Out of limelight for 6 years, comedian Kathy Griffin says she won’t hold back in SLO show

Kathy Griffin has been out of the limelight for six years while she worked to overcome a myriad of obstacles — from addiction to being placed on a no-fly list after a controversial Donald Trump-stunt debacle — but she’s not planning on holding back when she performs in San Luis Obispo this week.

As a part of her 50-city stand-up tour, Griffin is coming to town to perform at the Fremont Theater on Sunday.

“Excited is an understatement,” Griffin said of being back on tour. “I can’t believe it.”

Her tour includes stages across the country, from a sold-out show in Massachusetts to an upcoming performance at the acclaimed Carnegie Hall. Her tour name “My Life on the PTSD List” plays off her 2000s reality television series that aired on Bravo, “My Life on the D-List” about climbing the Hollywood ladder as a low-grade celebrity and comedian.

She has gone on to achieve stand-up stardom as a two-time Emmy and Grammy award winning comedian, not to mention making it into the Guinness Book of World Records for most stand-up comedy specials by a comedian. And now there’s a new record she’s after.

When Griffin performs at Carnegie Hall in New York City on Oct. 26 for the sixth time in her career, she will break the record for the most number of shows at the venue by a solo female comedian previously set by the late Joan Rivers, according to a news release from Griffin’s public relations team.

Griffin has had a rough go at it since 2017, when she made headlines for posing for a photo with a fake Trump head smeared with ketchup to look like blood. She faced serious backlash online and from Trump himself. Her comedy tour was canceled and the fiasco ended her long-time CNN’s New Year’s Eve program co-hosted with Anderson Cooper.

She was also placed on a no-fly list and investigated for conspiracy to assassinate Trump, which she said significantly impacted her ability to work.

The comedian also overcame her mother’s death, pill addiction, a suicide attempt and a lung removal which makes her voice sound raspier.

“I say I am the face of the one-and-a-half-lunged community, of which there is not really a community,” Griffin joked.

Beyond these trials and tribulations, the biggest task Griffin says she’s up against when selling tickets is that she’s a woman in an inherently male-dominant industry.

“Misogyny is so hardcore with stand-up,” Griffin said. “I know that sounds like I’m being bitter but I’m not.”

The comic said she wants young women to know about her triumphs, and know that it’s possible to make it as a woman in stand-up.

Griffin says her first memory was wanting to make people laugh, and that comedy is in her DNA.

“I’ve been doing it for decades,” Griffin said. The comedian says she’s performed for troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, at an AIDS hospice, at birthday parties as well as at bar mitzvahs.

Now she’s headed for the big stage — well, a re-entry onto it.

“Even if I’m having a rough day, on a show day, by showtime, this calm comes over me and I go out there and it’s like, my feet hit the stage,” Griffin said. “And then I just go — it’s high octane.”

For more information

Griffin will perform at the Fremont Theater at 1035 Monterey St. in San Luis Obispo on Sunday. Doors open at 7 p.m. and the show is at 8 p.m.

Tickets start at $39.50 and are available at KathyGriffin.com or fremontslo.com.

This story was originally published June 3, 2024 at 5:00 AM.

Kelsey Oliver

The Tribune

Kelsey Oliver is a reporting intern for The Tribune. She’s originally from Salt Lake City, Utah, and is a current graduate student at The Graduate Schools of Journalism and Public Health at UC Berkeley.