Everyone knows who Kathy Gri?n is. Well, anyone who follows the news or has internet access. The outspoken comedian and LGBT+ ally is world famous. Or “weird world famous” as a friend put it upon hearing I was due to interview her. It wasn’t until earlier this year that the former star of her own reality TV show My Life on the D-List became an international household name after “a wall of shit” fell on her, as she delicately puts it. I spoke to Griffin ahead of her visit to Dublin this month to discuss her new Laugh Your Head Off tour and the series of events that led to its inception.
In May of this year, Griffin posted an image of herself on social media holding a Donald Trump mask covered in ketchup. The satirical photograph was taken by the notoriously provocative image maker Tyler Shields, to promote what was to be Griffin’s next tour. It’s intended resemblance to a severed head outraged the public. It went viral immediately and was met with vitriolic death threats from Trump supporters and statements of disgust from democrats, including Chelsea Clinton who tweeted “This is vile and wrong”.