On Wednesday, comedian Ellen DeGeneres made a noteworthy comeback to the stand-up scene with her latest tour, Ellen’s Last Stand…Up Tour. During her performance, she spoke openly about the controversial termination of her long-running talk show, The Ellen DeGeneres Show. The highly regarded daily show came to an end in May 2022 following two decades of broadcasting amid claims of a toxic work environment. Given that it’s Ellen, she can laugh at herself and is not hesitant to mock her professional setback.
On the opening night of Ellen’s Last Stand-Up Tour, a sold-out crowd of around 200 people was supportive of her. Wearing a basic black long-sleeve shirt, white trousers and sneakers, DeGeneres spoke first about the elephant in the room.
Onstage at the Largo at the Coronet Theatre in West Hollywood, DeGeneres cynically said, “Oh yeah, I got kicked out of show business,” according to Rolling Stone, which had a reporter there for the event.
“I used to say that I didn’t care what other people thought of me and I realized…DeGeneres said, “I said that at the height of my popularity.”
She stated that worrying about other people’s opinions is such a waste of time and that, in the moment, she hopes that the audience is thinking, “This is wonderful, I’m so happy to be here.” However, they could be considering, “Let’s see how this goes.”
The comedian joked that her famous farewell phrase on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, “Be kind to one another,” would not be enough to save her from the 2020 controversy. “The ‘be kind’ girl wasn’t kind,” she said.
“I became this one-dimensional character who gave stuff away and danced up steps. Do you know how hard it is to dance up the steps? Would a mean person dance up steps?”
According to reports, she said that people would have been “pleasantly surprised” if she had told them to screw themselves at the end of her show.
Nearly two decades after its launch, DeGeneres revealed in May 2021 that she was ending her daytime talk programme. The statement came after Warner Media investigated workers’ claims of racism, sexual misconduct and intimidation by higher-ups, although the presenter and comedian openly denied that the charges influenced her choice.
DeGeneres acknowledged that she took a long time to decide exactly what she wanted to say and how to confront her fall from grace. She went on to say that although she is making fun of what happened to her, it was “devastating.”
“I just hated the way the show ended. I love that show so much and I just hated that the last time people would see me is that way.”
In spite of her admission that her coworkers were like family to her, DeGeneres acknowledged that she was an inexperienced boss who “didn’t know how to be a boss.”
“I didn’t go to business school. She joked, “I went to Charlie’s Chuckle Hutt.”
She continued, saying that the show was named Ellen, that people were wearing Ellen T-shirts and that there were Ellen buildings within the Warner Brothers property, but she was unaware that this implied she should be in charge.
Speaking on the emotional roller coaster throughout her career, DeGeneres talked about how she was shunned following coming out on her sitcom in the 1990s, then rose to fame again with her talk show before plummeting once again.
She said, “It’s been such a toll on my ego and my self-esteem.”
She said that individuals in this industry are so divided; that they either adore and look up to you or they despise you, and the latter group tends to be “louder.”
She added, for those keeping count, that this is her second time being booted out of the show business, and she will be kicked out a third time since she is “mean, old and gay.”
At sixty-six years old, DeGeneres claimed to have been more conscious of her physical and emotional ageing. She claims her doctor just informed her that she has osteoporosis and arthritis and that she frequently finds herself wondering about philosophical topics like time and the universe. Furthermore, she said, she’s reached a stage in her life when she can’t stop thinking about Wheel of Fortune.
She brought up her mother’s dementia and made a comparison between them, highlighting how they are both losing their sense of self. According to DeGeneres, her mother’s identity was simply being her mother, and the talk show had been her entire identity.
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