Ellen DeGeneres plans to end her stand-up career in Minneapolis

The former talk show host will hit a 27-city tour with “Ellen’s Last Stand ... Up.”

The Minnesota Star Tribune
May 29, 2024 at 7:48PM
FILE - Host Ellen Degeneres appears at a taping of "The Ellen DeGeneres Show" in Burbank on Oct. 13, 2016. DeGeneres says the 19th and final season of her daytime talk show will be a thank you to fans. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, FIle)
Ellen DeGeneres' upcoming tour is being billed as "the last opportunity for fans to witness a comedy legend in her final curtain call.” (Andrew Harnik/The Associated Press)

Ellen DeGeneres’ upcoming stand-up tour is being billed as her last — and Minneapolis is poised to be the most emotional stop of them all.

“Ellen’s Last Stand ... Up,” is a 27-city tour that ends at the Orpheum Theatre on Aug. 16 and 17. Those performances will be recorded for an upcoming Netflix special. Her previous Netflix special, “Relatable,” came out in 2018 following a 15-year hiatus from stand-up.

“To answer the questions everyone is asking me — Yes, I’m going to talk about it,” the 66-year-old DeGeneres said in a statement.

DeGeneres has been largely silent since she gave up her once popular daytime talk show, “The Ellen DeGeneres Show,” two years ago after 19 seasons on the air. She addressed personal challenges during an appearance in April at the Los Angeles club Largo at the Coronet, including the fact that she had been accused of creating a toxic workplace.

“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,” DeGeneres told her audience, according to Deadline. “It is such a waste of time to worry about what other people think. … Right now I’m hoping you’re thinking, ‘This is marvelous, I’m so happy to be here.’ But you could be thinking, ‘Let’s see how this goes.’”

A Live Nation press release Wednesday stated that “this will be the last opportunity for fans to witness a comedy legend in her final curtain call.”

Almost all the previously announced stops on the tour — all on the West Coast — quickly sold out. Tickets for the Orpheum shows will be available to the general public starting at 10 a.m. Friday at livenation.com. Those who want to assure they secure a seat can take advantage of an artist pre-sale by logging into ellenshop.com starting at 10 a.m. Thursday. DeGeneres announced on Instagram that the presale code is “CHICKEN.”

Seth Meyers, Jim Gaffigan and Jeff Foxworthy are among the big names that have previously taped Netflix specials in Minneapolis.

about the writer

about the writer

Neal Justin

Critic / Reporter

Neal Justin is the pop-culture critic, covering how Minnesotans spend their entertainment time. He also reviews stand-up comedy. Justin previously served as TV and music critic for the paper. He is the co-founder of JCamp, a non-profit program for high-school journalists, and works on many fronts to further diversity in newsrooms.

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