TOUR DE FORCE

Comedian Kathy Griffin is back on the road - and as outspoken as ever

- CARLI WHITWELL

She's been a California girl for decades, but winter doesn't scare Kathy Griffin one bit.

“I’m Illinoisan, so I’m used to it,” the Chicago native reminds Hello! Canada ahead of her New Face, New Tour show in chilly Toronto – one of two stops across the country as she takes her comedy on the road (with more dates to be announced soon) – where she also hopes to indulge in some feelgood Canadian tourism. “I want to have that frozen maple syrup on the snow!”

A visit north of the border also offers a reprieve of a different sort for the comedian, who now calls Malibu, Calif., home. Kathy, 65, is notoriously outspoken against the current U.S. administration, despite the fallout from a photo she posted on social media in 2017, pretending to hold up the disembodied head of U.S. president Donald Trump.

Kathy's stunt led to an investigation by the Department of Justice, along with getting her shows cancelled and her reputation dragged. And yet, all these years later, she's still proudly waving the flag for democracy. she tells us. “We [the United States] are so afraid you're going to lose patience with us and dump us. [Canada], you've been such a good boyfriend.”