Comedian Kathy Griffin returns to Phoenix with ‘My Life on the PTSD List’

Kathy Griffin may be the most resilient entertainer in modern history. She was not only canceled by social media, but the entire country questioned her integrity. Now she’s back, and things are so very different.

In the last seven years, she’s endured cancer, a drug addiction, a divorce, her mother’s death and being accused of terrorism by the United States government. But Griffin didn't fold; in fact, she’s unpacking her trauma into an act called “My Life on the PTSD List,” a play on the title of her Emmy-award-winning Bravo reality show.

She’s coming to Phoenix on March 30, and even though she loves her fans who live here, she’s not shy about speaking her mind on Arizona’s politics and politicians: “That fucking turncoat, Kyrsten Sinema can suck my dick while she's at it.”

The 63-year-old comic recently spoke to Phoenix New Times via a telephone interview. Her 40-city tour starts on March 21 in New Jersey and ends in Hawaii in mid-October. It hasn’t been easy for the comedian, but rather than internalizing her tribulations, she's taking them on the road.

“God, it's why I'm calling the tour ‘My Life on the PTSD List,’” says Griffin, her voice a little high-pitched because of vocal cord damage. “I've been diagnosed with complex PTSD, which I have to laugh at myself because, you know, I thought it was only for combat veterans but between the Trump thing, which was seismic, I was on the fucking no-fly list like a terrorist.”

Back in 2017, Griffin shocked social media by posting a picture of President Trump’s decapitated head in effigy. The photo spread through social media like wildfire,and the press had a field day. People from both parties chastised her and consequently, the comic was shunned. All at once, Griffin, who isn’t easily rattled, had to make an apologetic press conference in which she looked scared and visibly shaken. Venues canceled her tour dates, television networks banned her from their broadcasts and even some of her industry friends cut ties.

“Nobody else was canceled like me,” she contends. “In fact, canceled is an understatement. I was investigated by two agencies within the Department of Justice, the U.S. Attorney's Office and the Secret Service, for assassination conspiracy to assassinate the president of the United States. I was interrogated under oath. And because of that, I have not worked in six long years.”

During that time, Griffin says she got addicted to prescription pills and tried to take her own life, which resulted in a three-day involuntary mental health watch, “like I’m Britney and Kanye combined,” she jokes. Part of Griffin’s appeal is that she is tenacious, but the number of setbacks were relentless. It makes one wonder why she keeps going.

“I got lung cancer even though I never smoked,” she says. “And then they take out half of my left lung. But because it's me, naturally, I get injured during the surgery. So I have a paralyzed left vocal cord, which is why I sound like this. And then I filed for divorce three months ago. So what keeps me going? It's so simple: It’s work.”

Griffin is a huge fan of Joan Rivers and just like her, she believes the work is the most important thing. The 81-year-old Rivers was getting ready to start a U.K. tour before her untimely passing in 2014.

“She had a full calendar,” Griffin says. “So for me to be able to do 40 cities after being told by every one of these cities that I was toxic, I wasn't welcome there. And by the way, nobody apologized, nobody came back or any of that shit. The people that turned on me are still like, ‘Well, you kind of had it coming, bitch.’ And luckily there's a disconnect between the people in my own industry and actual audience members.”

Griffin says that some of her current tour dates are selling out, and some are not. There's no telling how well her tour will do, but for her, it's not really about the revenue.

“I finally feel at home again on that stage doing what I do, making people laugh. Sometimes it's shocking. Sometimes I get the gay gasp, but I love every minute of it.”

Her stand-up is famous for being irreverent toward Hollywood celebrities and her encounters with them. Her outspoken nature has cost her some professional relationships, especially with her former boss at Bravo, Andy Cohen. Griffin also acknowledges her fights with other powerful male executives. But if she believes in something, she's going to fight for it.

“I didn't know these guys were gonna like — because I'm a woman, to be honest — try to keep me from working, like actually actively keep me from working. So, to be on stage doing the show in Phoenix — I've played Phoenix many times, it's a great town. The audiences are smart, they're up on everything. and we're gonna have to go through it together as an audience.”

Griffin is a staunch ally of the LGBTQ+ community, and she respects that relationship wholeheartedly. So when comedians such as Dave Chappelle, Ricky Gervais and Matt Rife mention them in a derogatory way in their acts, she doesn’t approve. She's especially upset with Chappelle, who she regards as a genius, but still a transphobe.

“I don't understand why he even addresses a community that is the number-one community that has to fear for their lives in the world,” she says in ire. “There's not a place on earth where a trans person is as safe as you and I would be.”

And she dislikes some of Matt Rife’s material. She calls him the chairman and CEO of the “lucky club,” given his near-overnight success via social media. She doesn’t appreciate his type of edginess, and she even questions where he gets it.

“The guy's on TikTok, he does crowd work,” she says. “He may or may not have friends writing those jokes for him or helping him, which is fucking cheating. That's cheating as far as I'm concerned, I write all my own shit. I always have.”

She finds one of Rife’s bits especially distasteful: a joke from his Netflix special, "Matt Rife: Natural Selection," about a waitress with a black eye who wouldn’t have gotten it if she knew how to cook. Griffin thinks it’s more of a hardline than a punchline, and it shouldn’t be crossed.

“These are jokes that a little kid would do in grade school, if not kindergarten, and then would get in trouble by the teacher, and have to be explained what is punching up and punching down,” she says. “There's so much fun in punching up. Look, when I make fun of the Kardashians, they don't give a shit, because they're printing money and collecting money that possibly they printed in their basement. But we're friends because they know it's a joke. They know I'm on the D list and they're on the A list.”

In "My Life on the PTSD List," she'll use what she calls anchor stories, or bits she knows will be included. But others will be improvised. They all derive from the last six years of her life. It was a rough road, but she endured and now it’s finally time to be Kathy Griffin again.

“I want people to come with an open heart and an open mind and just know we're both gonna be improvising a little bit,” she says. “I'm not positive what I'm gonna say, but, you know, I have a general idea.”

And for those wondering if she learned a lesson with the bloody Trump head stunt? Well, yes and no.

“If he gets elected again I'm putting that picture up again,” she says. “So get ready, everybody.”

Kathy Griffin, "My Life on the PTSD List": 8 p.m. Saturday, March 30. Orpheum Theatre, 203 W. Adams St., Phoenix. Tickets are $35 to $95.