Kathy Griffin schools news anchor after he questions whether comedy is really a 'male dominated field'
Kathy Griffin may not be touring at the moment, but she still puts on quite the live show. On Wednesday, the comedian stopped by KTLA Channel 5 to promote the October 26 screening of Kathy Griffin: A Hell of a Story at DTLA Film Festival in Los Angeles and had a fiery exchange with anchor Mark Kriski over whether comedy is a man’s world.
KTLA entertainment reporter Sam Rubin was conducting the interview with Griffin, who explained how she had to go overseas to work after controversy over the 2017 President Trump photo scandal affected her job prospects in the U.S.
"By the way, I still do not have one single day of paid work ahead of me for the rest of my life," she revealed. "Now you tell me that's not because I'm a 58-year-old female in comedy. Yeah, take that guys who make the decisions!"
"I think there's a lot of 58-year-old comedians that are working out there," Kriski interjected.
"Name five women," Griffin shot back. (She has highlighted the lack of female representation in comedy before.)
"Uhh, I'm not, uh, into the comedy thing," Kriski replied.
"...What's with the new guy?" Griffin quipped. (Kriski has been at Channel 5 for more than two decades.) "The point is, it's a male dominated field...I don't really want to hear your take on that."
"We've got guests here every day," Kriski noted.
"That's alright, but you should know your stats though. Anyway, working in a male dominated field is something where I deal with that sort of thing every day," Griffin continued, motioning over to Kriski. "I spend most of my day trying to talk to older white guys and explain I just want to do what I do. I don't feel like, no matter how you feel about me or the photo, nobody in America should have the president and the Department of Justice make it so that they're not employable or insurable..."
Rubin jumped back in to conclude the interview — probably to Griffin's delight.
"After all this is done and the movie has this worldwide distribution, do you anticipate you'll find paid work?" he asked.
"I don't know, Sam, I'm going to be honest." Griffin replied. "I hope so, but I don't know. ... I've been working pro bono for two-and-a-half years. I'd like to get back to making a living again."
Griffin, who self-financed A Hell of a Story, said she hopes to do a world tour in the near future.
After the interview concluded, the comedian promoted the exchange between her and Kriski on social media. "Every once in a while, Momma has to get a little savage," she tweeted.
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