Summer Series: Kathy Griffin Is In Her Comeback Era

[SPEAKER_00]: Today, on misunderstood with Rachel, you could tell.
[SPEAKER_00]: Our summer series continues where we revisit the conversations that still resonate just as powerfully today as when they first aired.
[SPEAKER_00]: And today's replay is with someone who embodies what this show is all about, Kathy Griffin.
[SPEAKER_00]: When we first released this episode, Kathy had just kicked off her tour.
[SPEAKER_00]: Since then, she's taken that show across the country, earning standing ovations in every single city she's been in.
[SPEAKER_00]: The headlines keep coming, the tickets keep selling, and one thing is clear.
[SPEAKER_00]: Kathy Griffin is in the middle of a full blown comeback.
[SPEAKER_00]: But in our conversation, we go deeper than the stage lights and the applause.
[SPEAKER_00]: Kathy opens up about one of the most defining and devastating moments of her career.
[SPEAKER_00]: The backlash that came after she posted that infamous photo of herself holding a fake severed head of Donald Trump.
[SPEAKER_00]: She walks us through the personal and professional fallout, the lost work, the threats, the family who disappeared, the marriage that ended, and how it changed her life in ways most people cannot even imagine.
[SPEAKER_00]: This isn't a story about comedy or controversy.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's a story about survival and resilience, and the guts it takes to get back up when the world tries to keep you down.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you missed it the first time, now's your chance to hear it again.
[SPEAKER_00]: Raw, honest, and in her own words, hit play and see why this episode is one of our most unforgettable.
[SPEAKER_00]: So please join my conversation with Kathy Griffin.
[SPEAKER_00]: Miss Kathy Griffin, it is such an honor to have you here on Miss Understed.
[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you for joining me.
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, I just love you.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I don't know if you remember the time we met, but my God, of course I remember how Kathy, are you kidding?
[SPEAKER_00]: How would I not remember?
[SPEAKER_00]: Tell me your recollection.
[SPEAKER_00]: I like him.
[SPEAKER_02]: My version is we were at something really fancy and it was either the carousel ball or the flight day this pre-grammy party, but it was like a black tie event and I'm barren.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's always crowded at those things and people don't pay enough attention to what's happening on stage, which of course has a counter dress, me nuts.
[SPEAKER_02]: And then this beautiful young girl comes up and she goes, well, if you're going to make fun of me, you might as well get to know me.
[SPEAKER_02]: I turn around and I didn't recognize your first and you go Rachel, you could tell.
[SPEAKER_02]: I was like,
[SPEAKER_02]: So I have to tell you it's honestly the most gratifying thing as a comic when someone that I talk about on my app actually like comes up to me.
[SPEAKER_02]: It is a human being because I'm used to be waving their finger in my face or telling me how dare you say that and you were like, I just wanted to know me.
[SPEAKER_00]: Absolutely.
[SPEAKER_00]: And wait, I have the picture right here because in doing my research on you, this came up.
[SPEAKER_00]: See you right there.
[SPEAKER_00]: We were, I was Jason Davis's date and it was at the carousel ball for his grandmother or whatever because Jason and I had just been on celebrity rehab together.
[SPEAKER_00]: And what I remember about this is we were looking for, I was looking for somebody to take the photo with my camera and brandy walked by and you were like, oh, take the photo and she was like, no.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, I would talk about who, you know, if I could have a group of best friends who would it be and it was always you.
[SPEAKER_00]: Jeff Lewis, Nancy Grace, and Jill Mar.
[SPEAKER_00]: You guys are my flag.
[SPEAKER_00]: That is around table.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's around table.
[SPEAKER_00]: So anyways, I'm so happy that we've now come full circle and you can be on my show, which is about people who have been reduced to a headline and know what it's like to have the whole world hate on now.
[SPEAKER_02]: You have to be as charged right here.
[SPEAKER_00]: You're I'm expert in this field.
[SPEAKER_00]: I know you are.
[SPEAKER_00]: I know you are.
[SPEAKER_00]: So before we get into all that, I'm so, you know, I want to say I'm so happy that you are back.
[SPEAKER_00]: You are in the news now, obviously, because you are in your forty city tour.
[SPEAKER_00]: My life on the PTSD list, I think it's just phenomenal.
[SPEAKER_00]: What does that feel like to be on tour again?
[SPEAKER_02]: It feels like I'm home.
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, after my Trump photo scandal, I did not work for six long years.
[SPEAKER_02]: And I kind of lost my mind, you know, because I'm a happy workaholic.
[SPEAKER_02]: And that investigation was very intense by the Department of Justice.
[SPEAKER_02]: And then of course, I got beyond canceled.
[SPEAKER_02]: I mean, actually investigated.
[SPEAKER_02]: And they were thinking of charging me with conspiracy to assassinate the president of the United States.
[SPEAKER_02]: And you know the heaviness of that then it doesn't stop there.
[SPEAKER_02]: So then I just sat around all day just abusing prescription pills.
[SPEAKER_02]: So then I tried to take my life and I overdosed and I ended up on a fifty one fifty cycle for three days.
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm gonna wait.
[SPEAKER_02]: You're going way too fast.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is crazy.
[SPEAKER_00]: No, I don't know which one I want to ask you about first.
[SPEAKER_00]: But wait, let's talk about that because you get to the point where you're so empty and you feel like no one's there.
[SPEAKER_00]: So spool back for one second.
[SPEAKER_00]: Obviously the stuff with Trump happened for people that don't know if they've been living under Iraq, you as a joke posted a photo of you holding a mask with blood, whatever.
[SPEAKER_00]: Catch up and catch up.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: And the Trump people took it very seriously way too seriously.
[SPEAKER_00]: By the way, do you think nowadays that it would have had the same kind of reaction?
[SPEAKER_02]: I don't know because it was twenty seventeen, which seems like ten like times ago.
[SPEAKER_02]: I think it would have been different if it was a guy comic.
[SPEAKER_02]: I think Trump came for me because I'm a woman.
[SPEAKER_02]: And I didn't have like I wasn't a problem anymore.
[SPEAKER_02]: Like I didn't have any institutional support.
[SPEAKER_02]: Right.
[SPEAKER_02]: That's one of the reasons to snowball, but if I was, I mean, I have posted a picture a couple of times since then, like the night that Trump did not concede, I posted it again, and it was mostly people going, oh yeah, you tried to warn us, and you know, a photo can mean a lot of things to a lot of people.
[SPEAKER_02]: And I don't mind one bit if people think it's disgusting or offended, that's the right.
[SPEAKER_02]: I have no issue with that at all.
[SPEAKER_02]: Right.
[SPEAKER_02]: I think if I posted it now, well, first of all, during Biden, it would be different because my investigation came directly from the U of the office.
[SPEAKER_02]: And I know that because I filed a freedom of information act and it revealed how serious they were.
[SPEAKER_02]: So if Trump gets really elected,
[SPEAKER_02]: which a lot of people think is possible then I would guess he would come for me again in some way just because I know him to be very petty and I've known him for many years often on and it seems like that's the sort of thing that kind of gets him off is going for people and in particular women which is why I took the photo.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, famously said nothing I want to freakin defend Megan Kelly, but he had famously said when she was monitoring moderating one of the debates, there was blood coming out of her eyes, blood coming out of her wherever.
[SPEAKER_02]: So it was a picture of him where there's blood coming out of his wherever.
[SPEAKER_02]: And that was, that was about as deep as it went.
[SPEAKER_02]: It wasn't the most deep part I've ever had.
[SPEAKER_02]: The picture would see the light of day.
[SPEAKER_02]: I never thought the photographer would give it to TMZ where Harvey Lovin has a very cozy relationship with Donald Trump.
[SPEAKER_02]: And the photo was turned into a meme and sent to Iran and Russia and China and then I was a terrorist and I was put on the no-fly list which made it near impossible to tour and so my work does that really mean you could not get on airplane?
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah
[SPEAKER_02]: And so I couldn't get on an airplane any place in the United States or overseas.
[SPEAKER_02]: And then after two months when I was finally exonerated, and I have an email from the Department of Justice saying, you've been exonerated.
[SPEAKER_02]: And I was not put on the no-fly list, but I was flagged.
[SPEAKER_02]: So I was stopped at every airport in the United States and overseas.
[SPEAKER_02]: And I was put on the interpol list overseas.
[SPEAKER_02]: So I had to tour overseas first because I knew I couldn't make a living here.
[SPEAKER_02]: But still too mad at me.
[SPEAKER_02]: And the cancellation was no joke.
[SPEAKER_02]: And so I did a tour overseas first and then Canada.
[SPEAKER_02]: And then the United States.
[SPEAKER_02]: But I was still stopped at every airport.
[SPEAKER_00]: But I mean, do you think people really took that seriously?
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, if you were to ask anyone with some common sense, they would know your comedian, even if you weren't a comedian, it's a joke.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's stupid.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's like, what is with the big reaction?
[SPEAKER_00]: And I agree with you that he can be very petty on a side note, Donald Trump called me personally when I happened to be in the middle of my scandal.
[SPEAKER_00]: My name was the most famous name.
[SPEAKER_00]: In not only the United States, but probably the world for a good hot minute.
[SPEAKER_00]: He called me personally.
[SPEAKER_00]: He asked me to be on the apprentice.
[SPEAKER_00]: I agreed.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then I felt like it was a bad idea.
[SPEAKER_00]: So I backed out.
[SPEAKER_00]: And instead I went on celebrity rehab because I felt a connection with Dr. Drew.
[SPEAKER_00]: He went on TMZ with Harvey Levin and said, I don't even know that girl.
[SPEAKER_00]: I've never spoken to her.
[SPEAKER_00]: I would never ask her to be on the apprentice.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I was like, what an asshole.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like it was because I chose someone else over him.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, and the other thing was, is then later, he called to apologize and invited me to a, his New Year's Eve dinner, whatever that he has in Marla, though, and I went, as a guest of someone, he hired someone that was a Tiger Woods impersonator to walk around the room and try and get a photo with me.
[SPEAKER_00]: Right, hopped it down.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, we're talking about something like eighth grade.
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, this is what an eight year old man.
[SPEAKER_02]: I mean, it's crazy.
[SPEAKER_02]: And so one of the reasons I took the photo is, look, there's a long history and legacy of comedians, not just making jokes, but also making statements.
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, as we say, the stuff that's uncomfortable and sometimes it's wrapped in a joke and sometimes it's kind of just what the shock value.
[SPEAKER_02]: So I agree.
[SPEAKER_02]: That photo was for shock value, but I felt like,
[SPEAKER_02]: People, especially women, weren't taking it seriously enough to show how dangerous he really is.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, I'm a proud Democrat.
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm not here to sway anybody's vote, but everybody knows how I feel, but just the notion
[SPEAKER_02]: that the president of the United States and the attorney general could decide because they don't like you, that they're going to put you on the no-fly list.
[SPEAKER_02]: Nobody, like you said about any common sense, thought that I was going to go to the White House and shop off Donald Trump's head with a freaking machete or something, but the number of people that act like that photo is real is just BS because
[SPEAKER_02]: Now the Maga people, they love to re-circulate that photo.
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, like James Woods or Kevin Sorbol, or all these stars that became Maga people, they throw that photo up way more than I ever did.
[SPEAKER_02]: And they'd love to say that they should be at Guantanamo Bay.
[SPEAKER_02]: So Trump does remember all those kind of stuff.
[SPEAKER_02]: So, you know, I would try to throw me in Guantanamo Bay with the other members of ISIS because I would put nothing past him.
[SPEAKER_02]: Right.
[SPEAKER_02]: Oh, a lot of the Trumpers have turned into Q&A's.
[SPEAKER_02]: And so now the Q&A people think I went to Epstein Island with Hillary Clinton, Madonna, and Tom Hanks.
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm harvesting baby parts.
[SPEAKER_02]: So I don't know what this world is that we're living in.
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, last time I checked, you're supposed to be able to make a joke about people places and things.
[SPEAKER_02]: You feel like about a third of the voting population is behaving like they're in a cult.
[SPEAKER_02]: And acting like you thought I was a threat to your leader.
[SPEAKER_00]: really does look like BS six years later.
[SPEAKER_00]: So I want to talk about like the getting through it part because as I know from someone who's been through something similar, that getting through it is really hard because you're by yourself, people low view, your friends disappear.
[SPEAKER_00]: They think you're a bad look or whatever.
[SPEAKER_00]: Sometimes your family walks out on you and you have no one to even listen to you because you want to say what's going on with your truth is and for in my case I couldn't, but in your case, it seems like
[SPEAKER_00]: the phone call stopped and people just decided to take, you know, to walk away.
[SPEAKER_00]: What was that like for six years not getting phone calls for work worrying about your, you know, how you're going to make a living.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then not only that, all the other things you went through, like from your addiction to the point you wanted to take your life to, you know, your cancer.
[SPEAKER_02]: I have long on my left side Rachel, that's a long, about that ridiculous.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_02]: terrible.
[SPEAKER_02]: I mean, so how did you get through that?
[SPEAKER_02]: Well, you know, the part about the friends deserve me is still nerds.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's just brutal.
[SPEAKER_02]: And as you said, it perfectly like, so people just think you're bad luck or they just think you're toxic.
[SPEAKER_02]: And it's so crazy because I would never imagine dumping a friend over something like this.
[SPEAKER_02]: But some, I mean, there were a few people I knew that became Trump supporters, so they were very loud and proud about how they felt about me publicly and also to me privately.
[SPEAKER_02]: I had senators calling me that I had had fundraisers for saying I can't be seen with you.
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, it was really heavy seeing it firing me on the ticker.
[SPEAKER_02]: No one even called me.
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, and then it's a Cooper made a statement which was hurtful to me because I really loved him and I thought we were good friends.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, so the level of betrayal was really intense and of course I was on a media blackout, which you probably were too because social media was just on edge.
[SPEAKER_02]: I think I got kicked off all the platforms.
[SPEAKER_02]: I can't remember, but it was
[SPEAKER_02]: crazy how, as you know, I couldn't turn on CNN because there'd be, you know, a tri-split of three people talking about my photo and they were all against me.
[SPEAKER_02]: Like, it wasn't like they put on like in your case.
[SPEAKER_02]: It wasn't like they didn't have someone that was saying good things about you.
[SPEAKER_02]: It was all great people trashing you and in my case saying it was over and the notion that they kept saying,
[SPEAKER_02]: and she deserves everything she has coming to her.
[SPEAKER_02]: She brought this on herself.
[SPEAKER_02]: And I thought, oh, I've taken way more offensive photos than that.
[SPEAKER_02]: And I've said things that are way more offensive.
[SPEAKER_02]: This is just the one people decided to hang their hat on.
[SPEAKER_02]: The amount of negativity is something you understand because it's almost inexplicable because you're getting it from the media, from your personal friends, from people that like go out of their way to call you like,
[SPEAKER_02]: I thought was blowing up from people I hadn't talked to in ten years and I thought he found this but I found there is a weird group of hangers on
[SPEAKER_02]: And it's almost like they wanted to be around that level of chaos.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_02]: So I had to say to certain people, like, one night came over and I was just crying and I wasn't myself.
[SPEAKER_02]: And it was only a few days in.
[SPEAKER_02]: And he just kept saying, don't be so epic.
[SPEAKER_02]: You know what's the big deal?
[SPEAKER_02]: And then I had to explain to him how it had blown up and
[SPEAKER_02]: Why it was a global issue now and he just kept saying like oh I think it'll pass yeah, yeah, and I just I had to say like
[SPEAKER_02]: I have to ask you to leave.
[SPEAKER_02]: I love you, but you're like not helping.
[SPEAKER_02]: So did you find that that when you were in the thick of a odd people kind of came out of the world where just to sort of be around the chaos?
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, a hundred percent.
[SPEAKER_00]: Some of my closest friends were people I thought would never walk away dead.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then some were so triggered by their own issues.
[SPEAKER_00]: At the time I couldn't see it, but now I can.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then when you see other scandals and you see the level of anger that people share and
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, go after someone and you're like, but that what it's about you now like that you nobody knew me nobody nobody really knew you personally clearly was a joke and the level of anger and betrayal was their own issue and triggered by something that they felt and something that they wanted to get in a herd mentality about I think and then there were people that would come in
[SPEAKER_00]: friends of mine that would be like Rachel oh my god get over it like whatever this is not a big deal you're not famous like no one even cares no one knows who you are and I would be like you have no idea what I'm going through like anyone else would have jumped over a bridge
[SPEAKER_00]: So terrible.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I have to be honest with you because I know that you tried to commit suicide and thank God you woke up from taking those pills.
[SPEAKER_00]: The only reason that I didn't have what I called the courage to do something like that because there were times that I really wanted to.
[SPEAKER_00]: I wasn't as courageous, but I, you know, I felt like I had two dogs at the time.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I loved my dogs.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I was like, who's going to take care of these dogs?
[SPEAKER_00]: And I felt like everyone hated me and didn't, like, those dogs would go into like a shelter or something.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I felt like I had to be there for them.
[SPEAKER_00]: And that was what kept me around.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then even in darker times later, his life has gone on.
[SPEAKER_00]: And that stigma has taken, you know, it's faded, but it's still not gone.
[SPEAKER_00]: And, you know, when I had, you know, I've had a daughter, I've an eleven year old daughter, but over the course of times when things have gotten really bad, you know, I think to myself, I don't want,
[SPEAKER_00]: hurt dad to have custody.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't want anyone else to have custody of her.
[SPEAKER_00]: I need to be able to see her through life.
[SPEAKER_00]: So that keeps me around.
[SPEAKER_00]: But what kept you around?
[SPEAKER_02]: First of all, I just was convinced.
[SPEAKER_02]: And first of all, this really was the pill addiction talking.
[SPEAKER_02]: So I'm not renowned for three and a half years, but I became very seriously addicted to prescription pills.
[SPEAKER_02]: And I know I blame you the Trump thing for everything, but that's really when it kicked into high gear because I was just sitting around all day, not working all the sudden, I'm on a, you know, it was on a fifty city tour.
[SPEAKER_02]: The last twenty five cities are canceled because of bomb threats to the theaters and death threats to me and all the stuff.
[SPEAKER_02]: And I just thought, well, you know, I'm jacked upon pills that I'm thinking, I've had a good run, I've had a good life.
[SPEAKER_02]: Now I thought I was over.
[SPEAKER_02]: Now it's over.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's over.
[SPEAKER_02]: And I, then, husband, I'm getting divorced also, but my then husband, I thought he'd be better off without me.
[SPEAKER_02]: By the way, Ella, we're getting divorced.
[SPEAKER_02]: It'll be better off without me anyway.
[SPEAKER_02]: But, you know, I laugh, but I laugh at everything.
[SPEAKER_02]: She just had to laugh at everything.
[SPEAKER_02]: But I talk about it in my new show.
[SPEAKER_02]: And I know that's tricky because I'm literally talking about my suicide attempt.
[SPEAKER_02]: But it was so over the top and it was so drug fueled that like, I actually want to look for the humor.
[SPEAKER_02]: And I can tell by now loving the audiences because I say, okay, I'm going to talk about something really uncomfortable.
[SPEAKER_02]: And if you're not happy I'll move on, but if you're into it, I'll keep going.
[SPEAKER_02]: And just let the audience decide.
[SPEAKER_02]: And I talk about the pill addiction.
[SPEAKER_02]: I talk about what it was like to be on a fifth-you-one-fifty cycle for three days.
[SPEAKER_02]: I see it are cyanide, that's celebrity hospital.
[SPEAKER_02]: I did not get the Beyonce birthday sweet.
[SPEAKER_02]: Let me just say that.
[SPEAKER_02]: And I talk about the lung cancer because if one more oncologist says, yes, Ms.
[SPEAKER_02]: Kathy Lee Kifford, we can see you now, Ms.
[SPEAKER_02]: Kifford.
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, you just have to laugh at that stuff.
[SPEAKER_02]: And we're going to yell at the receptionist at the oncologist's office, no.
[SPEAKER_02]: And so like I said, I'm going through a divorce now.
[SPEAKER_02]: That's another sort of bomb that went off in my life.
[SPEAKER_02]: And that's why I called to show my life on the PTSD list because I actually was diagnosed with a complex PTSD, which I feel guilty even saying because normally it's for, you know, combat veterans.
[SPEAKER_02]: But I wanted to know, have you ever been diagnosed with that?
[SPEAKER_00]: Um, thank you for asking.
[SPEAKER_00]: I, um, I, right before COVID, um, really had to break down.
[SPEAKER_00]: And it was like, I was, I tried to open a children store, which I did for five years.
[SPEAKER_00]: It was like known as the best children store in New York.
[SPEAKER_00]: I loved it.
[SPEAKER_00]: But people would come in and be like, there would be articles like, oh, I'm buying Ritzie clothes from Tiger Woods, Mr.
[SPEAKER_00]: And it was like too much.
[SPEAKER_00]: I ended up during COVID having to close it.
[SPEAKER_00]: There was a point where I was like, I can't handle life anymore.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't have an identity.
[SPEAKER_00]: I have no agency to my name.
[SPEAKER_00]: Everyone else is Rachel, you could tell com, something.
[SPEAKER_00]: I checked myself into the meadows.
[SPEAKER_00]: I did not have any addictions.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, I took ambient to go to sleep at night and I, you know, I had some addictions like that.
[SPEAKER_00]: But I was not a drinker.
[SPEAKER_00]: I was not, you know, my father died of a cocaine overdose.
[SPEAKER_00]: I was very scared.
[SPEAKER_00]: that I was going to become an addict.
[SPEAKER_00]: So I really didn't do all that stuff.
[SPEAKER_00]: Check myself in for ten days.
[SPEAKER_00]: They do this big diagnosis thing on you and they came back and said you have post-traumatic stress disorder and that obviously made sense, but I didn't.
[SPEAKER_00]: I thought it was like again for combat.
[SPEAKER_00]: you know, warriors or people who had been through some really real trauma.
[SPEAKER_00]: And you know, I've been through losing my father when I was young.
[SPEAKER_00]: I lost my fiance in September, eleven.
[SPEAKER_00]: I went through one of the other, you know, one of the biggest sex scandals, you know, in our lifetime, besides the Monica and Bill thing.
[SPEAKER_00]: And it really took a toll on me that, you know, when you know, I know you have all people know this.
[SPEAKER_00]: When you turn out the lights at night, put your head on the pillow and you're alone in your thoughts.
[SPEAKER_00]: That is the the worst place to be when you're unhappy when you're lost you feel misunderstood you feel like nobody gets you and it's not even worth talking because you just can't explain what that's like to people and you don't know how you're going to have that come back.
[SPEAKER_00]: And for me, that was great to have a, you know, a label kind of put on it that you have PS PTSD and, and this is how you can now deal with it.
[SPEAKER_00]: So I love the title of your show.
[SPEAKER_02]: Oh, good.
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm glad you like it.
[SPEAKER_02]: And obviously
[SPEAKER_02]: back to my life on the deal is my TV show.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, I'm glad you said that, Rachel, because you've been through real real trauma.
[SPEAKER_02]: And so I would, you know, I guess I'll make fun of my own diagnosis because that's what I do, but it makes sense for you.
[SPEAKER_02]: And you've had real deal trauma.
[SPEAKER_02]: And so I'm glad you went to the meadows that's very smart.
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm glad you're taking care of yourself.
[SPEAKER_02]: And when I first got sober, I went back and watched every single episode of Celebrity Rehab and sober house.
[SPEAKER_02]: And I was so, I had seen it the first go around, but I'm glad your friends with your Pinsky, I like him too.
[SPEAKER_02]: And I'd like you checked into the meadows because that's very smart.
[SPEAKER_02]: Did you feel like you kind of have like a tune of afterwards or how did it make you feel?
[SPEAKER_00]: I did.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, I felt like it gave me some tools, you know, to work with.
[SPEAKER_00]: I saw that I get into relationships for bad reasons and, you know, it definitely gave me tools and I felt I felt seen.
[SPEAKER_00]: I felt heard, you know, and it was about taking that outside and, you know,
[SPEAKER_00]: Figuring out how to move forward in my life and obviously I still struggle with the things going on in my head, but I know how to deal with them better and I know how to deal with the fact that things happened that doesn't make me who I am.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, you know, I really appreciate that, you know, someone said, here's what's going on with you.
[SPEAKER_00]: There's nothing wrong with you, you know, and this is why
[SPEAKER_00]: You turn to pills for in your case, maybe, or it's why sometimes you're depressed or you do things.
[SPEAKER_00]: But you've turned to comedy, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, so like, so talks to me.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, I know you think you've talked a little bit about your suicide attempt.
[SPEAKER_00]: Was that like your rock bottom of being like, okay, okay, okay.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I need to, I need to want to live.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, and what happened was I took a bunch of pills and I thought I would take enough to go to sleep quietly.
[SPEAKER_02]: And all that happened was I stumbled around the house and I fell down the stairs and I woke up and I didn't know what happened.
[SPEAKER_02]: There was blood and bruises and laceration.
[SPEAKER_02]: I called one of my doctors who was dumb enough to give me a cell phone number and I told him what happened.
[SPEAKER_02]: And I went in and they put me, you know, on a three day cycle.
[SPEAKER_02]: But what I'm grateful for is number one is someone
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, my doctor said, come right in.
[SPEAKER_02]: He was like, well, give you a checkup, you know, meaning he knew that if I tried to take my life, I should, you know, be on a cycle, which he was right.
[SPEAKER_02]: And it was really grateful because the doctor who saw me at Cedar's, number one, she said something really meaningful.
[SPEAKER_02]: And it's kind of like when you're talking about your dogs more, but she said, you know, there's a lot of studies about how hard it is to be the survivor of someone who commits suicide, whether it's your best girlfriend or a relative,
[SPEAKER_02]: And I thought, yeah, I was being pretty selfish.
[SPEAKER_02]: I was whacked out on pills.
[SPEAKER_02]: And I was thinking about that.
[SPEAKER_02]: And I, I would, I would feel guilty of one of my besties committed suicide.
[SPEAKER_02]: I feel like I haven't done something or maybe I should have said something.
[SPEAKER_02]: So I was grateful.
[SPEAKER_02]: She pointed that out.
[SPEAKER_02]: And then she opened me up right away with a woman who's associated with AA and wealth staff.
[SPEAKER_02]: And I go to alcoholics anonymous, even though I never drank.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's the same addiction as gal, but they have more choices for meetings, and I like to go to just women's meetings.
[SPEAKER_02]: And I was glad I got hooked up with AA because it's free.
[SPEAKER_02]: They don't have a leader, so it's not a cult.
[SPEAKER_02]: So I let the way they run, and it's been around forever.
[SPEAKER_02]: So I do, I got so far on Zoom.
[SPEAKER_02]: And I allowed to zoom meetings, try try to do one a day.
[SPEAKER_02]: And I did have to get new friends, which was kind of an art form.
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm sixty three now.
[SPEAKER_02]: So the traffic happened when it was great.
[SPEAKER_02]: And well, I went to end my body should be ridiculous, Rachel.
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm seeing, perhaps you've seen some of my bikini photos.
[SPEAKER_02]: Anyway, I had to learn that you can make new friends at this age.
[SPEAKER_02]: And I absolutely think the friends I have around me now are truly my best friends that I've ever had.
[SPEAKER_02]: And it looks that
[SPEAKER_02]: I, you know, if I didn't meet them until after the Trump thing, there were people that even opened with, like, by the way, that Trump thing is ridiculous, or there's somebody that stuck through me and to get through COVID and not working, I started having these salon lunches and dinners.
[SPEAKER_02]: I want to have one for you next time you're in LA.
[SPEAKER_00]: I want to ask you about that.
[SPEAKER_00]: But before I ask you, how did you find these friends?
[SPEAKER_00]: Because I'm really like a recluse still.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like I don't trust people.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm scared.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm scared open up to people at this point.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm kind of like, do you deserve for me to open up to you?
[SPEAKER_00]: Because are you going to betray me?
[SPEAKER_00]: And you know, it's I feel very close to the people that I'm close to.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I know, and it's very hard to meet new people.
[SPEAKER_00]: But like I've met Meredith Lynch.
[SPEAKER_00]: I love her.
[SPEAKER_00]: I had her on my show.
[SPEAKER_00]: And that did to her, that's how I found out about your lunches.
[SPEAKER_00]: But how did you find these friends that you could trust?
[SPEAKER_02]: Well, first of all, let know of the ages you because I thought because of a certain age I would be able to.
[SPEAKER_02]: I did get a lot of my new friends for me.
[SPEAKER_02]: So I'd say about half my new friends are in the silver community.
[SPEAKER_02]: And I think it's because of AA meetings, you know, everybody shares for three minutes.
[SPEAKER_02]: And it really got me in the groove of being an environments that are just no BS.
[SPEAKER_02]: People just really talking about substantive things.
[SPEAKER_02]: If you're in an ad meeting and you've got three minutes, you're probably talking about how you wanted to take a pill and you didn't, or how much your life is better without pills, you're not called.
[SPEAKER_02]: So it just got me in that way.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, I can't do small talking anymore.
[SPEAKER_02]: I can do it a little bit, but like then I want to move on to actually hearing from people.
[SPEAKER_02]: So I got a lot from A. And then I just started to try to be open.
[SPEAKER_02]: If somebody would say, hey, do you want to bring somebody to one of these lunches or dinners?
[SPEAKER_02]: And I have a rule which is no dumb dumps.
[SPEAKER_02]: And I know that sounds silly.
[SPEAKER_02]: But I don't want to sit in a dinner party or lunch party with someone like
[SPEAKER_02]: So, I'm really gonna read the news because it's native, so I don't know anything, so you've just played everything to me.
[SPEAKER_02]: So, bring something to the table.
[SPEAKER_02]: So, I'll always ask his honesty and authenticity.
[SPEAKER_02]: And I think I approach my friendships like that, but some of my friends I've gotten from going to my small group of people I actually trust.
[SPEAKER_02]: And like you said, you get to a place where you go, hey, I actually get to decide if I wanna be your friend.
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm not just gonna collect anybody,
[SPEAKER_02]: And then they might have another good friend too.
[SPEAKER_02]: So we'll see what happens now that I'm single.
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm not looking for a guy, but I also want to be open.
[SPEAKER_02]: Like, I don't want to shut myself off because you never know.
[SPEAKER_02]: But yeah, I don't know how to find the guy.
[SPEAKER_02]: And yet this is how I felt when I was looking for friends.
[SPEAKER_02]: I thought, oh, never have friends again.
[SPEAKER_02]: Right.
[SPEAKER_02]: Well, yeah, I learned.
[SPEAKER_02]: These are kind of markers for someone who's trustworthy.
[SPEAKER_02]: And then you get your antenna goes up for people that are going to kind of screw you over.
[SPEAKER_00]: Right.
[SPEAKER_00]: Exactly.
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_00]: So you don't think you're going to go on like bumble or hinge anytime soon.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'd like to pay Mr. Go on, Ryan.
[SPEAKER_00]: What are you talking about?
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm just looking on the waiting list on Raya for like seven years.
[SPEAKER_00]: They only lay on anybody you want.
[SPEAKER_00]: No way.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, but it's really hard out there.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, God, well, it's not hard to get a date.
[SPEAKER_00]: It won't be hard for you to get a date, but it'll be hard to get a date with somebody that you actually are impressed by.
[SPEAKER_02]: Or it's hard to be a woman who's notorious.
[SPEAKER_02]: And when I are both not just well-known names,
[SPEAKER_02]: You and I are both now in the notorious category, which either one of us signed up for, but that's the, look, the great Jane Fonda told me about the Trump head picture.
[SPEAKER_02]: She said, that's going to be on your tombstone kid.
[SPEAKER_02]: Just deal with it.
[SPEAKER_02]: And I would pass on to you, meaning
[SPEAKER_02]: I would get, first I would get really mad when people ask me about the Trump experience over and over.
[SPEAKER_02]: And then I realized, you know what, that's actually a normal, okay question.
[SPEAKER_02]: If I didn't know me, but if I took myself out and you said, hey, you're going to be Kathy Griffin, I admit, I probably want to ask her, maybe one question about the Trump photo.
[SPEAKER_02]: So I've learned.
[SPEAKER_02]: Explain it in a six-ing way.
[SPEAKER_02]: Don't be offended as someone asks.
[SPEAKER_02]: So guys get over that hunt that they're about on and move on.
[SPEAKER_02]: So I just now I say it with a smile and I'm really honest and I try to get it out at like ninety seconds.
[SPEAKER_02]: So what do you do when to this day when people ask you about this year's scandal and tiger and on so stuff?
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, I mean, I do feel the same way I get annoyed.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm like, oh my gosh, but I do like exactly what you say.
[SPEAKER_00]: I do realize that this is how they associate me in their head.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I sort of still feel like I have to attack person one, one person at a time to get them to know me because they've read so much stuff about me for so many years.
[SPEAKER_00]: They have some conjured up opinion in their head.
[SPEAKER_00]: And it might take them a little bit of an interaction.
[SPEAKER_00]: And once they realize that that's has nothing to do with who I am.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I was a person before.
[SPEAKER_00]: I have been a person after.
[SPEAKER_00]: And like when they get, at that point, I think they get a little embarrassed that they continue on questions with that, then it's like, wait a minute, this is weird.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like I was interviewed.
[SPEAKER_00]: The last time it was on, first of all, people walk up to me in a bar all the time and ask dumb questions.
[SPEAKER_00]: The last time I was sort of offended, I was on the Wendy Williams show.
[SPEAKER_00]: And the last like four years.
[SPEAKER_00]: And it was about something completely different.
[SPEAKER_00]: And by the way, I mean, I'll say it right now because it was so stupid, I have had such a hard time finding a job, like you were trying to capture the fact, when I had real credible jobs that worked at Bloomberg News, I worked at CMBC, you know, that I had to take a job a couple years ago as the spokesman for seeking arrangement, okay?
[SPEAKER_00]: This is a sugar dating website, which is the largest website in the world, but no one wants to admit that they're on it, okay?
[SPEAKER_00]: So they paid me twenty thousand dollars a month, which was a lot of money.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I was like, I have to support my kid, no one's supported me.
[SPEAKER_00]: And how am I going to do this?
[SPEAKER_00]: So I took the job.
[SPEAKER_00]: And Wendy thought it was an inch, you know, it was all over the headlines.
[SPEAKER_00]: She thought it was a good story.
[SPEAKER_00]: And she's like, I want a sugar daddy.
[SPEAKER_00]: So I want to have Rachel, you could tell on.
[SPEAKER_00]: So they booked me.
[SPEAKER_00]: I came on.
[SPEAKER_00]: And for the first seven minutes of a ten minute spot.
[SPEAKER_00]: She's talking about tiger and what happened with tiger and like kind of digging into me about it.
[SPEAKER_02]: And I think you kind of get re-traveled Jesus.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, and I was like finally I'm like, wouldn't you know this happened like over a decade ago and like, but we're here to talk about something else and she was so stuck on it.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't think she knew how to intervene me because she thought that's what their all there was to me, you know, and that to me was
[SPEAKER_00]: It was an eye opener of like if that could even happen to someone like her where they get, you know, they don't realize there's anything else to talk about it would happen to anyone.
[SPEAKER_00]: So I try not to get upset now, but I do if people want that to be the emphasis of our relationship if they keep bringing it up, then I I can't be friends, you know, I can't be friends with
[SPEAKER_02]: absolutely, same thing.
[SPEAKER_02]: I went on the last time I think I went on the Winnie Williams show and now we all know she's not doing well and this is very serious issues.
[SPEAKER_02]: And I went on and I've always got along great with her and she, you know, I knew she'd want to talk about the Trump thing and so I did.
[SPEAKER_02]: But then the next day, she and her panel did a whole thing about how I really did deserve a moment.
[SPEAKER_02]: And I was just like, wait a minute, you know, I was on the no-fly list.
[SPEAKER_02]: And I had to lawyer up to the tune of like a million dollars illegal fees.
[SPEAKER_02]: And, you know, thank God I have been saving my pennies, but still, I don't think people in, you know, in six years of reflection, anyone should be saying that what happened to me was justified.
[SPEAKER_00]: You can hate the picture, but yeah, the fact that, right, and they don't see the seriousness of what it caused you.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, and also it's one of those things where it's easy to pick on the person that happened to you, but I always ask people who think I deserved it.
[SPEAKER_02]: What if this would have been your mom, or your sister, or your wife, or whoever woman in your life that you love the most?
[SPEAKER_02]: Because I'm sure this happened to you, but when you're a woman in your in this scandal, it's all about, like I don't know, can I swear or not?
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, of course.
[SPEAKER_02]: Okay, so all the threats were about my looks, my age, and how the men wanted to rape me.
[SPEAKER_02]: So as I wanted you to get raped at Guadalamo Bay, while Trump watches, and I wanted to stab you in the cont, and it was all this really violent, gory stuff, but you need to a female, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: That's for me it was I hope you get AIDS and die.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, so that's one of those things where when someone is being not only flipping about the skin all the basically kind of soft in playing that you had in coming.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, you don't understand the threats of rape and you get AIDS and die.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, that's the part where you when you've explained to someone you hope that they'll at least say, okay, well, that's going too far.
[SPEAKER_01]: Right.
[SPEAKER_02]: Right.
[SPEAKER_02]: You can say that that picture I took was really definitely move the line and then crossed it.
[SPEAKER_02]: I've never said it had it.
[SPEAKER_02]: But like I said, do you really want your mom or your sister, your best girlfriend to be getting these kind of threats on a daily basis where the FBI is coming over.
[SPEAKER_02]: and doing all that nonsense.
[SPEAKER_00]: And for you also, what I think is most outstanding and the most painful is that affected your credibility, the effect of what you had done for so long and what you could do going forward for quite a while.
[SPEAKER_00]: And that to me is what is so upsetting about it.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like I've watched you on your little clips of you running out on stage now, in your little vegan shorts or whatever.
[SPEAKER_00]: And it actually almost, it brings me to tears to see how excited you are.
[SPEAKER_00]: How everyone is clapping for you.
[SPEAKER_00]: Everyone deserves that stand-up and cheer moment.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think it's so wonderful.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm so proud of you.
[SPEAKER_00]: And that's why I think it's important to talk about not what actually happened, but like the getting through it because you went through so much and I actually don't want to harp out anymore.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, but because I know you've been through and I want to talk about more stuff with you, but I think that is incredible that you got through it because that six years was painful and long I know.
[SPEAKER_00]: So you deserve everything that you are getting now and I just want to do it.
[SPEAKER_02]: Every show is a treat.
[SPEAKER_02]: Every show is, you know, kind of a small miracle because I was like not cancel.
[SPEAKER_02]: It was just basically erased and you made it really good point about your entire body of work means nothing once that scandal happens.
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, I had enemies and a Grammy for best comedy album.
[SPEAKER_02]: And I had done, I had set records that no woman in comedy has said.
[SPEAKER_02]: I mean, the girl Guinness Book of World Records for having done more televised specials that any comedian, male or female living or dead, all that went out the window.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_02]: Like you, I'm rebuilding now.
[SPEAKER_02]: I actually feel like I'm kind of at the beginning of my un-cancelation.
[SPEAKER_02]: I don't have special yet, so I might still be scary to some of the check signers in my own industry, but show by show.
[SPEAKER_02]: I feel like things are getting better and the audience has been outstanding.
[SPEAKER_02]: They've been on their feet at the end of every show.
[SPEAKER_02]: They kind of know either about the Trump thing or the cancer, the divorce, or the pill stuff, and ultimately the PTSD stuff, I kind of feel like applies to our whole country.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, everybody, everybody should know what it is or has felt that way.
[SPEAKER_02]: the world really is crazier than I've ever seen it after doing stand-aid for stand-up for decades.
[SPEAKER_02]: I feel like there's a little bit of a collective PTSD that's also happening for those who are diagnosed or not diagnosed yet.
[SPEAKER_00]: Right, so I want to ask you, you mentioned your husband and use are getting into voice.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, wasn't he your tour manager?
[SPEAKER_02]: He was my tour manager as well.
[SPEAKER_02]: So, so what happened?
[SPEAKER_02]: Well, we, I probably shouldn't have let our lives get so intermingled, you know, and I, you know, I thought I was going to be with him forever and, you know, I
[SPEAKER_02]: what what happened was the marriage became for me untenable and I wanted to work and I thought they'll be another self-help book I can read or they'll be a different therapist we can try or whatever and it just wasn't in the cards but let me tell you I did not expect it to happen I didn't think it would happen two days before Christmas where I'm calling divorce attorneys on Christmas Eve like
[SPEAKER_02]: It was, it was just another thing that kind of may be go, okay, you're going to get triggered.
[SPEAKER_02]: And yes, it triggered my PTSD something awful.
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm not going to lie.
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm only, I'm seven eight days from the last time I saw him.
[SPEAKER_02]: So I've gone what they call no contact, which is essential for my situation.
[SPEAKER_02]: So there's not a situation where we could be like buddies or cordial or anything.
[SPEAKER_02]: And so
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, I count the days that I do not wake up in a state of like panic.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_02]: Believe it or not, in a way, it does trigger the Trump stuff and the pill stuff and the cancer stuff.
[SPEAKER_02]: Because it's another milestone.
[SPEAKER_02]: We were only married for years, but we were together for twelve.
[SPEAKER_00]: And like you said, he was my tour manager.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: And here you are on tour.
[SPEAKER_00]: And you obviously are used to working with him.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, and also somebody that went through everything with you in the last six years.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm was, you know, for better for worse at the time there and with you.
[SPEAKER_00]: So that was very hard.
[SPEAKER_02]: It was hard.
[SPEAKER_02]: And like I said, I thought I'd be with the sky forever.
[SPEAKER_02]: But I do.
[SPEAKER_02]: I am happy to report.
[SPEAKER_02]: I have a female to her manager now.
[SPEAKER_02]: So I promise not to marry her.
[SPEAKER_02]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_02]: She promises not to marry me.
[SPEAKER_02]: Not that there's anything wrong with it.
[SPEAKER_02]: No, not that I'm judging.
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm just saying, you know, for me, it may or may not have been what went to the divorce, I don't know, but I think the fact that our lives were tuned to look, I think there's still a lot of gender politics.
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm just gonna say, it makes me sad that in this day and age, I think there's still an issue with a guy being Mr. Kathy Griffin.
[SPEAKER_02]: And I didn't think that was the case anymore, but I think that might still be an issue.
[SPEAKER_02]: And the reason I bring that up is,
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, one thing that I can make fun of Taylor Swift all day long, although I'm terrified of the Swifties, but I mean, the thing that I do love is in the history of pop music and rock and roll when it comes to women, there's never been a female pop star, a rock star that had her man literally the football hero, like this pumping at her shows.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_02]: Oh, like Steve, you next didn't have that luxury.
[SPEAKER_02]: Everyone was share was Mr. Share.
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, Streisand does not have that luxury.
[SPEAKER_02]: So I hope there's a change in a shift that's finally happening because certainly I've experienced guys that don't want to be with a woman who's well known, don't want to be with a woman who's a comic.
[SPEAKER_02]: When you're a comic and you're a guy at sexy, when you're a woman,
[SPEAKER_02]: It's hard to find a guy that's comfortable being the back of a theater chair and you on or sit down theater chair and you on.
[SPEAKER_02]: But I'm sure you've had issues with guys that are apprehensive of being Mr. Rachel, you could tell.
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, but I'm sure that, you know, for it's intimidating, I'm sure for them because you've seen much more powerful and people want to be around you instead of them and they probably can't live up to this manliness.
[SPEAKER_00]: But you're you're right in what you're talking about with Taylor and Travis because I mean, he wins this like what kind of a you can even write this?
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, he wins the Super Bowl and then she's the biggest star around.
[SPEAKER_00]: And how many times did you watch that video of her jumping off stage and running into his arms?
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, I love it.
[SPEAKER_00]: I love it.
[SPEAKER_00]: I love it.
[SPEAKER_00]: It was so good.
[SPEAKER_02]: And like I said, it doesn't matter if you like or don't like her music, it doesn't matter if you, you know, whatever.
[SPEAKER_02]: I hope she does stump for Joe Biden.
[SPEAKER_02]: I'll just say that because
[SPEAKER_02]: She might be able to tip the election herself.
[SPEAKER_02]: Like if she gets me and I'm Biden, she could actually be the deciding factor.
[SPEAKER_02]: But just to be a woman on that stage, run into her man's arms.
[SPEAKER_02]: He's the Super Bowl champ.
[SPEAKER_02]: He's celebrating her.
[SPEAKER_02]: And yeah, we've never seen it.
[SPEAKER_02]: So certainly the female comics
[SPEAKER_02]: who went before I, Joan Rivers, Philistiller, Mom's Baby, they never had that luxury either.
[SPEAKER_02]: So I just like to see a powerful, well-known woman getting a guy who's not afraid to go to her show and stir her on.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: What do you, that remind me that what do you think of this concept of like when people get too big?
[SPEAKER_00]: It ends up, it ends up never working out.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, I'm wondering if you think Taylor will ever have a fall from grace, because if you've seen it with anyone from, you know, Tiger Woods to you to any situation, it's like when people get really famous, really big, everyone likes them and is on their side, there will be a tipping point where everyone wants to pull them back down, which what I like to call it as crabs and a barrel mentality that they all
[SPEAKER_00]: climb up and then all of a sudden when they get to the top, the rest of the crabs are pulling them down.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I think that there's something to be said for that.
[SPEAKER_00]: I've kind of never seen someone that stays on top and remains there forever.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, besides a very few people, but there's a sort of fall from grace.
[SPEAKER_02]: It abs and flows even with the really big stars like I went to see the Madonna show last week and a lot of people are given her shit because she's dressing like that at her age or whatever I feel opposite I'm like you guys don't you think maybe she did the tour
[SPEAKER_02]: because the point of the tour was to show I'm sixty-five and I'm still doing the dance moves from the video twenty-five years ago and she does look incredible and she really does have the body of a teenager and so I sniff out the edges and then the tragedy so if Taylor Swift is going to form that way it probably will be the tragedy I'm just going to call it yeah people are
[SPEAKER_02]: They're giving her, you know, her starter now, but you're right, especially when it's a female.
[SPEAKER_02]: There's going to be people waiting to tear her down and already the Trump people are going for Taylor Swift because they think she's a lefty.
[SPEAKER_02]: I don't even know if she is right.
[SPEAKER_02]: I will say the magas don't stand a chance to get this against the Swifties.
[SPEAKER_02]: I mean, that's one of those.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's so weird.
[SPEAKER_02]: They're not me, are not me.
[SPEAKER_02]: She's their queen and I'm really scary.
[SPEAKER_02]: I like this very passionate to say the least.
[SPEAKER_02]: So I think that she's got her Swifties behind her and so that's an extra layer of protection.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, wouldn't have been there for a star ten years ago even.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, wait, I want to go back for a second because you're talking about how important friends are now, especially now that you're going through a divorce, too.
[SPEAKER_00]: I want to talk about these ladies that lunch thing that you do because everyone's in a while, you'll post a really fun photo and it's all these random famous people and some that are not so famous.
[SPEAKER_00]: But like you talked about how that started, but like, what is that something you do want some on?
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, what do you guys talk about?
[SPEAKER_00]: Give us a little insight, scoop to that.
[SPEAKER_02]: Well, I stole the idea from a couple of older women who are no longer with us.
[SPEAKER_02]: One was the great Gloria Vanderbilt, who's Anderson Cooper's mom as well, and she would have these dinner parties, and because she was older, older, folks don't bring phones to the table.
[SPEAKER_02]: So it's a completely different experience.
[SPEAKER_02]: And she also would have a round table, so everybody is looking at each other, which is key.
[SPEAKER_02]: Another one was a former super agent named Sue Mängers and she's someone I read about as a kid in Illinois because she was a female super agent and she represented Warren Badey at the height of his Warren Badey and Stephen Queen at the height of a Stephen Queen but she was a woman and she would have these dinner parties and all these icons would attend everyone from Jack Nicholson to Paul Simon to Steve Martin and I got to go to a few of those parties and
[SPEAKER_02]: And no one would even dare think of looking at their phone because Sue would sort of yell during these parties, which I also still bad idea.
[SPEAKER_02]: So the rules are no phones are a lot of the table.
[SPEAKER_02]: I don't want to hear about your kid being sick, your kid is fine.
[SPEAKER_02]: You don't need to talk to the nanny every five minutes.
[SPEAKER_02]: My friends, their kids are all grown anyway.
[SPEAKER_02]: And no side conversations.
[SPEAKER_02]: And that's key because you put a group of ten to twelve women together and you want to meet the person next to you and then, you know, I always
[SPEAKER_02]: I cast it like a play first of all, and I do name cards at the table, and it's catered.
[SPEAKER_02]: So I have to do a show up and talk, but I purposely put people that don't know each other next to each other.
[SPEAKER_02]: Oh, that's right.
[SPEAKER_02]: Once we start, it's one person talking at a time.
[SPEAKER_02]: And you'd be amazed at how that's a game changer because then you actually get to know everybody.
[SPEAKER_02]: And you just try person, I'll call on them because I can tell like who's an introvert at the party.
[SPEAKER_02]: So I'm calling people if need be.
[SPEAKER_02]: And every song will do a question for the whole table, but usually people just
[SPEAKER_02]: Open up.
[SPEAKER_02]: And I think the magic of it is simply because people aren't on their phones.
[SPEAKER_02]: They have to actual conversation and really listening.
[SPEAKER_02]: And there is something about putting famous people with non-famous people that makes the famous people kind of lose, leave their ego at the door.
[SPEAKER_02]: And the non-famous people kind of up their game.
[SPEAKER_02]: We want to keep up with this person, or wow, this person just told an amazing story.
[SPEAKER_02]: And I'm having one on Wednesday, and I should have a guest of honor, which also is good because it makes people behave better.
[SPEAKER_00]: One day, like a secret, or they know who the guest of honor.
[SPEAKER_02]: I tell everybody, like, I have one for Monty Lewinsky.
[SPEAKER_02]: I had one for Stormy Daniels.
[SPEAKER_02]: I had one for Mary Trump.
[SPEAKER_02]: I had one for Martin Sheen, I had one for Officer Mike Finone, who's the cop on January six that got pulled into the crowd and they kissed him and he had a heart attack and it will stine right there in live tea.
[SPEAKER_02]: And so I usually try to do a couple of comedy people, some journalists.
[SPEAKER_02]: I got so a lot of journalists after my Trump things.
[SPEAKER_02]: I did a lot of interviews.
[SPEAKER_02]: So that's kind of a different group of people.
[SPEAKER_00]: So it's not necessarily a theme.
[SPEAKER_00]: It just has a person of honor and then they kind of, okay, God.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's no, I'm having, I have a little bit of a theme for this Wednesday, which is if you've ever been affected by a narcissist, like if a true
[SPEAKER_02]: pretty much diagnosed narcissists ever adversely affected your life, whether it was a boyfriend or a boss or your mom.
[SPEAKER_02]: And so that's our theme for Wednesday.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's amazing.
[SPEAKER_00]: I do a lot of those episodes on my show by the right.
[SPEAKER_02]: Because I didn't really understand what a real narcissist was until I read about it.
[SPEAKER_02]: I thought a narcissist just meant someone who likes the spotlight like me.
[SPEAKER_02]: And then I read that a narcissist is someone who lacks empathy.
[SPEAKER_02]: which ended up explaining a lot, but also it's just a mind-blowing way to live.
[SPEAKER_02]: Like I can't even imagine going in day without empathy.
[SPEAKER_02]: These narcissists, they wear a mask and then I realize, oh, this person in my life was probably narcissists, this person showed a real lack of empathy.
[SPEAKER_02]: And it kind of brings some pieces together.
[SPEAKER_02]: So that's kind of the theme for Wednesday.
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, that's fun.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's, you know, a really nice group of ladies.
[SPEAKER_02]: And like I said, all I know is it always different?
[SPEAKER_02]: Yes, it's, I rotate the, and I have men and women, and sometimes just women.
[SPEAKER_02]: I haven't done one with all guys, but like I did one for Dylan Melvaney.
[SPEAKER_02]: And I thought I did two for her.
[SPEAKER_02]: One was all women.
[SPEAKER_02]: And then I did a mixed one because I said, okay, you're a woman now.
[SPEAKER_02]: You want to know what it's like to really be a woman in a dinner party?
[SPEAKER_02]: I invited a bunch of alpha guys.
[SPEAKER_02]: And I said, let's see how you're like being a woman when these guys talk over you at the dinner per table and man's playing everything.
[SPEAKER_02]: It was really funny because she said next to me and she was like, yeah, these guys just start talking about it and they want to.
[SPEAKER_02]: I said, oh yeah, they think they're running this table.
[SPEAKER_02]: You better get in there girl.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's somewhere laughing, but it's always an interesting group.
[SPEAKER_02]: And like I said, I don't know what it is about having a table where everyone's actually looking at each other, but everybody ends up opening up.
[SPEAKER_02]: And we just tape, we tape a couple of minutes just to put around social media.
[SPEAKER_02]: But I don't like video tape them because I think people wouldn't say the things that they're actually saying if they knew they're on tape.
[SPEAKER_00]: Of course, yeah, they can get vulnerable without it.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think that's that's great.
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, so I have a couple of like questions because I know we're kind of running short on time here.
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, um, do you think thing you will talk about Trump and your Twitter?
[SPEAKER_02]: I don't talk about Trump with his new show at all, but it's not that I'm afraid to anything.
[SPEAKER_02]: If he doesn't make things particularly egregious that day, then I'll mention it.
[SPEAKER_02]: Like three weeks ago, I was doing shows that I mentioned the E-D-D-three point three million dollar judgment, E-G-M-O-R.
[SPEAKER_02]: Trump.
[SPEAKER_02]: E-G-N has been in a couple of the salons, and she was my guest of honor twice.
[SPEAKER_02]: That's what I mean.
[SPEAKER_02]: I wanted to meet her.
[SPEAKER_02]: So I mentioned that in the audience goes crazy.
[SPEAKER_02]: But other than that, he kind of just doesn't come up.
[SPEAKER_02]: I have like a great story about going on vacation to Mexico with Cia, the singer, where just everything goes wrong.
[SPEAKER_02]: I talk about the PTSD things that I do to help me get better, which are ridiculous.
[SPEAKER_02]: Like I'm just telling you to your face.
[SPEAKER_02]: If you were to walk in on any given day,
[SPEAKER_02]: I got so sick from my PTSD I couldn't stop vomiting for like ten minutes and I was like eighty seven pounds and I was so sick and I was in bed all the time it was gross and so I talked about things I do that you could walk in on for example at any moment I could be on all fours on the carpet behind me meowing like a kitty cat or mode doing cat cow
[SPEAKER_02]: Well, I didn't know that's a thing.
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm not, now you're acting like it's normal.
[SPEAKER_02]: You should see me.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_02]: Mo-mo.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's a thing, but only people that have therapists probably know what it is.
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm kidding.
[SPEAKER_02]: Honey, I don't go into any yoga.
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm getting clumping.
[SPEAKER_02]: I have big circles scarves on my back.
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm going to love that.
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm sure.
[SPEAKER_02]: I do a breath more class, like I don't even know how to breathe.
[SPEAKER_02]: The things I'm doing to keep me out of that bed, because when I was in that bed, ten months doing nothing but vomiting, that is depression, my friend, that, and that's so I will do anything.
[SPEAKER_02]: The latest thing is my Kundalini yoga teacher, and I know this is BS.
[SPEAKER_02]: What's Kundalini yoga?
[SPEAKER_02]: I don't know.
[SPEAKER_02]: I don't know what Kundalini means.
[SPEAKER_02]: Is it a person?
[SPEAKER_02]: Is it a place in India?
[SPEAKER_02]: I don't know.
[SPEAKER_02]: I don't know.
[SPEAKER_02]: Kundalini family, I just do it.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't ask questions, but is it like the breathing one or the one where you're like doing all the movements?
[SPEAKER_02]: It's both, but it's not that hot one, which is BS.
[SPEAKER_02]: Because I already have flashes for metaphors, so I'm not doing B-crum.
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm getting to B-crum.
[SPEAKER_02]: I mean, every time I have a hot flash.
[SPEAKER_02]: I just have to laugh about how I will just do anything to stay somewhat sane.
[SPEAKER_02]: And I'm only somewhat on a good day.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I know I get it.
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, let's talk about the Oscars for a second because it just happened.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, what were your thoughts on the Oscars?
[SPEAKER_00]: Did you think Jimmy Camel did a good job?
[SPEAKER_02]: I thought Jimmy Kimmel did a great job and look I didn't think I'd be sitting here sticking up for another village white guy with a TV show and Jimmy is the best.
[SPEAKER_02]: Also he never canceled me so of course I'm partial but I thought he walked that line perfectly because we're a very odd time comedically
[SPEAKER_02]: People, you know, you're typically in our work show.
[SPEAKER_02]: The host kind of roasts guests because you're sitting there looking at women that are in two hundred thousand dollars pounds.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_02]: We're driven to you're in a limo.
[SPEAKER_02]: People that are leaving their month at multimillion dollar mansions.
[SPEAKER_02]: But now we're in an era, I don't love because too many celebrities when they cut to the host making a joke.
[SPEAKER_02]: The celebrity will roll their eyes or take a slow sip of water.
[SPEAKER_02]: So I think it's good that we've evolved past really able roasting jokes because I tell people the nineties in the two thousands were just a vicious time in custody.
[SPEAKER_02]: Like the eat it, the mandate was go for the jugular.
[SPEAKER_02]: I don't, I'm glad the pendulum is swung more away from that, but I also don't want it to be.
[SPEAKER_02]: So you can't even make fun of like a big giant star.
[SPEAKER_02]: So I thought Jimmy really walked the line.
[SPEAKER_02]: I thought it was great that Trump posted about him and he got to go out there alive and read it.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's reaction was like a real railroad moment.
[SPEAKER_00]: It really was.
[SPEAKER_00]: I was surprised there wasn't any booing.
[SPEAKER_00]: I thought that was great.
[SPEAKER_02]: I know and I thought good people are having a sense of humor and you should be able to make fun of the president or the former president.
[SPEAKER_02]: That's all fair game.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, I thought you did a really good job of walking the line.
[SPEAKER_02]: Right.
[SPEAKER_02]: But we all let's cut the crap.
[SPEAKER_02]: Brian Gawson stole the show with, I'm not, I'm just kidding.
[SPEAKER_02]: He really, I rewound it in the moment and rewatched it again that musical number of him singing, I'm just kidding.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's so funny that you say that I rewound it also.
[SPEAKER_00]: I quit, I was like, wait a minute.
[SPEAKER_00]: First of all, I didn't know that he could sing.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I didn't know he could perform.
[SPEAKER_00]: I thought he was lip singing.
[SPEAKER_00]: I thought it was fantastic.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I love it.
[SPEAKER_02]: And he's been the Mickey Mouse Club.
[SPEAKER_02]: So he was trained as a kid in singing and dancing, and we forget that he was on Mickey Mouse Club with Christina Aguilera, Brittany, Carrie Russell, and just New York.
[SPEAKER_02]: I mean, what a group that was from the Mickey Mouse Club.
[SPEAKER_02]: And now it's being off for him.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, my God.
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, he was fantastic.
[SPEAKER_00]: You're right.
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_00]: Are you upset at all with the Kate Middleton press?
[SPEAKER_02]: First of all, what's happening with Kate Middleton?
[SPEAKER_02]: She can't just go missing in this day and age, and I don't want to see that same green picture of her in the back of the car.
[SPEAKER_02]: Or do I want to see the bizarre photoshop picture where her head looks way too big for her body?
[SPEAKER_00]: Who's running things over there?
[SPEAKER_00]: It was like a weekend at Bernie's thing in the car.
[SPEAKER_00]: I felt like it was so odd.
[SPEAKER_00]: And by the way, I did a whole before they spotted her.
[SPEAKER_00]: I did a whole deep dive on what kind of abdominal issues or surgeries you could have that could keep you missing for three months.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, nothing.
[SPEAKER_00]: There was nothing that would keep you out of the press.
[SPEAKER_00]: And now, you know, for us to have this idea that oops, she made this weird photo shot mistake in the photo and she, they took out her ring.
[SPEAKER_00]: Can you imagine Kate Middleton sitting there using a dobe like trying to take out?
[SPEAKER_00]: It's so new in her cell.
[SPEAKER_02]: I mean, it's just weird.
[SPEAKER_02]: But it doesn't remind you like the people that run that press office are probably like boomers or something and they didn't even want to do it.
[SPEAKER_02]: But of course, I want to know, I was never as interested in her as till now.
[SPEAKER_02]: I mean, she wasn't even on my radar frequently.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now I'm all came mental to know the time, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, like with something like that, when it becomes such big news like that, will you put something like that in your show?
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, yeah.
[SPEAKER_02]: Absolutely.
[SPEAKER_02]: And I'll just have like go read the Instagram comments if that could be material.
[SPEAKER_02]: I'll read probably the most outrageous article about it from like one of the craziest tabloids.
[SPEAKER_02]: And then I'll probably read like the legit article about it in a real newspaper.
[SPEAKER_02]: I do as much deep diving as I can, because I know my audience, they want to hear about my little slut stories, but I know they're up on the Kate Middleton stuff, Kanye's wife, what's going on with that?
[SPEAKER_02]: Well, everything, go pillow, let's rescue her.
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, I still look at previous Instagram.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm only human.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm doing all these ones, you know, it's just so crazy.
[SPEAKER_00]: Britney, nothing's changed.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, you know, so poor thing.
[SPEAKER_02]: We're just not looking at Instagram.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, no, of course.
[SPEAKER_02]: I love Britney.
[SPEAKER_02]: How do you not love Britney?
[SPEAKER_02]: Of course we love her.
[SPEAKER_02]: We love her.
[SPEAKER_02]: I never when she was opening for and sink back in the day.
[SPEAKER_02]: That insurgator ship was complete bullshit.
[SPEAKER_02]: But it doesn't mean we're not going to like have some questions.
[SPEAKER_02]: That's all I say.
[SPEAKER_02]: Right.
[SPEAKER_00]: Exactly.
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_00]: Do you watch the housewives?
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_00]: Which ones are like your favorite?
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm old school, so I still like Orange County.
[SPEAKER_02]: I've been doing too much cast change lately.
[SPEAKER_02]: Beverly, those have certainly become the new Vanderbilt girls because of Kyle, maybe being gay, which is sort of an honest issue except they've really noted so much and I don't know how much those girls like call the paparazzi to be photographed without their wedding rings, whatever.
[SPEAKER_02]: I can tell you what I was photographed by the day they made without my wedding ring.
[SPEAKER_02]: I was on my daily walk.
[SPEAKER_02]: And you can tell, I didn't call them.
[SPEAKER_02]: I mean, honey, I got no makeup on.
[SPEAKER_02]: I have a big hat on, like I'm a beekeeper for the sun.
[SPEAKER_02]: I just looked like a crazy person the way I look every day.
[SPEAKER_02]: No one else vibes.
[SPEAKER_02]: I kind of don't know.
[SPEAKER_02]: So the great thing about the housewives is there's always this drama that's beyond the show.
[SPEAKER_02]: So there's no drama.
[SPEAKER_02]: then there's them fighting on Instagram and then maybe calling out each other on their blogs.
[SPEAKER_02]: So like the stories kind of keep continuing, but I also do feel dirty.
[SPEAKER_02]: I admit, I watch them all, but I also feel dirty.
[SPEAKER_00]: Right.
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_00]: Got it.
[SPEAKER_00]: With all this Andy Cohen stuff that's been going on and the fact that like we were talking about, some people when they get to the top, people want to
[SPEAKER_00]: knock them off that perch.
[SPEAKER_00]: I know you've had your own issues with Andy Cohen and your history with him and you know, a clip was resurfaced talking about how he asked you to do cocaine in the two times you did watch what happens live.
[SPEAKER_00]: So what are your thoughts on Andy Cohen and what are your predictions for how this will end for him?
[SPEAKER_02]: Well, first of all, I like a little credit.
[SPEAKER_02]: I call this shit a long time ago.
[SPEAKER_02]: Like many things.
[SPEAKER_02]: I have to admit, I love how it's going to hit talk, and they'll find some old clip of me, and they'll be like, Kathy Griffin called this one too.
[SPEAKER_02]: Kathy Griffin was the little one who said it all those years ago.
[SPEAKER_02]: And I do have a history.
[SPEAKER_02]: I'll let out fortune-win making enemies with a very, very powerful man.
[SPEAKER_02]: And so Andy Cohen literally took my job from CNN, which I used to do for ten years, and then he's a group I knew years.
[SPEAKER_02]: And now he and Anderson do it.
[SPEAKER_02]: So I mean, it's not like I'm fabricating the notion that Andy Cohen maybe isn't to fan of mine.
[SPEAKER_02]: He's a very openly brutal, you know, he went on TMZ one time and said he didn't know who I was and, you know,
[SPEAKER_02]: It was after my cancellation slash DOJ investigation.
[SPEAKER_02]: So it would have been nice to get a little support from the guy who had been my executive for years at Provo.
[SPEAKER_02]: And I wish Peacock would show my life on the deal of stone there and my specials.
[SPEAKER_02]: But you know, one thing is I think I got into fights with a lot of these executives.
[SPEAKER_02]: because I would see my male contemporaries and how they would fight for what they wanted on their TV shows or budget, you know, fights.
[SPEAKER_02]: And I think I had all those fights thinking,
[SPEAKER_02]: Oh, I'm going to be treated equally.
[SPEAKER_02]: And in my humble opinion, I think a lot of the problems I've had with Andy Cohen or Jeff Sucker are less moon beds.
[SPEAKER_02]: These really powerful executives is because I was sticking out for myself.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_02]: I think they have labeled me as difficult and expensive.
[SPEAKER_02]: That's the label I get.
[SPEAKER_02]: I wouldn't argue that I wasn't doing anything more than all the guys around me were doing, but I certainly didn't pick and choose my battles many times.
[SPEAKER_02]: I often chose violence as the kids say.
[SPEAKER_00]: So do you think he'll ride it out or you think that he will actually see some consequences?
[SPEAKER_02]: I don't know if you'll see consequences.
[SPEAKER_02]: I think as long as he's choosing the housewives and involved the housewives, they're probably pretty scared of him.
[SPEAKER_02]: And I don't blame them.
[SPEAKER_02]: I mean, these are women that are on that show.
[SPEAKER_02]: And many of them are getting DUIs.
[SPEAKER_02]: Now that multiple housewives have gone to prison.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, that's so true.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's so true.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_02]: And many of them go bankrupt and I think they try to keep up with the Joneses literally and they buy the designer clothes and I would imagine I can't confirm this but I would imagine the producers encourage them very strongly to drink a lot.
[SPEAKER_02]: I would think I would think so because look at how much mileage they got out of
[SPEAKER_02]: whatever was going out with Denise Richards at one dinner party and she's not even on the show anymore.
[SPEAKER_02]: They got multiple episodes because it looked like those women were out of the influence of pot and booze and maybe other stuff.
[SPEAKER_02]: I don't know being a pill girl, you know, I can guess.
[SPEAKER_02]: Bye.
[SPEAKER_02]: I, I listen to those women when they say we were pummeled without call.
[SPEAKER_02]: I wouldn't just write that off.
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm not saying Andy Cohen is their point in the dreams, but it wouldn't surprise me knowing the nature of the behavior that you see on the housewives in particular.
[SPEAKER_02]: If you're not flipping a table, you might get fired.
[SPEAKER_02]: I think a lot of these women are coming from is in order to stay on the show.
[SPEAKER_02]: I have to manufacture this drama.
[SPEAKER_02]: And unfortunately, it has real and first consequences for so many of these women that my heart does go out to them.
[SPEAKER_02]: Because I get it, they want to be famous.
[SPEAKER_02]: I had a show called My Life on the Dealest.
[SPEAKER_02]: I wanted to be famous.
[SPEAKER_02]: And now, with all the price of the council that has you well now.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_00]: Are you like us?
[SPEAKER_00]: Are you obsessed with traders and lovers blind?
[SPEAKER_02]: Uh, duh.
[SPEAKER_02]: I mean, I can barely wait until the love is by reunion because I myself have a lot of questions.
[SPEAKER_02]: And, you know, I am team AD first of all.
[SPEAKER_02]: I don't think she saw it coming.
[SPEAKER_02]: Although she did call about early as a guy that she would have picked as one of her fixer uppers.
[SPEAKER_02]: So do you want her to find love with a different category?
[SPEAKER_02]: Because I know that game where I've gone for the same type of guy.
[SPEAKER_02]: And again, and not learn to listen.
[SPEAKER_02]: And so I can't wait for that reunion.
[SPEAKER_02]: And traders is just
[SPEAKER_02]: I like treatters because it's not horrible.
[SPEAKER_02]: Like you're not seeing drunk and horrible behavior and people aren't going to prison and people aren't eating each other and they're not falling into the bushes.
[SPEAKER_02]: I just think treatters are really clever.
[SPEAKER_02]: Fun showed watch.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, me too.
[SPEAKER_00]: But like would you ever do love is blind?
[SPEAKER_02]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_02]: Me too.
[SPEAKER_00]: Me too.
[SPEAKER_02]: Right?
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: It would be so great.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think.
[SPEAKER_02]: I love the wall.
[SPEAKER_02]: I have fallen in love with many walls.
[SPEAKER_02]: I think I'm dating the wall.
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm experiencing up to go on the wall of a swine.
[SPEAKER_00]: All right.
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_00]: All right.
[SPEAKER_00]: Just a couple rapid fire things.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you could be on a reality show besides your own, what would it be?
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, okay, I would just say love is fine, or I would be the golden-bex threat.
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, yes, I love that for you.
[SPEAKER_00]: I love that for you.
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, but you're not old enough, but okay, when I'll, I'd be the hot one.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, and you could date these real old men with a lot of money.
[SPEAKER_00]: Could be fun.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's fun.
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, what makes you laugh?
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, I would, you know, I'm selling such a feminist, the women in my life.
[SPEAKER_02]: And the reason I say that is because, but believe it or not, the biggest stigma to me selling tickets is still the stigma that the chicks aren't as funny.
[SPEAKER_02]: And I just have to say, nobody made me laugh in my life more than my mom and my aunts and my mom's girlfriends.
[SPEAKER_02]: And yes, the wine was following.
[SPEAKER_02]: So I'm not gonna say, my mom should've been on the housewives actually, but,
[SPEAKER_02]: I just think, when I think of things that make me double over laughing, it's my girlfriends.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's my friends when we get together.
[SPEAKER_02]: Like, I went to the Madonna Council the other night with the craziest group of girls I did a whole sheet talk about it.
[SPEAKER_02]: And the of our Dallas from a big fat creek letting Lunell, the comedian, she was the prostitute in Borat, Cia, Erosilton, myself.
[SPEAKER_02]: We got a sprinter band.
[SPEAKER_02]: We wanted to get a random group.
[SPEAKER_02]: Brando.
[SPEAKER_02]: So they know each other?
[SPEAKER_02]: No, they didn't know each other.
[SPEAKER_02]: And so we all got together.
[SPEAKER_02]: And some of them were salon girls.
[SPEAKER_02]: And then see a broad in a couple of girls.
[SPEAKER_02]: And then be a broad in a couple of girls.
[SPEAKER_02]: And then be a broad in a couple of girls.
[SPEAKER_02]: And then afterwards, since we were in Eagle Wood, we don't want to end his donuts.
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh my god, I love it.
[SPEAKER_00]: And everyone stayed like they were all friendly.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then we get out of here.
[SPEAKER_00]: We're really awesome.
[SPEAKER_00]: I love that.
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_00]: What are you afraid of?
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm afraid of anything that stops me from making people laugh.
[SPEAKER_02]: That's why my cancellation was so intense for me.
[SPEAKER_02]: It wasn't even so much the negativity coming at me.
[SPEAKER_02]: It was the fact that he couldn't work.
[SPEAKER_02]: Because I'm just such a comment.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's so in my DNA at this point that I don't know who I am without it.
[SPEAKER_02]: To say, well, if you shouldn't make your work or identity, I don't feel that way because I love my work so much.
[SPEAKER_02]: It doesn't feel like work, so whether I'm making a girlfriend laugh or if I'm being funny at a party or if I'm doing a commercial or a stand-up show or a special or a sitcom, I don't care what the platform is.
[SPEAKER_02]: I just want to be able to make people laugh.
[SPEAKER_00]: Right.
[SPEAKER_00]: Do you have a relationship with Anderson Cooper now?
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, I emailed him for the first time in years because I miss his mom so much.
[SPEAKER_02]: And something happened, I can't remember what, but something made me remember all the wonderful times I had with her.
[SPEAKER_02]: And so I didn't make the email about our falling out or anything.
[SPEAKER_02]: I just said, you know, I want you know, I'm thinking about your mom and the saying's.
[SPEAKER_02]: And the great Gloria Vanderbilt would have me over to her apartment.
[SPEAKER_02]: And we would just sit and have tea and spill tea if you know what I mean.
[SPEAKER_02]: And she knew everybody back at her day.
[SPEAKER_02]: And so she would say things to me like, well, your whole life can change in one phone call, you know.
[SPEAKER_02]: And that's true.
[SPEAKER_02]: It really can't.
[SPEAKER_02]: You and I looked at it.
[SPEAKER_02]: But it was a good way out of bad way.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_02]: And she would say, well, there's always more.
[SPEAKER_02]: And Joan never done.
[SPEAKER_02]: And just the saying she would say, and she lived in Haiti, which I loved.
[SPEAKER_02]: So we emailed back and forth and he said, yeah, I miss you mom too.
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_00]: Good.
[SPEAKER_00]: All right.
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, so you're speaking.
[SPEAKER_02]: Sort of.
[SPEAKER_00]: I guess so.
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, I like that he responded.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: Me too.
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_00]: You were on Larry King a couple of years ago, six, seven years ago.
[SPEAKER_00]: And he said, you seem unflaperable.
[SPEAKER_00]: Does anything make you nervous?
[SPEAKER_00]: And you said, meeting Wayne Grettsky.
[SPEAKER_00]: What would your answer be now?
[SPEAKER_02]: That was so funny.
[SPEAKER_02]: I didn't have a wild end with great Wayne Grettsky.
[SPEAKER_02]: I don't mean wait, they're came along.
[SPEAKER_02]: Evening.
[SPEAKER_02]: There's a wife was there.
[SPEAKER_02]: But anyway, that's a story I actually told my Canadian shells because they'd love him and he's the great one.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, what's bad now is a PTSD.
[SPEAKER_02]: I get scared at the most random banks.
[SPEAKER_02]: So what sucks is it comes upon me at an unexpected moment.
[SPEAKER_02]: Like sometimes I'll be just going to like the other day I was going to an LGBT event at the Los Angeles LGBT Center, which I was there for the groundbreaking, like those are my people.
[SPEAKER_02]: And yet, being around crowds, I was gonna ask you, does that still make you nervous?
[SPEAKER_02]: Cause I still didn't nervous and cry.
[SPEAKER_02]: I don't like being in crowds.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, I know.
[SPEAKER_02]: Because you and I have been grabbed and people will pull up my hair or they'll pull my shoulder.
[SPEAKER_02]: And when you're an infamous person, I know I keep doing your quotes, sorry.
[SPEAKER_02]: When you're an infamous person, people think they have the right to come up and really kind of say anything or ask anything.
[SPEAKER_02]: And most times it's actually quite harmless, but sometimes
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, people will say weird weird stuff to me.
[SPEAKER_02]: Like people will want me to pose with their head like the Trump head.
[SPEAKER_02]: And yeah, I straight up had the Department of Justice get me in real trouble.
[SPEAKER_02]: Like I'm actually not doing that pose.
[SPEAKER_02]: I get that you think it's can't be.
[SPEAKER_02]: But that's that she wouldn't work out so well for me if Trump gets reelected.
[SPEAKER_02]: So I have to pass on that picture.
[SPEAKER_02]: But do you find people grab your arm or Rachel?
[SPEAKER_00]: Rachel?
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, well, it's just a case of they think they know you, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: And I really don't.
[SPEAKER_00]: And there's no boundaries.
[SPEAKER_00]: And sometimes, sometimes it's fun, sometimes depending on the mood you're in, it could be, you know, lighthearted and you don't mind it.
[SPEAKER_00]: And sometimes it's really, I don't know if I would say terrifying, but upsetting, you know, and then I want to leave.
[SPEAKER_00]: So I definitely don't like crowds.
[SPEAKER_00]: I get anxiety about being recognized and not know how they will feel about me.
[SPEAKER_00]: Still to this day.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I know that's probably all in my head.
[SPEAKER_02]: No, no, every person that comes up to me, I find they're going to lead with something about the Trump picture.
[SPEAKER_02]: So they either come up and say, good for you, keep going, keep giving it to them, or they'll come up and say, you went too far or I've had a guy pull a knife on me.
[SPEAKER_02]: I mean, I've had a lot of really crazy, mega people do very crazy things.
[SPEAKER_02]: So you do tend to get a little
[SPEAKER_02]: like you get your walls up every time you're around more than a couple of people.
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, and I mean, I can't even imagine, too, just on a side note, because forget that picture, but just even tell you about politics, it's so jarring with people and people get so violently angry about that topic, and especially if there are a mega person, and they really want you to believe what they believe.
[SPEAKER_00]: Even if they don't know you and you've never been involved in anything like you have, they can get really violent and it can be terrifying.
[SPEAKER_00]: So I can't even imagine that position for you.
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, one of the last questions, what like celebrity are you obsessed with that you either are like,
[SPEAKER_00]: think is hysterical and making fun of or like you cannot wait to me.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, listen, it's funny that you have had a show called my life on the deal is because you have, you know, you have not with ABC and D are not on the deal is everybody knows you and, you know, so I call it having endless movements.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, things I have aimless moments.
[SPEAKER_00]: So if there's someone that you still want to meet or you're like loving.
[SPEAKER_02]: No, I, it's funny because I really make a point to try to meet people that have some sort of excellence.
[SPEAKER_02]: And I know that sounds silly because, you know, I'm a fan born.
[SPEAKER_02]: I love chasing fame and I love all the fun and pop and circumstance that goes with it.
[SPEAKER_02]: But I also like, I started having these salons to honor people that I just wanted to get to know better.
[SPEAKER_02]: And the first salon dinner I ever had, the guest of honor was Sidney Pothier.
[SPEAKER_02]: Oh, that.
[SPEAKER_02]: And Don Rickles was there.
[SPEAKER_02]: And John Rivers was there.
[SPEAKER_02]: And Sidney, the great Sidney Pothier, was laughing.
[SPEAKER_02]: And they were giving him so much crap, you know, no idea.
[SPEAKER_02]: And he was like, bringing on.
[SPEAKER_02]: And so the only one,
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm not going to meet her or spend any time with this.
[SPEAKER_02]: I would like to get to know Madonna a little bit because she just a bucket list and like I said, I just saw her last week and I don't discount any of her accomplishments and like I said, I think she's getting a lot of ages and coming her way and it's not right and it's not fair and all the the Rolling Stones are older than her.
[SPEAKER_02]: and there's still touring and everyone thinks they're sexy.
[SPEAKER_02]: And so I'd love to have Madonna and like an actual one-on-one conversation and get to talk to her a little bit.
[SPEAKER_00]: Right.
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_00]: What is on your bucket list?
[SPEAKER_00]: What would you like to see happen in your future if you could call it into your universe right now?
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, you're already on your tour.
[SPEAKER_00]: You've got that back, but what do you want to say?
[SPEAKER_02]: Okay, this is really corny.
[SPEAKER_02]: So just having recently filed for divorce, like I said, I do want to keep my heart open.
[SPEAKER_02]: If I meet somebody at the stage, it would be kind of miracle, but that would be great.
[SPEAKER_02]: But what I'm on my bucket list before I freaking die is I just want to be content with myself.
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, I have an awesome house in Malibu.
[SPEAKER_02]: I have four dogs that I obsessed with.
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm back on the road where I belong.
[SPEAKER_02]: I bring the dogs with me.
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm so obsessed with them all the way.
[SPEAKER_02]: I love you.
[SPEAKER_02]: So I want to be one of these women like the great Jane Fonda, like Kristen Johnston from Third Rock from the Sun and Mom and righteous gemstones, like Sharon Stone.
[SPEAKER_02]: These are women of a certain age and they just go, you know what?
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm content with myself.
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm not lonely or I wouldn't even say alone.
[SPEAKER_02]: And so that's a bucket list.
[SPEAKER_02]: Is I want to get to that place?
[SPEAKER_02]: Because I've been kind of a serial monochemist.
[SPEAKER_02]: And I think it's time for me to kind of hook her down with myself and go, I can be one of these dames.
[SPEAKER_02]: My house is paid off.
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm on the road.
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm going to get canceled.
[SPEAKER_02]: Why throw a guy into the mix?
[SPEAKER_02]: Why should see how everything's just gonna unfold?
[SPEAKER_00]: Right, exactly.
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_00]: Tell us where we can find out your tour dates and where people can see you in person.
[SPEAKER_02]: All right, great.
[SPEAKER_02]: Kathy Griffin.com.
[SPEAKER_02]: Go to my TikTok, my Instagram.
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm on threads.
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm still on Twitter.
[SPEAKER_02]: Whatever happened to Twitter.
[SPEAKER_02]: And so please come see me live.
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm doing forties cities.
[SPEAKER_02]: And I'm in the middle of the forties cities right now.
[SPEAKER_02]: Then I'll take the summer off.
[SPEAKER_02]: And then I'm going to the larger cities in the fall.
[SPEAKER_00]: OK, amazing.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think you're going to be in Fort Lauderdale at some point.
[SPEAKER_00]: I notice I live in Palm Beach.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm going to come see you.
[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe we can have dinner or something.
[SPEAKER_00]: I have dinner.
[SPEAKER_00]: I live.
[SPEAKER_00]: I would love it.
[SPEAKER_00]: It has been an honor.
[SPEAKER_00]: I wish you literally nothing but happiness, contentment and success.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I hope we can stay in touch.
[SPEAKER_02]: And back in, back in, you deserve a rich.
[SPEAKER_02]: Thank you so
[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you so much for listening to Ms.
[SPEAKER_00]: Understood.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm your host, Rachel, you could tell.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Understood with Rachel, you could tell.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Understood podcast at gmail.com that's spelled MISS understood?
[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you so much and I'll see you next time.