a&e features
‘Comedy is the best medicine’
Ribald as ever, Griffin on Caitlyn, Gaga, the D-list and more
Kathy Griffin says not to fear her show might be toned down just because it’s at the Kennedy Center. She plans to let it rip and give even buttoned-up Washingtonians a ‘belly laugh.’ (Photo courtesy PMK-BNC Entertainment)
Kathy Griffin
‘#LIKEABOSS’ tour
The Kennedy Center
2700 F St., N.W.
Saturday, June 20
8 p.m.
$49-99
Kathy Griffin’s no-holds-barred brand of comedy has catapulted her into stardom with everything from her former reality show “My Life on the D-list,” to her outrageous celebrity-skewering stand-up tours to briefly taking over Joan Rivers’ reign as host of “Fashion Police.”
The notorious comedian and outspoken LGBT rights activist, who opens her 80-city “#LIKEABOSS” tour at the Kennedy Center on Wednesday, declined to answer questions about her “Fashion Police” departure in March, having commented on it earlier this year on Twitter and to other outlets. She says that although she was told accommodations would be made for her brand of comedy, once she tried it, she felt uncomfortable critiquing the stars’ red carpet looks. She taped seven episodes and told “The View,” her departure was “no harm, no foul — it just wasn’t the right thing for me.”
But Griffin, 54, still had plenty to talk about. During a phone interview on the road, she discussed her upcoming stand-up show, Caitlyn Jenner and how talking to Lady Gaga in an elevator made her re-think her celebrity status. Her comments have been slightly edited for length.
WASHINGTON BLADE: You’re bringing “#LIKEABOSS” tour to D.C. at the Kennedy Center. What’s the show about?
KATHY GRIFFIN: Well, I named the tour because I realized after doing, and I’m in the “Guinness Book of World Records” for this, 23 stand-up comedy specials, more than any comedian male or female, living or dead, I didn’t want people to think, “Oh I’ve already seen her,” or, “I’ve seen her three years ago.” I want everyone to know it’s all new, new, new. I also want people to know I write all my material and I’m pointing that out because I frankly recently learned a lot of comics don’t even write their own act. Fuck that! Like a boss, I write all my stuff and why wouldn’t I? I mean what better time to come to the iconic Kennedy Center when we are on the verge of the decision coming down about the legalization of gay marriage. It’s all about Caitlyn or Catie as I call her. It’s all about Caitlyn, which is an ever-changing minute-by-minute story. I couldn’t be happier to be in D.C. at this time. The Republican race is getting down right hilarious. The D.C. audiences are notoriously smart and open-minded and that’s all I ask. You thought you knew me but I have some new things to talk about at the Kennedy Center.
BLADE: Why are LGBT rights such an important issue for you?
GRIFFIN: I always say gay audiences are the greatest audiences in the world because there’s nothing I can say that can shock them. There’s nothing I’m going to say out of my potty mouth or that’s too far across the line that a member of the LGBT community has not heard or dealt with. As a woman, I feel that we have a lot to learn from the LGBT community because women you know, we have a lot of ground to cover and a long distance to go as feminists. Frankly, I don’t feel we’re as effective as a women’s movement as the LGBT movement. The LGBTs fucking get together and legislate and march and protest and come together in a way I think is so effective and so moving in the right direction. As a woman, I am often telling my straight female friends, “Look at how the LGBTs are doing it. Come on ladies we need to learn from them.”
I think that’s why I’ve always been immersed in the community and we’ve always worked well together. When I started doing open mic nights, I honestly would prefer to do stand-up in a gay bar than a conventional comedy club. That is what the folks that have been coming to see me all these years they know. Leading up to the Kennedy Center I’m doing Roanoke and Charlottesville and those markets one may not expect them to be quite as liberal as D.C. but the folks coming to those cities know what they’re in for. They see a ticket that says “Kathy Griffin: Like a Boss” and they know I’m not going to be holding a pro-Sarah Palin rally.
I think that is what I have been building and that is what I have been seeing side by side with the community such progress and it’s thoughtful. Its not like the LGBT community has just been hoping for miracles. It’s fucking hard work and I think that’s why the community has been so good to me. I love doing it all and I feel that is another way I identify with the community is like this is a community that realizes they have to work harder and jump higher and that’s my story as well. So that’s why we’ve always been kindred spirits. And we love a good laugh, damn it!
BLADE: Your comedic style is known for being controversial and offensive. How do you feel about comedy and talking about sensitive issues like Caitlyn Jenner?
GRIFFIN: Well first of all what I loved about the then Bruce Jenner interview with Diane Sawyer is the first thing he said to Diane is, “Now Diane, before we start I think it’s important that we keep a sense of humor about this.” I, as a viewer, I was on the road somewhere, and I remember just cheering out loud and saying, “Yes that is essential.” As someone who has done stand-up comedy in AIDS hospices, in Iraq and Afghanistan, that is what I have heard my whole career. People who are in all kinds of situations whether they are having the greatest day of their life, the most challenging day of their life, changing their lives as Caitlyn has done. It’s so interesting, it’s always the first thing out of their mouths to me. They always say, “I want a joke, I want to keep this funny.” It’s so important to keep a sense of humor about everything. Comedy really is the best medicine. There’s always funny in everything.
I had a friend who was in the end stages of cancer and I went to visit her and I thought it was going to be this serious visit and she said, “Oh God, just make fun of me. Just make me laugh.” I know what that meant. It didn’t mean make light of the situation; it meant, I need a laugh. So I really loved that then Bruce Jenner said first out the gate we’ve got to keep our sense of humor. Within the community, I’ve met many, many transgender people that are not in the position of Caitlyn with a lot of money and a Vanity Fair cover. There are many colors to this rainbow. It’s all fair game and there are many, many ways to have a great sense of humor about Caitlyn’s journey and about the community. So I’ll do this the same way I make fun of everything and everybody.
BLADE: Washington is such a hotbed of political activity. It can be very serious and people can take themselves very seriously.
GRIFFIN: Let them even try! Let them even try the minute they walk into that Kennedy Center for the Kathy Griffin show. I would love nothing more than if like even two people walked in thinking they were seeing the symphony and then 20 minutes into my pussy jokes storm out. I’m not above a good walk out. I enjoy them. I’ve experienced several walk-outs, typically more in the red states. They’re not going to be allowed to take themselves seriously that night. I’m not having it.
BLADE: On the other side of that, do you ever find that your humor helps your agenda in support for LGBT rights?
GRIFFIN: Oh my gosh absolutely! My greatest contribution to the community is honestly bringing humor. I’m not saying I’m Larry Kramer, I never did. I’m just saying I’m here to make you laugh. That is my function in the community. That’s my profession, that’s what I do, I’m hard-wired to do that. Whether it’s a talk show or “My Life on the D-List” or hosting an awards show, that is the way that I am able to contribute. When I hold a rally or go canvassing, I’m putting on a little bit more of a different hat. It’s more of a serious hat. But frankly, the best way I can serve the community is to make them laugh. That’s really the message that I’ve heard over and over again from all kinds of people in all kinds of situations, in particular difficult situations. It’s, “Get me through this. Tell me a fucking joke. Tell me about going to see a Bette Midler concert the other night and Barbra Streisand was in the audience and what happened.” I really do believe laughter is a relief, it’s the best medicine and it gets you through things. I believe it. I live it. I’m from a crazy drunken Irish Catholic family and that’s kind of how we dealt with everything. But I also do believe that there is a true cathartic experience to showing up at the Kennedy Center knowing that you’re going to hear some things that are beyond the pale and then leaving with a belly laugh. That’s my job.
BLADE: Are you still “D-list”?
GRIFFIN: I consider myself someone who moves through many lists. I think that honestly everybody does and that’s what I love about the whole concept of A-list, B-list, C-list, D-list. And that’s why I say it with a complete giant tongue in my cheek. I don’t know what list I’m on because it changes minute by minute. When I’m in an elevator, as I was two nights ago, with Lady Gaga and Tony Bennett? Fucking A-list right? If I’m driving through Mississippi and I stop at the Waffle House and someone says, “Aren’t you the lady from the TV?” then I go alright maybe that’s not an A-list moment. But I am at the fucking Waffle House what do I fucking expect? That’s why it meant so much to me to win the Emmys and the Grammys because it’s all about the longevity and having fun with it. I didn’t want to stay on the D-list forever. I don’t expect to be on the A-list forever and I’m going to always live somewhere in between.
a&e features
New book celebrates 1970s dance music icons
‘A Night at the Disco’ features interviews with Donna Summer, Debbie Harry, more
If you’re a fan of 1970s-era dance music, don’t miss the irresistible new book by Christian John Wikane and Alice Harris, “A Night at the Disco,” which revisits more than 90 interviews conducted with some of the biggest names in pop culture.
“A Night at the Disco” (ACC Art Books) was published on March 24, and distributed by Simon & Schuster. It celebrates more than 100 artists who sparked a phenomenon in dance music from 1970-1979 and features excerpts from interviews with everyone from Donna Summer to Debbie Harry.
Lost City Books (2467 18th St., N.W.) will welcome author Christian John Wikane for a book signing and conversation about “A Night at the Disco” on Thursday, April 16 at 6 p.m. Details at lostcitybookstore.com. Bird in Hand Coffee & Books in Baltimore (11 E. 33rd St.) )will also host a Q&A with the author on Wednesday, April 15 at 6 p.m. Details at theivybookshop.com.
Below is an excerpt from “A Night at the Disco.”
“I’ll let in anyone who looks like they’ll make things fun.” Steve Rubell is guiding a New York Times reporter through Studio 54 as resident DJ Richie Kaczor dazzles the crowd with records by CHIC, Odyssey, and T-Connection. “Disco, that’s where the happy people go,” The Trammps sing as dancers spin and twirl underneath tubes of flashing lights. Seven months since Rubell and co-owner Ian Schrager opened Studio 54 in April 1977, it’s welcomed untold numbers of “happy people” … at least those lucky enough to pass through the doors.
“We were part of the chosen few,” says André De Shields, who immortalized the title role in The Wiz on Broadway at the time. “We could show up at Studio 54 and the doorman at the velvet stanchion would look over everyone and point to us from The Wiz to come in, that kind of thing.” As the lead vocalist in the GRAMMY-nominated Dr. Buzzard’s Original Savannah Band, whose debut modernized big band sophistication for the discothèques, Cory Daye had carte blanche in the club. “The energy was like a New Year’s Eve party every night,” she says. “I would go up to the mezzanine and watch the mechanical light pillars go up and down, metallic confetti falling from the ceiling, the spoon and the moon. I was so fascinated and enamored by it.
“When a certain song came on, the people would just rush to the dance floor. There was no contact dancing — the hustle was pretty much on its way out — but it was just an amazing experience to see all the cultures together. It was a fusion of cultures, which described my life and my band, so I was right at home there.”
“Studio 54 was the place,” adds Linda Clifford. “Crazy parties. If you could think it, you would see it. It was like a circus. Just an amazing place to be. I worked 54 so many times. It was like a second home to me. The people there treated me so well. The crowd always seemed to enjoy my show. I always had a good time with them. That was the most important thing: making sure that they had fun.”
Well before Studio 54 opened, disco had become a business juggernaut. “A four billion dollar market and still growing,” Billboard announced in February 1977, with dance music offering more variety than ever. “There is no longer a single, readily identifiable disco beat, but a kaleidoscope of sounds that are melodic and danceable,” Tom Moulton told the magazine. In the clubs, records by veteran artists like Stevie Wonder and the Bee Gees were mixed in with a range of new acts like Grace Jones, Boney M., and The Ritchie Family, while everyone from ABBA to Marvin Gaye scored number one pop hits with songs that had club-centric storylines.
Beyond the charts, disco itself remained as idiosyncratic as ever, especially on several productions by Laurin Rinder and W. Michael Lewis, whose studio creations, El Coco (“Let’s Get It Together,” “Cocomotion”) and Le Pamplemousse (“Le Spank”), joined their own “Lust” from Seven Deadly Sins (1977) among the most tantalizing releases on AVI Records. Rinder & Lewis also produced acts for the newly hatched Butterfly Records in Los Angeles, where Saint Tropez (“On a Rien à Perdre”) and Tuxedo Junction (“Moonlight Serenade”) reflected the duo’s high gloss sound, spanning everything from European sophistication to a more literal translation of the ’40s sensibilities popularized by Dr. Buzzard’s Original Savannah Band.
12-inch singles had also grown as the preferred format to approximate the club music experience at home. Nearly a year after Atlantic Records introduced its series of promotional 12-inch singles for DJs, New York-based Salsoul Records released the industry’s first commercially available 12-inch single, “Ten Percent” by Double Exposure, in May 1976. A year later, T.K. Records was the first label to certify a gold record for a 12-inch single when Peter Brown’s “Do You Wanna Get Funky With Me” tallied one million sales.— Christian John Wikane
(From “A Night at the Disco” by Alice Harris & Christian John Wikane. Published by ACC Art Books.)
The Blade may receive commissions from qualifying purchases made via this post.
a&e features
Award-winning D.C. chef reaching new culinary heights
Anthony Jones of Marcus DC competing on ‘Top Chef’
In Anthony Jones’s kitchen, all sorts of flags fly, including his own. Executive chef at award-winning restaurant Marcus DC, Jones has reached culinary heights (James Beard Award semifinalist for Emerging Chef, anyone?), yet he’s just getting started.
Briefly stepping away from his award-winning station, Jones took a moment under a different set of lights. Recently, he temporarily gave up his post at the restaurant for a starring small-screen slot on the latest season of “Top Chef,” which debuted in March. (The show airs weekly on Bravo and Peacock).
Before his strategic slice-and-dice competition, however, Jones, who identifies as gay, draws from his deep DMV roots. In the years before “Top Chef” and the top chef spot at Marcus, he was born and raised in Sunderland, Md., in southern Maryland, near the Chesapeake.
Early memories were steeped in afternoons on boats with his dad bonding over fishing, and wandering the garden of his great-grandparents spread with fresh vegetables and a few hogs. “It was Southern, old-school ethics and upbringing,” he said. “Family and food went hand in hand.” Weekends meant grabbing bushels of crabs, dad and grandma would cook and crack them. Family members would host fish fries for extra cash. In this seafood-heavy youth, Jones managed time to sneak in episodes of the “OG” Japanese “Iron Chef” show, which helped inspire him to pursue a career in the kitchen.
Jones moved to D.C. after graduating from college, ending up at lauded Restaurant Eve, and met famed chef Marcus Samuelson, who brought him to Miami to be part of the opening team for Red Rooster Overtown. After three years, Jones moved back to D.C., where he ran Dirty Habit, reinventing and reimagining the menu, integrating West African flavors and ingredients.
Samuelson, however, wouldn’t let a talent like Jones stay away for too long. Pulling Jones back into his orbit, Samuelson elevated Jones to help him open his namesake restaurant Marcus DC, which has been named a top-five restaurant by the Washington Post. Since then, Jones has been nominated as a semifinalist for the RAMMYs Rising Culinary Star in 2026 and won the Eater DC’s Rising Chef award in 2025.
Samuelson’s Marcus is a tour de force interpreting the Black Diaspora on the plate, from the American South to West Africa, along with his signature “Swedopian” touches. Yet it’s Jones who has deeply informed the plate, elevating his own story to date. Marcus DC is primarily a seafood restaurant, which serves Jones well.
“Where I’m from is seafood heavy, and as I’ve progressed in my career, I’ve moved away from meat.” Veggies and fish are hero dishes. His own dish, Mel’s Crab Rice, was not only lauded by the Washington Post, but is framed by his youth carrying home the crustaceans from Mel’s crab truck. It’s a bowl of Carolina rice, layered with pickled okra, uni béarnaise, and crab. Jones also points to a dish on the opening menu, rockfish and brassica, paying respect to a landmark D.C. institution, Ben’s Chili Bowl. Jones reverse engineered a favorite bowl of chili that’s seafood instead of meat forward, leveraging octopus and rockfish along with different riffs of cauliflower: showing his intellectual, creative, and cultural sides.
While “Top Chef” is showing Jones’s spotlight side, he also lets his identity show at work. “In the kitchen, I make sure we’re inclusive. We don’t tolerate discrimination. Everyone that’s here should feel confident to express themselves. There are so many different flags in the kitchen.”
Jones says that he didn’t fully express his gay identity until fairly recently. He felt reluctant coming out to certain family members, “you’re scared to tell them about being different,” he says, and while that anxiety ate at him, “I’m lucky and fortunate to have unconditional love and that weight off my shoulders.”
Today, “I’m me all the time, Monday to Sunday. I’m honest with people, and my staff is honest with me.”
“Being a chef is hard,” he says, “and being a chef of color is even more difficult.”
Yet his LGBTQ identity is a juggling act, he says. “I need to keep that balance, because once someone finds out something about you, their opinion can change, whether you want it or not.”
Being on a whole season of TV cooking competition, however, might mean millions more might have an opinion of him (Jones has appeared on TV already, on an episode of “Chopped”). To prepare, he says, “I’ve just kept a level head. It’s just an honor to be on top chef with amazing people happy to be there.”
Plus, this season is set in the Carolinas, and Jones attended Johnson & Wales University in Charlotte, N.C. “It’s a full story of my life, now a monumental moment for me.”
Jones also recently was nominated for a James Beard Foundation Award. “JBF has been a north star, a dream for so long. I always had this goal on my wall.”
Being at the top spot at Marcus DC, making waves through his accolades, and cooking on Bravo means that Jones is highly visible. “I think that if someone has a similar background to me, and can see our story, trajectory, and success, they can have more ability to be themselves. This is my goal.”
Back at Marcus, Jones has plenty up his chef’s white’s sleeves. A new spring menu is in the works. He’ll be launching a new tasting menu “dining experience,” he says, and has plans to work on more events and collaborations with chefs and friends to bring in new talent and share the culinary wealth.
a&e features
Introducing the Torchbearers Awards honoring queer, trans women and nonbinary people
Meet the Legends and Illuminators lighting new paths
The Torchbearers Awards are more than recognition—they are a continuation of legacy. They honor the quiet architects of progress in our community: those who organize, advocate, build, and protect, often without fanfare but always with purpose. Rooted in a belief in intentional recognition, this honor names those who carry our movements forward—those who make room for others, who remind us that change is both generational and generative. In a time marked by uncertainty and challenge, these leaders push forward with courage, clarity, and an unwavering commitment to expanding opportunity and equity.
This year’s honorees reflect the full breadth of our community, spanning generations, backgrounds, identities, and industries. From Legends, with decades of leadership and having created pathways for others, to Illuminators, who are lighting new paths with creativity and innovation, each Torchbearer represents the power of intergenerational leadership and the strength found in our diversity. They are organizers, advocates, artists, policy leaders, healers, and changemakers whose lived experiences shape a shared vision for equity and liberation.
This award is our love letter to queer and trans women and nonbinary people who carry the flame when it would be easier to let it dim. To those who consistently show up, who use their voice and visibility and stand firm, often without recognition, so that others may live more freely and fully. The Torchbearers Awards celebrates not just what has been done, but the enduring spirit, responsibility, and collective care that ensure the work continues, and that the flame is always passed forward.
Co-Creators of the Torchbearers Awards: Shannon Alston, June Crenshaw, Heidi Ellis
Torchbearers Awards Advisory Board: Aditi Hardikar, Lesley Bryant, Jasmine Wilson-Bryant, Stephen Rutgers
ILLUMINATOR AWARDEES
- Representative Sharice Davids (she/her), (D, KS-03)
— U.S. House of Representatives - Greisa Martinez Rosas (she/her/ella)
— Executive Director, United We Dream - Paola Ramos (she/her)
— Journalist & Correspondent - Meagan A. Fitzgerald (she/her)
— Journalist & Correspondent - Jessica L. Lewis (she/her)
— Founder / Producer, Play Play DC - Savannah Wade (she/her)
— Founder, OAR Agency - Suhad Babaa (she/her)
— Filmmaker/ Former Executive Director of Just Vision - Ashlee Davis (she/her)
— Global Head of Inclusive Outcomes, Ancestry - Jazmine Hughes (she/her)
— Journalist and Former Editor at New York Times Magazine - Queen Adesuyi (they/she)
— Policy Advisor & Organizer, ReFrame Health & Justice - Michele Rayner, Esq. (she/her)
— Civil Rights Attorney, State Representative (Florida House of Representatives) - Gaby Vincent (she/her)
— Sports/Cultural Commentator and Community Leader - Jenny Nguyen (she/her)
— Founder & Owner, The Sports Bra - Denice Frohman (she/her)
— Independent Artist, Poet / Performer - Vida Rangel (she/her)
— Founder, Our Trans Capital - Roxanne Anderson (they/them)
— Executive Director, Our Space - Ann Marie Gothard (she/her)
— Co-Founder & President, Pride Live (Stonewall National Monument Visitor Center) - Diana Rodriquez (she/her)
— Co-Founder & CEO, Pride Live (Stonewall National Monument Visitor Center) - Wendi Cooper (she/her)
— Founder / Executive Director, Transcending Women - Toya Matthews (she/her)
— City of San Antonio, Texas - Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones (she/her)
— Sports/Cultural Commentator and Community Leader - Charity Blackwell (she/her)
— Poet, LGBTQ Advocate & Community Leader - Wilhelmina Indermaur (she/her)
— Director of Communications, Tyler Clementi Foundation - Em Chadwick (she/her)
— CMO, For Them & Autostraddle - Kylo Freeman (they/he)
— CEO, For Them & Autostraddle
LEGEND AWARDEES
- Sheila Alexander-Reid (she/her)
— Executive Director, PHL Diversity, Philadelphia Convention & Visitors Bureau - Cassandra Cantave Burton (she/her)
— Interim Director of Thought Leadership & Senior Research Advisor, AARP - leigh h. mosley (she/her)
— Photographer / Educator, PhotoFlo Photography - Jenn M. Jackson, PhD (they/them)
— Assistant Professor of Political Science; Author & Columnist, Syracuse University - Jordyn White (she/her)
— COO, Washington Prodigy / VP of Leadership Development & Research, HRC Foundation - AJ Hikes (they/them)
— Deputy Executive Director, ACLU - RaeShanda Lias (she/her)
— Digital Creator, RL Lockhart - Donna Payne-Hardy (she/her)
— Educator, EEO Specialist, Founder of NBJC, Former Leader at the Human Rights Campaign - Courtney R. Snowden (she/her)
— Principal, Blueprint Strategy Group - Gaye Adegbalola (she/her)
— Musician & Activist, Musician / Inductee of the Blues Hall of Fame - Cheryl A. Head (she/her)
— Independent Author, Novelist (Crime Fiction) - Letitia Gomez (she/her)
— The American LGBTQ+ Museum, Board Chair - Lynne Brown (she/her)
— Publisher, Washington Blade - Shay Franco-Clausen (She/Her/Ella/Queen)
— Political Strategist and Organizer - Melissa L. Bradley (she/her)
— Founder & Managing Partner, New Majority Ventures - Meghann Burke (she/her)
— Executive Director, NWSL Players Association - Victoria Kirby York, MPA (she/they)
— Director of Public Policy & Programs, National Black Justice Collective - Joli Angel Robinson (she/her)
— CEO, Center on Halsted - Jeannine Frisby LaRue (she/her)
— CEO, Moxie Strategies - Alice Wu (she/her)
— Film Director (Saving Face, The Half of It) / Screenwriter - Storme Webber (she/her)
— Interdisciplinary Artist / Educator, University of Washington - Kim Stone
— CEO of the Washington Spirit, Washington Spirit - Mickalene Thomas
— American Visual Artist, Mickalene Thomas Studio - Erika Lorshbough (any/they/she)
— Executive Director, interACT - J. Gia Loving (she/ella)
— Co-Executive Director, GSA Network
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New book celebrates 1970s dance music icons
Report: Grenell wants Russian ambassadorship
Risking it all for love during World War II
D.C. is the place for the Democratic Socialists of America
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