Over the last seven years, comedian Kathy Griffin has lived a lifetime: she battled lung cancer and is now cancer free, she got divorced, lost her mother, battled an addiction to pills that led to a suicide attempt, and was investigated by the U.S. Government for posing with a faux bloody Trump head, which led to her being on the no-fly list and unable to work.
She has since had half her lung removed, resulting in a permanent change to her voice, and is now able to fly.
“It’s killed me to go six-and-a-half years [without working], I mean I’ve always been a happy workaholic,” Griffin tells Pittsburgh City Paper. “They say you shouldn’t be defined by your career, but not in my case.”
While she did do one tour right after her photo scandal, she found herself detained in every airport both overseas and in the U.S., making traveling from city to city difficult.
“When I hear these other comics bitching about being canceled, I’m like ‘oh blow me!’” she says. “I wasn’t canceled, I was investigated by the freaking feds.”
Now on her comeback tour, “My Life on the PTSD-List” (a play on her Emmy-winning series streaming on Peacock), Griffin will be at the Carnegie of Homestead Music Hall on October 22.
“You’re going to see a humble legend, and understand that I’m humble, but don’t get it twisted,” Griffin says. “I’m a fucking legend, a woman who took one for the team seven years ago with the Trump photo, where nobody had my back.”
Griffin says it took her seven long years to “bite and scratch” her way back, and now she’s in the middle of a 75-city tour.
A Joan Rivers for Millennials and Gen Xers, Griffin recalls how much she learned from the late comedian, who died in 2014 at the age of 81.
“I miss her every day, she was my mentor and good friend,” Griffin says. “While Joan was the queen of one-liners, I will say my show is more story oriented.”
After visiting Pittsburgh, Griffin will be performing at Carnegie Hall in New York City. The show there will be her sixth, which breaks the record for the number of shows at the venue by a solo female comedian. The record was previously set by (coincidentally) Joan Rivers.
While she doesn’t talk about Trump in her show, Griffin did briefly mention his running mate, J.D. Vance, in our interview. “I don’t know why, but can we just talk about how this is like a fucked-up time to be a woman,” she says. “Like that J.D. Vance, that son of a bitch needs the smugness smacked right out of him.”
Griffin, who was in Hawaii for a tour stop when we spoke, says she’s “63, single, and sexy,” and her goal is to be next year’s contestant on The Golden Bachelorette.
In the meantime, Griffin is looking forward to stopping in Pittsburgh, mentioning how much she loves the city’s food, particularly Primanti’s.
“Who doesn’t love french fries in the sandwich?” she says. “I mean, don’t change Primanti Bros., don’t change.”
When it comes to Pittsburgh audiences for her shows, she calls them “no bullshit.” “They’ve seen some shit, and I’m a Chicagoan, so I relate,” she adds.
Kathy Griffin’s “My Life on the PTSD-List.”Tues., Oct. 22, 8 p.m. Carnegie of Homestead Music Hall. 510 East 10th Ave., Munhall. $44.50-74.50. librarymusichall.com/event/kathy-griffin
This article appears in Oct 16-22, 2024.
