Club Random with Bill Maher - Kathy Griffin | Club Random Classics with Bill Maher

Episode Date: August 20, 2026

On this month's Club Random Classics, Bill Maher revisits one of his most electric sit-downs with comedian Kathy Griffin. The two dig into why Kathy turns everything into a fight, her explosive war wi...th MAGA nation, and what actually happens when the internet decides to cancel you. Kathy breaks down the real story behind that infamous Trump photo, the fallout it caused, and the long list of people who sued her over it. She and Bill also geek out on Joe Rogan's brilliance, revisit the upsetting Kennedy scene from the Marilyn Monroe biopic, and Bill pitches Kathy an entire TV show idea on the spot. This episode first aired on May 21, 2023. Subscribe to the Club Random YouTube channel: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.youtube.com/c/clubrandompodcast?sub_confirmation=1⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Watch episodes ad-free – subscribe to Bill Maher’s Substack: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://billmaher.substack.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Subscribe to the podcast for free wherever you listen: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://bit.ly/ClubRandom⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Buy Club Random Merch: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://clubrandom.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices ABOUT CLUB RANDOM Bill Maher rewrites the rules of podcasting the way he did in television in this series of one on one, hour long conversations with a wide variety of unexpected guests in the undisclosed location called Club Random. There’s a whole big world out there that isn’t about politics and Bill and his guests—from Bill Burr and Jerry Seinfeld to Jordan Peterson, Quentin Tarantino and Neil DeGrasse Tyson—talk about all of it.  For advertising opportunities please email: PodcastPartnerships@Studio71us.com ABOUT BILL MAHER Bill Maher was the host of “Politically Incorrect” (Comedy Central, ABC) from 1993-2002, and for the last fourteen years on HBO’s “Real Time,” Maher’s combination of unflinching honesty and big laughs have garnered him 40 Emmy nominations. Maher won his first Emmy in 2014 as executive producer for the HBO series, “VICE.” In October of 2008, this same combination was on display in Maher’s uproarious and unprecedented swipe at organized religion, “Religulous.” Maher has written five bestsellers: “True Story,” “Does Anybody Have a Problem with That? Politically Incorrect’s Greatest Hits,” “When You Ride Alone, You Ride with Bin Laden,” “New Rules: Polite Musings from a Timid Observer,” and most recently, “The New New Rules: A Funny Look at How Everybody But Me Has Their Head Up Their Ass.” FOLLOW CLUB RANDOM https://www.clubrandom.com https://www.facebook.com/Club-Random-101776489118185 https://twitter.com/clubrandom_ https://www.instagram.com/clubrandompodcast https://www.tiktok.com/@clubrandompodcast FOLLOW BILL MAHER https://www.billmaher.com https://twitter.com/billmaher https://www.instagram.com/billmaher Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript
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Starting point is 00:00:00 While you were remodeling your backyard to make it more, you know, zen-e. We were remodeling our merch store to make it more random. We slapped our new logo on T-shirts, tie-dies, hoodies and hats, and all with premium printed labels. Look, I wasn't kidding. We have it, because tags are like the junk mail of clothing. All merch is available exclusively at clubrandom.com. Once again, that's club random.
Starting point is 00:00:30 Well, this week's Club Random Classic is Kathy Griffin. I love Kathy Griffin, one of the few people who can honestly say she was investigated by the federal government over a comedy bit. I'm one of the others probably. We talk about the Trump photo, the friends who vanished, the career she had to rebuild, and what happens when the outrage machine finds a new victim but leaves you holding the bill? Kathy and I don't agree on everything, thank God. But she's funny, fearless, and constitutionally incapable of giving you the sanitized version. It is a conversation about comedy, survival, and refusing to disappear. Oh, they always hide.
Starting point is 00:01:11 Where is she? Oh, my God. Bill, it's here. Thank God your hair is so bright. Hello, darling. Hello, sweetheart. Come here. How are you?
Starting point is 00:01:20 How have you been? I've been okay. Yeah. I know you've had your ups and downs. I have. But I never, ever think they get you down. No, really. You're not the type to go down.
Starting point is 00:01:34 You're just a fighter. Your whole thing is... I mean, not your whole thing. You're hysterically funny, but you're a fighter. So I never really worried about you. The bad thing is I'm a street fighter. So along the way, I've made some enemies, but I'm trying to turn into more of a strategic fighter.
Starting point is 00:01:51 That would be great. And it's 62 years young. I'm really going to change this time. I really am. That's a great thing to say, because, first of all, You can never get to any age where you go, oh, I've stopped, especially when it's about making mistakes. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:02:06 I do the same thing. I look back even five, ten years and go, oh, what a dumbass thing I did. The stuff I would, by the way, I thought I was doing it for, like, the work. But, like, the stuff I thought, I thought everything was a battle. I thought, whether it's a piece of the set dressing that I feel strongly about or, you know, whatever, my own writing. and looking back, not everything was the same level of battle that I kind of treated it like.
Starting point is 00:02:36 That's funny that you, that's also great, that you recognize that because that is exactly how I saw you, as why does this girl make everything a battle? She, I thought you must like it because you were always doing, really. You know, who fights with the left and the right? Very few. I do, but, you know, I guess I'm crazy too.
Starting point is 00:02:57 but I mean to the point of getting canceled by both. Yeah. You know. And by the way, canceled is sort of an adorable way of putting it. Remember, he was under investigation by the Department of Justice, the U.S. Attorney's Office, the Secret Service. Well, that's, you know, no fly list. That's so insane. But also, look, as you know, it's not that hard to scare off buyers.
Starting point is 00:03:19 And the buyers really, I think until maybe just very recently have been scared off. Buyers of what? Yeah, like the buyers, like the never. works, the streamers. Oh, people who might buy the Kathy Griffin product. Yeah, buy the Kathy Griffin, but also even to feel safe having Kathy Griffin at their theater. You know what I mean? Of course.
Starting point is 00:03:37 So. No, I know. I know you when you did the Trump picture. Yes. I mean, which, God, you know, when you look back on it, when you look back, I looked back at my 9-11 thing and it all just seems surreal and so, I mean,
Starting point is 00:03:53 I thought it was stupid at the time and I thought what they did to you was stupid at the time. And I remember I you want to say that. But when you look back, it's even stupider. Yeah. And compared to the other stuff that we should have been focusing on, it was the classic. The paranoia of just also what's so annoying about that is it's what I hate about our culture, robotic things, you know, TSA, things were like, oh, you know, if you handle this like a human, like the Israelis handle security. I remember being in Israel and going through security. And I had a thermist that looked just like the bottom of a bomb.
Starting point is 00:04:30 Now, if this was the TSA, it's just like, are you kidding? They just go by the rules. We only know this rule. And the rule is, if you take a picture with Trump's head, you're a dangerous person. Whereas like in Israel, when they found the thing, this very intelligent, and in Israel, they are ex-military intelligence who do this at the airport, interrogated me, interrogated, asked me like eight questions, and was like, okay, I'm an intelligent person. I see this is an American comedian. He's making a movie over here.
Starting point is 00:04:59 This is really as a thermos for cereal. They could just tell because they're using their mind. As opposed to what happened to you is more examples of that. No, we're robots. This is the rule. She is going to cause beheadings in an innumerable fashion more than you can ever imagine. And she is just as she is no different than a bride of ISIS. She's Catholic Griffin Bride of Isis.
Starting point is 00:05:24 But that was the shit. Now I'm only eating baby parts with you, Hillary Clinton and Tom Hanks. And by the way, Seth Green, did you know the cues have been going for poor Seth Green? No, why? They think that for some reason, Seth Green, they think he was like one of the original people at Comic Pizza in the basement with Hillary harvesting baby parts. And I've talked to Seth about like what it's like to have the whole queue world, not just come at you. Seth Green, voice of Chris Griffin. Yes.
Starting point is 00:05:55 Yes. from like the teen movies with red hair as a fellow ginger. Yeah. But they're convinced Tom Hanks is harvesting the baby parts. Yeah. And that shit didn't happen
Starting point is 00:06:09 seven years ago. I'm just telling you, my whole career for the crap I got in trouble with, I went this too far with a celebrity, whatever. Nothing like the stuff. I think when historians
Starting point is 00:06:20 look back on this period and they write about it, from many years later, They won't be where we are, where we're in the pits of it. So everything is binary and we see the left and the right. They will just look from their vantage point and see America went crazy. And that everything that the left did or whoever started it and the right's reaction and the left's reaction to that was sort of a cause and effect, whereas if you're this crazy,
Starting point is 00:06:51 we're going to get this crazy about our shit. Yeah. By the way, God willing, people see that because I am terrified in, what do we do with this world that is devoid of opinions? It's just deciding this fact is a fact and this fact isn't a fact. Right. But I mean, this kind of thing, what you're talking about, like the, okay, the historians are going to go like, yes, at a certain point, so many percentage of the Republicans thought Republicans were eating babies. Yeah. And the Democratic responses, we're going to insist that it's possible for every man to be pregnant.
Starting point is 00:07:29 It's going to go, oh, I see. I see what happened back in the 2020s in America. Now, can we please talk about, because you and I share this, we both are childless, therefore heretics. Right. And how would a young Bill Maher deal with all the new laws if boys could get pregnant too? I mean, Billmore. Like, how old would you have been when you were knocked up if you were a chick? What's that?
Starting point is 00:07:58 Like, how old would you have been when you had gotten knocked up when you were a chick? Like, do you think you would have gotten knocked up in your team? If I was a woman? If I was born a woman? Yeah, like would you not have kids until you're married? It's, oh God, Kathy, to ask me what would be in my head if I was a woman, I mean, I'm not usually stuck for an answer about a lot of things, but I'm stuck for him because I'm, You know, I guess very much unlike so many of the young people today where gender is fluid and
Starting point is 00:08:27 it's just always a jump ball when you're born and you can switch back and forth. Sometimes in the middle of a conversation, really, you identify and then you identify in a different way on mood. I feel like I came from an error I was just created. Like, I mean, I'm not going to say I'm a Marine or anything, but I am all-man. You know, I just do not think like a woman. I do not act like one or even a gay man, you know. Right. So, I mean, and I know, and I've talked.
Starting point is 00:08:53 You'd be like me. You'd just simply be a female who chose not to have kids, perhaps. Right. No, I mean, I could have been your doppelganger in many ways. Or in an alter universe, we could have been married. Let's pretend we're married. We're in our chairs because we were married. I had married, but I waited 10 years to marry the dude.
Starting point is 00:09:13 So we've been together 13. We only got married. I have to tell you, though, our wedding day. Our wedding day was New Year's Eve. Because I thought, you know, after getting Cannes from CNN, let me have some more positive to, like, celebrate around New Year's. So that part was great. And the best part is we did it New Year's Eve, 2020, convinced 2020 was going to be the greatest year.
Starting point is 00:09:36 Right. What a shit storm. Right. And then the pandemic. How did that affect you as newlyweds? But you, again, you knew each other for a decade. We were living together. Right.
Starting point is 00:09:46 We were at a second house together, all that stuff. Right. Yeah. Oh. I know. Well, look, I know you've been through all this shit with cancer. Yeah. I feel like it, now, I've always thought cancer was bad, and I don't care who's going to argue with me.
Starting point is 00:10:02 That's my position. Yeah. But I swear to God, I feel like it's made you a better person. Well, I do think, first of all, I think people can see me as a human being for the first time in a while. And I've just noticed a lot of people reaching out to me on social media just saying, I didn't like this. about you. I don't like that, but I'm wishing you well or whatever. Or like, well, regardless, you're a survivor, something like that. So there's that. And also, of course, it changes you, because first of all, as you can tell, I actually sustained some injuries during my surgery.
Starting point is 00:10:33 Sure. They had to take out half my left lung. They damage my vocal cord permanently. I also have, like, an aperture up here. So my voice may never come back to full speed. I kind of like it this way. Really? Yeah. I'm so afraid, though, I can't do impressions. You get a car. You get a car. I mean, you know it's Oprah, right? You were never an impressionist. I'm working on it. I'm a work in progress.
Starting point is 00:10:55 I made a distribution for us in all next year. That's not why your fans love you. It's like, oh, I want to see Catholic Ribbonne impressions. They want to see you do your thing, which is, you know, great. And, you know, you carved out a place. You know, you just did it. There was a niche there in show business, and you were like, I'm going for it and succeeded. And then, yes, you did.
Starting point is 00:11:17 fight with too many people for, for, I mean, what, like every executive? Like, you're still not friends with Anderson Cooper? No, but that was like a little more of a friendship. Like, that was like kind of a personal thing, you know, because that was like a tough situation. But like, will you ever get over that with him? Sure, of course. Oh, you will?
Starting point is 00:11:37 Yes. He knows that too? Or is that just what you know? I mean, that may, I don't know that he's interested. Right. But I mean, you know, I also don't have like a need. to like hang out with people that maybe weren't so kosher.
Starting point is 00:11:51 Were you really friends with Anderson Cooper? I thought so, yeah. Like the kind of, I mean. Like I didn't think we were Hollywood friends. I thought we were legit friends. Right. Okay, because they do throw the word friend around a lot in show business.
Starting point is 00:12:05 And I always say this. It's between friend and friend Lee. Right. Like a lot, there's a lot of Lee's out there. I got a lot of leaves. Yeah. But friend is like somebody who, you have their phone number,
Starting point is 00:12:17 You bear your souls to each other. You're there for each other when this one's having a tough day. Yeah. So that's what he was like. So you had that with Anderson Cooper. Yeah. So I miss that. You know what I mean? So it's hard.
Starting point is 00:12:27 But I'll tell you. And was he just like he is on the air? Asking probing questions about your day. Yes. Let's get some background information about your day. He does have like a newscaster voice. I mean, that is. But I'll tell you why I was also really probably closer with is I loved his mom,
Starting point is 00:12:45 Clary Vanderbilt. I mean, those. were evenings. Right. Like, I actually stole one of her ideas, and I know you're a big fan of these, too, but I've been having these salons in my house, and they've been one of the ways that during my quote cancellation, I've been kind of staying same. Just 10 people, phones down, real conversation, smarties, like people that you kind of cast, like Sue Mengers was a friend of mine, I used to go to those dinner. If people don't know, the Bet Midler, the great Bet Midler, did a play Sue Mengers on Broadway. On Broadway. I don't think it was it out here. I don't know, but it was definitely
Starting point is 00:13:22 on broad. What was it called? I forgot the name of the show. Something about lunch or something. Yeah. But anyway, it was about she played this super agent, Sue Mengers, who was a real person. I certainly knew her quite well. She was the first powerful woman agent. And she wrapped Ryan O'Neill at the height of his fame. Oh, Barbara Streis. Jack Nicholson. Parvice. Yes. Steve McQueen. Yes. And I remember the first time I went to her house, she showed me the 60 Minutes piece they did on her. It was very normadismant and Sunset Boulevard. Like, come in, I mean, she must have shown this to a thousand people. And it was from the 70s. So what? I understand. But like, it was like, Sue, I know who you are. You don't have to show me the 60
Starting point is 00:14:04 minutes piece. But of course, it meant to like. She looked better in that caftain than the one she was written. But remember how she would talk to the staff? Oh. Grass. She would just scream grass. I used to bring her grass. Well, good for you. Yeah. That's what a good. I was in an abler. But those evenings were special because- So special. It was always like the most A-list crowd. Sue had the kind of clout
Starting point is 00:14:27 that she could summon anybody. I remember being, so it was like a mix of old Hollywood, like her old cronies who were, of course, iconic A-list figure. Jack Nicholson. Lauren Michael, Steve. Martin. Yeah, Neil Diamond.
Starting point is 00:14:43 Julia. But then there would be Julia Roberts, I remember, meeting there. Daniel Craig. Daniel Craig, I remember what, like he, she would just say, I want this person. I saw, that's how I was there. She saw me on TV and said, get me Bill Maher. And I was thrilled to go.
Starting point is 00:14:57 She invited me by fax. My agent called and said, you have a fax. I said, fantastic. And she invited me after I won my first Emmy. And I got up there and I said, you know, a lot of celebrities think Jesus for their Emmys. Oh, I remember. That was a great. Suck at Jesus.
Starting point is 00:15:14 This award is my God now. That was a great. My first cancelation. I just want to say my first guest tuition. But she called me and said, you've earned a seat at the table. Oh, that's awesome. And yeah, I got to meet such fascinating people,
Starting point is 00:15:27 and I learned, and this is how I tried to do my dinners, my guests know I want nothing from them. I don't care how famous they are. I'm not going to ask anything of them. I'm not hitting them up for a part of their movie. Right. Like, it's literally just like, I just want your company. And I'm telling you, I do lunches and dinners,
Starting point is 00:15:44 and I just live for them, you know. But didn't, Didn't somebody get mad at you because they thought you were, like, sharing too much about their personal life? Didn't you have one of those for you? I don't know, but like... Like some woman, like... Look, some of these folks, remember, they were like 80, 85 years of age. So, I mean...
Starting point is 00:16:04 No, this was somebody younger who I feel like you were chummy with some woman and then... Is it Brook Shields? I was going to bring it Brook Shields? I don't know. No, it wasn't Brook Shields. But, Brooke Shields, I was on a TV show with for four years. Yeah, I remember that show. I love her and she's maybe not a giant fan of mine.
Starting point is 00:16:19 Really? Because I talked about, I know it's a shock, but it's because I talked about, you know, going to her wedding in one of my specials, which she had come to see live and thought it was great, but then had a change of her, like, seeing it, you know. Because you talked about her? Yeah.
Starting point is 00:16:36 You know what you have to do? You have to do, like, remember that show, something Earl, where he went around, it was kind of like taken from the AA thing where you go around and make a man. to all the people. And you should do that with the shitless. I know.
Starting point is 00:16:52 It's so long. It's like a scroll. You've got to go to Anderson. But that's what my fans love, though. The problem is my fans want to hear that's what they want. That could be a show. One week you go to Anderson Cooper and you make up with him. And then the next week...
Starting point is 00:17:07 What are I doing, Anderson Cooper? I don't know, but you have to make up with him. Okay, okay. Right? Okay, he's not talking to you. Then you go to Brooke Shields and you just go down this list. I mean, you'd have a whole season. Okay, then you have to do the same thing to Congress.
Starting point is 00:17:20 You have to go down the list. Well, and the last one would be Trump for you. Oh, okay, really? Right. And what do I get out of that scenario? I don't know. Bring him somebody else's head. As a gesture, bring another head.
Starting point is 00:17:33 I have so many choices. Or at least cut off an ear. You know, something like that. Start small. Yeah. I know. But so who else is on this shit list? I forget, but I don't know who's on the shit list.
Starting point is 00:17:45 Who you're on there should list. Once you've been canceled to the degree that I have, more like you said, Hollywood turned on me. You know, I haven't, like, I haven't been able to make money, meaning be in the red for, wait, in the black, which is the good one? The black.
Starting point is 00:18:03 Okay, I haven't been in the black for six years. Now, I'm not crying poor. I've done well, all this other stuff. I'm thrilled. But that sucks. Like, if somebody had just turned off your phone And if you went from this life that you lived today. And look, you got a million gigs.
Starting point is 00:18:19 But I'm just saying I was busy. And to have no one call for six years. That is a perjury, you know. Six years. But now it's over. You're out of showbus of jail. Here's what I think. I think that if the Mirage called after six years,
Starting point is 00:18:38 I feel like if the Mirage is having me back. Yes. And as you know, Vegas is not edgy. Vegas is in middle America. People go to Vegas. And I think if I'm safe for Vegas, I think it's a big sign. Vegas, no, that's not true anymore. When I first played Vegas, opening for Dina Ross, it was exactly that.
Starting point is 00:18:58 It was just really square. But now Vegas is so big. First of all, the town itself is a town you could play, even if it didn't have the tourists because it's a big town. I get a lot of townies. I bet you you do too. Okay. If you mean gay showboys, you're damn right, I do, honey.
Starting point is 00:19:14 every last one of them. Right. And then beyond that, I mean, if you have, I don't know how many people are in town from out of town, but there is enough, I mean, to fill a,
Starting point is 00:19:26 I mean, I play the comedy, I played The Mirage for years. Yeah. And that theater was like, I don't know, 1250. Yeah. Okay. So out of the, yes,
Starting point is 00:19:34 even if it's one out of 100, there's plenty of hip people in town because hip people like to go and have fun in Vegas too. Right. You're right. They're far outnumbered by the people. Remember,
Starting point is 00:19:43 this is also the town that when Linda Ronstadt dedicated, you know, Desperado to Michael Moore, not only did she get booed off the stage at Cesar's, she was walked out by security. Linda Ronstadt. Right. An icon, a legend. Yes. You know, that wasn't not in our lifetime.
Starting point is 00:20:00 You're right. So there's still that. I think the buyers in Vegas, they got to please a lot of masters. And I'm just saying, for me, I think it's a significant thing that it's my first gig I've had in six years where they actually offered me the money they did six years ago. Meaning in a good way. Meaning it wasn't come do this for free. Right.
Starting point is 00:20:18 We're doing you a favor if you come host my charity for free again. Right. Like it's been six years of I'm helping you by you coming and suiting. So it just feels good to have like a gig. No, I mean, what America does so well is do stupid things. And then like a few years later usually, I remember this happened with, oh God, everybody from Don Imus. and some people get canceled permanently,
Starting point is 00:20:45 but there's a lot of, oh, yeah, maybe we did overreact. I hope so. I'm banking on it. Oh, absolutely. Because, by the way, the reverse is horrifying. Like, that people are still walking on me, like, that bitch kind of deserves it. But if you say to somebody, if someone, you know,
Starting point is 00:21:02 like the way I described to you, if you were just woke up and you had no job the next day, by the way, almost no friends. And also, you've paid the price. I mean, this, look, I'm going to say something now. I hope it doesn't bother you or people in the audience. And I'm admitting, before I say it, it's pure conjecture. But from everything I know about medicine and health, I'm a believer in the mind-body connection.
Starting point is 00:21:30 And we don't know exactly what causes cancer for sure or else we could go and have it diagnosed. But stress, extreme stress. Yes, I think is very, very involved in, you know, again. I'm saying I got lung cancer. It's not my family. I never smoked. Right. It's a tumor, ironically, that had been there since 2009 and not grown.
Starting point is 00:21:57 Then all of a sudden it's double in size. And then it's like, we've got to get out in three weeks and we're taking half the lung. Right. You know. I agree. I'm with you. So I'm just saying for the folks who want to punish you forever, for your non-crimes.
Starting point is 00:22:14 Just think about that. You know, you got your price of your pound of flesh, or however much that tumor weighed. Right. And almost literally. Yeah. And besides not making the money, and also just the days of wondering about your future and your past.
Starting point is 00:22:34 But Bill, if you couldn't make people laugh anymore, come on, you know what that does to us. Of course. It's not just a daily routine. Right. You no longer can even, like, make people laugh on social media without, you know what I mean? Like, it's taking that away has been the hardest thing. It would be like cutting off the last 10 inches of my penis.
Starting point is 00:22:54 And we don't have those to spare because we got the first three feet and then we roll it back up for the next girl. Now, what's going on in your love life? I'm afraid to ask. Oh, my God. Go on. Mom. Don't be shy. Mom.
Starting point is 00:23:06 Come on. First of all, I don't. First of all, I was there for classy, honey. Don't act like we don't go back. I don't talk. I don't talk about my personal life. I really don't. Oh, you're so full of shit.
Starting point is 00:23:14 I don't. Not, not. Why don't you brag about it? First of all, because... Can you get a date, Bill? No, there you go. That's it. That's what it is.
Starting point is 00:23:24 And also, I'm just, I'm just focused on helping and healing America. I wish I had time for a social life, but my complete dedication is to healing the rift in our nation. So that's where I am. Wow. You're just, like, a saint.
Starting point is 00:23:41 A saint and also or duct tape. All right now this is you know as you talk about a lot I talk about knowing what you can talk about on stage because I sort of think this is funny but I don't know if the audience would
Starting point is 00:23:54 but I am being sort of humorous but not kidding when I say I now give the planet seven years. I used to be like 30 then how do you see us keeping up this pace and for how long? It's so interesting you put it that way because it sounds to me like what they've always said since I've lived out here about earthquakes
Starting point is 00:24:16 Which is like oh the big one is coming the fault The fault and I mean the big one is coming. Yeah, there's no doubt about that But climate change is not the big one No, this is the slow roll I'm talking about an earthquake Yeah, I'm just making an analogy because I thought it was interesting the way you put it and I have had that feeling since I moved here about the earthquakes which is Okay.
Starting point is 00:24:39 you keep saying we're due and then we're really due. And in the last 10 years, going back almost 10 years, I remember people saying maybe not in so many words, but letting the people who kind of could read between the lines know, this is going to come in the next 10 years. And now we're almost up to that 10-year point before when I heard that. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:24:59 So like it's the same thing with global warming and the destruction of the planet environmentally. Is it going to happen? Yes, I believe it is too. Seven years? Probably not, but possibly, like we're spinning the wheel on it. It could be seven or it could be 70 or it could be never because they figure out how to fucking foil it. Or maybe they were, I mean, look, they're not always right about, I wish they would stop predicting environmental repercussions because they've done it a lot and it hasn't happened. Like in 2003, James Hansen, the NASA guy, was like, if we don't completely reverse what we're doing in 10 years, it's too late. Well, it's like 13 years past that deadline, and they're still saying it's not too late
Starting point is 00:25:51 because you can't ever say it's too late. Yeah. It possibly is too late. We possibly already cast the dice. But we don't know. So seven years, I wouldn't take that bet, but it should be on the table. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:26:05 That's so. Now, as you travel the country, you are like I remember it's been so long since I toured america seven six years i'm sorry five years but i remember like i think he was an indiana gig i would play once a year and i'd pass the one barn with a confederate flag on the roof that was one place and i could always open with that story oh you guys to let that guy live here i've been right you know so what do you make of the magas that live in the areas maybe most impacted by climate change, and they are still in their denial and why?
Starting point is 00:26:42 When you're a farmer, your job depends on the weather. Well, first of all, they're not all in denial. I mean, there is plenty of farmers who are on that page. I mean, they're not idiots necessarily. But the other reasons why I think people are sort of in the dark about global warming, sometimes it just, if they're in their own news silos, it doesn't get on their radar.
Starting point is 00:27:06 They don't report it on Fox News. It's not an issue. It's not like an issue they disagree with. It just really doesn't exist, except to sometimes have debunkers on. And there are reasonable people like Bjorn Lornberg, who is, you know, somebody, I think maybe MSNBC won't have him on. And he's not a crazy person.
Starting point is 00:27:26 But he has a different view of what's going on with the climate. He doesn't deny that this is happening. He's being just more measured about it. I don't agree with everything, he says, but I listen to him and he's not crazy. That kind of person, they don't, you know, we don't allow that kind of person anymore. You have to be all in on what your team is doing. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:27:49 So on Fox News, they don't hear about global warming. And then they also are religious. I remember the Oklahoma senator Jim Imhoff once said, he's the guy who brought a snowball into Congress once to prove that global warming was full. so you can't write this shit. Yeah. And he said his idea about global warming was, yeah, God's still up there. Okay, you can't argue with God still up there.
Starting point is 00:28:11 Yeah. It's just not on it. We're just, you're playing tennis and I'm playing soccer on a different field. Right. You know, and so it's just not, and it's, you know. But that's what I wonder how, I don't mean any farmers in those regions. I mean, if you're a mega person and you're a farmer, how do you reconcile what your eyes and ears see in front of you
Starting point is 00:28:31 and what your... Okay, but what do your eyes and ears see in front of you? They see the same world as it's always been. Yes, sometimes... More floods, water's rising. But you know what? Floods do come and go. And floods have been here forever.
Starting point is 00:28:45 It's in the Bible. So, like, how much of that is global warming? My view would be some. There are souped up conditions that create more or blah, blah, blah. But like, we were going apoplectic here in California for a very long time because it never rained. And then what happened this year? It fucking rained until the people here were saying,
Starting point is 00:29:05 good God, would it stop raining? Right. And in one, like, month-long period, we kind of got out of the drought emergency. No, because we don't have the ability to capture it. No, that would make it better, but we stopped. I read, we like, the reservoirs have water in them, then the Haleigh River is actually a river again.
Starting point is 00:29:25 I mean, what I'm saying is it's partly cyclical, and this shit is always going. gun on and that's what a farmer sees. And there is an element of global warming, changing things. But since it's basically the same shit, the sun comes out, it's not like the seasons have ended, it rains, it doesn't rain, there's good, there's bad. This is farmer's life. It's like, oh, I hope it rains this year.
Starting point is 00:29:50 Oh, I hope it's a good harvest. This is why one reason they started religion. So you could pray to somebody and say, for fuck's sake, would you make the corngrove? Yeah. Because we got to make soda. Right. Oh, wait, we don't make soda yet. We're ancient people.
Starting point is 00:30:03 But still, that's the reason you have a deity to pray for crops. Exactly. And by the way, I was, even I was shocked. Well, I shouldn't say even I'm a Chicago. And I didn't know how much of the hate that was coming toward me was also made lots of Jesus tie-ins. Like, people would go religious very quickly. Is that right? Yeah, very quickly.
Starting point is 00:30:22 So I learned that that marriage is more than I was even aware of. Like, I would say 90% of the people, folks that have a problem with me, at some point they'll bring in Jesus. And usually they are what I would call extremely religious. I mean, I was raised Catholic. It didn't take, but they tried. Well, I have the same haters. I mean, one of them. Wait, did you go to Catholic school ever? Yeah. Well, I went to catechism. That's where you learn. Every Sunday. Yes, that's where you learn to be a Catholic. It's like, you know, it was two hours. You're not getting into heaven with just catacism once a week, Bill. You're not even close. You've got to go to church every day. God,
Starting point is 00:30:59 I was... You gotta say the rosary, you gotta be molested. You gotta do a lot. It's very proactive. When I think about the stress that I worry about now, it's nothing compared to the not in my stomach that involves going to the Catechism School. Because school made me very nervous, also regular school. You know, I was easily bullied and shy.
Starting point is 00:31:25 But Catechism, these were kids I didn't know. from like other towns, and the classroom was way bigger. And there seemed to me there was a thousand desks and kids in that school. And the nuns were very strict and mean. There was a lot of fire and brimstone. Yeah, they were not like the nice teacher I had
Starting point is 00:31:44 who wore sweaters and I could look at her tits. And this was a nut. You had what's called a lay teacher. They don't count. They're not divine. No. They don't even know God probably. So to go from that normal school
Starting point is 00:31:56 And then to see these mean, seemed like a thousand-year-old creatures in the black shroud, you know, it's scary. Just that outfit is fucking scary. Yeah, of course. You know? It's supposed to be. I mean, you don't know what the fuck's in there.
Starting point is 00:32:11 Right. But, you know, something's in there. Some kind of trouble was in there. Some meany. Some bad shit's in there. Yeah. Yeah. So, but you know what?
Starting point is 00:32:21 I guess that's the kind of thing that people bleat about in therapy for the rest of their lives. I just, I don't get that. I'm just like, yeah, was it traumatic? Yeah. The last thing I want to do is remember it. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:32:35 You know, isn't that, don't we have a mechanism, don't you think, as humans, to purposely forget? purposely not have to remember every minute of catechism and just kind of remember a couple lightning bolts of a few seconds? Sure. Wouldn't you like to forget all the trauma that you want? Yes. Oh my gosh.
Starting point is 00:32:50 Absolutely. You know, you've walked through fires. I mean, the cancer shit is gnarly and just, you know, who's, just people have, like, confronted me physically so many times. Like, I can't tell you. Not so much anymore. But, you know, it was... Confronted physically. Oh, everything. I've had people strike me on the street. Strike you. Strike me. Yeah. Strike you as what? As a very talented young lady. No, and people, like, feel very entitled to come up and there's something about my face that says, come up to me right now
Starting point is 00:33:21 and tell me exactly what you think. It says... Well, there is. Well, there is. Well, that That's sort of a backhanded compliment to your skill as a communicator and to how much people, you know, relate to you and see you as a real person. And so they want to, you know, like movie stars are the opposite a lot at times. People, they say, you know, some big stars can walk down the street and like people don't stop them even though they might gawk because it's like, oh, they're bigger than life. I can't know them. But with you, especially TV is that kind of medium. and live performance, of course, they feel like they know you.
Starting point is 00:34:00 They feel like if they got to talk to you and you'd be the same person who you are on stage, and you pretty much are. I'm pretty the same. But I'm talking about the MAGAs that want to come back and tell them, give me a piece of their mind.
Starting point is 00:34:11 They don't even know my work from before. They just know me as the mean picture lady. Where do you encounter them? Walking down the street. What street is this? I remember one time... It's not a Los Fee list. I might walk down the street a little more off the age.
Starting point is 00:34:24 What street is? this. It's not in Los Felis. It's not in... San Francisco, I had... San Francisco? San Francisco, right in the Embarcadero, like four people were very upset. I was in a restaurant, a really fancy, kind of fancy restaurant in Santa Monica, and a woman... Wow. And a woman was, like, at the front, at the hostess station, yelling and pointing and asking me to be removed from the restaurant. But what did you, do you know what their specific beef was you with you was? Was it the Trump had? Oh, yeah, it's the Trump had.
Starting point is 00:34:53 Oh, it's always the Trump head. It's always the Trump head. Yeah. And by the way, even the Q-Nons, a couple of licks in, they're like, because of the trumpet. I see. So all the Q-Nons, it all goes back to, you try to kill president.
Starting point is 00:35:08 It's very, it's very cartoon of Muhammad. Yeah. It really, you know, like some things just hit people, humans. Right. Like in a certain way, and it gives them license to then just say to themselves, well, that was so beyond the pale that I can do anything.
Starting point is 00:35:28 This person deserves anything. This person. I can go into the Charlie Edbo offices and shoot these cartoonists and feel very good about myself. But they also don't think. And you hit that nerve. It's like, thank you, America. You're welcome, America. I took the one for the team.
Starting point is 00:35:45 That is quite a, you know, I mean, there is some pride in going deep. Yes. You went, you went deep. I'm a thinker. You know, I'm a thinker. I made people think, damn it. And that thing really wasn't even your idea, was it? It was the photographer.
Starting point is 00:35:59 No. I kind of, I collaborated with him. I said, look, you know, I'd like to do something about Trump in some way. You know, and then one of us thought of the head, one of us thought of the blood coming out of his wherever. And that was about as deep as it went, although Hillary Clinton thought it was Medusa and Perseus. So let's just go with that. Really? Doesn't that sound smart?
Starting point is 00:36:18 She goes, I just assumed she was doing Medusa and Perseus. I was like, me too. Well, Hillary Clinton, excuse me, was a. presidential candidate, the valedictorian at Wesleyan, and the first woman on the moon. Just like Trump. Just like Trump. Same diff. Do you remember the time, my old friend Bill, do you remember the time that we were at a Larry King party at Larry's house? And who's the producer that sent us to a restaurant on his tab? A really good Italian place, Jerry Winthrop? He's no longer with us. You're right. I do vaguely remember. I remember the restaurant. It's on
Starting point is 00:36:54 Robertson. Yes. It's a really good Italian place. It's like Il Piccolino or something like that. Okay, I do remember that. And I was with actually a guy that I knew I'm from New York and he was in town and we went and we had the best time. But was it Jerry Weintrape? I think it was I think it was. I think it was. Somebody liked that. Yes. It's a shame. Is he not with us? I believe he's no longer with us, but I remember that night. I was going to do a quick eulogy. I hope you don't mind. I don't mind dying. Well, I do. I shouldn't start that with a lie. But let's pretend I don't mind dying. Okay. But what I really would mind is ever entering a period in my life where people were always wondering whether I was dead or not. Right. You want it to be definitive. I do.
Starting point is 00:37:37 Yeah. I don't want people to be going bill bars. You're going to go live. Or did I read something? Or was that Greg Kinnear who died? You know, I just don't want to, I did that. I cannot take that. I get it.
Starting point is 00:37:50 I get it. You've got a boundary. You're setting a boundary with destiny. I am. Yeah. Either know I'm alive or dead or don't. How do you want to go in your dream world? I don't want to go.
Starting point is 00:38:00 Okay. Well, all right. Let's start over. How do you want to go again in your dream world? Well, Larry King wanted to be frozen. I don't know if he did that, but he talked about that a lot. Like, he didn't want to die. I don't blame him.
Starting point is 00:38:14 He loved the Dodgers. And I feel like Larry and I were a lot like that, you know, in the same way. We really liked the different parts of our lives. of course his life was very different he had that you know I was always married to someone who was causing him emotional distress I don't know why that worked for him but he did it eight times it must have right but he was always you know every morning was Nate and Al's with the same crew yeah yeah that's pretty great things like I don't do that because I'm not up in the morning that you know I wouldn't do that exactly but I have things like that and I'm like when you talk about
Starting point is 00:38:53 death. I'm like, no, because I kind of, I want to see the playoffs next year. Like, if I die, I'll miss the playoffs. And I like the playoffs. So like, can we talk about some just epic moments that admit it. There isn't a, there isn't a show anything like Larry King anymore. I'm actually surprised. I thought they should have given that hour to Anderson Cooper. I thought he could have carried on that legacy beautifully if you wanted that six o'clock hour. But like, well, I would argue that Joe Rogan is not like Larry King, but it's, it's every generation. has its own iteration of that. And certainly there are differences,
Starting point is 00:39:29 but huge audience. Yeah. Bigger than Larry King ever was. But Larry also had the thing where you kind of would go there for the softballs too. Like Paris Hilton went there the day after jail. And I feel like Joe Rogan does that, not softball necessarily, but he's not looking for a fight.
Starting point is 00:39:44 And he's willing to open the mic to people. And let the person talk. Right. Even the ones that the establishment of some kind or another, says, how dare you let that person speak? I'm sorry, how is Joe not establishment? Doesn't Joe have like 11 million listeners a day or whatever? Yes, he does.
Starting point is 00:40:02 But that's like, how dare you have, you know, doctor, I forget the doctor he had on. And there's some shady things about that doctor. He's a doctor. And could I just hear him speak? He's, you know, he has credentials. And let's keep an open mind on this versus, oh, no, medicine. It's always set. It's never set.
Starting point is 00:40:21 It's the one science that is a, especially never set. I just glad you're picking up the ball for Joe Rogan. That guy needs all the help in this industry he can get. No, he deserves it. No, I know. He did a great thing. But I would say he is our generation's Larry King in the same way that there was Carson and
Starting point is 00:40:39 then Letterman, you know, Leno, and then it moved to Fallon. I mean, that show has evolved quite a bit. Johnny Carson, it was really a talk show. Yeah. Now the talk is. Johnny, it was 90 minutes. At the beginning. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:40:54 It's actually 1.45 at one point. Wow. Yeah, 145. God, the epic stuff that would happen on that show. I mean, that's the one thing you wouldn't get with the Rogan. The weird interactions you'd get with like a drunk Joey Hetherton and like John Lennon. Right. I was like just, you know.
Starting point is 00:41:12 No, of course. I mean, a podcast is only the talking part. There's no production value and there's no band and there's no monologue. But just for what what Joe does, he kind of. opens that mic like Larry did. Yeah. And, you know, Elon Musk will do that show. And like, you know, the biggest people in the world
Starting point is 00:41:30 because they know of the reach. And I just think also Joe earned that. He, it's like, yeah, this is just a regular guy smarter than the average bear, but it's not going to be intimidated, first of all. By you saying, don't platform this guy or don't listen to this. And we'll let anybody speak and usually has a common sense view of it of his own. You know, he's a little to the right of where I am on things.
Starting point is 00:41:55 I think he, didn't he recently say he would vote for Trump or something? I mean, to me, that's beyond the pale. But then he also said he actually thought Obama was like the gold standard for like the best president in his lifetime. Yeah. You know, like he, you know. I don't get the people who like just hate Joe Biden or even Hillary. To me, these people are so bland, which is really when a Democrat is good, you know. You know, we want a nerd who knows how government works.
Starting point is 00:42:26 I mean, yes, it's also a great to have the... I also don't want to know their religions. Like, I remember as a kid not knowing the religion the president ever was, you know? We knew Kennedy. Yes, but that was so... Yes, of course. Because it was such a big thing. But also our house being Irish, that was like such a big deal.
Starting point is 00:42:39 Same with my father. Oh, God. They could do no wrong in our house. Oh, real. That's so funny. I'm so glad you said that because that has exactly been my line, my whole life, when people ask about the Kennedys. Exactly what I've said a million times.
Starting point is 00:42:50 They could do no wrong. Because it was so hard for a freaking Catholic to finally get there. Also, Irish. We were not going to fuck it up. Also, the Irish Catholic, yes. Yeah. Part of it was, you know, because when the Irish here, we were not welcomed and, you know, Biden. My parents, my parents were here.
Starting point is 00:43:07 My grandparents came over steerage on the boat. My mom was the youngest of 16 kids. Is that right? 16. The fucking Irish. They just don't fuck around. They don't believe in that. I know.
Starting point is 00:43:17 It's crazy. That demonic birth control. 16 kids. The rhythm method, she bragged about it. You know, Biden is in Ireland right now. He's, yeah, no than I, yeah. And I was reading his great, great grandparents, whatever, came over in 1849. And, you know, there's just this group of us.
Starting point is 00:43:37 We kind of look alike. Yeah. Yeah. We're just. Shared experience. But we don't become like an Irish mafia. Right. We're not, we're not clubby that way.
Starting point is 00:43:49 Yeah. Just like, hey. Right. Hey, one of us is doing okay, right on. But no, for my parents, it was a way bigger deal. I mean, the Irish Catholic thing was just huge. Although I had one uncle who was a cop, a bag man, by the way, I kept from a family of cops, some relatives,
Starting point is 00:44:08 and he hated Kennedy because of Bobby, mostly. And he famously, because Bobby was like, you know, wanted to, Bobby was a little bit not necessarily on the side of the police all the time and more on the side of the civil rights. Oh, I see. You know, civil rights movement. And so, and my uncle was not down with the civil rights movement. Well, Bobby was also ahead of the Justice Department. Yeah. So. Right, right. He was the top cop. And so my uncle sent us a picture of him pissing on the eternal flame. Oh, God. Yeah. For real pissing? Yeah. See, it's in your history. But remember, they didn't have cameras like, he just did it and... But that's like so carrying a trumpet. It's like, it's like, it's like,
Starting point is 00:44:48 It's in your... Oh, no. Our family bragged about this photo because, like, isn't Uncle Mo a riot? Like, we thought it was like the greatest thing. Hilarious. You see a connection there? Yes, of course. And by the way, we like JFK, but even still, we're like, well, I'm Uncle Morris. You can't stop him. Now, there was drinking involved, Bill. Did you see the... And by the way, in every single member of the family, except one or two. Did you see the Marilyn Monroe movie with Anna DiArmis?
Starting point is 00:45:14 No, I didn't watch it. I kept hearing it was like, you have to watch your girl. through all that stuff again? Well, it is unremittingly sad. It's like this chick never had one good day in her life. Yeah. I know, no, they did her terribly, but there's a scene at the end that is so hard to watch if you're a Kennedy lover
Starting point is 00:45:31 because she's, Kennedy is, here's the scene with Kennedy. They bring her in, she's very excited in the, you know, in the car in Washington, you see the Capitol in the background. It's like she's going on a prom day. Yeah. Oh, finally a man who loves me.
Starting point is 00:45:45 Yeah. Whatever. God. And they bring her upstairs. it's like I guess his bedroom they leave the door open i guess jackie's out of town the secret service guy leaves the door but sits right outside the door so he can hear everything that's going on and kennedy's in bed he seems appears to be naked but the sheet is up to like you know halfway over the chest and he's on the phone and he never gets off the phone as he just indicates to her to
Starting point is 00:46:14 blow him yeah and she blows him while he's on the phone and it's a graphic close-up. Not a fun gig for her. For Marilyn or the Act or Anna of the Armist. I mean, I found it's so disturbing. Yeah. Remember, that was always the joke about Warren Beatty. He can make love to a woman while making a deal on the phone.
Starting point is 00:46:40 Oh. It just painted Kennedy as the most selfish, awful prick. So I just want to say, it's made up. Is it possible? It's like the seven years thing. Is it possible that Kennedy was exactly like that? It is possible.
Starting point is 00:46:57 But let's not forget, you just made it up. You weren't in the room. And I prefer to think that John F. Kennedy was a little nicer and wouldn't have just pushed her head down. Oh, God. Is she gagging? That's the worst. Yeah, clearly.
Starting point is 00:47:13 I mean, that's the graphic scene where she's just kind of like, Like, no, like, surprised that it's happening, which given the rest of the movie and all the guys, it seems like a gut of a stretch that should be surprised that's happening. But, I mean, it's just, it's just, you do feel, look, here's what I have to say about Marilyn and I don't care who disagrees with me. I think she's a candle in the wind. Slow clap.
Starting point is 00:47:39 End of Hoosiers. The home team finally got a touchdown with the little guy. Slow clap. I've trashed Marilyn Monroe and, in interviews. I'm not going to do it again. You certainly have. I mean, it's your brand. I don't know why I get it. I just really don't. Stop beating that dead horse. I know. All right? I'm sorry. You're like a Kardashian lip liner. I get it. You can put it out over and over again. All right. Don't you love the fact that America is like our college campus? And we just like,
Starting point is 00:48:09 oh, what's our schedule today? I got to go over to this, you know, Lindsay Hall. Right. And for my, and then I go over to this. And we do that with, the country. I know. It's amazing. We're just going to go over to Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. Sometimes it's a casino, sometimes it's a theater, sometimes it's a super pack. Yeah, it's awesome. Well, yeah, I guess a super pack. I mean, um, wait, uh, like a PAC, sorry, not a Super PAC, Performer Art Center, PACC. Oh, see, you're more detail oriented, I guess, than I am. I just think of all is the same thing. It's just the, you're probably right. I probably, it's the same thing, but to me, it's just the audience. Yeah. And it's also awesome.
Starting point is 00:48:47 that unlike bands who have to go through so much bullshit before they actually get to go on stage and sing, we just show up. Oh, it's heaven. You know, sound check? Do you have a mic? Yeah. Have you ever talked into it before?
Starting point is 00:49:02 Right, right. Make sure that that is working. Yeah. And we should be good. Yeah. You know? Sometimes it's a sound check. You must be daft.
Starting point is 00:49:10 I'm not even in your city yet when you're doing the sound check. Yeah, I know. And I, okay. What happened? No, nothing. I'm just ranting. Okay. So, and then what about after that?
Starting point is 00:49:23 More gigs? After that, we'll see. I mean, I'm probably going to actually write a proper show about just how the last six years have been just exceptional something. I mean, that's another thing. You have so much great material. There is. Cancer can be funny. Of course it can. A.A., which I'm in, can be hilarious.
Starting point is 00:49:38 It can be funny in the hands of a great comic like you. It can't be funny in the hands of lots of people. I've tried to make cancer funny. And boy, it just really just really bombed. Like, oh, man, your cancer hunk at that dinner party sucked. I mean, I want to say that I don't because they have cancer. Well, I'm not above playing a cancer card. So I will call a restaurant and say, I have cancer.
Starting point is 00:50:01 I want a better table. Pain is something you should always use. Otherwise, you get nothing back for it. Art is a receipt for pain. Yes. You know, painters, musicians, I mean, would Eric Clapton have written Layla if Patty, Harrison hadn't left him. No.
Starting point is 00:50:19 We all, Patty, when's her parade? Where's her, Rock the Hall? You kids, you don't know what I'm talking about. Look it up in your book when Eric Clapton. Met Patty.
Starting point is 00:50:34 Well, it was George Harrison's wife, so it was pretty interesting that little, they should make a movie about that. You know, that would be a good one. Fuck. Yes. Hollywood, you lameos?
Starting point is 00:50:45 They'd all be fighting to play him. Absolutely. What a great story. That's right. What are they waiting for? I bet they do it now and they'll give me nothing. Nothing, not a goddamn thing. For thinking of it.
Starting point is 00:50:56 Nothing but a screener and a gift bag. So what are your days like now? My days are tricky because I am in this weird position of having to fill my days, which is very odd because my whole life was... Film your day. Fill. That was my old gig.
Starting point is 00:51:11 Filming every goddamn day. Right. So I will say this. I have been in a lot of legal battles for the last six years. So I still have two active suits. I've been sued by MAGA folks. Everything from other families. Remember MAGA hat kid, that kid Nick Sandman? He went to a school called Covington High School. Yeah, I remember that with the Indian. Yeah, that's right. And so I know, I was going to stop you and say indigenous person, but I get it.
Starting point is 00:51:38 Anyway, Nathan Phillips is a date. And so 12 other families from that school sued me for defamation about tweeting about that incident in federal court in Kentucky, eastern district of Kentucky, and state court. So I had to send my very happy attorneys, because they work a lot, to Covington, Kentucky to fight that one. And one of those is, those are still gone. There's another guy in Franklin, Tennessee, very newsworthy this week. And he's a guy who was harassing a trans kid at a prom.
Starting point is 00:52:09 He was on video. A day after it was all over TikTok, I commented on it. That guy is suing me saying he got fired because of my comments as opposed to his behavior. And there's a guy next door to me who lived next door to me. We had to move. He was a big maga guy and would go in his yard. And I, there was, you know, my ring camera would catch him. My nest camera.
Starting point is 00:52:33 And he'd be like, you fucking cunt. Donald Trump put the heat on you. Now it's war, you bitch. And that was my next door neighbor. Wow. Yeah. And so that guy sued. me for three years, Andy sued my husband just to be a dick, because I sent that tape to the
Starting point is 00:52:49 Huffington Post, and I said, if I show up dead, who's going to expect the CEO of KB. Holmes? Like, it's so random. Like, no, it wasn't Brooks Shields. Right. It wasn't Anderson Cooper. It turns out it was the CEO of KP. Holmes. And that guy sued us for a year after we even moved. Like, so I found these folks that are like very litigious, obviously. They appeal everything. And each one of these KB. and I've had five, they tie me up for about three years. God.
Starting point is 00:53:20 I can't even. Just the place this country has descended to, the pettiness, the hatred, it's just, and it's really unfair that you are at the moment the object of so much of this scorn. But all I can tell you is, man, you're a warrior. I'm telling you, getting back on stage is going to be huge. I just know it. It will end. and it will serve as a kind of a trampoline to, I think,
Starting point is 00:53:50 boost you into higher stratosphere as, you know. Oh, I'd be grateful just to work. Honestly, I just want to work. You know what I mean? It's like. And you should. Yeah, I just want to work. And like to get, to get.
Starting point is 00:54:02 I'm on the day list. I'm on a very nice, comfortable list. I've had the carved out for myself. Exactly. With a very loyal fan bag. Yeah. Of loyal, sizable fan. Yeah. So what are you doing to prepare for,
Starting point is 00:54:15 the, what you're saying, June, you're at the Mara? Yeah. Are you working out? I mean, you must. I'm working out this time, which I've never done in my whole career. I'm working with the writer. I have never worked with the writer. So I've been bouncing stuff off her, but I actually, you're going to laugh.
Starting point is 00:54:31 My agent used to be at ICM, so I'm now at CAA, if I haven't made too many, you know, enemies over there. But anyway, so I feel like I'm back with my stand-up agent that I was with until six years ago, and we always had a really great relationship and he just always kept me gigging and stuff. And so he actually said, I think you should actually write a show with somebody helping you. I mean, do you go to the clubs and work at it?
Starting point is 00:54:57 I would, believe it or not, I'd rather do like really small theaters, like theater spaces. So instead of doing a club, like a Largo or like a, there's some little spaces, sometimes you can do the school. But if a lot of it is new, you got to work. Oh, yeah.
Starting point is 00:55:11 Sometimes a school will let you do it. A school? Yeah. like John Cleese did that. He went and did a bunch of his stuff at University of Santa Barbara. So now that I live in Malibu, that's like an easy drive for me. And they might be willing to let me like work out my stuff with their students. Right.
Starting point is 00:55:26 Which would be awesome. Because that's a great, it doesn't burn the LA market. So you don't have time to do that before June? No. Vegas is not going to be the Kathy Griffin show. The last six years have been difficult. Vegas is just going to be Harry and Megan. Oh, yeah.
Starting point is 00:55:40 Kardashians. Right. You know, I had a dinner party for Stormy. Stormy came over at Daniels. So like that's, my gaze want to hear about Stormy. They want to make sure she's okay. They want to check in with her. You know, like living in Malibu.
Starting point is 00:55:54 You should never not do that. Yeah. I mean, you could mix in, I think it's a great mix for a show. Yeah. To have some of it be about your personal life. But yeah, you got to play the hits. You still want to hear about what had happened when I went on vacation and see you. Because it was just funny.
Starting point is 00:56:11 But I will, like, I'll talk about cancer because I have to acknowledge my voice on. different. So I'll do like, boom, boom, three quick fire cancer jokes. I also like, you know, trying to take my life. So I went to like a 5150 cycle. So that was like intense and not, I should say not normal for comedians. I'm not the first comedian, that's for sure. But that was something that has to be finessed. So I might have like three jokes for that in Vegas, but I could get into that stuff more with like the more written show. So for now it's like, let's get 90 minutes of just trying to make these people laugh about all the Vegas craziness about all the pop culture craziness there's so much now yeah okay yeah all right well I hope I get to see it
Starting point is 00:56:52 soon I hope so dear you know you call me all right all right I'd see you come here I have such a good chunk about Malibu Mel Gibson's in the neighborhood Gary Busey got caught Wacking off again like two months ago in a park what Gary Busey yes I did D.C. What? Nick Noltee. He goes to the market looking like that mugshot. I'm not I'm kidding. The band.

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