Blocks w/ Neal Brennan - Kathy Griffin

Episode Date: December 7, 2023

Neal Brennan interviews Kathy Griffin (Guinness World Record holder for TV specials, My Life on the D-List + more) about the things that make her feel lonely, isolated, and like something's wrong - and how she is persevering despite these blocks. ---------------------------------------------------------- 00:00 Getting Canceled  2:32 People Still Thinking She’s Canceled 21:03 Voice / Lung Cancer 27:56 PTSD 52:04 MAGA Hecklers 58:52 What She’d Say To Trump 1:07:15 Family & Relationships 1:16:13 What She’s Done / Upside ---------------------------------------------------------- https://nealbrennan.com for tickets  Watch Neal Brennan: Blocks on Netflix: https://www.netflix.com/title/81036234 Theme music by Electric Guest (unreleased). Edited by Will Hagle ---------------------------------------------------------- Sponsors: GameTime App Code: BLOCKS for $20 off your first purchase DrSquatch.com/NEAL for 3 free soaps + free shipping Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Ladies and gentlemen, my guest today, I'll say one nice thing first. Chris Rock believes that this person is the most influential comedian of the last 25 years it's not him it's not dave it's not uh cat william it's not it's kathy griffin and the reason it's kathy griffin is because before kathy griffin no one no one talked about celebrity run-ins oh i had a run-in with Whitney Houston. Are you in? And then Kathy did and did 21 specials on Bravo. And now everyone has a little celebrity bit or like a show on a graphic or a text or like, believe me when I tell you, no one did it before her.

That's my first compliment. My second compliment is you're the only comedian that's actually gotten canceled oh really canceled yeah like i'm saying no it's not like it's not theater it's not i'm doing investigation by two agencies within the department of justice where i was interrogated under oath the secret service and the u.s attorney's office was very seriously considering charging me with a conspiracy to assassinate the President of the United States. Right. Assassination by photo shoot.

Yes. And I actually got a FOIA about this recently. Freedom of Information Act. And it showed how aggressively the Oval Office was pursuing actual criminal charges. Yes. So whenever someone's talking about i'm canceled they're canceled go all right let's compare their cancellation to kathy griffin's cancellation most of the people i know moved up a venue and no fly list fucking no anywhere anywhere for how long two months

that's fucking insane that's a tour killer yeah that's a tour killer for sure and also you love i mean the only upside is you were also a big fan of the mile high tour killer. Yeah, that's a tour killer for sure. And also you love, I mean, the only upside is, you were also a big fan of the Mile High Club. Oh, yeah. I mean, that's all. Punch my card. Girl. So there's that.

And you lost your, you were stable on Bravo? Only on Bravo. Yeah, I lost, you know, first was in the middle of a 50 city tour and within 72 hours every single theater had canceled because they were getting so many bomb threats to the theaters so the tours canceled very quickly you know as like my agents got scared and basically the phone stopped ringing for five years. Okay. Well, that was what I was going to ask you. When did you think, because one of your blocks is like people still thinking you're canceled. Yeah.

And when did you feel like, okay, I think it's over? Like two months ago. Oh, for real? And what I mean by that is, is you know this whole time i've been pitching i've been a pitching animal i was pitching game shows and talk shows and unscripted anything you've had a lot of tv shows i mean you did how many seasons of your of the kathy griffin my life on the d-list six seasons i had a talk show called kathy for two seasons i was on a sitcom in the 90s for four years. And like you said,

I've done specials at HBO, Comedy Central, and then Bravo. And so- World record amount, 21. I am in the Guinness Book of World Records. I think you're right. And so that part was probably the hardest psychologically. But the seismic nature of this cancellation was that that photo, like it or not, was manipulated and had captions put to it in Iran, China, Russia, within 12 hours. So the Trump machine was really doing that and they knew how to do it and they had the apparatus to do that sort of stuff. So I would-

What were they, like him as victim? Well, I was a terrorist. So at first I was a member of ISIS. So would Iraq want you? Well, more Syria. Have you been asked to join ISIS? Yes. Okay, cool.

I am committee chair of the Bake Off. So, you know, that was as crazy as that sounds. That was sort of the original story. And now it's morphed into the MAGA people now have decided that I have been to Epstein Island. Oh. Because, you know. You love underage girls. And I was molesting underage girls. And while I wish that was a fringe theory, you know, the MAGA QAnon folks, we're talking tens of millions of Americans.

theory you know the the maga q and folks we're talking tens of millions of americans and so the maga terrorism stuff then turned into she's just basically a child hollywood pedo as they would like to say sure and um still undeserving of work or really to live so it's just been going on and on which in show business they're synonymous anyway yeah like if you're not working you're you're, you're dead. You're dead. In fact, you probably never existed, frankly, the more I think about it. And so unless you have a TikTok resurgence, which fingers crossed. And so losing the work stuff was brutal.

I lost like most, not most, I lost a lot of friends, like maybe half my friends, which was also bizarre. Was it like weakness on their part? I think. I'd like to say I can't remember if I texted you. And if I didn't, I'm sorry. Like the more I go along, the more I go along, I'm more like, it's like if somebody's in trouble, call them. Or like, because you think, I'm not, Kathy, it's like more tangential think i'm not kathy but it's like we're tangential like i we like it but it's like but so i apologize if i didn't i there's a chance i

might have but i don't know i'm gonna kind of look it up actually after this yeah i think you have to i would have loved that and love that the thing that was really hurtful was i just didn't have any advocates that could like move the dial and it like, I had some friends calling me and I had some Hollywood people calling me saying, man, this is so messed up and he's terrible. And it's a first amendment violation, which is was, but I found that those folks were kind of wanting to be part of this thing. But they, two of them are really, really prominent producers, comedy producers.

And after a while I said, you know, getting these texts from you is actually getting like painful because what I need is I need a job. I need somebody to give me five lines in anything. I need a cameo on SNL that's two seconds. She was in Pulp Fiction. I carried Pulp Fiction. If you need someone to go to court,

I would be glad to help okay that guy was a drunken maniac he hit you and then he crashed into that car i don't even remember the bing rain scenes no i remember you i remember the dance what's that witness number three it wasn't kathy griffin as yourself no actually quentin tarantino um credited me in pulp fiction kathy griffin as herself. Yeah. All right. Which made me feel very famous. Pretty great. Very famous. That was huge.

That really was. You couldn't explain it to people. Yeah. Like Pulp Fiction, it's still popular. Oh, yeah. 30 years later. Yeah. And every frame of it works.

And to be, just sidebar, to be around that and the filming was really magical like just like like yes everybody knows i love celebrities i'm an enamor with celebrity but i really love talent and so i went to the set a couple of other times when i wasn't working and i was very friendly with quentin at the time yeah he called me when he was writing it and he read me a very famous um i don't see a sign here that says dead yeah okay um you know that's coming from me that's right did you notice a sign in the front of my house that said and that was like magical it was magical then because the night he read me the scene i was like jesus yeah like oh you're like really pretty good dialogue i yeah i think

this might have some i remember a friend of mine started screening the night before and he's like there's a scene where he's talking fucking in crazy yeah but yeah yeah and anyway so that that was magical to have three lines but also like going to the cast party yeah and christopher walken was there dancing like magical moments yeah no that was a great that was also like i mean i guess it was would have been what the 50s were in the 80s yeah it was 30 years ago so like it's hard to explain to people like how right like even like how did you get in a movie it was nuts i was sort of dating him right but what i'm saying is like that was my feeling about everyone and i loved that he was a big Groundlings fan.

Right. So he would go to the Thursday Night Improv show, and he put five Groundlings in that movie. Julia Sweeney, who played Harvey Keitel's girlfriend. My favorite is the Gimp, a guy named Steve Hebert. He was a Groundling. Oh, I didn't know that. The Gimp.

Yeah. That guy. And I remember he was on set a lot in that freaking outfit like that they did not shoot him out in a day i remember him talking about how hard it was to be the gimp in pulp fiction and now we see why i had a joke with bing rames that he is he's the only person to get raped in a movie that even dudes were like right you took that shit like a j g like i felt you on that just like it but that's the whole movie it's like that like why is this working so good i know

yeah amazing i know i actually like one night quentin i drove to i think it was redondo beach because they used to have a dunkin donuts there and i knew the fry time so i said i can promise you hot donuts and we drove past the video store where he worked. Like that was magical. So yeah, like you said, as you get older, I really have an appreciation for those moments. Like whatever I bitch about being canceled or whatever, I've had some crazy cool moments

that actually mean something to me. And that was one of them. Like having the opportunity of a few lines in that movie, whatever, getting to do my life on the d-list and have it be like a real reality show it wasn't scripted yeah i didn't think they would just stop doing that and then script them like that didn't even occur to me but now i look back and i'm like oh that show is kind of right like you guys didn't have to go to a fake gun range no there were no scripts and you were like very if not first like very early and

including your parents oh my parents were naturals they should have spun them off season one by the way my parents just had that thing they just were so authentic and were hilarious and were drinking on camera the way they did in life and it was just real you know what are your other big ones like that like i think what i think think about playing Carnegie Hall myself five times. Yeah. Five times. Yeah. Every night was magical in its own way.

Just the honor. I call that the church. Like, I guess if I had to pick a venue. But just standing on that stage, it's just one of those things where not only did I never think it happened, but also I didn't know it lends itself so well to stand-up. But the acoustics that work for the symphony. I did a show in, in a, in a,

the, in Seattle at the symphony hall last year. And I was always kind of like, I was, it's like the, the chamber music room, right? Yeah.

I did a joke. It was like, bing, bang, bang. It was just like the fastest thing where I was like, this is crazy. Like it does make such a huge difference that you wouldn't think of. Yeah. Why do you think they not like the basic showbiz I was like, this is crazy. Like it does make such a huge difference that you

wouldn't think of. Yeah. Why do you think they not like the basic showbiz thing of like, I was, I had a dream. And are there any specifics that you're like, that one means a lot? Probably the specials tied with my life on the D list. And they, I was doing them around the same time, but I just love doing it. And know i i love making people laugh really i don't care if it's a commercial or a reality show or a scripted show i just love making people laugh yeah but you know it was real i was under the radar in a good way during all those specials because it wasn't like a big priority to them so they would kind of just do them like i think when they were doing their annual budget, they just were like, okay, let's put at least one slot for Kathy Griffin specials. And so they became not a very difficult thing for them to do and incredibly –

And you're the only horse on that. Yes. I take pride in that, that I'm actually disappointed they didn't continue to do specials because i taught them how to do specials there's also a lot of people that would work very well on there yes that they yes they probably think it's low rent or something you know how that was always the reputation i know but on the housewives they're all like you know in jail instead i mean there's another one who just went to prison again yeah yeah i don't have to tell you about the housewives of salt lake city i mean please i don't have to tell you about the housewifes of Salt Lake City. I mean, please.

I don't want to get started on your blog about it. Is that the one? Oh, they're all swingers now or something? That's sister wives. Hey, you know what, Grandma? Try to keep up. Okay. Okay.

So, yeah, you're the only one that, to me, got canceled. Yeah. But I want to talk about. Well, tell me what it's like. What is it like? Does it just. How. The free fall.

The free. Well, it was really fast. You know, it was overnight. It's the fastest free fall I've ever seen. It was quick. And then Roseanne beat your time. Can I tell you? That whole thing makes me so sad.

Because I loved her. Roseanne's fucking funny. And she's fucking funny, but also what an icon. No one ever looked like her. No one talked like her. Absolutely. She's like full QAnon now. She's beyond MAGA.

Like she thinks Joe Biden is the real, is an actor. He's a robot. Right, yes. Her thing she said on Theo's podcast was really funny. She got in trouble. Her thing she said on Theo's podcast was really funny. She got in trouble. The thing about, she said if rednecks made a, it's a good thing Jews run showbiz because if rednecks do it, it'd be all fishing shows, which is a fucking hilarious observation.

Six months ago, she fucked up the setup with the Jewish stuff, but that punchline is really funny. it is good i'm in trouble again with uh satanist okay so what does it feel like so the crazy thing is it comes from you at all ends so god forbid i had looked online so i i kind of went on a media blackout after like a day but i did think for a minute like this is going to change then the calls i was going to do two book events for al franken and he called me and he just went i can't be associated with you what were you thinking that just sent me sobbing then seeing on have you gotten canceled yet no i know and but i'm sure you didn't get any satisfaction from it not really no see that's what you get it's like no it's

no it's stink it's not fair. It stinks. Yeah. It doesn't really help us. Okay. So then, you know, I read on the ticker on CNN that I was fired from New Year's Eve with Anderson Cooper. I read it on the ticker. Then I, you know, got a text from Anderson. No, no. Anderson Cooper, like, made a statement, which was really bad.

Yeah, it was really like, I't i don't know her yeah yeah well then andy cohen literally went on tape for tmz and said i don't know her i don't know her who kathy griffin who can you understand their point of view at all yeah of course for sure yeah but just remember i didn't just have the right turn on me i had the right left and center yeah so that's another thing called unity finally the country came together yeah for the first day i was sort of strident about it and then i started getting calls which i know in retrospect see are so insane but like a former publicist called me and said you know what if daniel pearl's mother sees this the guy who was beheaded by isis and this is going to be used in isis training videos you know she was right about that yeah but the betamax version which nobody has the

and so um stuff like that and you and me i you know yeah and um so the fact that it came from all angles was tough if i went outside I was verbally assaulted almost immediately, no matter where I went. Like yelling at you. Like mostly people yelling at me. And occasionally someone like whispering like, good for you. He deserves it or whatever. Yeah. Something like that.

The death threats, which now are common, were actually not six and a half years ago. So now you hear people all the time. They were for like Jon Stewart, the Daily Show, Jon and Trevor. Yeah. Like endless. So I became, unfortunately to the right, I became the left's version of Ann Coulter. And as you mentioned about that lovely compliment from Chris Rock, I never did political humor. I mean, if something came up, I would.

But primarily it was my own run-ins with celebrities and how funny that would be. Yeah. And so it then thrust me into political lefty comedian Kathy Griffin. Right. And then it was a bunch of people that never saw my work to begin with, then, you know, really thinking I deserved criminal charges and turning on the TV and there'd be a panel of four talking heads discussing the photo on CNN again. And then somebody that had a foundation with a membership of three people would make a statement and it would get coverage.

It's so funny because, again, it seems like so long ago. Yeah. And there are so it's chaos all the time now. Right. Every day. So I'm like, when was this? And it's hard to imagine it eating up five minutes of a news cycle, much less however long it took off. But what I didn't know is behind the scenes, the Trump machine was working overtime.

Bob Mueller had just been appointed. They had a lot of distracting they wanted to do. So I've seen some of the machinations of how that went. And I've talked to a ton of Washington people. And I've talked to former people that were at the White House at the time. Does it make you... I became a little bit of a detective because I wanted to try to figure out how it got so big. Okay. Well, here's my question.

You must have learned things that surprised you oh yeah i mean does it then go like you're not queuing on but you understand it you understand how someone can get like you knew of something that you would have thought was a conspiracy six months earlier yeah and then you find out that it's real and you must go like how many more conspiracies are there yeah or that i think are conspiracies that are actually real things so did you get any empathy in that way did i receive any or see well now did you could you understand someone who's paranoid in a different way oh yeah but i also was taking it in initially that what if that photo was used in an isis video

you know i was very seriously hearing the things people were saying. Now they've been debunked. But I started thinking, I don't want to just blow that off. And so, of course, I could understand, you know, this comedian who it's not her lane anyway. And now she's gone and done this thing. Did you ever, did you think to yourself,

I knew I shouldn't have done political comedy? Stick to prop work. And so I, of course, are you kidding? I thought, what if, God forbid, an American gets freaking decapitated and somebody says in a video. Thank you, Kathy Griffin, for the inspiration. So, my God, there's the other side. There's the other side and that makes sense. But that's also.

And stuff is so crazy that someone could have for all I know. Did you feel guilt and shame about it? Yes. Yeah. Of course. Of course. And also as a chick and a woman of a certain age, I was like, oh, great. I'm like one of those women that let down other chicks and other, you know, not.

Yeah. There's not that one of us. Okay. That's an interesting angle though. Like what, how would you, who was worse about it, men or women? Equal. Yeah, okay. So you didn't feel...

Older people had a problem with them more than younger people. Okay. Immediately, gay guys loved it. And they were... I saw a video days after the photo of a bunch of gay guys dressed like me at Fire Island doing a little five-guy parade. That's great. And they had Halloween masks. Yeah. So, of course, I'm human. I would cling to little like five guy parade. That's great. And they had like Halloween masks.

Yeah. So of course I'm human. I would like cling to something like that. Sure. And I knew it would take an amount of time. I never thought it would take years. And like you said, it is forever ago. Six and a half years, especially in this new cycle.

Yeah. Is forever ago. It's like a dream. It's like, did I hear about that? What was that? Did I dream that the great jane fonda said you know a kid this is what's going to be on your tombstone and she's right so i get it especially like if i meet somebody at a dinner party she's hanoi jane

forever i think people think of her as hanoi jane forever i've heard older dudes went refer to her today as hanoi jane oh yeah yeah when you remember the did anybody have a catchy slogan for you what like a headless kathy i mean i prefer just the beheader but you know because i'm simple and direct fuck it's like my life on the ptsd list is really what it's you're going on you're going on the the no fly zone or the no spin the no spin zone wait what don't put down my mother's boyfriend is your my mother used to call bill o'reilly her boyfriend yeah my mom sent me his book one time yeah i my parents my mom was born 1933 in chicago so i'm pretty sure similar right oh okay no you

know what i want to talk about your voice real quick okay what what i didn't know about it so i had lung cancer and i've never smoked but i just got it and so I want to talk about your voice real quick. Okay. What, what, I didn't know about it. So I had lung cancer and I've never smoked, but I just got it. And so they had to take out. Did your parents? No. You know what's interesting about lung cancer? The, I looked up. Neither of your parents smoked.

How much, what percentage of smokers get lung cancer? Right. 15%. No. I looked it up like a week ago and I looked it up three different places. One was 10 to 20%. One was 15. That makes sense.

Because I also, my own surgeon said it's on the rise among people that don't smoke or never smoked. But it's also on the rise in general. Well, pollution, right? Yeah, it's got to be. Like mine could have been from like radon or something when I was a kid. I don't know. What were they doing with radon? Isn't that insecticide?

Maybe. All right. We used to have this thing, making this up the ddt truck and the moms including my mom would call us and go kids the ddt truck is here you know this wanda did a bit about it yeah wanted a bit about like it's you can't believe it's a clock we used to call it the cloud and we would call it dancing in the cloud and we would follow the truck because it went slow and no one thought that they were pesticides or that why what could possibly be bad about pesticides and children following them like a pied piper you can't i've been doing a bit lately about remember when sunblock began there was no right and then they were like hey and we're like oh you were just out of luck i remember a comedian billiam cornell did a joke uh when he was about spf 45 and he's like

a flannel shirt is spf 30 so like it was yeah yeah um okay so you how do you get the diagnosis and what happens just like two different shrinks and my oncologist also. But I think that the cancer stuff might have been, well, not worse than the Trump stuff, but I think it was putting me over the freaking edge because I was injured during my surgery. So I'm now cancer free. But when they were taking out the half lung, they paralyzed my left vocal cord permanently and I have an aperture above my cords. They paralyze my left vocal cord permanently, and I have an aperture above my cords.

So when I do stand-up now, my voice, the adrenaline makes it go into a higher pitch than this. But even this is like a higher pitch of my voice. Well, you're clearly nervous. I'm very nervous to be around you in person. I've only heard the stories. But I'm self-conscious about it. I can no longer yell, which is just bizarre as a comic i can't do impressions so my voice just can't quite do stuff so i'm just learning how to do you feel weaker

as a result no i have to ask the audience to give me a little license because and i do this right up top of the show i tell them what happened and this is why my voice sounds different but that's you know that's all it is and i'm i'm fine and then we get better on no shit i know i know yeah i mean i guess if you can't go loud yeah that's not great but i would say going higher is better though yes well it's also i don't have a choice i can only go higher right but i mean like if you think about microphone and now i do the headset like madonna. Right, finally. I had no idea there was so much more amplification. I didn't know that.

I thought all mics were the same. And I'm telling you, I tried the headset one and it's somehow louder and you don't have to project as much. Great. I know. And do you feel, you don't seem to be very self-pitying, are you? I think so. Yeah, I think most comedians are. Yeah. I enjoy a pity party oh

so it's my the only kind of party i like yeah you know you're never late because you're always there i'm always there yeah um no i try not to because that just helps me i just get more depressed if i do pity myself and stuff so but the thing i do is i have a caseworker like I'm on probation. I honestly do. Oh, you're going to love this. From the government? No, I have a caseworker for my PTSD. Oh, okay. Now that you say that, what if she's a government spy and she's taking my data?

Yeah. Are you, what do you, what does that mean? A caseworker for your PTSD? She's in charge of putting the team together that freaking keeps Humpty Dumpty back together again. How big is the team? The team's like seven people. Where? At my house in Malibu.

Naturally. Where do you think we'll be? It's in my mansion. Victim's Cove out of Malibu. What do you, so what is, is that like a therapy thing that you needed to put together? Yes. Okay. So you ready?

Yeah. All right. So there's the regular shrink. That's fine but he does this the emdr are you i know emdr you do sure buzzers i know what you're doing explain this to your fans okay guys i'll tell you my story with with emdr but don't bullshit tell the real story no i'll tell the real story you recall experience at least this is what I do. You recall experiences that were hard or traumatic, and there was a buzzer, like a phone buzzer going off.

Like a vibration, like a cell phone. Yes, and it's like, so you're doing that. They're going, it's a binaural EM. They control the speed of it going buzz, buzz, buzz, buzz. Electro, so anyway, you re-experience it just in your memory. And you do a positive rewrite. Right. And then this EMDRs it in.

Some weird brain shit. And I have buzzers of my own. I also own my own set of buzzers. But I can't control the speed very well. There's only two speeds. It's weird when you do it yourself. Anyway, so I do that. How many?

Once a week? Yes. Okay. Okay. You ready? Breathwork. Great. Hypotropic.

Wait a minute. Why are you not like poo-pooing this? You know what breathwork is? What kind of homosexual man are you? I am. I have. Kathy, I have been on a journey. I've been on a journey. So you know what breath work is holotropic i don't know it's where they teach are you hyperventilating yes you're

like do you hallucinate or go to like another place no i cry sometimes okay that's good i think that's similar you don't think it's funny we have to take a class to learn how to breathe like you can't just we're so messed up in the head i'm still taking two stand-up classes so so uh no i don't think we need i don't we didn't we didn't have train any sort of training like everything about education of all kinds right on earth is wrong that's true like nothing they didn't train me for my life at all i don't know whose life this is supposed to be yes you're supposed to be my mom's it's supposed to be your mom and dad's life like they're preparing you for their i'm warren what i'm barren i can't have five children oh yeah i don't know if i'm barren that's not one of your blocks but i get it barren it's not even

the right word i see yeah um but the uh the yeah so i'm just started drinking ayahuasca and just all i'm i'm open to whatever that okay so i got so sick because the way my ptsd attacks happen is i can't stop vomiting so that will lay you out so then you gotta get ivy fluid so i was going to the emergency room all the time and so 10 10 months of that, I threw my hands up and said, whatever. So Kundalini yoga. Sure. That's like starter level to me. I did Kundalini yoga 15 years ago.

I'm a maniac. Okay, first of all, I don't even know what it means when you go like this. Sat Nam. Sat Nam. What's Sat Nam? To quote Will Ferrell,

nobody knows what it means, but it's it's provocative but i'm like kind of afraid to ask what i mean have you done uh nam have you done uh the the the every the the mantra one the the uh you just have a secret mantra no that you repeat to yourself and you can't repeat it i just repeat what she has like a weird poem she she does and then she also does a song a freaking song this is at your house yes and she no she dressed like she's in the pillow and she comes over and she's got like the mc hammer pants god love her and the hair is like gray down to the shoulder but then brown from the shoulder to the butt.

Moray? No, what is it called? It's called do your roots. It's called do your roots. No, yeah, but it's a reverse roots. Yeah, it is. Yeah. Very trendy in that community.

Now, you know, I'm also afraid like the breathwork lady in the Kundalini yoga, you know that they often lean if not our QAnon. Yes. So I'm terrified to ask if they're oh i do know they're vaxxed because of my half lung i can't fuck with anti-vaxxers yeah and i'm sorry i know there's somehow a division about that and not all anti-maskers are trumpers i'm not saying they are but i can't there's a they died 15 more after the vax was out do you know that yes again that's what the mainstream media that i've counted on my entire life told me also the washington post who published the pentagon papers and uh and watergate so yep you're right they're they're on they're on the they're on the wrong side anyhow kathy okay Kathy. Okay. That just got a little real.

I didn't know I walked into a socialist den of socialism. I have a thing where I vomit when I'm being truthful. When I'm feeling the truth. You'll be fine. So as you know, that lays you out. Okay. So when they said, let's put this together, by the way, including, and I didn't even know yet this is a thing.

Who put it? The case. So my shrink wrote some dmdr books so a friend of mine said i think this is the kind of therapy you might want to try and this is a really good guy so his name is uh steve dancing danziger so there you go he wrote some books and so he, we can put together more people besides the MDR. So I was like, great. So I didn't even know this whole thing. And now I do it once a week. I get IV infusions that are not saline, but they're like vitamin bags. And they have like magnesium and it's yellow.

So now a nice lady comes to the house. Now, if I'm having a panic panic attack they actually are lifesavers because i lose so much fluid that i can't even function so they'll come if i'm having an attack but also sometimes they come once a week just for no reason except to do it and give me more vitamins oh do you have to puke that week to get it no you don't have to earn if i'm in the middle of earning it then it's like life or death like and how often this is happening every day this was happening no i'm gonna say it was happening like four days a week and the scary thing is i never knew i'd be at home because i would know if i was going to have an attack

within 60 seconds of waking up and it would go down so fast from oh good more oh I got a buzzy feeling in my chest running to the bathroom to calm it. So fast. Yeah. And then like the dry evening. You know, it's all horrible. So when the caseworker, who, by the way, has pink dreads and is Caucasian. I don't even think black people are allowed to have dreads anymore. I think it's only white people at this point.

I'm wondering if it's Rachel Dolezal. White people bought the rights to dreadlocks now you just you know rachel dolezal is sticking to that script she was on an interview like two weeks ago and she's like i'm doubling i'm tripling down you want to hear uh pretty that may be the greatest gift i've ever gotten what for someone chris rock uh 20 by 20 piece of Dolezal art. A friend of mine, Neil Brennan, you know the- Yeah, love Neil Brennan. A good friend of mine sent me a piece of art,

and I want to show you this piece of art. Can you see the art? Rachel Dolezal. That is commitment to finding the perfect gift. is like i'm gonna get this person something it's so funny that money can't buy it's so unless they have the internet and they can pay for it but like i thought you say unless they have 18 no it wasn't cheap really i'm still on her mailing list okay and some of it's good good so great like meaning it's like racial and like silly that she's doing it but like it would be good yeah like yeah again what we what inspires us or who we are goes well at home yeah pretty harmless foul okay to me yeah to the her foul yeah

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Don't agree. Celtics, that's a series with a ton of tradition that you don't care about at all. Do you remember Larry Bird? You don't? Okay. You still go to the game. Again, your town playing there's 30 franchises they probably got one near you or maybe you take a road trip like people in the south will be like we drove from new orleans and you're in like texas you're like jesus supercross is coming up at at anaheim stadium angel stadium

i gotta say wouldn't not go if invited. Would go to Supercross, would go to Monster Trucks. When's that animated movie coming out about a bunch of monster trucks? Guys, I never stop thinking of content. Who else is coming up? The Clippers, you can't say enough about the Clippers. Go see them. Kawhi Leonard's a pretty stoic guy. I once wrote a tweet that Kawhi Leonard is the kind of guy that never tells his family what he does for work. He just goes, all right, mama, I got to go to the playoffs. And she's like, what? And then he comes back.

He scores 45 points, comes back, just sits at the kitchen table. It was a good tweet. It was a hot tweet. A lot of people stole it. Almost Acoustic Christmas, K-Rock. Big radio station out here. Chili Peppers are going to be on that. They're just one of the people on it. That actually seems like that would be fun. I've never been to one of those festival

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Kundalini yoga. IV infusions. Breath work. Pilates. Chiropractor. Now these aren't all weekly. Like Pilates. Yeah.

Then I do a walk to and from the ocean. That's about a 90 minute walk almost every day great change my diet nothing radical but i can't like mess around with like bad foods anymore like at all chips were you a snacker like that yeah yeah but i have to really be careful if i do anything like too rich or if i just feel like binging on a junk food or something it reminds me too much of being sick to my stomach so I did I would say I did lose initially I lost a bunch of weight in the scary is your cancer back way so I've been trying to gain a little more back but that was also not fun like being so sick I lost a bunch of weight in the not fun way yeah uh were there any repercussions do you like worry about your teeth

from vomiting you know what i mean like those bulimia things where no no that's i think like a prolonged year i think so this period like i said it was 10 months to a year but i'm gonna keep it at 10 months because that's okay yep um but it was the fucking dark man i can only imagine yeah i hate saying i'm sorry that happened here but i'm truly sorry that like that sounds like that no one deserves that yeah it was rough for any let alone like a public pressure so all i can say is the ptsd is probably a lot of like cancellation and the tentacles of that. I've also been sued five times by MAGA people. So like I have a case pending in Tennessee federal court. I had a case in Kentucky state court and Kentucky federal court, a separate case. And these are brought on by 12 additional families from the high school that remember MAGA hat kid?

He wore a MAGA hat and he was being rude to a Native American guy at the National Mall. So their school is called Covington High School. So additional, he settled with CNN. I don't know why they settled, but they did. Do you know any idea of what they settled on? Not a clue. Yeah. Not a clue.

It could be a dollar. It could be 50 million. So what are they suing you for? I tweeted about that incident and they said it was defamation. So both of those cases, um, were in the court system for about three years. I had a neighbor when I lived in Bel Air, California and my next door and we even, we actually shared a wall and he was like a wealthy CEO and he was a Trump guy and he went, and this is on tape.

He would stand in his yard and go, you cunt, you fucking bitch. Trump put the heat on you. Now it's war. So I had my next door neighbor like doing that, which scared the crap out of me. I feel like I heard that recording. Was that in your documentary? It was on the news. I gave it to the Huffington Post because I thought if I go missing, no one is going to think it's like, first of all, we were living next to Kim and Kanye at the same time. Right. So, you know, everyone thinks they had the wild. They were dream neighbors.

Honestly, they were like the best neighbors you can imagine. Yeah. The CEO from KB Homes, on the other hand, you know, had me in court for three years. He said that when I gave the tape to Huffington. Remember, this is pre-TikTok. How common is it now that you see somebody who's got a tape of their neighbor saying the N-word or whatever? So while this is now commonplace, I've been dealing with these cases in court. And so- Do you have to go? No, I haven't had to go. I had to go to the hearing for the next door neighbor for four days.

And that was intense. What was the hearing about? Just like about a protective order. I wanted a longer protective order. And he then took one out on me, which was not helpful. And so, yeah, going through that whole experience with the hearing and then the way he felt about me and made those feelings known and got his friends to terrorize me. And his wife would stand in the yard with her friends and go, Kathy, Kathy.

Like, creepy. For how long? Months. How long would they do a Kathy session? Since I got the restraining order. So because she doesn't have one, you don't have one on her. Well, no, they were next door, so they weren't trespassing. Oh, right.

They would be yelling from their own yard, which you can do to your heart's content. The restraining order isn't like a sound. It's just a physical location. So yeah, they can do it. Man, I wish there were restraining orders on sound. You know what? I'm calling my congress restraining orders on sound. You know what? I'm calling my congressman, Ted Lieu. You know, I think it should be our next issue.

It's going to be like clueless. I'm going to pass that bill myself. Okay. So how much better, what do you consider your like rock bottom? And then how much better are you since then? All right. Rock bottom is when I tried to take my life because I became addicted to prescription pills, then tried to overdose on them,

and that was 20. Intentionally? Yes. Like, oh, I know what I'm. Like I wrote a note and the whole thing, yeah. Great. Did you, any rewrites? Did you just go?

It was my third draft. No, but the funny thing is, I thought it was really profound, and then when I sobered up and I read it, it was like, meek, die now. Like it was just not even, not the goodbye. It would be great if there was.

Is that going to be a song? You want to start a podcast where we criticize people's suicide notes? Yes. And give them notes. And give notes and do rewrites. I think it's about, we get a room going. Yeah, give them a call. Me die now.

Come on. I know. I could have done better. And that was like probably the sort of rock bottom. Then I got sober. What was the coming to? The coming to was I literally woke up and I just had bruises and lacerations on my body that I didn't know I got them. You were at home by yourself?

I was at home by myself. I kicked out my husband and I wasn't in my right mind in any way, shape, or form. How hard was the apology given to your husband? It's still, it's what's called a living apology. Like, you can't, you know, that's the apology you can't do enough. So I have apologized, but will always apologize. Because for him to have to read a suicide note, and also he found me when I fell. I fell down the stairs.

So you kicked him out. Then who found you? you kicked him out. Then who found you? I kicked him out. I was injured, but he got kicked out anyway. And then I came to, and I then texted a doctor and said, I've just taken like 100 benzos, and I tried to take my life. And I'm alive, but I think now'm now I think I'm like injured. I don't know if I have broken bones or what.

So let them say quick. Let's do some Kundalini yoga. So no. And then I went to the hospital. And what I didn't know is that I don't mean to give out tips. But what I didn't know is that when you're being like interviewed for like, you know, what are you here for? I just was like, oh, I tried to kill myself. And what did you take?

Oh, my God. 20 Klonopin, 20 Valium. I didn't know that when you admit it, they then automatically have to put you on a 5150. Yeah. So I. Be vague about it. That's what you're trying to say. Exactly.

And that wasn't going to stand with me. And so I remember saying, well, like, okay, well now I've given you this information. I feel better. I'm going to take off so you can go ahead and take this IV out of me. And the doctor then explained, you're going to be held here. And I straight up was still on my mind, but I was like, oh, oh my gosh, no, that is so you don't even have to, I'm going to head out. I'll call my friend for a ride.

Don't worry. I'm being safe about it. And then he said, there's two cops on the other side of the curtain. And there were. And then he said, well, never forget. He goes, and if you try to leave, they'll put you in the bracelets. They said there's two cops on the other side of the shower curtain. And they don't,

they're not Trump voters somehow. So you're in great shape. You can take off anytime, ma'am. So yeah, the bracelets is an expression that's so like old timey. And now that I'm in AA, in the big book, which I think was written in 1936,

they use the term bracelets for handcuffs. Great. I had not heard that term before. Yeah. I remember thinking I'm 59 years old and I'm like, I'm going to put I'm going to have handcuffs for the first time in my life. Yeah. So I went to the nut bin for three days and then a nice doctor there said, I think you should try AA. And I know a couple that used to run a rehab and it was during COVID. They used to run a rehab and it was during COVID. So they would come to my house every day and piss test me every day for like four months. And I kind of was weaned off them, but I'm not like a proud member of AA now. So that helps me tremendously psychologically with stuff too.

Is one of those things, do you wish you'd gone sooner? Way sooner. Like it's a joke in AA that I started at 59. Nobody starts AA at 59. At 59, you're getting your like 30 year chip. So yeah, it's a joke in AA that I started at 59. Nobody starts AA at 59. At 59, you're getting your like 30-year chip. So yeah, it's hilarious that- But do you, I mean, everyone says I don't have a problem, but like, did it, was it unleashed by the episode?

All the hatred? I think so. Did you always drink? No, I've never had a drink in my life to this day. I became a pill girl. How, when? so did you always drink no i've never had a drink in my life to this day i became a pill girl how soon when i had a bunch of pills because anytime i would be prescribed either a benzo a painkill oh i did talk a doctor into giving me adderall which i call attagirls and i i it was dumb i just wanted to lose weight so then i became addicted to those two um the sweet ball if you will yeah but i thought because i wasn't a drinker i wasn't i couldn't be

an addictive person so i when the trump thing happened i just i had a bunch of pills that i had kept in a safe and i don't know why i basically was hoarding prescription pills. Scoring them away. I was scoring them away. That was your 401k. Right. And I needed it. And so I just stayed in bed and took pills all the time. And then that led to the suicidal ideations. And then thinking, I can just take a bunch more pills.

It won't be that big of a deal. And I was convinced my husband would be better off. And that I had had a good run. When you kicked him out, what was your like reasoning to him? I had started a fight, something about, you know, something about. You don't care enough about me, that type of thing? Yeah, like something like that. And, but I knew I wanted him out of the house for like the incident.

Oh, you didn't want him around for your suicide? I know. Isn't that weird? Huh. And normally I'm so social. So cold. I know. for your suicide i know isn't that weird and normally i'm so cold i know and so um you know it had to be just really in his heart on him you know yeah and that's a horrible thing to do to

somebody because i was only thinking about myself and getting relief but i i wasn't thinking as much or really at all about wow that would suck to be the person who finds your wife died of suicide and the last thing she said was rude or mean or right right right are you so when you say like that's a you know it's a lifelong apology yeah are you consciously nice into them well yes but a makes you nicer because in a they're they're kind of all about, and I don't mean to make it sound culty, but they're all about humility. And while I don't have a ton of that, any I do is because of being sober,

but they're all about like- You should be ashamed of your suicide note for the rest of your life. Oh, absolutely. Or at least until your next suicide. Count on it. And that's the Kathy Griffin promise.in promise that's right it's like must see tv in the 80s and so um that's 12 steps up is very helpful also i like a meetings because

everybody has three minutes to share right but it's like a no bullshit zone so it was good for me to just go to these meetings every day just to be in a place where people are just talking about their real shit it's it's some i've never been to a bad 12-step program meeting like i've gone to hundreds of them yeah never a bad one right they are fantastic right um okay so i just wanted to work again that was the main thing like just get me back on the road get me back on tour you were just going to the a meetings to do time but's what i heard sometimes i would kill i'm not i bet you fucking crushed like i've the biggest when i was the chairperson oh it was a it was a fixed fight i was a treasure for a couple years yeah um so how much did you make you shut your mouth um i don't think i was helpful i don't think it was there was no uptick from my health but yeah um okay and

then how much better are you now than you're rock bottom oh a hundred percent like you feel like yourself I will say though I do the PTSD thing is rough because sometimes I get attacked when I'm when I'm not obviously I don't plan on it but you know I have like this thing called a resting tremor that I didn't have before um it's just it's something I have to be mindful of in a way that's almost like a health. It is a health condition. It's diabetic. Or diabetes or like, yeah. How much is the vomiting gone now?

That's almost totally gone. I've been having since then about one attack a month. Great. Yeah. And it's probably the kind of thing where like now you can't stop the other stuff because you don't know what's doing what. Yeah. Also, it's all like I get cupping. That's just.

This is to the sizable Malibu wellness community. Yeah. A lot of it's bullshit. A lot of it's psychosomatic. Like. Acupuncture. I don't know. I don't know. I'm not. I can't rule it out yeah hurting and even the needles using needles don't hurt no wait the needles don't

hurt no i mean i'll be open to it yes listen we're both of our mental health okay very good um oh this would fucking drive me crazy. What? MAGA people in the audience set to disrupt the show? Yes. Like they send in ops, basically? Like banner drops, like GoFundMes. I was doing a show in San Francisco, and two guys, kind of genius, they dressed up in drag. So they were like a normal Kathy Griffin audience member anyway, And they bought seats way in the top of the Masonic. And they had just one of those giant blue Trump 2020 flags, banners.

So they dropped it. And then you kind of hear that. You're not sure what you hear, but something's going on. Some kind of nonsense, commotion. Yeah. So then finally someone's able to yell in a way I can hear. Like, there's a guy in the back. So that happened.

Then it takes a while because you've got to go all the way up there. Yeah. And then I found when you're ejecting them, they have a selfie stick because they're live streaming to their Facebook group. And they say, I'm being assaulted at the Kathy Griffin show. I'm being assaulted at the Kathy Griffin show. So that goes with the territory. I'm being assaulted at the Kathy Griffin show. So that goes with the territory.

I had a guy buy a ticket to like the first row at a show I had in Philadelphia. And about 15 minutes in, he just starts yelling, pedo, you're a pedo, you're a pedophile. And because he's in row one, the rest of the audience is like, oh, I can see the guy. I can see something I can't ever say. But I don't know what he's saying. And is it a joke? And is Kathy going to riff with it? So, you know, it takes time. And so my Houston show, guys show up in a Trump shirt, pictures of Trump all over it.

And he had a knife. And there's video of it on YouTube. He's literally waving a knife around the front. Did you live stream it? So he did. I'm sure he did.'m sure and by the way nothing happened to that dude meaning like he was free to go nobody even stopped him it was so unexpected that my security was like going run like my security was the word run oh wow it was

first of all it's at their symphony hall so you've got this very nice audience some of them even a little dressed up and then there's just a guy who just showed up this was actually after the show and you know i got in the car and i left and we went around the block because i said i have to see this and i freaking saw the guy and he was just waving a knife around the front and there were a couple security guys trying to kind of stop him but they were just yelling to patrons run run it's just really nuts it's not yeah and it just let me just say it just wasn't ever was yeah like we can out look i've had hecklers and i've had all the normal stuff we all have but this really is different yeah well that's what i want to say

to like anyone who's listening like oh but like yeah that's what you think this is average or cool it's not at all no no i will say that the guy who tackled dave at the hollywood bowl had a t-shirt on that said i'm gonna tackle you so that a lot of times, I wasn't actually. No, I had a show that night. That incident was so nuts. Yeah, but I think yours sound worse. Well, first of all, I didn't have a big beefy guy like Chris Rock right now. No, but the fact that the other comics came together and then they actually tackled the guy, but he still was trying to stab. Yeah, it was a total failure. The knife made out of MacGyver.

Yeah, total failure on that guy, on trying to stab. Yeah, it was a total failure. The knife made out of like MacGyvered. Yeah. Total failure on that guy. On security's part. Yeah. And if Dave ducks him. At the bowl. Yeah. At the storied Hollywood Bowl. I mean, luckily Dave can do the bowl every night.

Yeah, that's true. So good. That's true. It's not like he can't go back. I'm just saying anyone who's been in the bowl, that just doesn't happen there and never did. Yeah. I don't care how crazy the't happen there and never did. Yeah. I don't care how crazy the musical act was that was there. Yeah.

No, I have never, ever heard in the history of the bowl. I never heard anyone rushing the stage of a comedy show. Like, oh, and what was the, the, uh, people think you're still canceled. So meaning, I mean, i guess i'm not really uncanceled like what's different what's different finally is that i actually have a tour so that's really the tangible thing but it's not like my phone's ringing you know so there was some stand up in the documentary right yeah okay so you So that wasn't really a tour, though? No.

My last tour, that was almost six years ago. But my last tour was the best tour I've ever done in my career. Money-wise? And reviews. I get the best reviews of my career. And I thought, even though the tour was about being canceled and about really primarily about the Trump stuff. I threw in some celebrity stuff, but mostly about the Trump thing. I really thought. He's technically the host of The Apprentice.

Yes, yes. And he always will be. One of the many ways I met him, by the way. And I just thought the phone would ring because the film got so well-reviewed. I did a bunch of film festivals. I was doing Q&As with cool people. And I thought, okay, people might have been scared, but now I've put this movie out.

It's called Catholic Reference, a hell of a story. I put this movie out a year and a half later or a year, whatever. And I thought I could maybe be able to go back to work, but it was still too soon. It was as if it took America this long to forgive me. That's what I feel like. Yeah. But I think they're kind of like okay i think there's a

weird thing happening now where in order you have to have some sort of narrative where you have to like face up to some wave of negative or criticism right and then if you can get through it it's like uh it's like winning a sword fight yeah and it but if you're like no i'm not leaving yeah and i'm not shrinking and i'm like it you can't really beat me yeah like there's no beating you can stay mad at me but you're not you're not look i am gonna attempt suicide i am i'm gonna get real close that's right me me die now um but if you me die faster me die faster you know sooner it just becomes a thing where like it makes people like you more yeah and then you also have like you're an underdog again which is always a better position yeah and i i think part of it too is a lot of people came around when i got cancer just because that's so

relatable and i think the fact that you can hear my voice is a little bit different, a little bit higher or whatever. It's almost like I feel like I'm kind of wearing the drama, not in a bad way, but I'm like, let's cut the crap. If you're at a Kathy Griffin show, you know who I am now. Yeah. You know about the picture. By the way, in the new show, I don't mention Trump once. Great. Not that I'm afraid of it.

It just doesn't come up. I'm going to cut him out of this. It's going to be a nine minute podcast. Oh, that'll kill him. That'll kill him. If you saw Trump, what do you think it would be like? I would approach him for sure. I don't know.

What do you think he'd be like? Oh, I know what he's like. He's a total pussy. I know what he's like. He's a total pussy. And so one of the last times I saw him was when he hired me as part of the finale of the, not the Celebrity Apprentice, but after that he went back to doing like the Non-Celebrity Apprentice too. And so he hired me to roast him for an event that one of the teams was putting on, like a charity event. Right. Even though, as you know, I'm not a classic roaster, but I get how people would think i'm a roaster so i was like great and the headliner for the event

was liza minnelli so i would have done it for free yeah but he gave me 50k which was respectable and flew to new york went to bedminster spent the whole day with him and liza which prior to trump being trump i actually thought it was kind of fun because all the times that I knew him and saw him, he just was like a lovable doofus. I don't know that I ever thought he had the wealth of Elon Musk or anything, but he was a fixture for so long

that he kind of played that character. And I swear to God, I didn't know the racial stuff. I didn't know the sexual assault stuff. I didn't know any of that stuff. I just thought, oh, he's like the goofy real estate guy who's rich and has his own black and gold plane. And, you know, I thought The Apprentice was a really good show. I watched it religiously. The other thing I said about Trump is, like, that guy was number one on all of television he was more entertaining than er yeah and what the the fucking csi and like

what's crazy is i got along great with him yeah not just well he kind of he's one of these guys that he likes to try to verbally spar with a comic even though he's not but he'll play like in his way he would play along yeah so like when i walked onto set he did the sign of the cross with his fingers he's like oh here she is everybody let's hope she goes easy on me tonight not too much about the hair i've known kathy griffin for a long time i'm sure she'll be attacking my hair and lots of other crap today but that's okay and i was like what's not's not to love? Did they sell that to ISIS? It's in the video.

Great. And so also he was like driving Liza Minnelli and I around in a golf cart at Bedminster. And I was like, this is fun. Yeah, this is not. That's got to be one. That's a very unique experience. Very unique. Also, of course, you know I like worship-wise.

I don't just like... No one thought you had any... Yes. We all were very confident. I was already queening out about just being with Liza, and then here's this character driving the golf cart. He was driving it crazily, which I also thought was harmless and fun.

I was also raised by alcoholic parents. But, you know, we took pictures together and at the Larry David roast, I sat next to him on the dais for four hours. And I was on The Apprentice another time when my dear, dear Joan Rivers called and said, will you be one of the celebrities that comes and buys a handbag during this challenge? So I spent that evening and he and Ivanka were like always chatting with Joan because they knew Joan and loved her. Yeah. So many run-ins with him

that were harmless and I would see him at NBC Uni events. Yep. And he kind of rolled with a joke if I so I would probably approach him and he would probably do something similar to like,

Oh, yeah, because he'd be, I'm sure he'd be, but also like, although he could play just strictly aggrieved. And I would probably, honestly,

I'd probably do like one jab, but I wouldn't try to ever explain to him what the experience was for me. Cause I honestly don't think he can process it. Yeah. So I'd probably try to make like, you know, a zinger. Right. And move on. That's think he can process it. Yeah. So I'd probably try to make like, you know, a zinger. Right. And move on.

That's about it. That shows, if it's true, it shows a lot of restraint. Oh, we'll see. We'll see. Eventually. That's the plan. Somehow I'm going to outlive him. What would you do if you ran in?

Did you ever have someone where you thought, I got a plan what I do when I run into them? Yeah. I'm sitting on a list of insults for someone as we speak. But I'm not the picture of hell. But any comic, I don't know how old you are. How old are you? We don't talk about that. Okay.

Any comic of our possible generation. We also can have a joke from the 90s thrown up in our face any minute. And I wouldn't do my 90s material for many reasons that's one of them but also because it would be offensive by today's of course but also we're in this weird era of like the evolution of comedy is as if it is not seems like seem to be understood by anyone and i don't want to be like twittered me today and i was like lady i don't want to be like cancer culture twittered me today and i was like lady you don't understand comedy yeah if you think i'm gonna cut a megan markle joke yeah because what are you talking right so whatever yeah no you're right

or by the way or if you make a megan markle joke that means you are inherently racist because the 90s was misogyny she was accusing me of misogyny the the era and the kind of material that i do and i admit the 90s and the aughts were a brutal kind of comedy it was roast on comedy central every two seconds yeah and i'm sure you but morning radio morning radio oh my god yes war crimes that War crimes. That's all over. That's all over. But I try to explain to my younger friends, like, you kind of had to live through it to believe it. Like you were saying about the fucking DDT truck.

Like the 90s and the aughts were just the mandate was go hard. Yeah. Go as hard as you can. Yeah. hard yeah go as hard as you can yeah and weirdly like your thing was he deserved to be went you're allowed to go hard at the president president did you know mort saw story at all no so mort saw is like one of the top comedians in the 1960s like that he's on the cover of time magazine my parents idolized he was their god he was their favorite so he kennedy jfk asked him to write stuff for his campaign like just give me like a joke up front yeah right

moritz all goes i'll do it but just know if you win i'm not gonna stop yeah he wins Mort and the club Mort Saul worked out the hungry eye in San Francisco JFK's dad shut it down

whoa like closed it yeah and then which and then the weird kind of heroic

postscript is the DA from New Orleans who investigated the Kennedy assassination yeah Mort Saul went and volunteered

to help solve the yeah like it's a weird thing so but it's like when politics intersect with no but presidents are supposed to be able to take it on the shin yeah i made fun of i will admit obama was the hardest to make fun of not just because i'm a libtard lefty but i just didn't it was hard he had a good sense of humor yeah oh he had a great w and obviously bill clinton yeah so i've been around long enough to have made fun of every president and never a repercussion no and so that part i was still shocked about i've never seen the video of him doing that like that seems like yeah no one released it as like trump and kathy griffin in better times or whatever like or like they had a playful relationship or it was too easy to like believe it or not i would probably re-watch the apprentice i thought it was so good

i'd probably just do the celebrity one but man if you remember everybody was on that show academy award winners like it was it was shocking how many people he got to do that show, celebrities. Many did not need the money. Yeah. And it was just one of those cultural moment shows. Yeah. And they made him look good. And I thought he was a billionaire also.

He had a stretched limousine. How could he not be? That's right. And, you know, Money, Money, Money, Money was a great song. Sure, sure. I remember the finales being like must-see TV. Yeah. And then they became live, like television events. So yeah, that's who I thought he was.

Yeah. All right. You mentioned your parents being alcoholics. Yes. Did they agree? No. When you went to AA, did you wish you'd also gone to Al-Anon? When you went to AA, did you wish you'd also gone to Al-Anon? Not so much that. It actually made me sad my parents didn't go to Al-Anon because my eldest brother was a crackhead and he died in my mother's arms.

In my mother's arms. And they went to one Al-Anon meeting in their life. And I mean, this is funny because that's who she was. But they came home and my mother went, oh, I am so glad we went. Those poor people have real problems. No, no irony. My mom, same thing. Dad clearly an alcoholic. Clearly.

Like open and shut case. On his deathbed. By the way, functioning. Just so you know. My parents were highly, my dad always had a job my mom was not an i'm not even gonna say she was like an absent mom she was home yeah my dad was a corporate tax lawyer like healthy career we're never day drinkers so my dad started day drinking when he retired oh well that's different i thought you meant no seriously i of course when they retired then it was game on yeah yeah um but yeah on my on my dad's deathbed

he was offered morphine and asked for gin oh wow and my mom was still like yeah who knows right um i'm not convinced um now and what do you do you look at that as a lot, not even the cause of your problems, but like the emotional. It's the classic comic story. You know what I mean? Picked on as a kid. Right. Not in the popular blah, blah, blah, bleep, bleep, bloop, blop. Yeah.

It's a story. But I'm saying like your nervous system. Oh, yeah. I think I'm a pill addict because I am from a family of addicts. I think it's a genetic. They're part of its genetic. And do you ever, I mean, I'm sure you guys do cover like how it affects your behavior. Codependency or.

Oh, yeah. I'm probably pretty coda. Yeah. You know, and I am not good at picking up cues on people because I'm so used to being around a crazy family. Right. But I'm not so, you know, in my love life, this did not serve me well prior to being married. You know, I wouldn't know if a guy was crazy until like well into the relationship or I didn't see signs.

Because you thought everyone was crazy? I just wasn't good at seeing signs because remember my parents were telling me they weren't alcoholics. You were good at saying astrological science hi hello oh boy and so you know and they took it to their grave saying we were never alcoholics and i want to ask you this with your mom and dad did you mind even when they got older did you not care anymore i was mad at my dad until i did Free Mics and now I barely, it's like barely a part of my. Until you did what?

Free Mics, my first Netflix, like because I talked about him a lot. Yeah. So it kind of got it out of me or something. Yeah. And then it's a weird thing where he's not a part of my emotional ecosystem like at all. And my mom's not an alcoholic. She's, you know, she's got like the denial of someone who's married to one for 50 years so right right and i also go you know kathleen denial is a river in

egypt how about that like she was so proud of it yeah i love our denial technically there it is she did make a great case and said denial made it way easier to go through life is that what she said yeah yeah i don't and i say this all the time like and her their parents were illiterate farmers or whatever my mom was the youngest of 16 children yeah there you go you know yeah the irish catholic you know what i mean i do okay the rhythm method sure sure very effective wait are you an accident baby or were you planned i I, my brother, the one above me is a year and a half. So maybe two and a half years.

Okay. Um, but so who knows? How old was your mom when she had you? 40. You might be an accident, Neil. You might want to ask your mother if you're planned or if you're an accident.

What good would it do me to know? That could be another 20 minutes at least. Oh, fuck. Material. Okay, so you don't, not even the genetic thing of being prone to addiction. Yeah. The emotional. Just the chaos and the, yeah.

So you're kind of comfortable with chaos. Yeah. Your parents, I do remember them yelling on the D-list. Yeah. A lot of like yelling into the other room. And yelling and cursing is still my love language. Yeah. So I also, like if I hear someone yell, like many times when I've been confronted by MAGA people, I often will still think they're doing a bit.

Like, oh, they recognize me. Yeah. They're doing a MAGA person. They want to be funny. Yeah. They want to go back and forth. Yeah. And then get a selfie. So honestly, like even that would happen. they recognize me yeah they want to like come and be funny they want to go back and forth and then get a selfie so honestly like even that would happen so i kind of have to be hit over the head

with it and most of your relationships were predicated on eventually finding out the person was crazy no but and look i'm talking about something even just one date oh right i think you know my girlfriend would have looked at this guy and known this guy is crazy yeah whatever but it would still take me like the whole day to be like oh okay right this is a red flag okay that's the way the earth's flat he wants to polish his firearms you know yeah so it's the first date huh so i'm not sure about my own sense of normalcy or having great cues about that. How does that compare to other relationships? Well, first of all, he's like Joe Normal.

So he's not an addict. He doesn't have that in him. He's a normie, as we say in the program. And he's more calm and cool. So I do well with that kind of temperament so luckily he's got that kind of temperament because i can't imagine being with a guy who's as jacked up as i am and like frenetic and you know so he's sort of more of the calm cool one and i like that and he's 18 years younger so it's kind of like a whole generation of he doesn't have like the sexism

and the ageism and the misogyny that maybe a guy 20 years older than me would have. Guaranteed. Right. So that's kind of been helpful. I think my dream for any relationship is the woman apologizing to me all the time. Wouldn't that be great? Then you're never wrong. I know.

Oh. Have you put that on your profile? I actually got somebody right now. And she thinks shit is your fault sometimes? So far, she's been the most reasonable woman I've ever dated. Oh, nice. Yeah. It's excellent.

Reasonable is so good. Yeah. It's really helpful. Yeah. Because I myself just got reasonable like six weeks ago. I can't explain it. Six weeks ago? You should have led with that.

Huh? What do you mean six weeks ago? I just started being, I would feel sorry for myself. I'd instantly victim. What happened six weeks ago? I posted a picture of Trump. Okay, you can't just say six weeks ago. I think I'm going to let it go. Truthfully, MD picture. Okay. You can't just say six weeks ago.

Truthfully MDMA. Oh, put it in the cycle. All right. Now do you use it with mushrooms or by itself? Good question. I've done it, I think five times this year and I've done it three or four times just mdma and once hippie flip is the term for what for doing mushrooms and

mdma oh okay and how long did your trip last the hippie flip was like long and i did too many mushrooms like four hours uh no it was like five okay like like the mdma is five or six and then mushrooms was like another four all right did you have a breakthrough and in what form did it take i've had breakthroughs on just mdma i because the ayahuasca and the dmt it's a god connection i was an atheist before okay and it's a complete god connection like oh i'm a i can sense divinity yeah and i it's in pure love and whatever and then so now when i do mdma and mushrooms it's also a god connection oh so it's it's pretty amazing and i've gotten just better inner monologue and better from all of them so so that's where i've just been like in my body a little more reasonable

a little less reactive a little less like ah yeah just slowing the process yeah um so so so yeah being reasonable is great shout out to the reasonable seriously yeah and apologetic fuck oh god what's that like no i'm saying I'm saying that's what you are for Randy. Oh, right. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah.

And don't stop. No, no. It's a big one and it's a recurring theme. All right. So what have you done? Is there any stuff you haven't mentioned in terms of like getting better? Therapy? No, you've kind of run the gamut.

Yeah. Yeah. uh therapy no you've had yeah yeah um and i i like ask people about you know you've heard of a everybody knows ptsd but yeah have you experienced there's another one called post-traumatic growth no one knows about it's like another thing like you can experience a trauma yeah and you can be in a weird way better for it oh i don't know it's a thing that if you don't know about it then they're not telling anybody yeah yeah like sometimes you're better off for having experienced something well look i think when you go through hard times you do get you get the benefits are you probably get deeper um i would almost liken it to like if you go through a really gnarly breakup.

After a gnarly breakup, you tend to listen to music more. You tend to maybe value your friends more. So I can see that. I can see how there's sort of an upside to trauma. And did you feel like you were stronger than you thought and all that stuff? No. Honestly, I felt so banged up that I'm actually just feeling back to normal. But I can't honestly go like, and now I feel like a gladiator.

It's, you know, like I said, it's like something I kind of have to deal with almost daily because I have to manage it. Yeah. But it sure feels great to be working. And I look forward to the tour, not in a way that will cause me stress, but in a way that I love about touring, about discovering little fun diners in these places and every audience is different. And, you know, to not have done it for so long is just like my fate. It just puts a smile on my face to even think about hitting the mic one time, much less on like a proper tour. Yeah, that's great, dude.

So I'm thrilled it came together. I had a great time talking to you. I love you. Yep, you're great. You're so great, dude. Oh. Yep. Kathy Griffin, everybody.

Neil Brennan, ladies and gentlemen. Kathy Griffin. I wasn't on, and then I'm finding my light. Okay. And my, Kathy Griffin, everyone. Do your thing now. Neil Brennan, everyone.

Pretty great. Neil Brennan. All you have to do is open, open up your hand. Mommy.