How's it been for you?

You know, people have been so lovely, I have to say, you know, like, you know, people always were like, hey, how you doing? If they met me in the store or something.

But I walked down the street, you know, I was doing Rocky Horror for a couple of weeks, filling in for Rachel Dratch.

And I'm walking down the street and garbage men are like, Rosie, we hate him, too.

Yeah.

So the tide has turned in America.

And I think that that has a lot to do with the kind, loving reception that I got, that people, you know, understand what has happened.

He is not doing as well as you.

My name's Rosie

O'Donnell.

I'm proud to stand with the survivors here in New York, my hometown.

I think the answer to why we are not seeing all the files is Donald J. Trump.

That's the reason that they're protecting him because, as we all know, there's more than enough evidence, witness testimony, and dead women... to accentuate the need for the DOJ to open it up.

But they won't because they're all sycophants.

He is a very sick man.

Yeah.

I wanted to be in the Justice League.

I thought when I achieved a level of success and financial something, we would form a Women's Justice League and it would be like, you know, Gloria Steinem and Oprah and Diane Sawyer and Katie Couric and Maya Angelou and.

Adel Shabazz and, you know, and I would join because I would have my own charity and I would do right and, and we would solve the problems of children in America.

You know, that's, that's what I fantasized

He

branded himself with that.

Yes.

Yeah.

I wanted to be in the Justice League.

I thought when I achieved a level of success and financial something, we would form a Women's Justice League and it would be like, you know, Gloria Steinem and Oprah and Diane Sawyer and Katie Couric and Maya Angelou and.

Adel Shabazz and you know and I would join because I would have my own charity and I would do right and and we would solve the problems of children in America you know that's that's what I fantasized

Look at his tattoo, for God's

sake.

I know.

He branded himself with that.

[laughs]

They stand around.

They're 19, 20, 21-year-old kids.

They get $5 a day to do nothing.

I mean, they stand around and they try... supposedly gonna learn, but they stare at me with this adulation that I can't even articulate.

As I walk down the aisle to go to the studio, they're, "There she is.

That's Rosie," because they're little TV groupies, in the same way the kids at the White House who are doing that, and they are kids, are little White House groupies.

I mean.

So talk about starting Common Knowledge, where it began, and how it felt being on stage in that way in your home country.

Well, I moved to Ireland and I didn't know anyone.

I had two cousins who lived in Northern Ireland, and we're living in Dublin, so that's about, you know, a three-hour trek.

So I was lonely, and when my kid went to school, I had from 7:00 to 3:00 alone.

And so I thought, "Well, what am I gonna do?" So of, of course I start with crafts.

I craft for a couple of months and just get very into a lot of different kinds of crafts, and then I started thinking how much I notice the people in Dublin who looked like my family members.

Like, there'd be an old woman at 90 years old at the Tesco feeling the fruit, and I looked and I said, "That's my mother's face," and had she not died at 39, this is what I would be living, with, you know, an, an elderly mother and trying to help her through the end as, as all good children should, you know? And, um, everywhere I looked, I saw my dad in the cardigans and the little, uh, Irish pe- ...

Yeah

"This is not the Rosie-"

Like, "What is she doing? This is not the girl we see on TV." So it really ruined my ability to do standup, because that is a provocative art form, and that's how I sorta came up in the world, was doing that.

And, uh, it was sort of cut off for me for those six years that I did the show.

Was like I couldn't, at that time, merge the two, you know? It was hard to imagine being able to be open about my life and, now here it is 20 years later, Ellen's been doing the show for 20 years since I stopped, and, um, she's able to do that.

The times have changed.

The environment has changed.

The access to, um, different kind of ways to be in the world is available to all through the internet, you know? So, I, I don't know.

Yeah.

What did you think of the Framing Britney documentary?

Well, you know, I think I struggle with mental health as well.

I know what it's like to suffer in the spotlight.

It's a tough thing to do.

And she was just a baby.

I remember her on the Mickey Mouse Club.

I...

the two of you together

Mm.

And she said, "Because your kid tells very scary stories." And I'm like, "Oh, really? Like what?" She says, "'Where's Waldo?'" I'm like, "'Where's Waldo' is scaring your kid?" She said, "Yes." I said, "Okay, let me get to the bottom of this." So I go home.

I say, um, "Honey, do you know, uh, story 'Where's Waldo?'" "Yeah," they say.

I go, uh, "Would you tell me it?" She goes, "Yeah.

It was a dark and dreary night."

Mm

... to know other families were going through what I was going through provided so much ... hope for me, and, uh, compassion, and desire to never give up, and to keep doing what I was doing in order to shepherd them, you know, through their life and, and help them have a productive, uh, valuable relationships and, and valuable life experiences that everyone who's a human being deserves.

Yeah.

The things that I think back on.

There was a super kid right after 9/11.

Gorgeous girl, horrible childhood.

S- stellar student.

And at the very end I said, "Please remember, Kellogg's is going to thr- throw you a, i- into any college you get into, so you get into Harvard, because Kellogg's will be paying.

Tell everyone what your favorite cereal is." And she said, "Frosted Flakes, but Rosie, I don't want to take the money because of all the people in 9/11.

Empathic person.

And you know

what I did? I took the Saturday Night Live album with Chevy Chase and Jane Curtin and Gilda and Lorraine Newman.

And I took all the jokes and I just rewrote them for like there was a joke about a teacher who was flat chested, which I took directly from there.

It's like Miss Barron.

More on that story as it develops.

You know, because and I just put everything about someone in the school.

Yeah.

And I said, newsflash, big lesbian.

And you've mixed with lots of rich people.

Yes.

I think the people who only measure in money have lost the reason for living, and when I left my show, that was the reason.

I had more than enough money to take care of myself and my children and the people in my life for the rest of my life, should I spend it wisely and not go crazy, right? And that's what I've done, and I'm in a good place, and I don't need to work.

I love to work.

I'm happy when I get to do a wonderful piece of art, but, um, it was never my motivation.

Now, to say that I didn't want a better life than the one I had, that's the truth.

Yeah.

Have you two been sounding boards throughout this? And what do you make of comedians and women specifically being under attack while criminals are getting a blind eye turned to?

Yeah.

And, you know, I mean, I have to say that any woman who stands up to him, I support.

The Epstein women, I am a tremendous supporter of.

I wanted to have them on guests of any show that I do.

I wanted I had all these images of how to bring them out and do something that would not be in your face argumentative, but just showed the totality of what happened to them online.

when they were children and how we are ignoring this.

What would daytime look like? Would it be streaming? Would you want a solo show or have a co-host or a panel? What would that look like?

Where were you when that happened?

I was sitting home with my kids, and I was watching it going, "This can't be happening in America.

Is this actually happening?" I a- I was in complete and total shock.

And then when he ran again and got the nomination again, that's when I read Project 2025, and I couldn't believe that it was published in a book that Americans could have bought and read, but they didn't.

They didn't give it any attention, and everything that they proposed in that book has been done to a T.

And the reason I left is I finished the whole book.

I know what is coming, and I know what he's capable of.

Yeah.

Yes

... grew up in New York like I did, you knew who he was from the get-go.

In New York, he's not respected, and he never was, and I grew up watching his planes be repossessed off the runways at LaGuardia, watching him try to sell steaks and vodka.

He's a con man, and he's a grifter, and he's a logo slapper.

He's not a builder, and he's all illusion, and if you are a New Yorker, you knew this.

So- He had a con- uh, a woman, Tara O'Connor, who was, I believe, 18 or 19, Miss Teen USA or whatever his pa- title was, and she kissed a girl in the Village, and he made her have a press conference and apologize to the country.

And it was on right before The View came on, the live press conference, and she was crying and thanking him for a second chance.

Oh.

He said, Oh, Jesus.

Operation don't make me.

Listen on this platform at goodnewsforlefties.com or wherever podcasts are heard.

well the voters the orange administration everybody has to vote everyone has to vote and if he tries to take away our right to vote america has to say no away and you have done enough damage hit the road you know i mean the fact that he's made billions of dollars in the last 18 months by criminal behavior charge him arrest him put him in jail that's what he deserves Hmm.

I would imagine working on something like this that is so personal, uh- ... uh, it's probably, uh, pretty emotional to put it on the page.

Well, you know, it's interesting.

When I first got there, Seth, I didn't know anyone.

I had two cousins up in Belfast, but that was it.

We were in Dublin.

And so I'd walk around the streets when my kid was at school, and I'd see people who looked so much like my parents.

Like, I'd see a 90-year-old woman in the supermarket picking out the fruit, and I'm like, "My God, if my mother lived, that's her face on that woman," you know? And I'd see somebody who looked like my dad in a pub with a tweed hat and a cardigan.

[laughs]

Can you tell us a little bit about what audiences can expect from this new solo show?

Well, you know, when I got to Ireland, I had a lot of free time because Clay was in school and I didn't know anyone.

So I would go about my day doing errands, shopping, walking around, waiting for my kid to get out of school.

And I noticed all these people who looked just like us, like their faces were so Irish.

They, people used to say when we were little, all of the five children in my family, they'd say, "Oh, you got the map of Ireland on your face." And I never knew what that meant until I moved there.

And then I was like, wow, you really do have the map of Ireland on your face when you move here.

And everyone reminded me of my mom.

Do you feel you had a moment that, you know, turned the lights on for you and made you realize you wanted to pursue this, this life?

had very big marionette lines

from losing weight on Monjaro for three years.

I lose about 20 to 25 pounds a year.

And this is my third year.

So I'm at like 60-something pounds that I lost.

And people in Ireland are like, Rosie, are you all right, love? I'm like, why? You look so sad.

I'm like, it's not me, it's my face.

The two recently reunited at the Wisconsin prison, where Chelsea is serving an 18-month sentence in connection with a drug-related felony case.

Wow.

So she was at school, and a boy kept calling her psycho.

So I asked the teacher which was the father, and they told me.

I went over to the father, introduced myself, and said, "Why does your kid call my kid a psycho?" And he goes, "Listen, it's very upsetting, but my son is very sensitive, and she tells him scary stories." I said, "Really? I've never heard her tell a scary story.

What's the scary story?" He says, "Where's Waldo?"

Wow.

So then when I'm gonna be in America to see my son's baby, I said, "Can we just do like, you know, four, like 12 shows maybe, four a week, and, um, in a little theater?" Daryl Roth, who's a big Broadway producer I've worked with before, and I really enjoy her.

She's just won another Tony.

Wow.

So they went and adopted the 14-year-old that had seroconverted as a toddler, and the Florida State government wouldn't a- allow them to adopt the child that they raised because he was now a viable adoption, and they didn't want gay people to adopt him.

So they couldn't even adopt the foster child they raised, and that was exactly the position I was in.

Wow.

So then when I'm gonna be in America to see my son's baby, I said, "Can we just do, like, you know, four, like, 12 shows maybe, four a week, and, um, in a little theater?" Daryl Roth, who's a big Broadway producer I've worked with before, and I really enjoy her.

She's just won another Tony.

And so she said, you know, "Let me present it, and we'll do 12 shows.

What do you say?" And, you know, so we're going to do that.

I know.

Right? I'm like, "You people, are you not..." No, you know, when I, when, when I'm doing, I'm doing this one-woman show in New York, and when, when I rehearse the lines just sitting by myself at night, my kid in the other room, 13 years old, goes, "That's a lie, Mom.

I never said that.

That is absolutely untrue.

You're exaggerating again."

Wow

... that 9/11 happened, and then six months later I was off.

Now, they had asked me at the beginning of the season to re-sign, but I wouldn't.

Hmm.

The fall of Saigon.

And there was a plane, it was a locked shot, and there was a plane that was pushed, like this big in the screen, and one of those walk-up stairs was pushed on, and it was jam-packed with people.

I know.

Right? I'm like, "You people, are you not..." No, you know, when I, when, when I'm doing, I'm doing this one-woman show in New York, and when, when I rehearse the lines just sitting by myself at night, my kid in the other room, 13 years old, goes, "That's a lie, Mom.

I never said that.

That is absolutely untrue.

You're exaggerating again."

What's your reaction to that AI-generated video sent out by the president of the United States showing you and Robert De Niro and Julia Roberts and Whoopi Goldberg, etc.? ?

Well, I think I'm in good company, number one.

And number two, you know, I seem to be the, you know, obsession he can't get rid of.

You know, he's obsessed with Barack Obama.

And I think that's because he's innately a racist.

And he's obsessed with me because I think he's innately a sexist.

And I grew up not very far from where he grew up.

Why is he still so fixated on you? You're being quiet in Ireland.

Um, Rosie, what is your one woman show about? What can people look forward to?

I wrote it when I moved to Ireland, and I saw so many people there who looked like me and reminded me of my family, and especially my mom.

I would see women in their 80s or 90s with my face.

And, uh, so it's a lot about my mother and losing her so young, trying to parent while being motherless, and raising my 13-year-old autistic child.

That was a big deal, yes.

And, um, I remember thinking, "This is, like, the beginning of the end, and somebody needs to help her now," right? I mean, everybody gets lost in their life, and when you're in the public eye you get lost very nationally.

And it's really difficult, but we can't pretend we don't see what we see.