Tiffany Haddish was looking on the bright side during her Christmas set at the Laugh Factory, making light of her Thanksgiving weekend arrest and the Beverly Hills jail she was locked up in.
The comedian, who was taken into custody on Nov. 24 after being found asleep behind the wheel, was charged earlier this month with two misdemeanors — one count of driving under the influence of alcohol and one count of driving with at least a 0.08% blood alcohol level. She pleaded not guilty to both charges during her Dec. 20 arraignment.
“I know I’ll be all right, I’ve been through way worse than this,” she quipped onstage during the Monday night feast at the comedy club, according to footage obtained by TMZ. “I’m sorry but you ain’t lived ’til you got arrested in Beverly Hills. It’s beautiful over there. I’ve been in quite a few jails … and if you’re gonna do something, I say get arrested over there ’cause that jail is nice.”
The 44-year-old raved about the iconic enclave’s detention facility, specifically its cleanliness and how she was offered food and juice. She also shared that she started her menstrual cycle in jail that day and revealed that “they had the best maxi pads,” joking that they were so large she could use an additional one as a pillow.
“I did that. I took a nap. It was beautiful, mm-hmm, it was a wonderful experience,” she said.
Before the event, the “Girls Trip” and “Haunted Mansion” star reflected on the arrest and charges, getting candid about what she learned from the ordeal in a Friday radio interview while plugging her Christmas Day performance at the Laugh Factory’s 44th Free Christmas Feast and Comedy Show. As she explained it, she hands out free meals and performs during the community feasts out of duty and necessity, but she said her involvement ultimately stretches her too thin.
“I’m not perfect. I’m a human being,” she said on Los Angeles’ all-news radio station KNX. “And I’ve been doing my research on this. A million people in America every year are charged with DUI. And what have I realized? I gotta go to bed. I can’t help everybody. OK. I can’t show up and rescue people, ’cause I be tired.
“I’ve learned also that everyone thinks I’m super rich and I think that they forget that I’m a Black woman working in this business,” she added. “And they think that people want to work on holidays. And they don’t. The driver don’t want to drive on the holidays and they definitely don’t want to drive me to go help somebody else. They’re not going there,” she said. (Haddish was arrested on Thanksgiving after serving meals at L.A.’s Laugh Factory and performing a set at the historic comedy club.)
Her remarks came on the heels of “Empire” and “The Color Purple” star Taraji P. Henson making headlines and gaining broad support from other Black entertainers after talking about the pay disparity in Hollywood.
Although Haddish previously quipped about her run-ins with law enforcement in California and Georgia, she said she’s “doing great” and dealing with underlying issues in therapy.
“I’ve been taking care of me. I’ve been going to therapy since I was 16, and me and the therapist was definitely talking about this. And I’ve learned that I have to have boundaries — with you, with anybody, especially with my friends and family, I have to have boundaries,” she said.
“I think because I grew up in foster care, because I didn’t have a lot of friends growing up, I didn’t have a support system — I try to show up for other people and I have to realize a lot of them [are] not going to show up for me. Although, they did show up to jail when I was walking out, they was all standing there in the lobby, sure was.”
The Emmy- and Grammy-winning actor said that people are shocked that she still performs at the Laugh Factory’s community events, which she remembers attending as “a homeless individual” in the late 1990s.
“People think that once you get a certain level of fame, you don’t show up no more. I notice a lot of celebrities don’t show up no more. … A lot of those people that used to be there — those comics, those entertainers — they don’t come anymore. I’ve never wanted to be that person that stops showing up,” she explained.
However, given how her arrest played out worldwide, Haddish said this might be her last year performing at the events.
“I might have to stop showing up. I’m going to show up this year, but next year I might not because I’m famous, famous,” she said. “A lot of other famous people get DUIs, you don’t ever see them on the news, and I was on the Korean news, girl. I didn’t know I crossed over. I didn’t know I had a crossover. I said, ‘Wow, I’m white girl famous with Black girl problems.’”
