Ellen DeGeneres isn’t just stepping back into the spotlight; she’s rewriting her own script, chickens and all. Kicking off her “Ellen’s Last Stand…Up Tour” at West Hollywood’s Largo at the Coronet Theater, Ellen wasted no time addressing the past few tumultuous years. “I used to say that I didn’t care what other people thought of me and I realized… I said that at the height of my popularity,” she quipped, proving her comedic timing remains untouched by controversy, according to Rolling Stone.
For the uninitiated, Ellen vanished from the public eye after allegations of a less-than-sunny workplace environment culminated in the cancellation of her long-running talk show. Ellen, the show and the host, harvested a reputation of being the kindest show and host in Hollywood, but there were whispers that DeGeneres was not as nice as she wanted you to think she was.
But now, she’s back, not just to entertain but to introspect. “What else can I tell you?” she mused, before dropping the bombshell, “Oh yeah, I got kicked out of show business.” Ellen’s humor, laced with her signature sarcasm, poked fun at her own misfortunes, including a nod to her first expulsion from showbiz after coming out as gay. “Eventually they’re going to kick me out for a third time because I’m mean, old, and gay.”
Throughout the evening, Ellen deftly balanced humor with moments of vulnerability. She admitted the controversy had been a “toll on my ego and my self-esteem.” The backlash, she explained, was “so hurtful.” During a Q&A, Ellen reflected, “I couldn’t gain perspective. I couldn’t do anything to make myself understand that it wasn’t personal… I just thought, ‘Well this is not the way I wanted to end my career, but this is the way it’s ending.'”
Ellen’s performance did more than entertain; it questioned, with a sharp wit, the nature of comeback and identity. She drew an unexpected parallel between her situation and her mother’s dementia: “Now my mother doesn’t know she’s my mother and I’m trying to figure out who I am without my show.”
As Ellen dissects her past and present with a mix of jokes and earnestness, it’s clear her journey of self-discovery will be as public as it is poignant. With the tour set to continue across several states, followed by a Netflix special, both fans and critics will have ample opportunity to see how this chapter in DeGeneres’s life unfolds, right there on stage.