Kathy Griffin Is Coming to the Vets
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Don’t Lose Your Head — Kathy Griffin Is Coming to The Vets Last year I interviewed comedian Kathy Griffin in advance of her show at Veterans Memorial Auditorium. At that time she was just a funny female on the “D” list. In the course of a year she has become an extremely controversial figure. I spoke with her last month about her life now and her upcoming show at Veterans Memorial Auditorium on June 20. If you don’t know, in May 2017, she released a photo of herself holding a replica of the severed head of our less than qualified, vile, Cheeto- faced, misogynistic, racist, bigoted, lying, narcissistic, sociopath, criminal, POS, POTUS, and squatter in the White House. (Did I leave anything out?) I loved the photo but others felt that it went too far. I posted it on my Facebook page in support of Kathy and the photo ignited many arguments in the ensuing thread. Griffin faced far worse and suffered a backlash that sent her reeling. Things have changed a lot for Kathy over the past year and unlike last year’s interview that was more light and general, this one discussed the trials and tribulations of her controversial year. Read on… Kathy Griffin: Hi, John it’s Kathy, can you hear me on my old timey phone? John Fuzek: Yes. I have an old-timey phone as well! KG: I bought mine a year ago, but it looks like my ’80s phone and that’s all I can tell you. JF: I have a flip phone. KG: Oh, modern! I miss my Side Kick and my Palm Pilot! JF: I had one of those, too. KG: Me, too! With the stylus. Ugh, those were the days! JF: So, we spoke last year around this time when you were going to be in Providence… KG: My whole life has changed since then, John. JF: I know and that’s why I wanted to talk with you again. KG: How much can happen in one year? JF: Evidently a lot! I do have to tell you I was behind you 100% what you did. KG: Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! I mean this whole North American tour is kind of bizarre, but it’s almost based on like who has an open mind? Who forgives me? Who decided, in retrospect, the photo wasn’t worth the outrage? You know it’s such an interesting thing, I’ve never done a tour, I don’t want to say based on a single incident, but let’s cut the shit, it’s beyond the elephant in the room. The idea that I would do a tour and not tell the entire story-the good, the bad, the ugly, the actual interrogation, the two month federal investigation, the death threats, all the stuff. I am just honestly so grateful to be out there, and it’s odd to me that the American audience are the last ones to come around. It’s almost like I had to remind them, it’s just me, it’s just Kathy, it’s just me from “Suddenly Susan,” and from “My Life on the D List” and from comedy specials and my talk show…it’s just me! So, it’s been quite a journey! JF: So you went to Europe to tour after this happened? KG: Oh, not just Europe, honey. First of all I called my stand-up agent, who was the only one who stuck around out of the bunch, and I said this may be an unusual way to tour, but can you specifically send me to countries and cities where they can’t stand Trump? And that was very helpful! So, three weeks later he had 15 countries and 23 cities. So, the picture that almost decimated me, as Don Jr said on Good Morning America, “We are just going to ruin Kathy Griffin’s career, we want to decimate her.” Alright, Eddie Munster, shut the fuck up and I will do my job and by the way, what’s yours, besides being a criminal? They’re all going to jail! Anyway, I started in Auckland, New Zealand, ended up in Reykjavik, Iceland, by the way, you should know you are talking to the darling of Iceland! Besides Bjork, of course, I’m not crazy! And, yes, I am on the Interpol list and I was detained at all 15 airports, London Heathrow, Singapore, every single time, my new thing is to figure out if I will ever know in my lifetime exactly what came up on the screen every time I was detained, and how do I get off those freaking lists? I am going to resume the North American tour in Canada, I’m not nuts, the whole time the Canadians have been saying what you said, “We get it, no big deal,” and then my first American show is in San Francisco, and they added a second night by popular demand! JF: So San Francisco will be the first American show since this happened? KG: YES! The first North American show will be Ottawa, which is already sold out, I am very excited, and I have five shows in Canada, and then I start in San Francisco, and you’re going to laugh, and this is what Granny Griffin just fucking figured out after all these years, after the overseas tour, like I said, not just Europe, it was all over Australia. Oh, by the way, in my current show I have the best story about having a little gab fest backstage with Stevie Nicks and Chrissie Hynde because Stevie was very supportive during this whole thing with me, which was super sweet. And we were in Australia and she was at a giant stadium and I was at the Sydney Opera House, perhaps you have heard of it, so, I went to her (Stevie’s) sound check and some really funny stuff happened backstage, which I will share with the audience. I want your readers to know it’s not like a whole show where I am giving a first amendment lecture, there’s a lot of funny crazy shit going on. Hold on, can I stop? I am watching Rudy Giuliani. OK, I am going to be honest. My show started in New Zealand for two hours, and by the time I got to Reykjavik it was three hours! So tell your readers to bring a colostomy bag. I don’t have an opener because I don’t have time for one, I have a fucking lot to say! And a lot of crazy shit happened! Oh my God, you want to get this? You’re not going to believe who sent me his fucking box set, that piece of shit Tony Robbins. OK, John, start writing this down: Google Tony Robbins “me, too” woman or Tony Robbins pokes woman’s chest. So this is my life, this is what I fucking love about touring, I got my little Trump story, and you may think that you know it, but there’s other elements, like I get this box set from Tony Robbins, and I’m not like into that sort of thing. He’s got a hologram, I mean go fuck yourself. I’m a real person. You’re never going to see a Kathy Griffin hologram. I’m an old fashioned work horse, I am actually going to be standing on stage at The Vets. Don’t worry, it’s not going to be a hologram. But anyway, he’s got one of those and he’s got more money than God, and whatever, and so he sends me this box set like this will change your life, and then next thing you know he’s one of the guys in the me too movement. So like I said, my act is changing. Just so you know, when I got that box set I didn’t pay that much attention to it because the things that people were sending to my home, like the death threats, and the um, I don’t know if your audience will think this is funny but I do, but people keep sending me Bibles, to my house. These religious people think if they send me a bible I’m going to become less vulgar or whatever. Do they not know or have they not met me? So, I love telling all that stuff, some of it’s kind of inside baseball and then I get into the stuff that’s relatable. I mean everybody knows that feeling of, where either it really happened or we felt like everyone turned on us, so I tell the whole ugly story, and then, of course, hopefully, the triumph, coming back, being able to play a place like The Vets, which I thought would never happen to me again. I am thrilled to be asked back to The Vets, I’m thrilled to tell the story, I’m proud of the story, and who knows what will happen between now and The Vets’ show, anything? JF: What did you think of Michelle Wolfe’s routine at the Correspondent’s Dinner? KG: Oh my God, I thought it was great! Remember, I was IN the room, so, don’t tell me she bombed. I was in the room, the whole program was nice until then, they talked about scholarships and whatever … and so Michelle Wolf gets up there, I’m just going to put there, I think there’s a big part of that audience that probably thought she was mixed race, so I’m just going to say I think that was part of it, and I am going to put myself out there and say it in a Kanye West fashion, but we’re dealing people who work for a guy who says there’s two sides to neo-Nazis.