No holding back
Comedienne Kathy Griffin believes a controversy that involved Donald Trump opened doors for her.
IF you had never heard of comedienne Kathy Griffin, by June this year, it would have been hard to miss her.
An Instagram photograph of her with a bloody mask of United States President Donald Trump, as if it were a severed head, made the news.
Her actions were condemned by the Trump family, theatres in the United States cancelled her stand-up show and she was dropped by news channel CNN from perhaps her most high-profile job, co-hosting the New Year’s countdown with news anchor Anderson Cooper.
The 56-year-old actress and comic issued a tearful apology and spoke about how the stunt – which put her under a Secret Service investigation – had cost her dearly. She appears to have recovered. Speaking on the telephone from Los Angeles, Griffin, who has acted on television shows such as Glee and Drop Dead Diva, talks about her stand-up comedy act.
The provocatively titled Laugh Your Head Off world tour will come to Singapore on Nov 3. Held at The Star Theatre, The Star Performing Arts Centre, this is her only show in Asia as of now.
“One of the reasons I get to come to Singapore is because of the controversial photo, where I was mocking our current, as I call him, the ‘accidental President’,” says Griffin, a vociferous opponent of Trump and the views espoused by his conservative base.
The comedienne, whose brand of shock humour has earned her bans from several talk shows, says she “went through an ordeal that was so extreme, it turned out to have a lot of comedy”.
Her tour will take in countries such as Iceland, Norway and other places which, in the past, might not have booked her.
“Frankly, prior to that photograph, I would not have been able to do a real world tour,” says the winner of two Primetime Emmys for her reality show, Kathy Griffin: My Life On The D-List (2005 to 2010). Griffin was also notable for her role as restaurant critic Vicki Groener in television sitcom Suddenly Susan which aired from 1996 to 2000 and co-starred Brooke Shields.
She may include a question-and-answer session to her comedy routine if people are interested to know more about her life, she adds.
But for the rest of the act, she will do the material that made her famous – rude observations about celebrities, including her neighbours, reality-show star Kim Kardashian and her husband rapper Kanye West.
She is still wondering if she should tone down her swearing for the Singapore audience, but offers this piece of advice: “You may want to let your readers know that there will be a ridiculous amount of cursing. There’s going to be a little naughty talk, if you know what I mean.”
Tickets from S$98 (RM309) are on sale now, via www.apactix.com.