Griffin plans to have you laughing your head off
Kathy Griffin weathered a big storm, one she won’t shy away from on new tour
If you are going to interview comedian and recent pop culture lightning rod Kathy Griffin, you better take a deep breath and get out of the way.
“Hi, so here’s my first question. Why did you choose to make your Twitter profile picture blurry?” Griffin fired at me seconds after we said our hellos. “I like it, it’s cool, but just wondering why?”
My brief and lame explanation of: “It’s old, I dunno, it was taken in a bar,” behind us, Griffin kept going.
“OK, I have another question — I hope you didn’t think you were going to interview me because you’re much more fascinating — um, can you please explain the photo that is simply titled: Happy pet day.”
Yes, that one I can explain with some certainty.
“That’s Sally, my puppy,” I offer up about the Twitter photo Griffin spotted while scanning my social media before our interview. By the way, this is the first time this has ever happened during an interview and I have been doing this long enough to be on my third dog.
“No, I am talking about the gentleman that is passed out,” said Griffin, reminding me the picture is of Sally in bed with my sound asleep, sprawled out, face-down, fully clothed husband.
“You have to go live in a shelter, you have to get out of there. Get out while you can. Get help and take the dog with you,” said Griffin, not pausing for a breath. “That looks like a very adorable dog by the way. All right I’ll let you ask questions.” And she does, sort of.
OK, so if Griffin can get a solid three or four minutes of material out of my Twitter account, you will be correct in guessing she’s got a ton to talk about thanks to that infamous photo from last year that shows her clutching by the hair a bloodied, severed Donald Trump head.
That picture by Tyler Shields turned Griffin’s world upside down faster than you can say: “D-list? More like the Z list.”
Actually, thanks to the photo she says she earned “kill list,” status.
Friends, foes and strangers on the streets said “too far.” The FBI investigated and she was put on (and still is) the Interpol watch list and of course what with it being a post 9-11 world, she lingered for a couple of months on a no-fly list.
The fallout was fast and furious. Buh bye CNN New Year’s Eve, buh bye theatre gig after theatre gig.
“Everyone turned on me. It’s not the Dixie Chicks everyone, it’s personal friends. Liberals that I thought were friendly toward me. People I didn’t know. People I knew — people who knew me personally. Like, everybody decided to join in on the dog pile. I have been digging myself out of it because, No. 1, it is unprecedented and if nothing else I feel a genuine need and mission to go town to town, whoever will have me and just simply say: ‘Look, you can hate that picture all you want, but it’s very well covered by the First Amendment.”
She says she was not only shocked but also completely dumbfounded by the severity of the responses to the photo.
“A lot of the fake news, Fox News, Breitbart, TMZ bulls—t American media, they were saying ‘lock her up’ about me,” said Griffin, echoing the Trump supporter chant that plagued Hillary Clinton during the presidential race. “I started thinking, do people think there is a severed head warehouse? Do people think I am holding a real severed head? It’s crazy enough that the right wing and the Breitbarts and those nut jobs think I was actually holding Donald Trump’s severed head. I think I would have been caught a little sooner, frankly.”
But not everyone got their burning torches out and said off with her head. A Hollywood heavyweight and former standup comedian saw the photo and sensed immediately that the backlash would be brutal, but it could also be beneficial.
“The day of the photo I got a phone call from Jim Carrey, who I don’t really know all that well and he said this great thing. He said, ‘Kathy,’ and I was sobbing, sobbing. It was over for me. CNN banned for life. Vegas Mirage casino, banned for life. She’s a member of ISIS, all this crazy s—t. But Jim Carrey calls me and goes: ‘Do you know how many comedians would give their right arm for this story? You’re going to have one of the greatest stories to go down in comedy history. Today you are the most famous comedian in the world.”
Sure, that may be the silver lining approach, but at the time the only lining Griffin could see was the lining of her career coffin.
After a couple of months in seclusion, Griffin decided enough was enough and she hit the road with her fittingly titled Laugh Your Head Off World Tour. It went well overseas and it is going well here in North America. She is currently nearing the end of her Canadian leg and will stop here at the Orpheum on June 2.
“I have to defend the photo. I have to talk about the First Amendment because it is truly in danger,” said Griffin. “As you know, there is a real history of comedians being fearless. I like explaining to people I didn’t break the law. I shouldn’t be on the f—king Interpol list. I shouldn’t be on the no-fly list for two months. Are you f—king kidding me? So part of my mission is to truly go town to town and say
that if this can happen to me it can happen to you,” said Griffin.
As the name of the tour proves, Griffin is obviously leaning in on this whole photo thing.
“The show is completely honest and I am going to be completely honest with you. This photo will be with me the rest of my career and will be known when I leave this Earth more than anything. I get it. I’m now Hanoi Jane,” said Griffin referencing the pejorative moniker given to Jane Fonda when she spoke out about the Vietnam War.
But now a year has passed and Griffin is in fine form. Her hair is shorter and her skin is even thicker.
“Dana, I am worse. If you look at my Twitter profile it goes Kathy Griffin, the mayor of zero f—ksville,” said Griffin who has been performing professionally since 1980.
Now with a year of this insanity behind her she can look back on things through the lens of comedy.
“The first few times, obviously, it is horrifying, but now I actually want to call and be like, who else is on the list? Is it an A-list? Is it me and Lindsay Lohan or is it me and Vladimir Putin?” said Griffin.
At the end of the day Griffin still shakes her head at all the offence mostly Americans took from the photo, but she is not done with this story. Her show hones in on it and she brings some new Trump trashing to the stage.
“I have these Trump stories I have been sitting on because nobody gave a s—t,” said Griffin. “I have stories now like spending a day with The Donald. He hired me to roast him at one of his dumb golf courses with Liza Minnelli. I’m just telling you, I don’t mean to brag, but this show is very good.”
And then as we say goodbye she adds that she wants to shill for a second. She mentioned her mailing list and how fans can get alerts on their phone and asks when this feature was going to run.
“Sooner the better, baby, let’s sell that show out. Either that or I am going to re-post the picture of the husband,” said Griffin. “What if I just caption it, ‘I met someone?’”
Now, that would be funny.
This photo will be with me the rest of my career and will be known when I leave this Earth more than anything. I get it. I’m now Hanoi Jane.