Comedian Ellen DeGeneres made a remarkable comeback to the stand-up stage with “Ellen's Last Stand…Up Tour” in West Hollywood on Wednesday night.
Comedian Ellen DeGeneres made a remarkable comeback to the stand-up stage with “Ellen's Last Stand…Up Tour” in West Hollywood on Wednesday night.
DeGeneres' show on NBC went off air in 2022 due to a toxic workplace controversy that damaged her reputation as the most beloved host.
In 2020, former staff members of the show accused her of creating a culture where she held a dominant position and allowed executives to engage in alleged bullying, bigotry, and sexual harassment.
DeGeneres pokes fun at her downfall, says her ego and self-esteem were hurt
During her first comedy tour since 2018, DeGeneres acknowledged that being called the “most hated person in America” had severely damaged her self-esteem.
Amidst a packed house at Club Largo, she mocked her downfall by recalling being “kicked out of show business” for being “mean”, reported Rolling Stone.
“The hate went on for a long time and I would try to avoid looking at the news. The ‘be kind' girl wasn't kind. That was the headline,” she said.
Reflecting on her on-screen persona, DeGeneres stated, “I became this one-dimensional character who gave stuff away and danced up steps.”
She also admitted that her career lows have taken a toll on her ego and self-esteem. “People either love you and idolize you or they hate you, and those people somehow are louder.”
Despite being the face of her show, the comedian acknowledged that she “didn't know how to be a boss” and reminded the crowd that she went to ‘Charlie's Chuckle Hutt,' not business school.
She also addressed concerns that crew members were not satisfied with their COVID-19 pandemic compensation.
She then voiced her displeasure with the talk show's ending in a Q&A following her performance, saying, “I just hated the way the show ended.”
DeGeneres hopes her comeback to stand-up would bring ‘joy'
DeGeneres claimed that her “funk” started to have an impact on Portia de Rossi, her wife. “‘I'm making jokes about what happened to me, but it was devastating. It took a long time for me to want to do anything again.”
She expressed a hope that her comeback to stand-up would bring “joy” in the midst of a “scary time”, adding that the world needs “more laughter and less drama”.
DeGeneres has kept a quiet profile after her talk show ended. This stand-up tour is her biggest public engagement in the past two years. She discussed her career highs and lows during her performance, reminding the audience of the criticism that followed the cancellation of her comedy Ellen in the 1990s after she came out as homosexual. She is slated to give more performances in the next few months.
