Kathy Griffin On Being Blacklisted, Les Moonves, Donald Trump and Her Comeback

you're watching The Breakfast Club morning everybody is the EJ envy Angela Yee Charlemagne to God we are The Breakfast Club we got a special guest in the building she's with the shit's gnarly always in trouble always in trouble how are you this morning I am so excited to be alive and able to work yeah because what I've been through May 30th 2017 my the walls caved in on my career because I took a photo with a Halloween mask of Donald Trump with ketchup all over it and then the Oval Office the White House for the first time in history the Department of Justice they put me under a two-month federal investigation really and they were considering charging me with wait for it this has never happened in the history of our country conspiracy to assassinate the President of the United States Wow and I just want people to know you can hate that picture all you want but it was not illegal yeah so part of my laugh your head off tour if you get it laugh your head off thank you you know I mean it's a it's a comedy show so don't worry it's not like a lecture on the First Amendment but honestly it's a First Amendment issue okay and the president I mean by the way I know you can't see my air quotes but I call him the president because he's so stupid one time he tweeted I'm proud to be your president mm-hmm it's like when you call the wife Melanie yeah yeah okay for me it's Melanie forever like Melania is Oh Melania it's Melanie because if he can't even get her name right I don't have to how bad you're in great debt at all I'll Jack me are you kidding how bad the day you got it one bit because I learned so much so first of all I was in the middle of a 50 city tour so when Don junior or as I call him Eddie Munster because he's not like fully formed off land is prohibited here go thank you is not fully formed teresa giudice from the Real Housewives has more of a forehead than he does so screwed on junior and the other one the blond one date rape now the reason I say you know prohibit yeah the thing you cannot believe that anyone would consensually have sex with any of the trumps but yeah so Don jr. started a campaign got me fired from my once a week you know once a year gig on CNN and it was just crazy so I didn't know at the time I caught the Trump wood chipper but they done it to politicians but they hadn't done it to like a quote celebrity right and so they put me kind of in the same machine this was before the Weinstein stuff before me too I don't know if that photo would have gotten that reaction if I had done it then you know what I mean but they came at me and I lost my entire career in 24 hours Wow so the White House was working in tandem with Harvey Levin and TMZ The Daily Beast did an article about it and you know am i media all this stuff coming about David pecker owning everything from The Enquirer to Us Weekly they did been doing nothing but hit pieces on me one of them was they said that I'm going bald and have lupus which is I get it it might sound funny but when you work in Hollywood you know buyers meaning the same five white guys who sign every check in Hollywood because people should know there's five white guys who sign checks in Hollywood and no one else can so none of them out of his job now or les Moonves oh you don't even know I hope you read my thread sure I did what about the text I sent to Julie Chen I thought it family and feckless in the whole gang yes because um it's the first time in the history of this country that a sitting United States president has used the Oval Office the first family once again that's an air quotes but also the entire right-wing media and I hate to say the mainstream media picked it up because I was breaking news it's a bad way although you are talking to the seventh most googled person of 2017 in the world people become an Isis now I don't want anybody supportive of you though was there any media outlet that was like okay this is a violation of the First Amendment not a media outlet at all because it was like it was such a great like sort of breaking news story and you know let me I'm gonna be honest when you are a 57 year old woman who is on television you know won two Emmys have a Grammy for Best Comedy album one of only three women in the history of the Grammys to win myself Lily Tomlin it would be you know I tried to like do my thing and this has never happened and I don't believe that a president should be able to keep an American citizen for making their living so then the Department of Justice called the next day and that is not a fun call to get and they said we're putting you under an open-ended investigation I was on the no-fly list you can't fly it or play now I was on the no-fly list for two months okay carry your cell phone and you just answer no they call my lawyer up and they said you couldn't she's in trouble for two months that's right I couldn't make a living I can't work all right well let me tell you the first call I got I'm not kidding first call I got Katt Williams Katt Williams so we've been friends for a long time and he said they did this to a white lady and I said I can't and I just texted him by the way cuz I'm so glad he won the Emmy for Atlanta that performance was so unexpected and green and so anyway we've been pals for a long time and I just I just think he's a genius like I think he's just got it he's just I don't even know if he could describe why he's so funny he just has it anyway so cat and cat Kathy that's right so he called me and he goes get out a piece of paper I said okay I dutifully got it he was getting out of pen I said okay cuz you know you never know what cat's gonna say right he goes I want you to write down the names of the people who call you today that are unconditionally supportive of you and also are going to say you know what I'm gonna do something about it like Katt did an Instagram post he gave me a great shout out in his last Netflix special and he said at the end of the day you're gonna know who your real friends are the day there were three names hey you know what I don't even know these guys that well but let me tell you I'm gonna be honest none of the women had my back mmm not one and you know like I said I'm 57 how many women over 50 that if you don't mind my bragging at this level of the game alright let's face it it's me Wanda Ellen well she was never gonna sixty but she would never help me in that way whoopee baby you don't think Whoopi was great Whoopi was great because she's been through all sorts of stuff and the other people on the list were uh Jamie Foxx but he made a really great statement like he wasn't like oh you know get over it like he really said like this is important and comics should shine light on things whether it's good or bad and you know be funny but also it's okay to start a debate and all the other stuff and then Jim Carrey who I also don't even know very well but when you have it a day like that where you're on the news every two seconds and you're fired and then Donald Trump Donald Trump is tweeting again we don't just want her fired we want to we want to ruin her entire life it's so crazy to have a vendetta against somebody because they're still do have a picture yeah well you know I gave you donkey today and I didn't give you donkey today for what you did because I don't care about that yeah I knew the backlash that you would receive from yeah I'm like why put yourself do that yeah over Donald Trump because you got to stand up and this you know I've known this [ __ ] for since the 90s I met him when he was I was on the show called suddenly Susan in the 90s and I met him in the 90s he had like three lines and you know he's actually hired me twice to roast him so it was such a BS that he acted with the joke he can't honey I went to the White House Correspondents Dinner we're by the way Michelle wolf did a great job so she got a bad deal - I think her Netflix show got cancelled because they Trump I think try to really anticipate the know do you think it would be that I thought it would be an entertainment story for two days you know I've done this before I took a picture one time where there was a guy a man's it was feminist statement a man's hairy hand using his scissors to cut my tongue off like every so often I'll do a picture to stir up a conversation as they say how did you do honey I hunkered down and the death threats are still coming to this day I did a show recently in Randy where the guy has a knife a knife yeah Houston Wow an IV rate of what you would a knife yeah could they think you're unpatriotic they think I you guys people think I'm an Isis or al-qaeda now by the way here's the funny part my ninety eight year-old alcoholic mother who drinks a box of Franzia wine a day and I'm not a spokesperson for fond SIA but she can drink you bastards under the table I'll tell you right now 98 um the surreal Ness on that day when I'm like sobbing and it's all over for me and then my mother calls and she's you know hard of hearing and she goes Kathleen of all the clubs why did you join al-qaeda and Isis why can't you just start stamp collecting I don't think Isis is recruiting a lot of Irish American comedians right now and you know I I couldn't believe someone showed me a survey that says 60 million Americans believed I had joined Isis like I said I'm laughing now I wasn't then and then her mother picked II was gonna be perceived all right oh I think well first of all I think he deserves it so I stand by that picture hundred percent I will tell you I'm bitter though because the photographer Tyler Shields wouldn't give me the copyright and that's a picture that's changed my life forever irrevocably I heard it was his idea to I mean I wanted to do a photo to shame Trump you know it really did and if you remember like one time he was going after megyn kelly who I I can't stand her and trust me I don't wanna stick up for her but he did say there was blood coming out of her eyes blood coming out of her wherever and so it was kind of like alright let's do a picture with his blood coming out of his forever and you know it was a mask and so I I knew people would know I wasn't holding an actual severed head Trump what a bloody butt would have been fine I think it I'm sure it's quite crusty I think he and Melanie knows a written statement or once a year they don't sleep in the same bed what if she gives herself rohypnol she meant roofie herself what [ __ ] anymore so what happened in Houston you gotta explain that story so you doing your show and somebody jumps up out the crowd every every show there's death threats all right there was a protest in Charlotte which can I have a little props just for going to Charlotte okay great please well you know in her position right now oh I'm from South Carolina let me say and this is you know this is just the truth I have actually gotten a much diverse much more diverse audience since this photo coming out I think we can realize if that could happen to me it can happen to you and it has like Trump has I was like the one they kind of tried it out on right so they had Don junior get me fired first and do a whole sort of press tour and then you know obviously they tried to get Michelle wolf and they tried to take her down they did I really think they got her okay I wrote a whole thread about it cuz I was in the room and I was the only comic in the room she did great two Republicans left early and then they tried to start a Twitter thing saying everyone left the room they didn't and she did a great job but when you've got Sarah [ __ ] be sitting there looking at her clutching her pearls oh my lord I'm just so shocked at all this get me a mint julep it doesn't help because that does not cancel shows and when they do they don't make big announcements about it and she's also a lady who's on her way up so I want to support that actually got her a lot more recognition good right and yes the show got canceled so you would think people were more aware of her but and I really am glad you guys picked up on that and you know a year ago people would have thought you were crazy if you would have said I think Trump canceled a Netflix show but let me tell you I live and work in Hollywood and everyone it's it's really pathetic they're all scared shitless of this guy and I'm like the orange guy that hosted the apprentice are you kidding me I mean the executive reduce of Celebrity Apprentice is now our president so he has unlimited power in this country it is petty as [ __ ] it's unbelievable he's also I know him well he's not smart you know I lost everybody that day it wasn't the Dixie Chicks where the artistic community supported me I lost left right and center I lost the veterans I'd been working with two veterans group I've been I performed in Iraq in Afghanistan and Kuwait and News Beca Stan you know Trump can't find those places on a map he's not going to Afghanistan he's too scared they're gonna let stay the course okay a redneck tried to cute okay so this guy shows up by the way it's online you can see the pictures if you want to just look up like um you know I don't even know well Trumper at Kathy Griffin Show okay he's got a maggot first giveaway he's wearing a shirt that he must have had custom-made God love him with nothing but pictures of Trump all over his shirt like many pictures and then he just starts waving a knife waiter knife right in front yes Wow or it may have been right after the show starts waving a knife and luckily you know I don't mean to sound like the fifth runner-up on American Idol but I do have the greatest fans in the world and so I had people that don't need to be doing this like people that are just leaving a show they were like calling the police and they got photos of this guy and video and stuff like that but I just kind of need to keep getting out there like this and telling folks it's not over you know what you need it's not over a fruit of Islam security yes you have extra security of course yes you need foi you need the brothers in bowties man I'm telling you yes yes oh [ __ ] him right believe this guy and that's another guy you know very trumpian in that way um I mean I haven't been on CBS for a while so um when they were you know this is an interesting story when they were doing the Late Show with Craig Ferguson I liked Craig I did the show many times and one night said I was doing a talk show on Bravo for two years which got canceled because Andy Cohen hates me and he also is lacking if he's lacking a skill set of cocaine with YouTube we'll talk about the course okay so anyway what happened was I got like a little bit of a tip that Craig Ferguson was tired of doing the show and as a female a lot of people don't realize honestly it hasn't been since the dear departed Joan Rivers the female has had a network nightly late-night talker so yes Chelsea was on cable that's awesome full-frontal was once a week with Sam B that's awesome Robin Robin B Monique had her show on BT cable awesome but it's time to like come on it's time to let like one of us get a show right and so I lobbied hard to try to get that show and a guy at sea an agent named Jeff Jacobs at CEA said Oh Leslie said they're not considering females at this time I go well you know that's illegal even say but he already knew that they weren't gonna get it right and so I'm gonna be honest I started thinking okay I'm not gonna get the job clearly they're gonna think I'm too old and too ugly my nose is too big all the stuff I've been told my whole career because you know I've been doing this maybe my first commercial when I was 17 mm-hmm I'm 57 so I know that I know when they're not gonna even consider you so I'm not kidding I sort of started thinking I think Aisha Tyler would have been great for that job nothing against James Corden I didn't even know who he was but I thought Aisha is so smart she was already on the talk I actually took her out to dinner and I go are you like gunning for that job because I think you'd be perfect like you're smart you're a woman of color let's make some history and she said I met three times and nothing happened I thought I wonder if they took those meetings because they thought what if big mouth captain Griffin someday says yes I said we're not even considering females Wow and so um by the way she's gonna kill me for revealing this but I just think she's so smart and she would have been a great hire and she was already beloved obviously if I say yes to be on the talk so that's kind of my new mission in life and I'm doing the laugh your head off to her because I think it's important that people know this stuff and I promise it's not you know like I said it's not a lecture I'm plenty of fun stories about who my next-door neighbors were during this entire ordeal who are you excuse me their names are Kim kardashian-west and Kanye no this is when they were in bel-air oh so they just moved a couple months ago back to the basses okay which I think they bought the entire town and sometimes late at night I would hear them printing money mm-hmm you know cuz they think this just made a deal with the US Mint and said let's just let them print their own money did you know they were avid Trump supporters then uh they weren't they were absolutely not because we had those conversations although I mean talking to Kanye like he doesn't like complete sentences with me but um you know that was nobody yeah he's a free thinker but Kim was all Hillary all the way and you know also be really talked about politics that much but I was also very fascinated into going over to their house can I give you it was okay get this cuz don't act like you don't want to know like your listeners don't want to know we do okay so uh Kanye they still have all the mannequins from the famous video how awesome is that like remember when them the manic end of lightness through in the house like randomly he's like yeah I see the mannequins I was like no but I'll take your word for it and I thought you know what Claud goals mannequin room well you don't have that no more I've been to the new house where are the mannequins I don't know there's nothing in there it's just like space it is a gray room at the mannequins there has to be I mean there just has to be but like that's in that's the way I'm able to kind of tell the story in the show because I honestly think surely every American needs to hear this story and by the way after I was finally taken off the no-fly list I couldn't get any work here because so many people thought I was an Isis um like I said I could laugh now so I went overseas and I we have a big bag over there what's in that bag bowling balls it's really heavy but but anyway so I was able to work overseas and i wad lee enough the picture that almost took me down was the picture that allowed me to truly tour the world I went everywhere from Auckland New Zealand to Reykjavik Iceland but they put me on the freakin Interpol list so I was detained I played 15 countries in 23 cities I was detained at every single Airport they take your passport they take your phone they go away for an indeterminate amount of time and let me tell you they put you in a room and you sit there thinking I don't know what's gonna happen when you're in a in you're in detention in Singapore or it's illegal to chew gum and you know I'm sitting you know what I'm just an old lady that wants to tell jokes I'm just trying to make people laugh here put the day before to try to kill oh it was a whole thing every airport you know what I do every airport like I did a show at you know let's say I was in Sydney right so I got to do a show at the Sydney Opera House so very honored and stuff but if I was leaving Sydney to go to whatever my country was next I would have to alert to journalists in Australia to journalists in the country I was going to and I had former CIA a officer that I was talking with I would give him my itinerary so that whenever stuff would go down number one I was terrified of ever missing a show that was the most the biggest concern didn't want to let people down didn't want people moving on thing to it yeah yeah and by the way in a country like Singapore where it's illegal to be gay and I have a lot of LGBT fans you know I want them to feel like it's a safe space at least within the show oh by the way sidebar honey those down-low gays in Singapore the minute you get him in the room honey I've never seen so many knockoff Hermes bags and it was like so you know it was just by will say it was very tense to be detained at every Airport because to this day I don't know what the government put on my freaking passport but it makes everybody's eyes turn into pinwheels whatever they scan it yeah they treated you like you you got me - yeah it's never happened in the history of this country I will tell you the closest time it's ever happened is there was an amazing triple threat actress named Eartha Kitt now I'm older I'm I go back and I was exposed to her when I was a kid because my mom and dad used to buy albums and there was a series there's a Broadway series called new faces and that's where I was first exposed to her so younger people might know her as one of the cat women on the Batman series but she was singer dancer Broadway actress star and very famously in 1965 Lady Bird Johnson who a lot of liberals think LBJ Civil Rights Act that's great Lady Bird Johnson invited to the White House a group of African Americans Harry Belafonte ik etc to express how they felt about how the movement was going about civil rights movement so Eartha Kitt was honest and she was honest about what it's like to be a black woman in this industry at that time and whatever she said to Lady Bird Lady Bird Johnson got her so blacklisted she had to leave the country for decades and in those days you know obviously they didn't have social media and they obviously scared the hell out of her to do an interview even in like one of the old-timey magazines or something and because I kept looking for is there a precedent that's the closest thing I came to so I would encourage your illicit listeners if you wanna Google you know Eartha Kitt YouTube blacklisted it's a really compelling story what they put that woman through she was finally able to come back and like Eddie Murphy put her in boomerang it was great mark but that's what it yeah that's what it takes what's your issue with Andy Cohen who's a friend Oh Andy Cohen as okay well good for you yeah what's his skillset what do you think his skillset is oh good for him which is a show that they co-opted from a show called like if you're in there if you're there watch what happens live so much happen so he's good at like getting in and getting people drunk and getting them to say things that then get them in trouble and then he calls radar Online it goes hello it's not Andy Cohen allegedly but no my issue is look I was at NBC Universal for a long time um my executive there was Jeff Zucker he was tough on me the whole time I was paid you know a fraction of what the guy's got so my joke is when I hear women saying they get 80 cents on the dollar I go where do I sign up right when you're a female comic try five cents on the dollar and so sucker was just you know once again I have been just tortured by like DICOM the old white dinosaurs like 60-year old white guys my whole life and it's one thing after another and obviously it's I'm an outspoken person and like I said you can probably name the comics that are female on one hand what's the cocaine story oh okay well first of all when I started he was like um I think it was in the publicity department and um I didn't know he was like he was basically trying to be me like and even in his books he steals some of my jokes and when he does the tour with my former friend Anderson Cooper he does some of my jokes on the tour and their tour is first of all I'm the watch what happens live none of the questions are real they're not from Twitter Michael Davies the producer told me that he said the staff just writes them and I did the show twice and you know I don't trust him and so uh he is it's unprecedented in the history of television that the guy who decides which shows get to stay on the network fires me but himself a show that gets magically picked up every single year so I think that he's just not a trustworthy honest guy I don't think he's talented he's not a comic he didn't earn it he's been riding on people's coattails and you know why he feels like you don't like him because he replaced you on the new year thing and he had nothing to do it was long before that he was just an awful boss you know I remember for six years I did my life on the d-list for eight episodes a year and they went you know we would shoot for six months all over you know fall over my house and all this stuff and you know that was even prior to the housewives they had never even done a special I taught them how to do a stamp you don't [ __ ] with Andy Cohen guess why people just say [ __ ] I'm just saying I'm not a prude but if I know the reason I'll tell you I took you should have to be approved in that sniff code all right I just want to say if I first of all like I said I did have a talk show for two years on Bravo which of course they came over because we were competing for guests and obviously I wasn't gonna win that battle but if I had ever offered you know one of my guests Jane Fonda or you know Ti if I ever ever offered them coke before taping it it got out I would be way more ruined than the Trump picture like I just I wanted to point out because there's a double standard such a big in that's a big topic of the day as you know double standards and that was what bothered me and that's what I think people should know is that you know that kind of behavior would never be tolerated by a female and the other thing I want to say and I do this a lot recently since the Trump incident is I think that women in particular have to be more honest about their finances so I think that's one way the guys can keep us down is they're making their money and they're talking about it and they're making deals on the golf course and that you know strip clubs and getting lap dances and I really think for the most part female comics we kind of do our job you know we do our job I'm happy to go back to the hotel and get a tuna melt with my boyfriend you know I'm not like what am i what am I gonna do have sex with like the I'm you know audience member like it if you wanted I don't know one female community who does that but you know the double standard does need to be pointed out and I will say that the reason I'm telling you this is I have a reason I've probably made about 75 million dollars over the 40 years of my career I have paid all these representatives 10% and they all dumped me Wow they all dumped me because of a photo photo that is totally covered by the First Amendment whether you like it or not they all took my money when it was easy but when the going got rough they all flew the coop so nobody stood by your side that was part of your team have you seen me on TV no no you said I have two Emmys I have a agent would at least be like well let's wait it out for a little while later they went down okay so I then had you know after a while I thought well I can at least get back on the road the one thing they can't stop you from if you have the goods people will come to see you right so I had my own agent at the time Live Nation's the biggest promotion company etc saying you know you're not gonna be able to sell 500 seats anywhere after what you've done so then I said okay you know get you in that I'm gonna show you mode right so I decided to do a show at Carnegie Hall and I sold it out in 24 hours Wow because I hired a Washington DC marketing firm because LA just didn't get it and I started you're gonna laugh I started granny here started her first mailing list last February and that's how this two are selling out like mailing in the mail like although I have to tell you one of the things I read in my act because like I said after time even this stuff is funny but I did get a lot of death threats in the old time email like with stamps Oh exactly and so the FBI I have to work with the FBI to this day because some of them I have to put in a ziploc bag and that's those are considered what they call credible threats mm-hm and some of them are like in the I'm not sure how scary this pile of mail is you feel like the FBI wants to protect you I do okay I do like believe it or not this thing hasn't turned me anti-government although I also want your listeners to know that the Department of Justice spent your taxpayer dollars which I know cardi B is very concerned with taxpayer dollars yes know where the money's going on a 2-month investigation of Kathy Griffin hmm you know big big member of Isis here oh yeah big hi card-carrying members trying to make sure that's all two months no you said former friend Anderson Cooper yeah cuz he turned on me that very day and he made a tweet he said Kathy Griffin's disgusting you didn't have to yeah we did you know we did CNN for 10 years and let me tell you something and I know I'm talking about misogyny you know a lot and all that stuff but the first two years I did CNN out of ten years I didn't even occur to me to ask to be paid like why shouldn't your agent have been like oh honey let's honey I don't would I guess should be you people that lured I think it's so funny is the right wing which hates me you know more than anything although just you know I'm in better company now like I'm in the new anti GOP I mean the new progeria ads it's me cap and Madonna there you go you know at first it was just me with the head so I feel like a I could win the Super Bowl someday because this is American you can do anything and I also feel like now I've done to do it with Madonna there you go mm-hmm now you know so yeah he tweeted and then what was really egregious to me and once again unprecedented is first of all can you imagine Sasha or Malia ever like tweeting that someone should get fired so Don jr. tweeting and it actually getting me fired is not how it's supposed to go here and uh I just wish that Anderson Cooper had not jumped on that bandwagon and Jake Tapper already had come after me he didn't say anything yeah about five months later and it was like a like a pretty unfriendly text really well yeah he was like how could you have put me in that position I didn't you didn't tell him to tweet something no by the way I didn't just you know I didn't it was so heavy and I'm not kidding like so intense with the death threats and all this other stuff and I was in the middle of a fifty city tour and by the next day I did not have one single day of work ahead of me Wow so I was fifty cities in 25 cities in 25 cities were the cancellations were recorded on TMZ in real time which they have never done so then I learned that Harvey Levin talks to Trump multiple times on the phone you hate I hate yeah yeah he's a gay guy who's a mega like he's a hardcore Trumper I know you hate Trump now allegedly who are we know look at the website I let me tell you some much MZ no because he said he can't stand by anything that Trump said if you know it if they've kind of like he'll go whichever he goes whichever way the wind blows but you know clickbait is one thing but when you start putting people in real physical danger you know it's another but also I just think it's ironic that he's a gay guy and I I actually said to him one time what do you think the Republican Party holds for you you think they're gonna have your back I said Jefferson bull workout sessions is rolling back rights every day and that's what you should be paying attention to and that I love one thing I love when the maggot people give this you just don't understand economics mm-hmm like no no he's a he's an idiot and a racist and I know him and so I do think he came after me because he thought she's an easy target and I think they coordinated and my joke is can you imagine if Barack Obama was calling Perez Hilton for a policy advice like that's how crazy things have gone right right but if you look at that website and I've never said this before but that website I think is highly misogynistic and racist and I'll tell you why that website if you look at people of color uh pound per pound you can do a study today or yesterday or look back five days whatever you want they will show more people of color getting into trouble fights mug shots then they will show people of color doing something good I think Chris Brown would agree that's right and but I bet women also have a certain age once you saw the time cellulite picture good genes or good docs remember the Marion Barry headline was kind of weird it was like crack hey yes got mayor of Baltimore DC I forgot what man Barry with it yeah music it was the mayor of DC but I'm just saying even even people of color that have done nothing wrong they'll he'll just throw like you know unflattering photos up on purpose I'm asking you just take a good hard look at that website and like I said it's a fun guilty pleasure I get it but really look at the way they treat women of a certain age in people of color it's very consistent so do you think that him not being cool with Trump anymore is you don't think that's real no I think like I said he'll do anything for clickbait yeah you know and then they're you know and when people I kind of love that all the stuff is coming out about David pecker and am I like I said but to have everyone coming at you like you know people make fun of the globe and the Enquirer except people who really believe it and what I found out was found and aliens think I'm an Isis and so you know they have Us Weekly and these are publications that when you're you know a television person or a touring person I mean I've done all kinds of stuff right and you know this is the type of thing that even Hollywood agents believe like they they think TMZ is like the news yes all the press banned you like you can't do no presses except in you at all I'm banned currently from uh of you know I actually got to go on the view once oh that was good I might well you know that's it always off and on banned but I think I'm still doing that but um yeah I'm trying to think of shows I I you know I'll tell you what else shows I'm not banned from because the list of shows that won't have me is so long and here's what they do they rarely come out and say you're banned it's just that like for example you know what used to be Live with Regis and Kathie Lee and then Kelly and you know so I've been banned I mean not able to book me for like 15 years so you know when you're trying to sell tickets for a tour I don't have a network behind me I don't have a big producer I don't have a Lorne Michaels it's I'm a one-man band I don't have a studio I'm not part of a movie franchise you know when when Snoop got it you know when they tried to say he was insinuating that he would kill the president they didn't go after him because Trump's doesn't have the balls to go after us knew and when Johnny Depp got drunk at a bar you know shocked and allegedly made a threat to the president you know the Pirates of the Caribbean team came in and took care of him thinking okay god I protect the movie franchise a week later he's taken a picture with his make-a-wish kid I know that game and so come on Johnny Johnny taken he has not taken a shower since that first movie I'm sorry I'm like Johnny why are you wearing a patch and he just goes more see the singer they didn't go after him but they knew Kathy Griffin doesn't have a step network or a studio no one's gonna come to her defense you would think that women would have came to your defense no yeah no and that one hurts I don't even punch line that ones danger issue with Julie chin no I read that you said about Julie Chen okay so I wrote okay well I deemed her when the first date the Lesley news came out and I don't know Lesley that much the well but every time I would run into him he'd say oh I love watching you on New Year's Eve Julie and I sit in bed and watch you every year and I would see him every year it's some kind of event I'd say thank you that'd be great and I wrote Julie eidm terror and I said look you know I always wanted I don't want to throw the wife under the bus if it was you didn't her to be affected by what he's done because we don't know yet what she knew or didn't know and I'm a Hillary person like I remember when Hillary took all that heat for standing by him and blah blah and so I thought I don't want it I'm not I don't want to do a girl-on-girl crime and she stood by her husband yes and and so I thought all right maybe maybe he has a secret life so I said to her and I was really honest and so Julie if you want to put out this DM I have no problem with it I said look you know as you may or may not know I'm still very much blacklisted and I want to work like anybody else but I just want to make people laugh and I didn't break the law and I have a story to tell and I said I would love to come on the talk and I promise I'm not gonna bring up Leslie like this has to be really hard for you so she never responded okay that's fine and then I just started hearing more of the stuff about less and I cannot tell you how much of that sort of thing has happened to me during my career Wow you know and remember I was born in 1960 so all the stuff that we're finally talking about now you know those of us a certain age we're just used to it well there was a guy named Mike Medavoy really powerful guy he sat me down one time I think fifteen years ago and he goes you're not gonna be able to make a living you're not likeable and you know things like that and I know you you have that fire inside you as well it's like when someone tells you can't do something hmm so you know I've been dealing with that my whole career while by the way the night before I played sold-out Carnegie Hall just to piss people off I booked Radio City myself and I said you know what and I broke a record I'm the only comedian ever to do Radio City on a Monday and Carnegie Hall on a Tuesday and I have more televised stand-up specials that I wrote every word of myself and produced 23 and I'm in the guinness book of world records than any comedian male or female living or dead and i'll tell you why because look I'm not Kevin Hardin I'm not Amy Schumer I don't play stadiums I get it I'm thrilled to be playing 2500 C venues I'm thrilled to be playing you know the arched in Miami Wednesday night regard I'm making a living but let me tell you those legal bills are no joke and they are hundreds of thousands of dollars and I also lost a living for a year and a half so that takes a toll on you to do that deserted you oh I didn't have your back end and went out of their way to write like really nasty letters and they didn't know the whole story and you know I really taught me a lot it taught me a lot I found out that the tour cancellations were robocalls because you know the right wing is so mobilized they know how those mega folks they know how to do the bot farm and I became part of an algorithm so I will say also this to you guys and your listeners if anyone of you tweets something positive about me you're gonna get at first like a line of trolls clearly not from America with like Isis be bad lady red hair let's try and do it Larry oh that up our followers but even if you just put the words without a hashtag Kathy Griffin and Twitter you're gonna see more things about me being an Isis and a terrorist than you will about me being an award-winning comedian Wow and the reason I'm bragging and bringing all this stuff up is number one nobody else will do it for me number two once I kick the bucket I want younger women people of color LGBT folks to look at my story and you know what that chick got beat up but she didn't go down right how did the LGBTQ people feel about you um not like an Andy Cohen Harvey Levin and Anderson Cooper but it was like top tier gays right uh the gays had my back okay gays in black Twitter had my back and I am not kidding from day one I got calls and from good friends going cuz I was like alright who can I talk to who not I don't know who my friend is anymore you know and so once again black Twitter and the gays were ahead of the curve so one of the things that actually made me laugh was a few days after the photo someone sent me a video of a bunch of drag queens dressed as me carrying heads on Fire Island laughing oh there's like 10 guys right but I was like okay they get the joke you know and the african-american community has been so good to me because you guys get it to be disenfranchised to be looked at as something that you're not to be lost why 60 old white men to have your living taken away from you tonight like Donald Trump yes yes yes um I think that she will have to make a statement and she's gone through some things right now that's probably well she's going through some things I gotta be honest the jury's out you know what I mean the jury's out like she needs to step up as a woman and for women of color and go this is not okay or they're bringing up the Janet Jackson situation okay Julie Tennant let me tell you something I lived it so when I read that article and it's funny I I've you know journalists I got to know a lot of journalists this year and I was very gratified to say to them this article is absolutely on track with what I have seen happen to many many actresses and singers and I said look at someone as giant gigantically popular as Janet Jackson and I don't doubt a word of it so you got less than Moonves this guy that's rubbing his dick on people and trying to sexually assault his own doctor at UCLA but he's gonna take down Janet Jackson because she didn't call and a cry and cry he wanted a tearful cry and what about Timberlake germinal [ __ ] him - Kimberly calls and sobs - Leslie Moonves [ __ ] you Leslie and not [ __ ] mall I don't give a [ __ ] an exec from CBS wanted you to write to Trump centrum okay yeah he's on the board of directors he's not even talked about a dinosaur what's his name Arnie Coulson okay and he was someone that I actually knew personally and I remember like this is a typical conversation that happened honestly six months before the photo and this he wanted to reboot the fugitive he produced the fugitive the original movie 'the Harrison Ford so he starts telling me at dinner at this restaurant and he says we're gonna reboot it and we've got Harrison and you know we've got to find the female that was his wife who gets killed it's not spoiler early on in the film and I said well Sela Ward who played it in the original is amazing it looks great and why don't you if you really want to reboot the movie with Harrison he's like she's not [ __ ] anymore I go honey you've never been [ __ ] and so every time I would name a female he goat not [ __ ] not [ __ ] Wow and what was this honey it was six months before the Trump photo it was 2017 so I'm just telling you I am the one nobody's gonna support me but I'm the one bad [ __ ] who's gonna stand here and go don't be thinking Halloween Hollywood's all liberal and everything's okay now and Oscar's so white no they're behind and Oscar so white is amazing because it forced them and what I have learned is you can do petitions and March and that's all great but until you basically dot Doc's these [ __ ] the way I was where my address was put online my mother got death threats in her retirement village she's 98 years old my sister got death threats in the hospital she was in hospital for cancer and she got death threats until the station I just want people to know like these Trumper 's they get mobilized and don't let them see you down no [ __ ] even me as a white person like I didn't know why people were this [ __ ] bad and racist they're really yes yes I did not know that when you're well you notice when you're in the arts it's different when you start out the gate you're hanging with gay people and black people and Asian people and that's kind of the great thing about the arts mm-hmm so I thought it was always like me because I've been told I'm ugly and too old and I look like you know Bride of Chucky and all this other stuff so well that's the beauty of privileged oh the beauty of being a white and privilege that you don't have to worry about the biases and prejudices right I just try to think it's you yeah you know yeah and I just thought okay I'm just gonna try to fight for I get it I'm different I'm not the most gorgeous person in the world I just want to be able to make a living and this experience has really taught me so much so you know from the jump I think it's now the time for everybody to come out of the shadows and that's what I do so I'm sorry it's gonna be a movie or something nobody will make nobody has the balls to do a special yeah I think it's gonna come back that's what I want to say your listeners keep your money like I get it in in those of you that become successful sometimes it happens quickly sometimes it doesn't but keep your money because you never know when it's gonna be a rainy day and honey I had a monsoon you should so I'm not saying I'm not like a billionaire and trust me I people that are mad at me can buy and sell me a 10 times over but it was you know what I don't even think you'd be at the point where you'd be going back on tour again I didn't think I was ever gonna you never know what's going to happen absolutely mom kind of lit for you somebody somebody just replied Jerry Seinfeld with the demon emoji I don't know what that means yeah he didn't have my back at all okay what do you do uh I get you know I'm gonna be honest I didn't look at a lot of them as they say the bad press but I dunno you know many many many people you know really jump the gun and we're very happy to get on the bandwagon of she's a devil she's you know she's glorifying decapitation excuse me I've been in war zones so no no this was what many comedians have done over the years a part of our job if you're a certain kind of comedian and I've always been a in-your-face style always that's right and I I do believe it's a comedian's job to shine a light on things good bad or indifferent and start a conversation and hopefully you can have some humor in it but you got to start it somehow well shout out to Kat will that's right that's right somebody did reply to me I hope someone beats you beat you and harass you prick if somebody else said me to I love her somebody else that will have her on The Breakfast Club they'll say get her on The Breakfast Club then fan so it's cool do you bring you don't bring that the head is done you don't bring that with you on tour nobody is it part of it okay first of all one of the things I think he's done but one of the things I still laugh at is that even when um like the idea that people thought I really was able to decapitate the president and then sew his head back on is I'm just gonna say his son cried Cathy um I think Baron has seen worse the Access Hollywood tape alone and I don't know can you imagine what melanie has seen I call her Moni okay and by the way for a guy who hates immigrants he bought two remember you bought Ivana first went to Czechoslovakia don't act so shocked then he aged around the system like menudo put in Marla the showgirl her name was Marla any age doubt Marla of the system and in a which Slovenia and bought Melania put her in a crate and sent her over yeah so for a guy who hates immigrants he likes buying him and that's why I think Melania is so quiet cuz you don't wanna get deported I think I think I think she's fabulous wants to go with Trudeau the Prime Minister of Canada cuz he's hotter than Kushner the doughy husband you have empathy for Roseanne no okay I know I did not see that coming not see you know I'm sorry and by the way come on there is a picture of her dressed as Hitler putting Jew cookies in an oven back we're done I don't know how you where to hide in Hollywood after doing a picture like that well you don't I mean I mean yeah and by the way ABC like giving her this opportunity to reboot the show you know everyone thought it was gonna be like it was I guess they hadn't checked her social mm-hmm but I don't know what made her turn but something did and you know and so they brought by the way when the Roseanne scandal was happening they ginned up my scandal again because Sarah [ __ ] be tried to tie me and with Roseanne and Samantha B so I had another day and I'm sure you guys experience this where your phone lights up in a bad way and it's all these texts from your friends going are you okay call me if you need me have you seen the TV yet and so I'm like now what and so yeah they're they're still coming for me just like cap they are still coming for me I think Rosen is a great example because you know her dressing up as Hitler yeah and putting the stuff in the oven the cooking oven like that was like to me just as bad as decapitating a press sitting president yeah way worse so we should see what I also don't believe in white supremacy and she really has those beliefs for real right like I'm I'm obnoxious I do my dick jokes I do my Kardashian stories I now have a heck of a story to tell but yeah I'm not doing I don't actually have those feelings and by the way you know if she didn't maybe it could have been spun a different way but that's the thing that if you look at her actual social she's the day she got fired she also tweeted that one of the parkland shooting survivors was the Nazi I know so but Samantha bee and Michelle will how can you really support oh that's weird I know now why did you apologize in the first place could you see it you're sold I'll tell you why Harsha body man I know and cat was so mad at me he's like ah I said cat let me tell you that down III did I let him down I'll tell you why Rosie O'Donnell called me and she is the expert at being a controlled by Donald Trump like he's been after her for 12 years and she said and this is how the Trump woodchipper framed it she said you've got to take you've got apologized people think you're really really an Isis and I was left I thought she was kidding I hung up I was like I'll talk to you later you're right you know comics ha ha good one and then she called back and she said a famous line she said what of Daniel pearls mother saw this he's a journalist that was literally decapitated and I have to say that's what made me do the apology like I said I have performed overseas I've performed at Walter Reed Medical Center here I have relationships with two veterans groups and I thought I get it that could be traumatizing making light of decapitation that's right guys and so honestly it was an apology almost for her alone and then I also didn't realize they were gonna throw in a bunch of other crazy lies like I said that I had actually joined Isis which I don't think you know I don't think they I don't think I could even do the training frankly I could break a hip I could break camp yeah and so uh so the apology was a disaster and then I did a press conference which was a disaster and tried to explain myself and so then I thought all right I'm just gonna hunker down try to stay alive and it was in fact Jim Carrey who said take the time you need figure out how to put it through he have this great line your Kathy Griffin comedy prism and he said you know Kathy at the end of this you're gonna have a story that any comic would give their right arm to have you said you have basically had the worst president in our history put his thumb on the shoulder of your life he goes you can't keep this in I got to tell it so took a while to process took a while to process writing writing writing writing writing went and did like I said 15 countries overseas by the way every single country that I did and I am not glorifying violence but when they saw that photo they cheered because they hate Trump so much and overseas they're used to that imagery and like their Spiegel or Sharlee Abdo and and I didn't know the photographer was gonna give it to freaking TMZ by the way I thought it'd be like some artsy revolutionary band from anything after that no he has he got a Netflix series oh wow I think you're taking a lot of heat for his idea well I asked him to give me the copy right now tell you why I said look this picture changed my life and it's gonna haunt me forever like you know I every time I go to an airport you know people I walk down the street people grab me and call me a terrorist I can't tell you it happens almost do any better security that you need foi fruit Islam I'm telling you I don't go anywhere alone yeah um and people are bold like it with this Trump environment white people are oh I love hearing a woman say this honey these you're gonna love this I'm not talking to my [ __ ] I am NOT talking to my [ __ ] and I don't care for my audience all these [ __ ] [ __ ] that didn't vote for Hillary there's something about her I just don't know what it is I just don't know and every time I go look don't even start with your freaking Jill Stein you don't understand any vote that isn't for Hillary is a vote for Trump you know and so for me a lot lifelong feminists to read that white women voted for Trump more than Hillary is such a letdown not some [ __ ] wake up ladies it's crazy to me that none of these women in Hollywood reached out to you at all at all like not one now none of the strong feminist the lena Dunham's little world like nobody know well The Breakfast Club got you back thank you no mind you we've had Minister Farrakhan on that show we've got some very explosive people black no don't even joke that I'm going to an Isis meeting after this don't even joke that all right so I'm also a by the way I'm also very very lucky and privileged to be playing like the what I call the great halls but what I want to tell you is I'm now producing my shows myself hmm which means to play Radio City I personally wire $250,000 for the rent Wow cuz I can't even count on Live Nation or AEG none of those guys are gonna have my back because I'm a woman oh is my humble opinion alright so Wednesday I am at the arched in Miami beautiful venue you know aren't you in DC uh yeah I just did oh you just did that I just did a DC show on their feet it was fantastic okay so my next shows our Miami Orlando Columbus Atlanta Billy Philly I'm doing a double two shows Minneapolis Detroit st. Louis and Phoenix word of advice just give them one web site to go to Kathy Griffin for the email a text list not the old-fashioned you know dollars mailers no hearing yet some death threats yeah that's right that's right they did lunch all of your timeline yes and do me one favor whatever you're talking about any of these people just call them fuckboys how do I start I mean I've such a long are you talking these guys you don't like just call them [ __ ] boys boys yeah there you go the time well thank you for joining this week you guys are awesome alright thanks you guys alright it's Kathy Griffin it's The Breakfast Club good morning

Channel: Breakfast Club Power 105.1 FM

Views: 1,497,008

Keywords: the breakfast club, power1051, celebrity news, radio, video, interview, angela yee, charlamagne tha god, dj envy, kathy griffin, harvey levin, tmz, donald trump

Id: eCJnrlogRBE

Length: 56min 11sec (3371 seconds)

Published: Wed Sep 12 2018