Kathy Griffin would never have done stand-up comedy if it weren't for something Lisa Kudrow told her
In a Q interview, Griffin explains why she refuses to stop performing — even if it gets her into trouble
Kathy Griffin has been told many times in her life that she's funny. But she wouldn't be a stand-up comedian if it weren't for a "life-changing thing" that Friends star Lisa Kudrow told her, back when they were doing improv together.
"She said, 'Look, you're good at characters and you're good at this, but you're really funniest as yourself,'" Griffin tells Q's Tom Power in an interview. "'When you tell a story from your life, I'm laughing more than anything.'"
Griffin then went on to try stand-up for the first time at age 35. It turns out Kudrow's instinct was correct: six of the comedian's comedy albums have been nominated for Grammys, one of which won best comedy album in 2014.
But stand-up has also brought Griffin a lot of trouble. Most notably in 2017, when she posted a photo of herself holding a replica of Donald Trump's head covered in blood. Not only did she receive widespread backlash for the photo, but she lost her career.
To this day, TV executives tell her that she's "too toxic" for them because they have Trump-supporting audiences. This is despite the two Emmys she won for her reality show, Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List.
"It's just a mindf–k to have so many people turn on you that you are earning money for," Griffin says.
I'm still in trouble constantly, and I have not learned my lesson.- Kathy Griffin
This isn't Griffin's first time making fun of a powerful man. But the last time it happened, it earned her more work instead of less.
In the '90s, she appeared on a Seinfeld episode as Sally Weaver, the roommate of one of George's girlfriends. After her cameo, Griffin did a bit in her HBO comedy special about how she thought Jerry Seinfeld was a jerk when she was on set.
"But Jerry actually thought it was funny," she says. "So they wrote the next episode where Sally Weaver becomes a stand-up who does nothing but make fun of Jerry. And that was based on my life, and I was thrilled."
Even after all her ups-and-downs, Griffin hasn't given up on her career in comedy. She's now touring her new show, My Life on the PTSD-List, across Canada and the U.S. — but don't expect any tamer material from Griffin on this tour.
"I'm so thrilled that people have said, 'We don't want you to hold back. We don't want you to have been scared into thinking you should just go on stage and do jokes about airline peanuts,'" she says. "I'm still in trouble constantly, and I have not learned my lesson."
The full interview with Kathy Griffin is available on our podcast, Q with Tom Power. She talks about her getting blacklisted by Hollywood, starting a new chapter of her career with her tour My Life on the PTSD-List. Listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.
Interview with Kathy Griffin produced by Lise Hosein.
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