To Kathy Griffin’s great surprise, she’s a new award winner. “I’m so used to being a bit of a rebel outsider in Hollywood,” she tells Us of her recent honor from the cancer charity WeSpark. “They gave me an award, and it’s about resilience. I’m laughing because now I’m the face of resilience because I’ve been through so much s*** that it’s crazy.”
That’s an understatement: Weathering a career-crushing political scandal following a 2017 photo of herself holding the mock decapitated head of President Trump, the last few years have also found Griffin battling lung cancer, prescription drug addiction and even a suicide attempt. It took some time, but Griffin is finding the funny even in that. “Who becomes a junkie at 57?” she asks with a wry smile.
In her surprisingly personal new special, My Life on the PTSD List (now streaming on YouTube), she tackles it all — and previews the kind of stories she’ll be sharing when she hits the road for her New Face, New Tour dates beginning Nov. 8. (Yes, that title is a reference to her facelifts, and she’s just as amazed as Us that those became international news!) “I’m trying to be known as a stalwart in comedy; a comedy face that you can count on, and now I’m a comedy face that’s been redone!”
Amidst the life (and cosmetic) rebuilding, Griffin, now 64, is also still downloading fans on the kind of celebrity run-ins that are her bread and butter. No matter what’s thrown her way, she’ll never stop fighting for her place in comedy. “I may not be your favorite comic, but I’ve done more specials than any other comedian, male or female, living or dead,” she says. “And damn it, that’s something.”
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Your new special gets into serious topics like lung cancer and your suicide attempt. When did you feel that you were ready to talk about that?
My act has always been my life. But to get my act, I have to go out in the world and be living. When the Trump photo happened and cancer happened, I felt like my world was caving in. That’s when I became addicted to prescription pills. But I’m still going to laugh, because the idea that I started being a junkie [recently] is just funny… Most of my friends deserted me, and that was the hardest part to deal with.
Tell Us what you learned from that whole experience.
I’ve learned so much. I thought about my dear departed friend Joan Rivers and how she came back after such adversity, and she always gave me amazing advice. She was no longer with us when the Trump head picture happened, but she knew Donald well.
So I had Don Rickles from the grave in my ear saying, “Get back on stage.” I had Joan Rivers saying, “Take the check,” or whatever funny thing she would have said. Something happens to me when my feet hit that stage, where it’s innate now. My first show back, I’ll always remember. I just walked on stage, and the audience stood up, and I was like, “Whoa, wait, I haven’t done anything yet!”
What advice would you give someone going through a tough time?
I would say, go harder… I’m probably the worst person to come to for that question, because I’m going to say double down, and the only thing I regret out of that whole experience was apologizing.
Jimmy Kimmel gave you a shout-out when he returned to his show last month. What did that mean to you?
It meant the world because Jimmy never canceled me, and there’s many shows I’m still banned from, in fact, most shows. So the ones that said you can still come on [mean so much], and Jimmy was in the forefront. I understand there’s a backlash. I’ve had very, very famous celebrities say to me, “I love you. I love your stuff. But frankly, if we take a picture together and it gets posted, my comments are going to be swarmed by Trumpers, and that’s just not something I’m used to.”
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That’s so hard.
Part of me is like, “Really?” But the other part of me [gets] it. I had a very famous, legendary comedian call me and say, “Hey, I just taped my latest special. I did a bunch of Trump stuff live, and it killed in the room. The audience loved it, but I ended up cutting it out of the special because I didn’t want to get Kathy Griffined.”
I’ve become a verb. I kind of don’t blame you. I didn’t want to get Kathy Griffined either. It was a lot of legal fees, and it was scary to be put under oath and interrogated by the Department of Justice and be on the no-fly list. That stuff is real, and it costs real money, and it costs real years of hard work that can go away overnight, like it did with me. So having someone say, “I don’t want to get Kathy Griffined,” I actually appreciated their honesty.
Who’s your favorite celebrity to roast these days?
Where do I even start? I will be making fun of the biggest stars, whether they’re my friend or not. I’m friends with Paris Hilton now; I can’t believe she even talks to me, considering all the smack I’ve talked about her over the years, but God love her. She herself is really funny, and she has this line that I love, which is: “As far as I’m concerned, it’s always 2008.” Honey, I’m right there with you. That was a great year for both of us!
It was recently the 20th anniversary of My Life on the D-List. What do you remember about that time?
I feel like it was yesterday. I don’t get a penny [but] I’m so glad at least people can rediscover my hilarious parents. I’m really proud of that show, because it was real; there was no script. They would follow me around for six months out of the year just hoping I did funny s**t.
What’s your biggest challenge right now?
Do you know the biggest challenge I have in selling tickets on any tour I’ve ever done? That I’m a female. To this day, the old trope that the chicks just aren’t as funny is ingrained in people. I’m very deferential to the women who came before me because that glass ceiling, they broke it. It somehow came back. It’s got to be re-broken year after year.
