Ellen DeGeneres On Her Time As A Stand-Up: ‘It’s a Lonely Life’

Ellen DeGeneres has returned to stand-up in Netflix’s Relatable, her first special in 15 years. But the comedian admitted on Today that she never thought she’d be returning to the stage. 

“I didn’t think I’d ever do it again,” she said. “I did it for so long, I did it for probably 20 years and it’s a lonely life — especially as a woman by yourself on the road.” 

“This is a great gig,” she added of her Emmy-winning talk show. “I get to go home every night, and this is fun. But stand-up is different than this. I just wanted to see if I could do it again after 15 years.”

Ellen said she popped into a small club in Los Angeles and surprised the audience with a set, saying that she wasn’t nervous at all: “It was like I had just done it last week,” she said.

Welcome back, Ellen! 

Ellen DeGeneres