stuff.
00:37:29.360 --> 00:37:30.559
I already have that.
00:37:30.719 --> 00:37:36.239
I don't have the guy to sit in bed and share coffee with and laugh and tell stories.
00:37:36.320 --> 00:37:43.039
And did I mention make love and make love some more and get that cherry lube and use it?
00:37:43.280 --> 00:37:47.679
He's out there, and I know if people watch your YouTube show, you have dabbled into the app, so you'll find him.
00:37:47.760 --> 00:37:49.199
I'm glad that you still believe in love.
00:37:49.280 --> 00:37:49.519
Yes.
00:37:49.840 --> 00:37:57.679
I do, and what's funny is I uh the last guy I went out with was 10 years younger than me, and he's the oldest guy I ever went out with.
00:37:57.840 --> 00:38:05.360
So what's funny is guys that are 20 years younger than me always ask me out, but not guys my age.
00:38:05.599 --> 00:38:07.360
So I say go with it.
00:38:07.519 --> 00:38:08.960
What am I fighting it for?
00:38:09.119 --> 00:38:12.719
I don't need to be with some guy with a rascal and a walker yet.
00:38:12.800 --> 00:38:13.679
I'm not there yet.
00:38:13.840 --> 00:38:15.519
I work out two hours a day.
00:38:15.760 --> 00:38:21.599
So bring on the 45-year-olds, bring on the 46-year-olds, I can handle it.
00:38:21.840 --> 00:38:22.800
Good for you.
00:38:22.960 --> 00:38:30.320
I also want to touch on if you if people watch your special, they will get details on your addiction and your recovery and you've been sober for a long time now.
00:38:30.480 --> 00:38:38.639
But I also want people to know that if they read Jennifer Lewis's book, her second book, there's a beautiful story about your attempt and you went to her for help.
00:38:38.880 --> 00:38:43.920
And I want people just to know that because I don't think you talk about it much, but it really speaks to I think her character, and I want to do that.
00:38:44.079 --> 00:38:57.199
Yeah, and I she asked me if she could put it in the book, and I said, of course, because when I tried to take my life, I then um kicked everybody out of my house, and I was just alone and I just wanted to die.
00:38:57.679 --> 00:39:01.760
And, you know, of course, there was a part of me that didn't want to die.
00:39:02.000 --> 00:39:14.880
Um, and so I was like, who's somebody that I can really trust that I love dearly, that I know loves me, and hopefully I've been there for her, and I think she might actually do it.
00:39:15.039 --> 00:39:20.800
And I called Jen and I just started crying, and she said, Oh, baby, I'll be right over.
00:39:20.960 --> 00:39:25.840
And she came over and she spent the evening with me, and I said, Okay, okay, go home.
00:39:25.920 --> 00:39:26.880
You've had enough.
00:39:27.039 --> 00:39:29.360
I promise I'm not gonna do anything bad.
00:39:29.599 --> 00:39:30.320
I love you.
00:39:30.480 --> 00:39:40.400
You've cheered me up, we laughed, we ate, we cried, and then I get up the next morning, she freaking stayed in my house and slept on the couch.
00:39:40.559 --> 00:39:42.320
She was afraid to leave me alone.
00:39:43.840 --> 00:39:45.360
I know that's a friend.
00:39:45.679 --> 00:39:46.320
Dear friend.
00:39:46.719 --> 00:39:49.440
Also, a great story about Jane Fonda in your special.
00:39:49.519 --> 00:39:50.400
People watch that.
00:39:50.559 --> 00:39:52.719
Um, now I want to talk about cancer.
00:39:52.800 --> 00:39:54.800
Uh my mom has gone through two bouts of it.
00:39:54.960 --> 00:39:57.119
You are recovering, you've lost siblings to cancer.
00:39:57.360 --> 00:40:03.760
Can you just talk about how it has she had breast cancer, and then five years later she had endometrial cancer.
00:40:03.840 --> 00:40:06.960
So, and she is she's going through it and she's in the world.
00:40:07.119 --> 00:40:08.559
Is she doing chemo and radiation?
00:40:08.960 --> 00:40:10.079
She did, she did, she did.
00:40:10.159 --> 00:40:10.320
Yes.
00:40:10.559 --> 00:40:12.480
And how did she come out of that after?
00:40:12.800 --> 00:40:15.760
She she's a very uh positive, optimistic person.
00:40:15.920 --> 00:40:24.480
She keeps her hope and she just sort of compartmentalizes and does what she needs to do and sort of just keeps keeps busy and doesn't get she doesn't want to get down about it.
00:40:24.559 --> 00:40:31.679
She's I think it the first bout sort of sort of rechanged her perspective, and now she just you realize how resilient and R, and you just you you just have to go through it.
00:40:31.920 --> 00:40:33.360
How is her physical strength?
00:40:33.679 --> 00:40:34.480
She walks a lot.
00:40:34.559 --> 00:40:46.079
She I think the the it has taken a lot out of her, but I think she just learns new processes and and just tries to keep her bones, you know, strong, does weights, and she's you know, 66 now, so she's going through it.
00:40:46.159 --> 00:40:47.760
But walking is the best.
00:40:47.920 --> 00:40:49.039
That's what I do every day.
00:40:49.119 --> 00:40:50.960
I do a two-hour walk every day.
00:40:51.119 --> 00:40:57.039
I do Pilates three times a week, but the walk is what helps you up here and it helps you process.
00:40:57.199 --> 00:41:06.000
And I put my audiobook on speaker on my little walking bag, and so I go through my books or obviously music sometimes if I'm in the mood.
00:41:06.159 --> 00:41:08.239
But it's good to be outside.
00:41:08.400 --> 00:41:21.119
It's good to look up and see a tree or the sky, it's good to stop and pet a dog, and all that stuff helped me get through my cancer and have hope in the things that are around us no matter what.
00:41:21.280 --> 00:41:24.400
And it is the little things or the things you take for granted.
00:41:24.719 --> 00:41:30.320
And I became an I love you person after my left lung was removed.
00:41:30.480 --> 00:41:36.480
And now I'm one of those people that like, even if you know me for two seconds, I'm like, have a good day, love you.
00:41:36.639 --> 00:41:39.280
And people are like, I don't even know you, bitch.
00:41:39.440 --> 00:41:40.559
But I can't help it.
00:41:40.639 --> 00:41:46.880
It's like I have this second chance at life, and I feel it more than when I tried to take my life.
00:41:47.039 --> 00:41:49.840
When I tried to take my life, that was my choice.
00:41:50.000 --> 00:42:08.239
When I got the lung cancer and I never smoked, that was my lung coming out, and I knew it would be a very serious operation, and it was, and I was injured during my operation, and then I had three years of that to deal with, and that was very hard to stay about because I lost my voice.
00:42:08.480 --> 00:42:21.679
So I was the comedian who was blacklisted and also didn't have a voice, and yet all that stuff got me through it, just putting one foot in front of the other and also reach out to other cancer people because guess what?
00:42:21.920 --> 00:42:23.679
We like to laugh about it.
00:42:23.840 --> 00:42:36.800
I do cancer jokes in my show every show because for years it was verboden to even mention cancer because people thought you were making fun of people suffering from cancer.
00:42:36.960 --> 00:42:40.719
But now that I've had it, so many funny things have happened.
00:42:40.880 --> 00:42:48.639
Like I'll be at the oncologist's office and they'll be all uh Miss Gifford, Miss Kathy Lee Gifford, you're next.
00:42:48.800 --> 00:42:53.599
And I'll be all, you know, like they still think I'm Kathy Lee Gifford at the doctor's office.
00:42:53.679 --> 00:42:54.800
That's funny to me.
00:42:54.960 --> 00:43:05.360
And so I say to the audience, clap if you're a cancer person, and that means if you've even been touched by cancer in your life, and everybody claps.
00:43:05.519 --> 00:43:07.280
So if it's funny, it's fair game.
00:43:07.679 --> 00:43:10.480
Definitely changes your perspective and uh keeps you resilient.
00:43:10.559 --> 00:43:14.960
And I assume that that hope that you talked about, does that also go along with uh loss?
00:43:15.119 --> 00:43:17.039
Because you've lost family siblings to cancer.
00:43:17.119 --> 00:43:23.519
You've also lost your mom, your good friend Joan Rivers, Gloria Steinem, Gloria Vanderbilt, uh Dolly Parton, you even knew.
00:43:23.760 --> 00:43:24.000
Yeah.
00:43:24.320 --> 00:43:26.719
What practices we get older, you lose more people.
00:43:26.800 --> 00:43:28.880
Do you how are you handling all this heaviness?
00:43:29.199 --> 00:43:38.960
One thing that I have become very proactive about, uh, especially when I got sober, because sometimes you have to drop a couple friends if if they're using.
00:43:39.440 --> 00:43:47.679
Um, and sometimes people don't want to hang out with you if you're not drinking or doing drugs because you're boring or they think you're boring.
00:43:47.760 --> 00:43:51.440
And so I met a lot of people through AA.
00:43:51.760 --> 00:43:57.440
And then I met ancillary people through their friends, and I'm very bold.
00:43:57.679 --> 00:43:59.840
I will, like, you know, Lee McGowan.
00:44:00.400 --> 00:44:01.280
Politics chick.
00:44:01.440 --> 00:44:04.239
She's uh big online and she's brilliant.
00:44:04.480 --> 00:44:08.960
Um, I had her on my YouTube show last week and we had such a good time.
00:44:09.119 --> 00:44:13.679
I just sent her a text that night and I said, I really fell in love with you today.
00:44:13.840 --> 00:44:14.719
Can we be friends?
00:44:14.880 --> 00:44:15.679
IRL.
00:44:16.159 --> 00:44:18.960
Like, can we come to each other's houses off camera?
00:44:19.199 --> 00:44:21.679
And she was like, Yes, absolutely.
00:44:21.920 --> 00:44:27.840
So I just come right out and I encourage people, even if you're an introvert or shy, I know it's hard.
00:44:28.159 --> 00:44:39.360
But at this age, and if you've been through all kinds of stuff, sometimes you got to be proactive and just if you feel a little connection with somebody, just say, Do you want to go get a coffee sometime?
00:44:39.519 --> 00:44:41.679
Do you want to join a book club?
00:44:41.920 --> 00:44:44.320
Do you wanna go for a walk with me sometime?
00:44:44.559 --> 00:44:53.119
And that's how I've made a lot of the friends that I've had since the um Trump uh explosion.
00:44:54.079 --> 00:44:55.280
Thank you for sharing that.
00:44:55.519 --> 00:44:59.519
I I do want to touch on I loved both of your memoirs, bestsellers.
00:44:59.760 --> 00:45:00.320
Thank you.
00:45:00.559 --> 00:45:03.360
The past 10 years is talk about a hell of a story.
00:45:03.519 --> 00:45:04.480
Have you written it out?
00:45:04.559 --> 00:45:06.320
Uh have you pitched publishers this is?
00:45:06.800 --> 00:45:08.400
I can't give it away.
00:45:08.639 --> 00:45:10.880
All the publishers think I'm too hot.
00:45:11.039 --> 00:45:15.039
They're like, she's too hot, she's too polarizing, she's too controversial.
00:45:15.199 --> 00:45:17.599
I'm like, that's why it's gonna sell.
00:45:17.840 --> 00:45:21.840
I have a hell of a story just in the last 10 years.
00:45:22.000 --> 00:45:27.119
I can start with the Trump photo and end with this interview, and it's a hell of a story.
00:45:27.360 --> 00:45:28.000
I would read it.
00:45:28.079 --> 00:45:28.559
I would read it.
00:45:28.719 --> 00:45:31.119
Okay, I want to talk about your dogs.
00:45:31.199 --> 00:45:31.920
I have three dogs.
00:45:32.000 --> 00:45:33.280
I just lost one during the summer.
00:45:33.360 --> 00:45:36.320
It's the worst, but I would imagine they make a house a home.
00:45:36.400 --> 00:45:38.960
They are comforting and with complex PTSD.
00:45:39.039 --> 00:45:40.880
Can you just talk about what they mean to you?
00:45:41.199 --> 00:45:42.960
Love, love, love, love.
00:45:43.199 --> 00:45:48.880
Okay, so I know this is a cock block, but I sleep with all four of them in my bed.
00:45:49.199 --> 00:46:07.199
Now I got one of those extra Chloe Kardashian giant beds so I could fit a dude in there, but they're just they all are against me, and I feel their little ribs going in and out when they breathe, and I feel their little heartbeats, and I and they're all very, very protective.
00:46:07.360 --> 00:46:19.440
And you know, if somebody comes to the house, they go crazy, and I take them on my walks and they protect me, and and they're my buddies, they're my besties, and they're all different.
00:46:19.599 --> 00:46:24.960
I didn't realize dogs have such different personalities, but they are all so different.
00:46:25.119 --> 00:46:36.639
One is super frisky, one is very soulful, one is really skittish, one is just a baddie where you just she's not gonna really do anything to you, but I wouldn't mess with her.
00:46:36.880 --> 00:46:41.440
That provide such comfort and and connection, and yeah, they really help you through the hard times.
00:46:41.599 --> 00:46:41.760
Yeah.
00:46:42.159 --> 00:46:43.039
A couple other things.
00:46:43.199 --> 00:46:46.480
How are you maintaining hope in such heavy times that you have been through?
00:46:46.639 --> 00:46:49.440
And how are you maintaining hope as we head toward the midterms?
00:46:49.679 --> 00:47:05.039
It's a struggle because I see stories like the horrible Cornell 7 rape that happened two years ago that I didn't even hear about, and I don't see enough people getting fired up about it, including mostly men.
00:47:05.360 --> 00:47:16.000
So women are talking about it a little, but then when you see that the parents of the Cornell 7, the moms were sticking up for those fuckers, that does not give me hope.
00:47:16.079 --> 00:47:19.119
And it does not give me hope about feminism.
00:47:19.360 --> 00:47:22.639
And I don't know what these women are thinking.
00:47:22.880 --> 00:47:28.480
I I can't imagine going that far, even for your own kid.
00:47:28.800 --> 00:47:35.039
And anyone who wants to try to vilify the victim, the survivor, let me tell you something.
00:47:35.280 --> 00:47:40.880
I'm a woman, it is not our nature to want to be passed out and be raped by seven guys.
00:47:41.199 --> 00:47:48.800
Then we found out there was a chat room with hundreds of Cornell students talking about how to do this themselves.
00:47:49.039 --> 00:48:00.800
So there's now an investigation with the actual police department, and they've reopened it only because there's been a little public outcry outcry, but it should be the main story.
00:48:00.960 --> 00:48:05.360
It happens every day, and women don't come forward because of this.
00:48:05.760 --> 00:48:07.840
This is why we don't come forward.
00:48:08.079 --> 00:48:15.440
And I'm very, very upset about the midterms because I'm fearful that people think their vote doesn't matter.
00:48:15.679 --> 00:48:20.559
Many of my friends of color said, I just don't think my vote matters.
00:48:20.719 --> 00:48:22.400
I think it's going to be suppressed.
00:48:22.639 --> 00:48:27.599
And I'm saying I'll drive you there, I'll make a party of it, I'll do anything.
00:48:27.840 --> 00:48:35.280
We'll we'll go to the precinct and you can put it in the box outside the precinct, not the mailbox if you don't trust that.
00:48:35.519 --> 00:48:37.199
I'll stand outside the booth.
00:48:37.360 --> 00:48:44.800
I'll give you my Kathy Griffin's handy-dandy voter guide, where I go all the way down the ballot to the judges.
00:48:45.119 --> 00:48:48.639
And so November 3rd, November 3rd is it, people.
00:48:48.800 --> 00:48:51.440
And we need the House and the Senate.
00:48:51.679 --> 00:48:53.119
Vote blue no matter who.
00:48:53.360 --> 00:48:56.480
You don't have to be in love with the candidate, okay?
00:48:56.719 --> 00:49:07.840
Whether it's Gavin Newsom or John Osloff or Kamala Harris, you're not gonna fuck them, you're not gonna go on a date with them, you're not gonna marry them, they're not gonna come into your life and control your life.
00:49:08.159 --> 00:49:10.800
But for God's sake, they're all competent.
00:49:10.960 --> 00:49:17.360
We have a great bench, we have many great choices, and the same thing is happening with senators.
00:49:17.599 --> 00:49:23.280
You don't have to love every single thing about a Democrat, but think of the alternative.
00:49:23.440 --> 00:49:34.639
It's Donald Trump sitting in a diaper full of poo, having an affair with some poor chick who's crazier than I was in the psych ward, and that's saying something, and that's our future.
00:49:34.880 --> 00:49:38.159
And data centers, data centers, data centers.
00:49:38.480 --> 00:49:41.280
November 3rd, doing November 3rd, November 3rd.
00:49:41.519 --> 00:49:43.119
What does 2027 look like for you?
00:49:43.280 --> 00:49:44.239
More touring, I assume.
00:49:44.320 --> 00:49:46.320
Do you plan to release more independent specials?
00:49:46.880 --> 00:49:56.400
I have a residency that I'm starting, but here's the genius, because I am a genius when it comes to business, not Vegas because it's oversaturated.
00:49:56.719 --> 00:49:58.000
Palm Springs.
00:49:58.559 --> 00:49:59.199
Perfect.
00:49:59.440 --> 00:50:01.039
There's where my people are.
00:50:01.199 --> 00:50:04.079
Yes, and there's where my older liberals are.
00:50:04.239 --> 00:50:14.239
The gays are there, the house flippers are there, the people that have their vacation home but want something to do when they're on vacation, want a good laugh.
00:50:14.559 --> 00:50:16.239
And here's my hook.
00:50:16.400 --> 00:50:25.440
I'm only doing one show a month at the Plaza Theater, but every month it's gonna be a brand new 90 minutes of material.
00:50:25.679 --> 00:50:28.559
You should film all of them and break more records with your specials.
00:50:28.800 --> 00:50:29.599
Put them on YouTube.
00:50:30.079 --> 00:50:30.400
Okay.
00:50:32.159 --> 00:50:34.480
That's your idea, and I'm stealing it.
00:50:34.719 --> 00:50:35.039
Okay.
00:50:35.679 --> 00:50:39.679
We made it through, but the final question I ask all my guests, this show, The Tangle.
00:50:39.760 --> 00:50:42.960
What are you currently tangled in that you're loving, immersing yourself in reading?
00:50:43.039 --> 00:50:46.239
And then what is something frustrating you're working to get untangled from?
00:50:46.400 --> 00:50:48.079
I know you don't really watch anything anymore, right?
00:50:48.159 --> 00:50:48.400
You can't?
00:50:48.559 --> 00:50:48.960
You have to read.
00:50:49.280 --> 00:50:50.159
I only read now.
00:50:50.320 --> 00:50:52.960
So I'm reading a book now called The Gift of Fear.
00:50:53.199 --> 00:50:57.920
I read a book before that called 20 Years of the Prison System about Private Prisons.
00:50:58.079 --> 00:51:01.920
I I just read the Philip Roth American trilogy.
00:51:02.480 --> 00:51:09.519
Um and I know he was problematic, but I had never read anything except the plot to destroy America.
00:51:09.840 --> 00:51:13.760
And he was highly recommended by all my very literate friends.
00:51:14.000 --> 00:51:15.440
I love law books.
00:51:15.599 --> 00:51:18.960
I've been sued 10 times since the Trump photo.
00:51:19.119 --> 00:51:25.679
I'm actually getting an award from Harvard next week because I've been sued more than any comedian in history.
00:51:26.639 --> 00:51:27.599
Congratulations.
00:51:28.000 --> 00:51:30.000
So that would be that would be the tangle.
00:51:30.079 --> 00:51:30.480
The tangle.
00:51:30.719 --> 00:51:31.679
Yeah, that's the annoying tangle.
00:51:34.719 --> 00:51:40.639
They all take three to four years to go through the system because we have something called due process.
00:51:41.039 --> 00:51:46.159
And democracy is not perfect, but when voting, remember the alternative.
00:51:46.480 --> 00:51:47.199
Worse.
00:51:47.519 --> 00:51:48.719
Way worse.
00:51:48.960 --> 00:51:50.239
Fascism bad.
00:51:50.480 --> 00:51:52.400
Democracy way better.
00:51:53.119 --> 00:51:54.159
What a way to close.
00:51:54.320 --> 00:51:55.920
Kathy, this has been so special.
00:51:56.000 --> 00:51:57.360
I really appreciate your time.
00:51:57.519 --> 00:51:59.360
I'm glad we got to finally get together.
00:51:59.599 --> 00:52:00.320
This was beautiful.
00:52:00.400 --> 00:52:04.239
Yes, 21 years after I first met you at that in that basement venue.
00:52:04.880 --> 00:52:06.079
We survived!
00:52:06.320 --> 00:52:07.119
We survived.
00:52:07.199 --> 00:52:08.239
Thank you so much.
00:52:08.480 --> 00:52:09.199
Thank you, Hon.
00:52:11.519 --> 00:52:12.559
Thank you, Kathy.
00:52:12.639 --> 00:52:16.400
Make sure to catch her on tour across the United States on her new face new tour.
00:52:16.480 --> 00:52:20.480
Also check out her YouTube channel, her YouTube show, Talk Your Head Off.
00:52:20.559 --> 00:52:21.199
And you know what?
00:52:21.280 --> 00:52:23.599
Check out that 2019 documentary.
00:52:23.920 --> 00:52:26.719
Hell of a story, because my God, isn't it?
00:52:26.960 --> 00:52:27.679
Love her.
00:52:28.000 --> 00:52:29.920
Now, what song am I tangled in?
00:52:30.159 --> 00:52:34.960
I am seeing them tonight, and I already know I'm going to love it because I have loved them since day one.
00:52:35.199 --> 00:52:41.840
And if we're speaking of unapologetic figures in history, they will go down in history as Trailblazers' heroes.
00:52:41.920 --> 00:52:46.000
Of course, I'm speaking about the chicks, and I want to talk about their hit, Not Ready to Make Nice.
00:52:46.159 --> 00:52:47.920
One of my favorite songs of all time.
00:52:48.079 --> 00:52:51.679
It has one of the best bridges of all time, one of the most powerful bridges.
00:52:51.840 --> 00:52:54.079
It makes me choke up to this day when I hear it.
00:52:54.239 --> 00:52:57.519
Just the build-up, the notes she hits, Natalie Maynes.
00:52:57.920 --> 00:52:58.480
My gosh.
00:52:58.719 --> 00:53:00.880
They also have a documentary called Shut Up and Sing.
00:53:01.039 --> 00:53:02.159
I want you to go and watch it.
00:53:02.400 --> 00:53:06.239
What they went through 20 years ago is bullshit.
00:53:06.400 --> 00:53:08.320
And I hope they feel a bit vindicated.
00:53:08.400 --> 00:53:10.000
I think we owe them so much.
00:53:10.239 --> 00:53:12.079
A lot of people owe them apologies.
00:53:12.239 --> 00:53:13.840
This song will go down in history.
00:53:14.079 --> 00:53:15.360
Never gets old.
00:53:15.840 --> 00:53:17.039
Forgive sounds good.
00:53:17.199 --> 00:53:18.559
Forget, I'm not sure I could.
00:53:18.639 --> 00:53:21.199
They say time heals everything, but I'm still waiting.
00:53:21.440 --> 00:53:24.559
I'm still waiting to heal from all the shit that they were put through.
00:53:24.800 --> 00:53:30.480
I'm not ready to make nice, I'm not ready to back down, I'm still mad as hell, and I don't have time to go round and round and round.
00:53:30.639 --> 00:53:31.920
It's too late to make it right.
00:53:32.000 --> 00:53:36.079
I probably wouldn't if I could, because I'm mad as hell, can't bring myself to do what it is you think I should.
00:53:36.320 --> 00:53:51.840
Made my bed and I sleep like a baby with no regrets, and I don't mind saying it's a sad, sad story when a mother will teach her daughter that she oughta hate a perfect stranger, and how in the world can the words that I said send somebody so over the edge that they'd write me a letter saying that I better shut up and sing or my life will be over.
00:53:53.199 --> 00:53:55.360
It gives me goosebumps to this day.
00:53:55.519 --> 00:53:59.119
My gosh, and I'm just imagining, I'm just hearing her in my head.
00:53:59.519 --> 00:54:00.239
Haunting.
00:54:00.400 --> 00:54:00.800
I love them.
00:54:00.960 --> 00:54:01.840
They're heroes.
00:54:02.079 --> 00:54:03.840
Go listen to all of their songs.
00:54:04.000 --> 00:54:05.280
Go listen to Taking the Long Way.
00:54:05.360 --> 00:54:10.719
They also have a 2020th anniversary and edition that just came out and includes the demo of this song.
00:54:10.960 --> 00:54:12.239
I can't say enough.
00:54:12.559 --> 00:54:13.440
The chicks.
00:54:13.840 --> 00:54:15.199
They deserve so much better.
00:54:15.360 --> 00:54:21.679
I'm so glad that they're still selling at arenas and people giving them the respect they deserve, but they also get a lot of hate.
00:54:21.760 --> 00:54:23.519
And uh ask Beyonce.
00:54:23.760 --> 00:54:24.320
My god.
00:54:24.559 --> 00:54:32.159
Beyonce made a whole album after performing with them and getting shit on by those damn country music audience members.
00:54:32.400 --> 00:54:34.079
Not all, but many.
00:54:35.199 --> 00:54:37.039
A lot of talking going on.
00:54:37.599 --> 00:54:38.559
Alright, my friends.
00:54:38.639 --> 00:54:41.280
I'm gonna be back next week with one, maybe two episodes.
00:54:41.440 --> 00:54:43.360
One of them will be Murray Hill.
00:54:43.519 --> 00:54:43.920
Love him.
00:54:44.079 --> 00:54:44.960
He has a new book out.
00:54:45.039 --> 00:54:46.320
It's called Showbiz.
00:54:46.559 --> 00:54:48.320
Of course, you loved him on Somebody Somewhere.
00:54:48.400 --> 00:54:51.760
I've had Jeff Hiller and Tim Bagley on the show, and now Murray Hill.
00:54:51.840 --> 00:54:52.880
So stay tuned for that.
00:54:53.039 --> 00:54:55.920
I'll also have another housewife interview for you soon enough.
00:54:56.000 --> 00:54:59.840
But yeah, keep up with me, follow me, like, rate, and subscribe.
00:55:00.079 --> 00:55:01.440
I will see and speak with you soon.
00:55:01.519 --> 00:55:03.760
Until then, you take care of yourselves.
00:00:04.959 --> 00:00:06.959
Welcome to the Tango with Kyle Ridley.
00:00:07.040 --> 00:00:07.599
Happy October.
00:00:07.759 --> 00:00:09.359
Hope you're enjoying the month so far.
00:00:09.599 --> 00:00:13.119
I'm enjoying it as we head into this fall weather, which is my favorite.
00:00:13.279 --> 00:00:15.119
I hope you enjoyed last week's episodes.
00:00:15.199 --> 00:00:20.399
We gave you a double dose of Real Housewives of Salt Lake City's Heather Gay, also an acclaimed author.
00:00:20.480 --> 00:00:28.239
She has a new book out, Eternal Glow, and then also country musician LGBTQIA plus country musician Chris Hausman.
00:00:28.480 --> 00:00:31.440
Hope you checked out that interview and his new album, Dodge City.
00:00:31.519 --> 00:00:33.439
He's also heading back out on tour.
00:00:33.679 --> 00:00:42.159
As for this week, I am speaking with the legendary, iconic, controversial at times, but I'm always on her side, Kathy Griffin.
00:00:42.320 --> 00:00:49.119
I have been an admirer of hers for 30 years at this point, all the way back to the mid-90s when she was on Suddenly Susan.
00:00:49.280 --> 00:00:56.079
And uh I really fell in love with her with her Hot Cup of Talk comedy special, which I believe was HBO back in the day.
00:00:56.240 --> 00:00:59.600
Uh, and it's on YouTube, so I encourage you to go stream it.
00:00:59.679 --> 00:01:02.799
And then while you're at it, she has 20 plus other specials.
00:01:02.880 --> 00:01:04.799
She's a record breaker in that sense.
00:01:04.959 --> 00:01:11.040
Remember those days in the early 2000s when she would have multiple specials on Bravo every year and My Life on the D-List?
00:01:11.200 --> 00:01:12.959
Of course, we talk all about that era.
00:01:13.120 --> 00:01:17.359
We also talk about the past decade where she has just had a harrowing journey.
00:01:17.519 --> 00:01:21.200
It's hard to encapsulate it all in an hour conversation, but we did what we could.
00:01:21.280 --> 00:01:29.680
Of course, we talked about that controversial photo that is still making headlines and how she feels no regret over it at this point, no apologies.
00:01:29.920 --> 00:01:34.480
But of course, it resulted in and is still resulting in a lot of backlash.
00:01:34.719 --> 00:01:40.319
She was on the no-fly list, she was kept at many airports throughout the years, she could not tour for many years.
00:01:40.480 --> 00:01:44.560
She is finally back on her new face, new tour, and uh she's coming to DC.
00:01:44.719 --> 00:01:47.599
She's playing DC's Warner Theater October 17th.
00:01:47.760 --> 00:01:50.239
It's a funny conversation, but of course we get into some politics.
00:01:50.400 --> 00:01:56.640
We can't avoid that when speaking with Kathy Griffin, and she is a voice for so many, a defender of democracy.
00:01:56.799 --> 00:02:08.240
We also talk about her YouTube special, which you can catch right now, My Life on the PTSD list, because naturally she has struggled with PTSD in the wake of that controversial photo and everything she's been through since.
00:02:08.400 --> 00:02:12.479
She's gone through a divorce, she became addicted to pills in her 50s.
00:02:12.719 --> 00:02:15.360
She had an attempt to take her own life.
00:02:15.599 --> 00:02:17.039
It's a hell of a story.
00:02:17.199 --> 00:02:31.439
And you can also watch a hell of a story, that documentary that she released in 2019, which captures the moments after that photo and her comeback tour at that point, where she went on a global tour, and it's a haunting documentary, everything that she goes through.
00:02:31.520 --> 00:02:32.479
It's very vulnerable.
00:02:32.639 --> 00:02:39.360
She couldn't find distribution for it, and still can't find distribution for most of her work because, as she says, streamers don't want to touch her.
00:02:39.599 --> 00:02:42.400
She is considered, I guess, too controversial.
00:02:42.560 --> 00:02:48.879
Yet many podcast pros and people that are, in my opinion, controversial are making millions, hundreds of millions.
00:02:49.039 --> 00:02:50.800
Can't wait for you to hear this conversation.
00:02:51.039 --> 00:02:53.919
As far as what I've been tangled in, I was back on TV last week.
00:02:54.000 --> 00:02:59.360
I did one of those what-to-watch segments that I love to do with uh stuff that I am immersed in.
00:02:59.439 --> 00:03:02.400
And of course, I included a new show that I'm loving.
00:03:02.479 --> 00:03:03.280
It's called Youth.
00:03:03.360 --> 00:03:08.960
It's on HBO and it's with Sharon Horgan, who created Bad Sisters and Catastrophe, and she wrote on divorced.
00:03:09.039 --> 00:03:14.080
And I just think that she is a stellar actress, writer, one of a kind.
00:03:14.159 --> 00:03:15.840
And I really hope that you watch this show.
00:03:16.000 --> 00:03:24.719
It's about women in their 50s and sort of struggling with age and dating and having an empty nest and weird body issues that you're that you go through as you're getting older.
00:03:24.800 --> 00:03:26.319
So definitely give that a watch.
00:03:26.479 --> 00:03:31.759
I said it was kind of like what Angus like that hoped it could be, but fell short of.
00:03:32.000 --> 00:03:39.840
I, of course, am watching Real Housewives of Salt Lake City as we had Heather Gay on the show last week, and I am speaking with another one of those housewives tomorrow, so stay tuned for that.
00:03:40.000 --> 00:03:42.080
I'm also giving the new New York a try.
00:03:42.159 --> 00:03:45.520
I'm actually enjoying it, so we'll see how long I stick with it.
00:03:46.319 --> 00:03:47.759
And what else am I watching?
00:03:47.919 --> 00:03:51.680
Oh, I watched a new show on HBO called War, and I am enjoying it.
00:03:51.759 --> 00:03:57.439
It's a one of those weekly series, so I don't have to binge it all, but gave the first episode a try and we'll stick with it.
00:03:57.680 --> 00:04:02.319
I also have some exciting news to share, but for that I want you to keep on my Instagram.
00:04:02.400 --> 00:04:12.080
I will talk about it more next week on this show, but follow me at Kyle Ridley with an underscore because I am dropping little hints and we'll make that announcement later this week, hopefully.
00:04:12.319 --> 00:04:14.000
Of course, like, rate, subscribe.
00:04:14.159 --> 00:04:14.960
Love to drop that.
00:04:15.039 --> 00:04:15.599
And you know what?
00:04:15.680 --> 00:04:16.480
Please leave a comment.
00:04:16.639 --> 00:04:21.600
Can you leave a comment either on my Instagram or if you really could leave a rating on Apple?
00:04:21.759 --> 00:04:26.639
That really helps, and I haven't gotten many ratings or any in the last few weeks, so step up, my new listeners.
00:04:26.720 --> 00:04:27.120
I love you.
00:04:27.199 --> 00:04:28.240
I want to connect with you.
00:04:28.480 --> 00:04:29.439
Drop me a line.
00:04:29.600 --> 00:04:31.680
I'm nearing 100 episodes soon.
00:04:31.920 --> 00:04:32.879
Anything else happening?
00:04:33.040 --> 00:04:36.879
Well, I'm going back tomorrow to get my tattoo redone.
00:04:37.040 --> 00:04:40.160
I just wasn't happy with it, so I'll give you an update on that.
00:04:40.319 --> 00:04:44.319
Hopefully, if it's viewable, visible, that I'm happy with.
00:04:44.480 --> 00:04:49.199
And then tonight I'm gonna go see probably my all-time favorite group, The Chicks.
00:04:49.360 --> 00:04:55.360
And they are on their 20th anniversary tour of taking the long way, that classic album at one album of the year at the Grammys.
00:04:55.600 --> 00:04:56.399
This was the album.
00:04:56.639 --> 00:05:08.720
Post those bush comments that really just seem so minuscule at this point, and I hope they feel vindicated because they have been on the right side of history, and there are no apologies from them, and there shouldn't be.
00:05:08.879 --> 00:05:10.399
So I'm looking forward to seeing that show.
00:05:10.480 --> 00:05:15.680
They're doing the whole album, and then they come back for an encore of six or seven songs of some of their hits.
00:05:15.839 --> 00:05:19.600
So can't wait to see that, see them, and give you my report on that.
00:05:19.839 --> 00:05:23.519
But for now, let's get back to another no apologies personality.
00:05:23.680 --> 00:05:27.279
She was on my dream list when I launched this podcast, so this was such a pleasure.
00:05:27.439 --> 00:05:36.000
My 45-minute conversation with the stellar Grammy winning, Emmy winning, iconic, trailblazer, unapologetic.
00:05:36.240 --> 00:05:37.680
Kathy Griffin.
00:05:41.600 --> 00:05:43.040
You look gorgeous.
00:05:43.279 --> 00:05:45.519
I have full hair makeup on.
00:05:45.759 --> 00:05:47.839
I'm so thrilled to speak with you.
00:05:48.079 --> 00:05:49.519
It's my honor.
00:05:49.759 --> 00:05:54.079
When I started this podcast a little over a year ago, I made a dream list and you were right up there.
00:05:54.319 --> 00:05:58.000
Yeah, well, you've been DMing me that, which is so sweet.
00:05:58.160 --> 00:05:59.199
I am an OG fan.
00:05:59.279 --> 00:06:02.000
I want to show you a couple things before we get started so you're not nervous.
00:06:02.240 --> 00:06:02.560
Okay.
00:06:02.800 --> 00:06:04.160
Read them both, love them both.
00:06:04.480 --> 00:06:04.879
Both.
00:06:05.120 --> 00:06:09.519
We'll talk about both, but not only that, look at all these DVDs.
00:06:09.839 --> 00:06:11.600
Honey, the collection.
00:06:12.000 --> 00:06:12.879
The collection.
00:06:13.040 --> 00:06:14.480
And now I own them.
00:06:14.800 --> 00:06:15.279
I know.
00:06:15.360 --> 00:06:16.480
I'm really proud of that.
00:06:16.560 --> 00:06:17.600
I'm really excited about that.
00:06:17.680 --> 00:06:18.800
We'll talk all about that.
00:06:18.959 --> 00:06:25.360
Fun fact, I was at your very first show in DC when you were playing at the DC Improv in like the basement.
00:06:25.680 --> 00:06:27.600
The first year of my life on the D list was on.
00:06:28.079 --> 00:06:29.360
That was a rough improv.
00:06:29.519 --> 00:06:30.720
I remember that show too.
00:06:30.800 --> 00:06:32.399
That's set to this day.
00:06:32.639 --> 00:06:35.439
Because when you that's why I don't do clubs anymore.
00:06:35.680 --> 00:06:38.240
I only do theaters, and I'm the only act.
00:06:38.399 --> 00:06:40.160
I don't even have an opening act.
00:06:40.319 --> 00:06:49.680
Because in clubs, when you're a girl, you're still so much in the minority that you're following the guy who's like, my wife, the old ball and chain.
00:06:49.759 --> 00:06:52.000
I don't even want to have sex with her anymore.
00:06:52.160 --> 00:06:53.439
Now Kathy Griffin.
00:06:53.519 --> 00:06:55.920
And I'm like, have you guys seen Britney Spears?
00:06:56.000 --> 00:06:57.920
And they look at me like I'm from the moon.
00:06:58.079 --> 00:07:01.279
And then the guy after me is like, what was that about?
00:07:01.519 --> 00:07:04.639
Anyway, women, you can't shoot them, you can't kill them.
00:07:04.800 --> 00:07:08.079
You know, like, so I just said, no, I gotta do my own thing.
00:07:08.319 --> 00:07:10.879
Yeah, that was back in my uh print journalism days.
00:07:10.959 --> 00:07:14.079
So I did a phone interview with you, but it's so nice to see you face to face.
00:07:14.160 --> 00:07:16.879
And yeah, I go all the way back to Hot Cup of Talk.
00:07:16.959 --> 00:07:18.319
So we're gonna cover all your decades.
00:07:18.560 --> 00:07:19.199
Hot Cup.
00:07:19.680 --> 00:07:22.560
I burned it on a CD back in the day.
00:07:23.439 --> 00:07:25.680
You're gonna send me that CD, my friend.
00:07:25.839 --> 00:07:29.600
You're gonna make a copy on a hard drive or whatever you kids do.
00:07:29.680 --> 00:07:31.920
And I'm dying to see that hot cup of talk.
00:07:32.160 --> 00:07:33.439
It's also on YouTube now.
00:07:33.600 --> 00:07:34.319
I love it.
00:07:34.639 --> 00:07:35.040
What?
00:07:35.279 --> 00:07:36.959
Isn't it on YouTube, Hot Cup of Talk?
00:07:37.040 --> 00:07:37.439
I think it is.
00:07:37.680 --> 00:07:38.240
I don't know.
00:07:38.319 --> 00:07:40.800
I'm too famous to check my own YouTube.
00:07:41.759 --> 00:07:44.879
I got I got 35 years of work behind me.
00:07:45.040 --> 00:07:46.319
I don't have the time.
00:07:47.680 --> 00:07:54.560
We're gonna start off a little deep because I know you're politically minded as everyone should be, but I've also seen you live at the Kennedy Center.
00:07:54.720 --> 00:07:56.399
Beautiful venue, historic venue.
00:07:56.480 --> 00:07:57.199
It's been taken over.
00:07:58.639 --> 00:08:01.040
I know, and I've seen you, I think, probably twice there.
00:08:01.519 --> 00:08:02.240
It's been taken over.
00:08:02.319 --> 00:08:03.839
It's shut down for the time being.
00:08:04.079 --> 00:08:05.600
What's your whole take on that?
00:08:05.920 --> 00:08:06.319
Good.
00:08:06.480 --> 00:08:10.160
It shouldn't, if it's not the Kennedy Center, it shouldn't exist.
00:08:10.480 --> 00:08:14.879
And when he's out, they'll rebuild it, they'll probably even refurbish it.
00:08:15.040 --> 00:08:17.360
All that money is gonna be shifted around.
00:08:17.519 --> 00:08:20.879
There's not gonna be doge, there's not gonna be ice.
00:08:21.199 --> 00:08:35.440
And, you know, if the Dems take control November 3rd in the midterms of the House and the Senate, we need both because they have the oval, but he'll just be a full lame duck.
00:08:35.679 --> 00:08:44.720
And then when we win the presidential and we maintain the House and the Senate, which is what the Republicans have now, they have the trifecta.
00:08:44.879 --> 00:08:55.120
When we get the trifecta, we're gonna have to spend most of our time undoing the policies that this illegitimate cabinet has put into place.
00:08:55.200 --> 00:08:57.200
And I do believe they are illegitimate.
00:08:57.519 --> 00:08:59.679
ICE is an illegitimate agency.
00:08:59.840 --> 00:09:03.200
You can't be a government agency if Congress didn't vote for you.
00:09:03.360 --> 00:09:04.960
So they're just illegit.
00:09:05.120 --> 00:09:20.480
So I think we're gonna be getting rid of those things first, but there's a lot of rebuilding to do, and there's also a lot of um kind of blowing up institutions in a good way to do and starting over with a more modern approach.
00:09:20.799 --> 00:09:25.600
Well, fortunately, we have many venues here, and you are coming back to DC to play the Warner's Theater, another historical.
00:09:27.200 --> 00:09:28.240
It's a beautiful venue.
00:09:28.399 --> 00:09:30.480
It's been a staple on your tour coming to DC.
00:09:30.639 --> 00:09:34.720
Well, how does it feel to play the nation's capital now compared to years prior?
00:09:35.039 --> 00:09:38.000
First of all, I wasn't allowed in 2017.
00:09:38.480 --> 00:09:51.600
So when I got in trouble in 2017 for the famous Trump decapitated head photo held up by Kathy Griffin, which I thought everybody would think was a riot and totally have my back.
00:09:51.759 --> 00:09:54.000
And instead I was blacklisted.
00:09:54.159 --> 00:10:02.159
Um, did you know that on the board of directors for the Kennedy Center automatically is Floatus?
00:10:02.639 --> 00:10:12.799
So I was not allowed to play the Kennedy Center when Trump was in office, and now I wouldn't because it's not the Kennedy Center, but people don't know that.
00:10:12.960 --> 00:10:20.080
And so um I love playing DC because I haven't been protested there in a while, which is a good thing.
00:10:20.240 --> 00:10:28.559
I used to get a lot of MAGA protests, but that picture is now nine years old, and yet it is the thing that I am most known for.
00:10:28.879 --> 00:10:33.039
Jane Fonda told me it would be on my tombstone, and she's right.
00:10:33.279 --> 00:10:34.720
And so I embrace it.
00:10:34.879 --> 00:10:36.000
I refer to it.
00:10:36.159 --> 00:10:44.159
I don't tell the whole story anymore, but I refer to it, and I get a very, very different reaction.
00:10:44.320 --> 00:10:54.639
I mean, Governor Gavin Newsom of California, I did a podcast like this with him on camera, and he said, if you released that picture today, you'd be a hero.
00:10:54.879 --> 00:10:56.799
A governor said that to me.
00:10:57.039 --> 00:10:59.120
I was on the no fly list.
00:10:59.600 --> 00:11:00.639
I have a whole section.
00:11:00.720 --> 00:11:02.240
We're gonna talk about it, Kathy.
00:11:02.799 --> 00:11:04.559
First, I want to go back to your early days.
00:11:04.639 --> 00:11:06.399
We started, we started with some hard topics.
00:11:06.480 --> 00:11:07.840
Let's go back to the 90s.
00:11:08.000 --> 00:11:11.519
I remember it was like you and Janine Garoflo and Margaret Show.
00:11:11.600 --> 00:11:13.440
Were you playing like it was like alternative comedy?
00:11:13.519 --> 00:11:15.679
And weren't you doing like dollar dollar shows?
00:11:15.919 --> 00:11:21.440
Yeah, I started an idea because I knew I couldn't do well in standard comedy clubs.
00:11:21.600 --> 00:11:25.039
It just wasn't my vibe and it wasn't the audience's vibe.
00:11:25.279 --> 00:11:36.720
But I knew I could tell a story and hold people's attention, even if it was very tangential and went all over the map, but I would always circle back somehow, and that's kind of my style.
00:11:36.879 --> 00:11:50.879
And so I uh found a loophole in the constitutions of the Groundlings Theater, which is still an amazing theater on Melrose in Los Angeles, an improv theater like Second City.
00:11:51.279 --> 00:12:05.120
And um, I would get them to give me the theater if there were five Tuesdays in one month and they didn't have any other events going on those Tuesdays, they gave me the theater for free.
00:12:05.360 --> 00:12:15.360
So I talked to Gorofalo, and she was a storyteller like me, and we had a couple other storytellers, and I had every show three women and one man.
00:12:15.840 --> 00:12:28.879
And um I we were so convinced that nobody would come to see us that Garaffalo and I decided to charge a dollar, and I had an egg timer, like a click, click, click, click egg timer.
00:12:29.039 --> 00:12:31.679
So the entire show was only an hour.
00:12:31.840 --> 00:12:47.679
So each comedian got 15 minutes, and when that bell went off, they had to stop whatever they were talking about and go, and now Jean Garofalo, and now Lisa Coudreau, and now Quentin Tarantino, or whoever was the next person going up.
00:12:47.840 --> 00:12:50.159
It was a riot and we did it for years.
00:12:50.720 --> 00:12:54.799
What do you miss most about stand up in the 90s versus the early 2000s and today?
00:12:55.440 --> 00:12:57.759
Not really anything, and I'll tell you why.
00:12:58.000 --> 00:13:05.919
I'm not one of those comics, even though I'm 65, I'm not one of those comics that bitches about the woke mind virus.
00:13:06.159 --> 00:13:18.799
When I look at some of my old old specials, which I don't, I would probably be appalled at some of the language I used or the things I said that we just don't say anymore because we know better or I know better.
00:13:19.039 --> 00:13:22.799
And so I want to evolve along with the times.
00:13:22.960 --> 00:13:26.559
That certainly obviously doesn't mean I'm politically correct.
00:13:26.879 --> 00:13:33.600
I mean, I tried to decapitate the president, and so I still have my edge, which was just satire.
00:13:33.919 --> 00:13:36.320
Just satire if anybody's paying attention.
00:13:36.639 --> 00:13:43.279
Anyway, um, I want to be uh in tune with what's going on in the culture.
00:13:43.440 --> 00:13:44.960
I don't want to be tone-deaf.
00:13:45.759 --> 00:13:59.200
So sometimes I'll be doing a show and I'll stop and I'll do a rant about ice for a few minutes and then I'll go back to the funny and I inject the politics in through humor.
00:13:59.360 --> 00:14:05.519
And every so often I'll stop and just have a serious moment, and the show ebbs and flows like that.
00:14:05.679 --> 00:14:08.799
But I always get my political points in somehow.
00:14:09.039 --> 00:14:15.519
But in DC, at The Warner, every one of you guys gets every single reference.
00:14:15.759 --> 00:14:19.440
I mean, I can name a congressman from 20 years ago.
00:14:19.679 --> 00:14:24.720
We can talk about Josh Hawley being gay, and you guys still get every single reference.
00:14:24.879 --> 00:14:25.840
I love it.
00:14:26.320 --> 00:14:29.279
With smart crowds, and it's a tough, tough place to live right now.
00:14:29.360 --> 00:14:31.360
We're resilient, so we're ready for some laughs.
00:14:31.440 --> 00:14:31.600
Yeah.
00:14:31.840 --> 00:14:32.559
Good, good.
00:14:32.799 --> 00:14:34.799
Who is in your comedy community right now?
00:14:34.879 --> 00:14:39.120
Because you just mentioned you don't really go to clubs, so you're probably not stopping in the in the comedy store.
00:14:39.519 --> 00:14:40.639
I go on the road myself.
00:14:40.720 --> 00:14:42.399
I don't have a comedy community.
00:14:42.639 --> 00:14:44.000
You know what's terrible?
00:14:44.240 --> 00:14:46.799
I don't I don't know the other comics.
00:14:46.960 --> 00:14:48.720
Like all these other comics.
00:14:48.879 --> 00:14:52.320
I did a podcast of this guy named Bert Kreischer.
00:14:52.480 --> 00:14:53.600
I never even heard of him.
00:14:53.840 --> 00:14:54.720
He's huge.
00:14:55.039 --> 00:14:57.840
He plays stadiums, he had five bodyguards with him.
00:14:57.919 --> 00:15:00.879
I'm like, hi, are you in the mafia?
00:15:01.120 --> 00:15:06.720
And so I did his podcast with my friend Lunel, and it rated really well.
00:15:07.279 --> 00:15:26.240
And I had a blast, and he thought it was funny that I didn't know him because of course we met like 15 years ago when he was a baby comic and we had a conversation, and he said he always remembered it because I was very encouraging, and I'm this is me the whole time.
00:15:26.559 --> 00:15:32.399
Oh yes, that was I remember that very well.
00:15:32.720 --> 00:15:35.279
I didn't, I'm the worst, I'm the worst.
00:15:35.519 --> 00:15:36.799
So you're pretty independent.
00:15:36.960 --> 00:15:45.840
I mean, I've had several comedians on this show who have and I write all my own shit, so don't fall for those comics that can't even write their own material.
00:15:46.000 --> 00:15:54.799
If you can't write your own material, if you need your bros off stage helping you or working during the week, then you shouldn't be a comic.
00:15:54.879 --> 00:15:59.919
You're not a real comic, you're a monologist, you're reading a pre-written monology.
00:16:00.080 --> 00:16:04.960
Now, this is a little controversial take, and some comedians will disagree with me.
00:16:05.120 --> 00:16:16.480
And I think if you're a talk show host like Jimmy Kimmel, that's different because you have so much volume, you've got to get timely jokes every single day, and they have to be in a joke fashion.
00:16:16.720 --> 00:16:22.559
But when you go see a comic, you know, try to make sure you're going to see one that actually writes their own shit.
00:16:22.720 --> 00:16:24.799
And that's how I don't get stolen from.
00:16:24.960 --> 00:16:28.879
Nobody steals my stuff because it's stuff that only happened to me.
00:16:28.960 --> 00:16:29.600
It's all true.
00:16:29.840 --> 00:16:31.279
Yeah, you have a very singular voice.
00:16:31.440 --> 00:16:40.879
I've spoken with many comics who who say that you're one of their biggest inspirations, like Lisa Traeger and uh Heather Shaw and others on my show, but you're not immersed in the comedy community right now.
00:16:40.960 --> 00:16:42.320
You kind of feel outside of it.
00:16:42.559 --> 00:16:51.360
I hang out a lot with Lunel, I hang out a lot with Otsko, Lorraine Newman, original SNL cast member legend.
00:16:51.600 --> 00:16:54.320
Margaret Cho and I have been friends for decades.
00:16:54.559 --> 00:17:00.159
Started out in alternative comedy, Mo Collins from Mad TV and Parks and Wreck.
00:17:00.320 --> 00:17:02.639
So I do have a lot of Jane Lynch.
00:17:02.799 --> 00:17:07.440
I have a lot of comedy girlfriends, but I don't do the road with anybody.
00:17:07.680 --> 00:17:17.279
So I often don't see their act and they don't see my act because we uh Wanda Sykes and I had a show on the same night in the same city.
00:17:17.440 --> 00:17:19.920
So we just emailed each other like, good luck.
00:17:20.000 --> 00:17:22.559
I wish I could go see you, vice versa, kill it.
00:17:22.880 --> 00:17:24.160
Yeah, mutual respect.
00:17:24.400 --> 00:17:25.200
Oh, I love her.
00:17:25.359 --> 00:17:26.559
She's one of the greats, man.
00:17:26.640 --> 00:17:27.519
She's one of the greats.
00:17:27.680 --> 00:17:40.559
I remember interviewing you a couple decades ago in print journalism and you when you were playing the DC improv and you were talking about we, you know, we always talk about women in comedy, but how it's you look at any venue website, it's 10 to 1, 10 men, one woman.
00:17:40.720 --> 00:17:42.079
It really hasn't budged much.
00:17:42.160 --> 00:17:43.119
What do you make of that?
00:17:43.440 --> 00:17:44.240
Thank you.
00:17:44.480 --> 00:17:45.759
Thank you, Jesus.
00:17:46.000 --> 00:17:47.119
I'm not religious.
00:17:47.359 --> 00:17:51.759
Thank you for saying that because I'm so tired of bros denying that.
00:17:52.000 --> 00:17:59.279
Call your comedy club, especially if you're not in a big blue city, and ask them for the Friday or Saturday lineup.
00:17:59.359 --> 00:18:02.160
And it's gonna be 10 dudes and one chick.
00:18:02.400 --> 00:18:13.440
And she is gonna be the cheese who stands alone because that testosterone energy, that Roganization of America has taken over.
00:18:14.000 --> 00:18:26.319
And, you know, we're in a world where people idolize the rapist Tate brothers, and female comedians are still uh an anomaly.
00:18:26.480 --> 00:18:30.160
And I'll tell you something that is truly honest.
00:18:30.400 --> 00:18:34.799
Do you know what my biggest obstacle is to selling tickets in my tour?
00:18:35.200 --> 00:18:36.319
That I'm a woman.
00:18:36.559 --> 00:18:53.839
Because I've asked all my straight bro friends, okay, if you bros were going to like Vegas for the weekend or whatever, and you were going for drinks, and then you wanted to go see a big star comedian, would you ever go see Chelsea Handler?
00:18:54.720 --> 00:18:59.279
Every one of them was like, to be honest, I go, be honest.
00:18:59.440 --> 00:19:04.160
And they all said, No, we'd probably go see Chappelle or Chris Rock.
00:19:04.319 --> 00:19:08.319
And they just even if they're I saw her in Vegas last year.
00:19:08.480 --> 00:19:09.279
I love Chelsea.
00:19:09.519 --> 00:19:11.839
I love Chelsea and they like Chelsea.
00:19:11.920 --> 00:19:19.920
And many of them that I asked said, I love Chelsea Hamler, but I admit, if I'm with the guys and we're going out, we're going to Chappelle.
00:19:20.160 --> 00:19:22.720
And Chappelle's the goat, he's amazing.
00:19:22.960 --> 00:19:29.119
But just being a female, I'm still trying to convince people we're we're still as funny as guys.
00:19:29.519 --> 00:19:36.720
What do you make of you just mentioned, Rogan, the new era of podcast bros kind of influencing elections and getting involved in politics?
00:19:36.960 --> 00:19:39.519
I think it's disgusting because Joe's an idiot.
00:19:39.680 --> 00:19:42.319
He's a middler, he was never even good enough to headline.
00:19:42.640 --> 00:19:44.319
Now he can because he's so famous.
00:19:44.559 --> 00:19:51.519
He's got a$200 million a year deal, and all he does is open a laptop and go, I'm just asking questions.
00:19:51.759 --> 00:19:53.200
Do vaccines work?
00:19:53.759 --> 00:20:00.000
And I read the Kamala Harris book 107 days, and I went to see her speak about it.
00:20:00.240 --> 00:20:05.839
And she tells in detail about how it was actually Rogan who kept canceling on her.
00:20:06.079 --> 00:20:13.200
And she tried to do the show something like five times, and yet he gives Donald Trump three hours.
00:20:13.440 --> 00:20:16.480
So, yes, I'm not a fan of Joe's.
00:20:16.720 --> 00:20:22.240
Um, I do believe he believes I deserve a First Amendment right.
00:20:22.559 --> 00:20:24.480
So we have that in common.
00:20:24.640 --> 00:20:34.640
I think he thinks I took too hard of a hit for the Trump photo, and I think that's something I will always have in common with Joe is First Amendment stuff.
00:20:34.960 --> 00:20:37.759
But the fact is he's not very bright.
00:20:37.920 --> 00:21:02.319
He doesn't, he's not intellectually curious, and he's got the bro culture, and he's got these nut jobs like Jordan Peterson and, like I said, the Tate brothers, and Donald Trump and Theo Vaughn, and all these guys that are such misogynists that if that's all you're in taking, and I know some bros that only listen to Rogan as their news source.
00:21:02.640 --> 00:21:14.240
And I admit Joe is a very, very powerful figure in all parts of the culture because he has such a large and vast audience.
00:21:14.640 --> 00:21:15.680
Thank you for sharing that.
00:21:15.839 --> 00:21:17.119
We're gonna bounce around a little.
00:21:17.200 --> 00:21:24.160
You did mention Lisa Coudreau who you worked with in the groundlings, and she actually encouraged you to do more stand-up and storytelling as opposed to improv.
00:21:24.319 --> 00:21:27.119
You can sort of credit her to going out on your own, kind of.
00:21:27.279 --> 00:21:27.440
Yeah.
00:21:27.599 --> 00:21:32.960
I always ask, because it's one of my favorite show of all time, what did you make of the comeback and Lisa Coudreau and Valerie Cherish?
00:21:33.039 --> 00:21:35.839
Because it sort of relates to life on the D- List in a way.
00:21:36.160 --> 00:21:36.559
Sort of.
00:21:36.960 --> 00:21:40.079
They admitted it in an interview in the LA Times.
00:21:40.319 --> 00:21:47.839
Finally, somebody goes, Okay, you got the red wig, you she's D List, she's got the ups and downs, just like Kathy Griffin.
00:21:48.000 --> 00:21:51.039
My life is it a little bit based on Kathy Griffin?
00:21:51.200 --> 00:21:55.119
And then they were like, Oh, Kathy was definitely an influence.
00:21:55.359 --> 00:22:07.039
And so I'm very proud of that because I feel like even if I was like Little influence on a show that brilliant, and Lisa is brilliant as Valerie Cherish.
00:22:07.519 --> 00:22:10.559
Um, then I am nothing but honored.
00:22:10.640 --> 00:22:12.640
And Lisa is still a good friend.
00:22:12.799 --> 00:22:14.319
We still see each other.
00:22:14.480 --> 00:22:28.240
And yes, all those years ago, she came up to me and she said, I think you're good at doing characters, but I think you're funniest as yourself talking about your life and the take you have on the world.
00:22:28.480 --> 00:22:33.599
And then Janine Garofalo said the same thing, and then I was off and running.
00:22:33.759 --> 00:22:47.039
And so, you know, I got on a TV show, so I started being able to headline clubs, and then I had enough of that heckling nonsense, and I'll never play a club again.
00:22:47.279 --> 00:22:57.359
And uh, it's just a different environment, it's not for me, and I'm not for it, and I'm too old for clubs, and I don't want to be bothered by the drunks and stuff like that.
00:22:57.440 --> 00:22:59.200
I'm really strict in my shows.
00:22:59.359 --> 00:23:06.000
My ladies and gays are so well behaved, they know to shut the fuck up or they're getting bounced, and they don't get a warning.
00:23:06.240 --> 00:23:16.000
Bounce! But my hecklers are also loving, so instead of yelling like you suck, they're like, talk about share, bitch.
00:23:16.400 --> 00:23:20.720
So it's it's kind of a loving, it's an enthusiastic heckle.
00:23:20.960 --> 00:23:29.440
But um I'm sure it's much better to play a 2000th seat theater once and not, you know, two shows for 100 people and you know, five shows a weekend.
00:23:29.519 --> 00:23:32.079
So and you know, they don't all go well.
00:23:32.160 --> 00:23:41.200
You know, sometimes the audience is in the mood for a certain kind of vibe, and then I thought they were in the mood for more of a pop culture vibe.
00:23:41.359 --> 00:24:00.480
You know, when I'm in DC, thank God I know it's gonna be politics, politics, but also a lot of pop culture because as you know, DC people are secretly fascinated by everything from the Kardashians to the, you know, Sabrina Carpenter or what's going on with Madonna.
00:24:00.720 --> 00:24:02.640
So it'll be a nice combo platter.
00:24:02.880 --> 00:24:07.599
You mentioned that you don't re-watch your old specials, but do you ever rewatch My Life on the D-List?
00:24:07.759 --> 00:24:10.720
Six seasons, Emmy Awards, it's now streaming.
00:24:10.799 --> 00:24:12.400
How do you encapsulate that era?
00:24:12.559 --> 00:24:17.599
I think it's an amazing time capsule, and I'm very glad it's on Peacock.
00:24:17.680 --> 00:24:32.079
I don't get a penny, of course, but I'm glad people can rediscover it and rediscover my hilarious parents because, you know, what I'm proud of about my life on the D-List is it was really real.
00:24:32.720 --> 00:24:44.160
I would build my yearly schedule, purposely putting myself in gigs that were D-List or situations like, you know, I'm gonna date a backstreet boy.
00:24:44.319 --> 00:24:49.200
And I would call Nick Carter and I'd say, I'm begging you, will you go on a date with me?
00:24:49.359 --> 00:24:50.960
And he'd be like, What?
00:24:51.119 --> 00:24:52.319
What do you mean, a date?
00:24:52.480 --> 00:24:55.359
I'm like a date where at the end of the night you kiss me.
00:24:55.440 --> 00:24:56.799
And he's like, All right.
00:24:57.039 --> 00:25:03.599
And you know, it turned out to be a great episode, and I did all kinds of crazy things on there.
00:25:03.920 --> 00:25:08.000
Um, I got a public pap smear at a hotel lobby.
00:25:08.160 --> 00:25:17.839
They had curtains around me, but there was a whole group of women that I invited who were grown women that were too afraid to ever get a pelvic exam.
00:25:18.000 --> 00:25:24.000
And I wanted to show them that it's not painful, it's quick and easy, but it's essential.
00:25:24.319 --> 00:25:26.559
So I did it in a bikini.
00:25:26.720 --> 00:25:32.640
I covered my whole body with uh early 2000s very dark spray tan.
00:25:32.880 --> 00:25:50.880
I looked ridiculous, spread my legs, put my feet in the stirrups in heels that were this high, Lou Batons or whatever, and just made a joke out of the whole thing while I got an actual pelvic exam in real time holding the microphone.
00:25:51.200 --> 00:25:53.599
It was a groundbreaking show, and yeah, deserve those Emmys.
00:25:53.759 --> 00:25:56.240
And you also showcased divorce separation on the show.
00:25:58.480 --> 00:25:59.839
That was hard.
00:26:00.319 --> 00:26:01.039
But you know what?
00:26:01.119 --> 00:26:03.599
I was up for doing the same with my act.
00:26:03.759 --> 00:26:09.279
Like I said, if I do a rant about ice, I I spoke at Alex Predi's memorial.
00:26:09.440 --> 00:26:18.160
I played the Twin Cities right after the murders of Renee Good and Alex Predi, and they still have a beautiful vigil of Mr.
00:26:18.240 --> 00:26:20.799
George Floyd, which I think is essential.
00:26:21.039 --> 00:26:47.920
And it was wild to play to an audience in Minneapolis at the height of the ice brutalizations and murders when I knew many of the people sitting in those seats at my show, my little show, had not left their homes in maybe weeks, or were sheltering undocumented folks, or going to the grocery store and using their whistles.
00:26:48.079 --> 00:26:49.440
Everybody gave me whistles.
00:26:49.519 --> 00:26:52.559
I still have my whistles with me in my purse everywhere I go.
00:26:52.720 --> 00:27:04.480
And I think Minneapolis was a great model for how the rest of the country should act when the shit goes down with these concentration camps because they're not just building them for nothing.
00:27:04.640 --> 00:27:06.720
And the same with the data centers.
00:27:06.880 --> 00:27:15.039
So I think that the revolution is not going to happen online because the social media company owners are Nazis.
00:27:15.200 --> 00:27:18.480
And so they're to they don't want you to know what's really happening.
00:27:18.720 --> 00:27:20.240
I'm very suppressed.
00:27:20.400 --> 00:27:23.359
I'm very active on threads and Instagram.
00:27:23.680 --> 00:27:29.839
TikTok, not so much, since uh I think David Ellison and Larry Ellison bought it, those criminals.
00:27:30.079 --> 00:27:33.200
And of course, I'm off shitter with Elon.
00:27:33.519 --> 00:27:40.079
Um, but I do hate that Zuckerberg owns Meta, which is Facebook, Instagram, and Threads.
00:27:40.480 --> 00:27:43.759
And he shadow bans me or whatever they call it.
00:27:44.000 --> 00:27:47.119
So half my feed is people going, where have you been, girl?
00:27:47.279 --> 00:27:56.799
And I'm like, I'm here, I post every day because it's sort of the closest thing to old school Twitter before Elon ruined it.
00:27:57.119 --> 00:28:02.559
And that's still how I have to promote shows on social media, whether I like it or not.
00:28:03.279 --> 00:28:04.640
Thank you for sharing that.
00:28:04.960 --> 00:28:09.119
You are in the Guinness Book of World Records for breaking the number of comedy specials.
00:28:09.200 --> 00:28:09.759
How many is it?
00:28:10.000 --> 00:28:10.880
21.
00:28:11.359 --> 00:28:16.960
I just re-watched your latest special this morning, My Life on the PTSD list on YouTube, a two-hour special.
00:28:17.119 --> 00:28:21.359
Is it true after all this success, record breaking, no streamers bought it?
00:28:21.599 --> 00:28:22.880
Nobody will touch me.
00:28:22.960 --> 00:28:24.799
I'm still too controversial.
00:28:24.960 --> 00:28:26.720
And they say it to my face.
00:28:26.960 --> 00:28:32.480
Like one big network said to me, You're an earner, which is my highest compliment.
00:28:32.640 --> 00:28:33.759
You earn money.
00:28:33.920 --> 00:28:41.119
You earn money for us, you earn money for companies, you cause buzz, you're constantly in the press.
00:28:41.279 --> 00:28:44.079
I mean the tabloid press, but the press.
00:28:44.400 --> 00:28:52.799
And you are a name that everybody knows, and you're very polarizing and you're divisive, but that's why people tune in.
00:28:52.960 --> 00:28:59.119
However, we still have Midwesterners that voted for Trump and they will never forgive you.
00:28:59.359 --> 00:29:01.680
So I've had several check signers.
00:29:01.839 --> 00:29:03.279
I don't call them buyers.
00:29:03.440 --> 00:29:07.920
I only go to the highest ones because the lower level ones always love me.
00:29:08.000 --> 00:29:13.039
But then the highest level one is like, you know, remember Jeff Zucker, that piece of shit?
00:29:13.279 --> 00:29:19.920
Some old white middle-aged guy having an affair on the side from the wife, not doing his job.
00:29:20.160 --> 00:29:33.039
And yet he rejected me just like everybody else after I had done so many specials for Bravo that finally with this latest special, it was a long story.
00:29:33.200 --> 00:29:41.359
I had a lot to talk about because I had not been on stage for seven or eight years, and I lost my mind.
00:29:41.519 --> 00:29:47.440
And I needed to tell the arc of that story, and I needed to take two hours to do it.
00:29:47.599 --> 00:29:51.519
So that's another reason it didn't sell, that it's that's on me.
00:29:51.839 --> 00:30:03.680
But I also didn't have one of these fucking yokel network executives, David Zaslov, or one of these guys, saying, You can say this, you can't say this, you can't say this about Trump.
00:30:03.839 --> 00:30:05.200
And that's how I work now.
00:30:05.279 --> 00:30:07.039
I am fully independent.
00:30:07.279 --> 00:30:11.440
You're not gonna probably ever see me on TV or a streamer or a movie again.
00:30:11.680 --> 00:30:14.400
Well, that's why you have this excellent YouTube show, Talk Your Head Off.
00:30:14.559 --> 00:30:16.160
So there's no notes being passed along.
00:30:16.240 --> 00:30:25.759
I just think it's I mean, there's a lot of freedom in that, but everything that you've done, and you see, like we talk about the prod podcast pros, how much they're getting paid for their specials, it's it's it's not right.
00:30:25.839 --> 00:30:26.559
It's not right.
00:30:26.799 --> 00:30:29.599
It's sexist! That's what it is.
00:30:29.920 --> 00:30:37.599
If I was a dude who talked about how women are ugly pieces of fat shit, then I'd be getting a hundred million bucks a year.
00:30:37.920 --> 00:30:43.359
The special deals with your complex PTSD resulting from that 2017 photo, nearly a decade.
00:30:43.440 --> 00:30:44.720
I'm gonna encapsulate it all.
00:30:44.799 --> 00:30:50.400
So you're on the no-fly list, FBI uh watch list, uh the uh terrorist watch list.
00:30:51.920 --> 00:30:55.359
The Interpol, which is the international no-fly list.
00:30:55.839 --> 00:30:56.559
Ridiculous.
00:30:56.720 --> 00:31:01.279
You had cancer, you had a divorce, you were addicted to pills, you had a suicide attempt.
00:31:01.599 --> 00:31:05.200
I was on a psych hold in the psych ward for three days.
00:31:05.359 --> 00:31:06.559
I'm legit crazy.
00:31:06.799 --> 00:31:09.200
You lost your mom, you couldn't tour, you're not sorry.
00:31:09.279 --> 00:31:10.480
You took back that apology.
00:31:10.799 --> 00:31:22.240
The apology was the only mistake I made, and I got very, very bad advice from two people who I thought were friends, and they said, go and apologize.
00:31:22.480 --> 00:31:35.200
And I was a wreck, and I was sobbing, and I was getting calls from members of Congress telling me my life was over, and some of the names of the people that called me would really shock you because it was heartbreaking.
00:31:35.440 --> 00:31:44.880
One time I just burst into tears and I had to hand the phone to somebody because I couldn't even keep listening to you've ruined the Democratic Party.
00:31:45.119 --> 00:31:51.759
American troops are gonna be beheaded in your name, they're gonna make videos, you're gonna be the face of ISIS.
00:31:52.079 --> 00:31:54.960
ISIS is gonna use you to recruit people.
00:31:55.200 --> 00:31:56.799
None of that happened.
00:31:56.960 --> 00:31:58.799
I'm a D-List comedian.
00:31:58.960 --> 00:32:00.160
Come on, get a clue.
00:32:00.319 --> 00:32:02.960
You think ISIS is watching my life on the D list?
00:32:03.680 --> 00:32:13.680
So everybody bought into that narrative, which I found out through my Freedom of Information Act, my FOIA, all came from the Oval Office.
00:32:13.920 --> 00:32:14.480
All came.
00:32:14.640 --> 00:32:16.799
It was Kushner, it was Don Jr.
00:32:17.039 --> 00:32:25.519
It was Dan Scavino, it was Donald Trump, it was probably Ty Cobb and the other lawyers that were working personally for Trump.
00:32:25.759 --> 00:32:27.839
Imagine coming from the Oval.
00:32:28.160 --> 00:32:30.240
That's worse than Nixon's list.
00:32:30.480 --> 00:32:34.079
And I've been audited every single year since.
00:32:34.400 --> 00:32:36.319
I remember that uh press conference.
00:32:36.400 --> 00:32:37.359
It was harrowing to watch.
00:32:37.440 --> 00:32:40.640
I felt uh clearly not in a good state.
00:32:40.720 --> 00:32:41.759
Yes, no, you're not in a shape.
00:32:42.160 --> 00:32:43.599
I was out of my mind.
00:32:43.920 --> 00:32:47.039
Do you feel vindicated now or does it feel, does it still sting?
00:32:47.279 --> 00:32:47.920
You know what?
00:32:48.079 --> 00:33:08.799
I feel kind of vindicated because now way more people come up to me and think I'm a freaking hero and think it was the greatest picture and tell me it's their screensaver on their phone than, you know, eight, seven, six, five, four years ago when people were still saying I went too far, blah, blah, blah.
00:33:09.039 --> 00:33:18.640
Like, I'll be going to like an oncology appointment in the hospital and I'll get in an elevator and I'll just hear a woman go, Good for you.
00:33:18.880 --> 00:33:23.119
I'm glad you took that picture in an elevator full of people.
00:33:23.359 --> 00:33:27.599
And then one time everybody else in the elevator went like this.
00:33:28.000 --> 00:33:29.599
I mean, that's a big change.
00:33:29.839 --> 00:33:36.960
That's a big change because the FBI was coming to my house like twice a week to tell me about credible death threats.
00:33:37.200 --> 00:33:40.240
Coming to my house, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang.
00:33:40.400 --> 00:33:41.759
You have to let us in.
00:33:41.920 --> 00:33:46.559
One time I answered, I had so many visits from the FBI about death threats.
00:33:46.720 --> 00:33:48.640
I answered in my fucking pajamas.
00:33:49.039 --> 00:33:50.480
And I go, now what?
00:33:50.640 --> 00:33:52.799
First of all, it was like cheers because I know them.
00:33:52.880 --> 00:33:55.680
I'm like, hi Norm, how are the kids?
00:33:56.079 --> 00:34:08.159
And they told me that there was a death threat on me for a live show that I had that night, which I was also taping for another independent special.
00:34:08.559 --> 00:34:13.760
And it was called Kathy Griffin, A Hell of a Story, which you can see on Amazon.
00:34:14.079 --> 00:34:15.039
That was my next note.
00:34:15.119 --> 00:34:16.079
I want people to watch this.
00:34:16.239 --> 00:34:16.800
It's on Amazon.
00:34:17.039 --> 00:34:20.079
I watched it, I rented it when it came out because it was like for purchase.
00:34:20.239 --> 00:34:23.119
But was that something you also couldn't get distribution on?
00:34:23.360 --> 00:34:23.920
Not at all.
00:34:24.079 --> 00:34:28.079
And yet it did so well at film festivals, it won awards.
00:34:28.239 --> 00:34:37.840
I did keynote speeches with the biggest names you've ever heard of from all walks of life, from academia, from famous people on and on.
00:34:38.239 --> 00:34:42.000
And everybody thought this movie will get picked up in a heartbeat.
00:34:42.159 --> 00:34:57.519
And not unlike Eugene Carroll, my good friend, who was raped by Donald Trump and prevailed against him in civil court twice and won a judgment of$88.3 million by two juries of her peers.
00:34:57.920 --> 00:35:02.880
She has a documentary called Ask Eegine.
00:35:03.039 --> 00:35:13.199
And it's been winning awards like crazy at all the big festivals, and not one distributor will pick it up because they're still scared of fat ass.
00:35:13.599 --> 00:35:15.039
Well, it's a harrowing documentary.
00:35:15.119 --> 00:35:16.719
I encourage everyone to watch it if they can.
00:35:16.880 --> 00:35:17.280
It's very wrong.
00:35:19.760 --> 00:35:21.760
And it was where I was at the moment.
00:35:21.920 --> 00:35:23.519
And it is a hell of a story.
00:35:23.679 --> 00:35:28.159
It's never happened like this in the history of the United States to a comic.
00:35:28.320 --> 00:35:34.000
Even Jane Fonda and Lenny Bruce were bothered, and Carlin, they were bothered by local PD.
00:35:34.159 --> 00:35:42.000
But I had the Attorney General of the United States and two agencies within the Department of Justice, the U.S.
00:35:42.159 --> 00:35:51.199
Attorney's Office ready to make an arrest, and the Secret Service investigating me for conspiracy to assassinate the president of the United States.
00:35:51.440 --> 00:35:56.079
Oh my gosh, Kathy, and we haven't even gotten to your addiction, divorce, or suicide attempt.
00:35:56.960 --> 00:36:00.320
Well, I I am I am happily divorced.
00:36:00.400 --> 00:36:01.920
I'm I'm finally over him.
00:36:02.000 --> 00:36:03.599
It's been two and a half years.
00:36:03.920 --> 00:36:06.800
You've been very candid about being heartbroken and very vulnerable.
00:36:08.079 --> 00:36:09.360
I get heartbroken.
00:36:09.679 --> 00:36:10.639
I've been divorced.
00:36:10.719 --> 00:36:11.840
It's it takes years.
00:36:12.000 --> 00:36:16.000
And I assume the cycle of grief, there's never one stage.
00:36:16.159 --> 00:36:19.679
You're constantly going between depression, bargaining, acceptance, right?
00:36:19.920 --> 00:36:22.000
And you have to you have to take actions.
00:36:22.079 --> 00:36:26.320
Like I reupholstered every piece of furniture in my house.
00:36:26.480 --> 00:36:36.639
I didn't buy anything new because I didn't need anything, but I just had everything reupholstered to be a little more quirky, a little more mid-century, uh, a little more kaffy.
00:36:36.960 --> 00:36:39.599
Because I was like, it was never his fucking house.
00:36:39.760 --> 00:36:43.440
I bought this house cash and he just lived here for free.
00:36:43.679 --> 00:36:50.480
And so one day he came to me and he goes, Well, my friend said that you can't say this is your house anymore.
00:36:50.559 --> 00:36:52.079
You have to say it's our house.
00:36:52.239 --> 00:36:53.440
And that was it.
00:36:53.679 --> 00:36:55.599
I was like, You don't fuck with my money.
00:36:55.679 --> 00:36:59.519
You can fuck with my heart, but you don't fuck with my business or my money.
00:36:59.679 --> 00:37:00.559
So that was it.
00:37:01.199 --> 00:37:06.480
If he had watched your first in divorce information about money, he would have learned.
00:37:07.519 --> 00:37:08.159
I know.
00:37:08.639 --> 00:37:11.840
But I'm still, I'm still, this is so corny.
00:37:12.239 --> 00:37:26.320
I still have hope that there's like a nice guy out there to just have coffee with in the morning and make love to and watch movies with and hold hands with, and that's that's what gets me.
00:37:26.480 --> 00:37:29.199
Not the money stuff and all that stuff.
00:37:29.360 --> 00:37:30.559
I already have that.
00:37:30.719 --> 00:37:36.239
I don't have the guy to sit in bed and share coffee with and laugh and tell stories.
00:37:36.320 --> 00:37:43.039
And did I mention make love and make love some more and get that cherry lube and use it?
00:37:43.280 --> 00:37:47.679
He's out there, and I know if people watch your YouTube show, you have dabbled into the app, so you'll find him.
00:37:47.760 --> 00:37:49.199
I'm glad that you still believe in love.
00:37:49.280 --> 00:37:49.519
Yes.
00:37:49.840 --> 00:37:57.679
I do, and what's funny is I uh the last guy I went out with was 10 years younger than me, and he's the oldest guy I ever went out with.
00:37:57.840 --> 00:38:05.360
So what's funny is guys that are 20 years younger than me always ask me out, but not guys my age.
00:38:05.599 --> 00:38:07.360
So I say go with it.
00:38:07.519 --> 00:38:08.960
What am I fighting it for?
00:38:09.119 --> 00:38:12.719
I don't need to be with some guy with a rascal and a walker yet.
00:38:12.800 --> 00:38:13.679
I'm not there yet.
00:38:13.840 --> 00:38:15.519
I work out two hours a day.
00:38:15.760 --> 00:38:21.599
So bring on the 45-year-olds, bring on the 46-year-olds, I can handle it.
00:38:21.840 --> 00:38:22.800
Good for you.
00:38:22.960 --> 00:38:30.320
I also want to touch on if you if people watch your special, they will get details on your addiction and your recovery and you've been sober for a long time now.
00:38:30.480 --> 00:38:38.639
But I also want people to know that if they read Jennifer Lewis's book, her second book, there's a beautiful story about your attempt and you went to her for help.
00:38:38.880 --> 00:38:43.920
And I want people just to know that because I don't think you talk about it much, but it really speaks to I think her character, and I want to do that.
00:38:44.079 --> 00:38:57.199
Yeah, and I she asked me if she could put it in the book, and I said, of course, because when I tried to take my life, I then um kicked everybody out of my house, and I was just alone and I just wanted to die.
00:38:57.679 --> 00:39:01.760
And, you know, of course, there was a part of me that didn't want to die.
00:39:02.000 --> 00:39:14.880
Um, and so I was like, who's somebody that I can really trust that I love dearly, that I know loves me, and hopefully I've been there for her, and I think she might actually do it.
00:39:15.039 --> 00:39:20.800
And I called Jen and I just started crying, and she said, Oh, baby, I'll be right over.
00:39:20.960 --> 00:39:25.840
And she came over and she spent the evening with me, and I said, Okay, okay, go home.
00:39:25.920 --> 00:39:26.880
You've had enough.
00:39:27.039 --> 00:39:29.360
I promise I'm not gonna do anything bad.
00:39:29.599 --> 00:39:30.320
I love you.
00:39:30.480 --> 00:39:40.400
You've cheered me up, we laughed, we ate, we cried, and then I get up the next morning, she freaking stayed in my house and slept on the couch.
00:39:40.559 --> 00:39:42.320
She was afraid to leave me alone.
00:39:43.840 --> 00:39:45.360
I know that's a friend.
00:39:45.679 --> 00:39:46.320
Dear friend.
00:39:46.719 --> 00:39:49.440
Also, a great story about Jane Fonda in your special.
00:39:49.519 --> 00:39:50.400
People watch that.
00:39:50.559 --> 00:39:52.719
Um, now I want to talk about cancer.
00:39:52.800 --> 00:39:54.800
Uh my mom has gone through two bouts of it.
00:39:54.960 --> 00:39:57.119
You are recovering, you've lost siblings to cancer.
00:39:57.360 --> 00:40:03.760
Can you just talk about how it has she had breast cancer, and then five years later she had endometrial cancer.
00:40:03.840 --> 00:40:06.960
So, and she is she's going through it and she's in the world.
00:40:07.119 --> 00:40:08.559
Is she doing chemo and radiation?
00:40:08.960 --> 00:40:10.079
She did, she did, she did.
00:40:10.159 --> 00:40:10.320
Yes.
00:40:10.559 --> 00:40:12.480
And how did she come out of that after?
00:40:12.800 --> 00:40:15.760
She she's a very uh positive, optimistic person.
00:40:15.920 --> 00:40:24.480
She keeps her hope and she just sort of compartmentalizes and does what she needs to do and sort of just keeps keeps busy and doesn't get she doesn't want to get down about it.
00:40:24.559 --> 00:40:31.679
She's I think it the first bout sort of sort of rechanged her perspective, and now she just you realize how resilient and R, and you just you you just have to go through it.
00:40:31.920 --> 00:40:33.360
How is her physical strength?
00:40:33.679 --> 00:40:34.480
She walks a lot.
00:40:34.559 --> 00:40:46.079
She I think the the it has taken a lot out of her, but I think she just learns new processes and and just tries to keep her bones, you know, strong, does weights, and she's you know, 66 now, so she's going through it.
00:40:46.159 --> 00:40:47.760
But walking is the best.
00:40:47.920 --> 00:40:49.039
That's what I do every day.
00:40:49.119 --> 00:40:50.960
I do a two-hour walk every day.
00:40:51.119 --> 00:40:57.039
I do Pilates three times a week, but the walk is what helps you up here and it helps you process.
00:40:57.199 --> 00:41:06.000
And I put my audiobook on speaker on my little walking bag, and so I go through my books or obviously music sometimes if I'm in the mood.
00:41:06.159 --> 00:41:08.239
But it's good to be outside.
00:41:08.400 --> 00:41:21.119
It's good to look up and see a tree or the sky, it's good to stop and pet a dog, and all that stuff helped me get through my cancer and have hope in the things that are around us no matter what.
00:41:21.280 --> 00:41:24.400
And it is the little things or the things you take for granted.
00:41:24.719 --> 00:41:30.320
And I became an I love you person after my left lung was removed.
00:41:30.480 --> 00:41:36.480
And now I'm one of those people that like, even if you know me for two seconds, I'm like, have a good day, love you.
00:41:36.639 --> 00:41:39.280
And people are like, I don't even know you, bitch.
00:41:39.440 --> 00:41:40.559
But I can't help it.
00:41:40.639 --> 00:41:46.880
It's like I have this second chance at life, and I feel it more than when I tried to take my life.
00:41:47.039 --> 00:41:49.840
When I tried to take my life, that was my choice.
00:41:50.000 --> 00:42:08.239
When I got the lung cancer and I never smoked, that was my lung coming out, and I knew it would be a very serious operation, and it was, and I was injured during my operation, and then I had three years of that to deal with, and that was very hard to stay about because I lost my voice.
00:42:08.480 --> 00:42:21.679
So I was the comedian who was blacklisted and also didn't have a voice, and yet all that stuff got me through it, just putting one foot in front of the other and also reach out to other cancer people because guess what?
00:42:21.920 --> 00:42:23.679
We like to laugh about it.
00:42:23.840 --> 00:42:36.800
I do cancer jokes in my show every show because for years it was verboden to even mention cancer because people thought you were making fun of people suffering from cancer.
00:42:36.960 --> 00:42:40.719
But now that I've had it, so many funny things have happened.
00:42:40.880 --> 00:42:48.639
Like I'll be at the oncologist's office and they'll be all uh Miss Gifford, Miss Kathy Lee Gifford, you're next.
00:42:48.800 --> 00:42:53.599
And I'll be all, you know, like they still think I'm Kathy Lee Gifford at the doctor's office.
00:42:53.679 --> 00:42:54.800
That's funny to me.
00:42:54.960 --> 00:43:05.360
And so I say to the audience, clap if you're a cancer person, and that means if you've even been touched by cancer in your life, and everybody claps.
00:43:05.519 --> 00:43:07.280
So if it's funny, it's fair game.
00:43:07.679 --> 00:43:10.480
Definitely changes your perspective and uh keeps you resilient.
00:43:10.559 --> 00:43:14.960
And I assume that that hope that you talked about, does that also go along with uh loss?
00:43:15.119 --> 00:43:17.039
Because you've lost family siblings to cancer.
00:43:17.119 --> 00:43:23.519
You've also lost your mom, your good friend Joan Rivers, Gloria Steinem, Gloria Vanderbilt, uh Dolly Parton, you even knew.
00:43:23.760 --> 00:43:24.000
Yeah.
00:43:24.320 --> 00:43:26.719
What practices we get older, you lose more people.
00:43:26.800 --> 00:43:28.880
Do you how are you handling all this heaviness?
00:43:29.199 --> 00:43:38.960
One thing that I have become very proactive about, uh, especially when I got sober, because sometimes you have to drop a couple friends if if they're using.
00:43:39.440 --> 00:43:47.679
Um, and sometimes people don't want to hang out with you if you're not drinking or doing drugs because you're boring or they think you're boring.
00:43:47.760 --> 00:43:51.440
And so I met a lot of people through AA.
00:43:51.760 --> 00:43:57.440
And then I met ancillary people through their friends, and I'm very bold.
00:43:57.679 --> 00:43:59.840
I will, like, you know, Lee McGowan.
00:44:00.400 --> 00:44:01.280
Politics chick.
00:44:01.440 --> 00:44:04.239
She's uh big online and she's brilliant.
00:44:04.480 --> 00:44:08.960
Um, I had her on my YouTube show last week and we had such a good time.
00:44:09.119 --> 00:44:13.679
I just sent her a text that night and I said, I really fell in love with you today.
00:44:13.840 --> 00:44:14.719
Can we be friends?
00:44:14.880 --> 00:44:15.679
IRL.
00:44:16.159 --> 00:44:18.960
Like, can we come to each other's houses off camera?
00:44:19.199 --> 00:44:21.679
And she was like, Yes, absolutely.
00:44:21.920 --> 00:44:27.840
So I just come right out and I encourage people, even if you're an introvert or shy, I know it's hard.
00:44:28.159 --> 00:44:39.360
But at this age, and if you've been through all kinds of stuff, sometimes you got to be proactive and just if you feel a little connection with somebody, just say, Do you want to go get a coffee sometime?
00:44:39.519 --> 00:44:41.679
Do you want to join a book club?
00:44:41.920 --> 00:44:44.320
Do you wanna go for a walk with me sometime?
00:44:44.559 --> 00:44:53.119
And that's how I've made a lot of the friends that I've had since the um Trump uh explosion.
00:44:54.079 --> 00:44:55.280
Thank you for sharing that.
00:44:55.519 --> 00:44:59.519
I I do want to touch on I loved both of your memoirs, bestsellers.
00:44:59.760 --> 00:45:00.320
Thank you.
00:45:00.559 --> 00:45:03.360
The past 10 years is talk about a hell of a story.
00:45:03.519 --> 00:45:04.480
Have you written it out?
00:45:04.559 --> 00:45:06.320
Uh have you pitched publishers this is?
00:45:06.800 --> 00:45:08.400
I can't give it away.
00:45:08.639 --> 00:45:10.880
All the publishers think I'm too hot.
00:45:11.039 --> 00:45:15.039
They're like, she's too hot, she's too polarizing, she's too controversial.
00:45:15.199 --> 00:45:17.599
I'm like, that's why it's gonna sell.
00:45:17.840 --> 00:45:21.840
I have a hell of a story just in the last 10 years.
00:45:22.000 --> 00:45:27.119
I can start with the Trump photo and end with this interview, and it's a hell of a story.
00:45:27.360 --> 00:45:28.000
I would read it.
00:45:28.079 --> 00:45:28.559
I would read it.
00:45:28.719 --> 00:45:31.119
Okay, I want to talk about your dogs.
00:45:31.199 --> 00:45:31.920
I have three dogs.
00:45:32.000 --> 00:45:33.280
I just lost one during the summer.
00:45:33.360 --> 00:45:36.320
It's the worst, but I would imagine they make a house a home.
00:45:36.400 --> 00:45:38.960
They are comforting and with complex PTSD.
00:45:39.039 --> 00:45:40.880
Can you just talk about what they mean to you?
00:45:41.199 --> 00:45:42.960
Love, love, love, love.
00:45:43.199 --> 00:45:48.880
Okay, so I know this is a cock block, but I sleep with all four of them in my bed.
00:45:49.199 --> 00:46:07.199
Now I got one of those extra Chloe Kardashian giant beds so I could fit a dude in there, but they're just they all are against me, and I feel their little ribs going in and out when they breathe, and I feel their little heartbeats, and I and they're all very, very protective.
00:46:07.360 --> 00:46:19.440
And you know, if somebody comes to the house, they go crazy, and I take them on my walks and they protect me, and and they're my buddies, they're my besties, and they're all different.
00:46:19.599 --> 00:46:24.960
I didn't realize dogs have such different personalities, but they are all so different.
00:46:25.119 --> 00:46:36.639
One is super frisky, one is very soulful, one is really skittish, one is just a baddie where you just she's not gonna really do anything to you, but I wouldn't mess with her.
00:46:36.880 --> 00:46:41.440
That provide such comfort and and connection, and yeah, they really help you through the hard times.
00:46:41.599 --> 00:46:41.760
Yeah.
00:46:42.159 --> 00:46:43.039
A couple other things.
00:46:43.199 --> 00:46:46.480
How are you maintaining hope in such heavy times that you have been through?
00:46:46.639 --> 00:46:49.440
And how are you maintaining hope as we head toward the midterms?
00:46:49.679 --> 00:47:05.039
It's a struggle because I see stories like the horrible Cornell 7 rape that happened two years ago that I didn't even hear about, and I don't see enough people getting fired up about it, including mostly men.
00:47:05.360 --> 00:47:16.000
So women are talking about it a little, but then when you see that the parents of the Cornell 7, the moms were sticking up for those fuckers, that does not give me hope.
00:47:16.079 --> 00:47:19.119
And it does not give me hope about feminism.
00:47:19.360 --> 00:47:22.639
And I don't know what these women are thinking.
00:47:22.880 --> 00:47:28.480
I I can't imagine going that far, even for your own kid.
00:47:28.800 --> 00:47:35.039
And anyone who wants to try to vilify the victim, the survivor, let me tell you something.
00:47:35.280 --> 00:47:40.880
I'm a woman, it is not our nature to want to be passed out and be raped by seven guys.
00:47:41.199 --> 00:47:48.800
Then we found out there was a chat room with hundreds of Cornell students talking about how to do this themselves.
00:47:49.039 --> 00:48:00.800
So there's now an investigation with the actual police department, and they've reopened it only because there's been a little public outcry outcry, but it should be the main story.
00:48:00.960 --> 00:48:05.360
It happens every day, and women don't come forward because of this.
00:48:05.760 --> 00:48:07.840
This is why we don't come forward.
00:48:08.079 --> 00:48:15.440
And I'm very, very upset about the midterms because I'm fearful that people think their vote doesn't matter.
00:48:15.679 --> 00:48:20.559
Many of my friends of color said, I just don't think my vote matters.
00:48:20.719 --> 00:48:22.400
I think it's going to be suppressed.
00:48:22.639 --> 00:48:27.599
And I'm saying I'll drive you there, I'll make a party of it, I'll do anything.
00:48:27.840 --> 00:48:35.280
We'll we'll go to the precinct and you can put it in the box outside the precinct, not the mailbox if you don't trust that.
00:48:35.519 --> 00:48:37.199
I'll stand outside the booth.
00:48:37.360 --> 00:48:44.800
I'll give you my Kathy Griffin's handy-dandy voter guide, where I go all the way down the ballot to the judges.
00:48:45.119 --> 00:48:48.639
And so November 3rd, November 3rd is it, people.
00:48:48.800 --> 00:48:51.440
And we need the House and the Senate.
00:48:51.679 --> 00:48:53.119
Vote blue no matter who.
00:48:53.360 --> 00:48:56.480
You don't have to be in love with the candidate, okay?
00:48:56.719 --> 00:49:07.840
Whether it's Gavin Newsom or John Osloff or Kamala Harris, you're not gonna fuck them, you're not gonna go on a date with them, you're not gonna marry them, they're not gonna come into your life and control your life.
00:49:08.159 --> 00:49:10.800
But for God's sake, they're all competent.
00:49:10.960 --> 00:49:17.360
We have a great bench, we have many great choices, and the same thing is happening with senators.
00:49:17.599 --> 00:49:23.280
You don't have to love every single thing about a Democrat, but think of the alternative.
00:49:23.440 --> 00:49:34.639
It's Donald Trump sitting in a diaper full of poo, having an affair with some poor chick who's crazier than I was in the psych ward, and that's saying something, and that's our future.
00:49:34.880 --> 00:49:38.159
And data centers, data centers, data centers.
00:49:38.480 --> 00:49:41.280
November 3rd, doing November 3rd, November 3rd.
00:49:41.519 --> 00:49:43.119
What does 2027 look like for you?
00:49:43.280 --> 00:49:44.239
More touring, I assume.
00:49:44.320 --> 00:49:46.320
Do you plan to release more independent specials?
00:49:46.880 --> 00:49:56.400
I have a residency that I'm starting, but here's the genius, because I am a genius when it comes to business, not Vegas because it's oversaturated.
00:49:56.719 --> 00:49:58.000
Palm Springs.
00:49:58.559 --> 00:49:59.199
Perfect.
00:49:59.440 --> 00:50:01.039
There's where my people are.
00:50:01.199 --> 00:50:04.079
Yes, and there's where my older liberals are.
00:50:04.239 --> 00:50:14.239
The gays are there, the house flippers are there, the people that have their vacation home but want something to do when they're on vacation, want a good laugh.
00:50:14.559 --> 00:50:16.239
And here's my hook.
00:50:16.400 --> 00:50:25.440
I'm only doing one show a month at the Plaza Theater, but every month it's gonna be a brand new 90 minutes of material.
00:50:25.679 --> 00:50:28.559
You should film all of them and break more records with your specials.
00:50:28.800 --> 00:50:29.599
Put them on YouTube.
00:50:30.079 --> 00:50:30.400
Okay.
00:50:32.159 --> 00:50:34.480
That's your idea, and I'm stealing it.
00:50:34.719 --> 00:50:35.039
Okay.
00:50:35.679 --> 00:50:39.679
We made it through, but the final question I ask all my guests, this show, The Tangle.
00:50:39.760 --> 00:50:42.960
What are you currently tangled in that you're loving, immersing yourself in reading?
00:50:43.039 --> 00:50:46.239
And then what is something frustrating you're working to get untangled from?
00:50:46.400 --> 00:50:48.079
I know you don't really watch anything anymore, right?
00:50:48.159 --> 00:50:48.400
You can't?
00:50:48.559 --> 00:50:48.960
You have to read.
00:50:49.280 --> 00:50:50.159
I only read now.
00:50:50.320 --> 00:50:52.960
So I'm reading a book now called The Gift of Fear.
00:50:53.199 --> 00:50:57.920
I read a book before that called 20 Years of the Prison System about Private Prisons.
00:50:58.079 --> 00:51:01.920
I I just read the Philip Roth American trilogy.
00:51:02.480 --> 00:51:09.519
Um and I know he was problematic, but I had never read anything except the plot to destroy America.
00:51:09.840 --> 00:51:13.760
And he was highly recommended by all my very literate friends.
00:51:14.000 --> 00:51:15.440
I love law books.
00:51:15.599 --> 00:51:18.960
I've been sued 10 times since the Trump photo.
00:51:19.119 --> 00:51:25.679
I'm actually getting an award from Harvard next week because I've been sued more than any comedian in history.
00:51:26.639 --> 00:51:27.599
Congratulations.
00:51:28.000 --> 00:51:30.000
So that would be that would be the tangle.
00:51:30.079 --> 00:51:30.480
The tangle.
00:51:30.719 --> 00:51:31.679
Yeah, that's the annoying tangle.
00:51:34.719 --> 00:51:40.639
They all take three to four years to go through the system because we have something called due process.
00:51:41.039 --> 00:51:46.159
And democracy is not perfect, but when voting, remember the alternative.
00:51:46.480 --> 00:51:47.199
Worse.
00:51:47.519 --> 00:51:48.719
Way worse.
00:51:48.960 --> 00:51:50.239
Fascism bad.
00:51:50.480 --> 00:51:52.400
Democracy way better.
00:51:53.119 --> 00:51:54.159
What a way to close.
00:51:54.320 --> 00:51:55.920
Kathy, this has been so special.
00:51:56.000 --> 00:51:57.360
I really appreciate your time.
00:51:57.519 --> 00:51:59.360
I'm glad we got to finally get together.
00:51:59.599 --> 00:52:00.320
This was beautiful.
00:52:00.400 --> 00:52:04.239
Yes, 21 years after I first met you at that in that basement venue.
00:52:04.880 --> 00:52:06.079
We survived!
00:52:06.320 --> 00:52:07.119
We survived.
00:52:07.199 --> 00:52:08.239
Thank you so much.
00:52:08.480 --> 00:52:09.199
Thank you, Hon.
00:52:11.519 --> 00:52:12.559
Thank you, Kathy.
00:52:12.639 --> 00:52:16.400
Make sure to catch her on tour across the United States on her new face new tour.
00:52:16.480 --> 00:52:20.480
Also check out her YouTube channel, her YouTube show, Talk Your Head Off.
00:52:20.559 --> 00:52:21.199
And you know what?
00:52:21.280 --> 00:52:23.599
Check out that 2019 documentary.
00:52:23.920 --> 00:52:26.719
Hell of a story, because my God, isn't it?
00:52:26.960 --> 00:52:27.679
Love her.
00:52:28.000 --> 00:52:29.920
Now, what song am I tangled in?
00:52:30.159 --> 00:52:34.960
I am seeing them tonight, and I already know I'm going to love it because I have loved them since day one.
00:52:35.199 --> 00:52:41.840
And if we're speaking of unapologetic figures in history, they will go down in history as Trailblazers' heroes.
00:52:41.920 --> 00:52:46.000
Of course, I'm speaking about the chicks, and I want to talk about their hit, Not Ready to Make Nice.
00:52:46.159 --> 00:52:47.920
One of my favorite songs of all time.
00:52:48.079 --> 00:52:51.679
It has one of the best bridges of all time, one of the most powerful bridges.
00:52:51.840 --> 00:52:54.079
It makes me choke up to this day when I hear it.
00:52:54.239 --> 00:52:57.519
Just the build-up, the notes she hits, Natalie Maynes.
00:52:57.920 --> 00:52:58.480
My gosh.
00:52:58.719 --> 00:53:00.880
They also have a documentary called Shut Up and Sing.
00:53:01.039 --> 00:53:02.159
I want you to go and watch it.
00:53:02.400 --> 00:53:06.239
What they went through 20 years ago is bullshit.
00:53:06.400 --> 00:53:08.320
And I hope they feel a bit vindicated.
00:53:08.400 --> 00:53:10.000
I think we owe them so much.
00:53:10.239 --> 00:53:12.079
A lot of people owe them apologies.
00:53:12.239 --> 00:53:13.840
This song will go down in history.
00:53:14.079 --> 00:53:15.360
Never gets old.
00:53:15.840 --> 00:53:17.039
Forgive sounds good.
00:53:17.199 --> 00:53:18.559
Forget, I'm not sure I could.
00:53:18.639 --> 00:53:21.199
They say time heals everything, but I'm still waiting.
00:53:21.440 --> 00:53:24.559
I'm still waiting to heal from all the shit that they were put through.
00:53:24.800 --> 00:53:30.480
I'm not ready to make nice, I'm not ready to back down, I'm still mad as hell, and I don't have time to go round and round and round.
00:53:30.639 --> 00:53:31.920
It's too late to make it right.
00:53:32.000 --> 00:53:36.079
I probably wouldn't if I could, because I'm mad as hell, can't bring myself to do what it is you think I should.
00:53:36.320 --> 00:53:51.840
Made my bed and I sleep like a baby with no regrets, and I don't mind saying it's a sad, sad story when a mother will teach her daughter that she oughta hate a perfect stranger, and how in the world can the words that I said send somebody so over the edge that they'd write me a letter saying that I better shut up and sing or my life will be over.
00:53:53.199 --> 00:53:55.360
It gives me goosebumps to this day.
00:53:55.519 --> 00:53:59.119
My gosh, and I'm just imagining, I'm just hearing her in my head.
00:53:59.519 --> 00:54:00.239
Haunting.
00:54:00.400 --> 00:54:00.800
I love them.
00:54:00.960 --> 00:54:01.840
They're heroes.
00:54:02.079 --> 00:54:03.840
Go listen to all of their songs.
00:54:04.000 --> 00:54:05.280
Go listen to Taking the Long Way.
00:54:05.360 --> 00:54:10.719
They also have a 2020th anniversary and edition that just came out and includes the demo of this song.
00:54:10.960 --> 00:54:12.239
I can't say enough.
00:54:12.559 --> 00:54:13.440
The chicks.
00:54:13.840 --> 00:54:15.199
They deserve so much better.
00:54:15.360 --> 00:54:21.679
I'm so glad that they're still selling at arenas and people giving them the respect they deserve, but they also get a lot of hate.
00:54:21.760 --> 00:54:23.519
And uh ask Beyonce.
00:54:23.760 --> 00:54:24.320
My god.
00:54:24.559 --> 00:54:32.159
Beyonce made a whole album after performing with them and getting shit on by those damn country music audience members.
00:54:32.400 --> 00:54:34.079
Not all, but many.
00:54:35.199 --> 00:54:37.039
A lot of talking going on.
00:54:37.599 --> 00:54:38.559
Alright, my friends.
00:54:38.639 --> 00:54:41.280
I'm gonna be back next week with one, maybe two episodes.
00:54:41.440 --> 00:54:43.360
One of them will be Murray Hill.
00:54:43.519 --> 00:54:43.920
Love him.
00:54:44.079 --> 00:54:44.960
He has a new book out.
00:54:45.039 --> 00:54:46.320
It's called Showbiz.
00:54:46.559 --> 00:54:48.320
Of course, you loved him on Somebody Somewhere.
00:54:48.400 --> 00:54:51.760
I've had Jeff Hiller and Tim Bagley on the show, and now Murray Hill.
00:54:51.840 --> 00:54:52.880
So stay tuned for that.
00:54:53.039 --> 00:54:55.920
I'll also have another housewife interview for you soon enough.
00:54:56.000 --> 00:54:59.840
But yeah, keep up with me, follow me, like, rate, and subscribe.
00:55:00.079 --> 00:55:01.440
I will see and speak with you soon.
00:55:01.519 --> 00:55:03.760
Until then, you take care of yourselves.