In Conversation with Kat Timpf: Grace, Love & Rock n’ Roll with the “Queen of Late Night” [w/ Audio]

“I’m very, very, very grateful,” she confessed in short order. “I could say something like, ‘Oh, I wouldn’t be where I am without Greg Gutfeld,’ but that’s obviously a huge understatement — it’s completely factually true.” And it was that sense of genuine gratitude and honest humility that pervaded my recent phone conversation with the wildly-popular and oft-outspoken Gutfeld! co-conspirator and pin-up girl, Kat Timpf.

Since launching officially on the FOX News Channel in April 2021, the Gutfeld! show has skyrocketed to the top of the late-night Nielsen ratings, averaging nearly two million nightly viewers, an impressive accomplishment that’s (likely) killing Kimmel, frustrating Fallon, and confusing Colbert. In fact, Newsweek recently crowned the show’s host, Greg Gutfeld, the new “King of Late Night.”

“All of this surprises me,” Timpf says of the show’s enormous success. “It’s been awesome. And it’s also been fun, which is great. I thought maybe something like this would happen, but I didn’t know this big, this quickly. But I’m also not entirely surprised. We have something to offer that a lot of the other shows don’t. There was just this whole untapped market of jokes that no one was going after. The fact that I’m even on the show surprises me. I was a Red Eye fan years and years ago, when I was a cashier living in Los Angeles.”

My suggestion that by association, she’s now become the “Queen of Late Night,” elicited a laugh from the 33-year-old Detroit native, who immediately offered heartfelt props to her other Gutfeld! teammates.

“We have the two Joes, Joe Machi and Joe DeVito. They’re both on the show, but they write for us full-time. They do most of the joke writing. We all wear several hats on the show. It’s different every day. I submit the intros for the guests and help with writing sketches. Sometimes it’s over meetings, sometimes it’s emails. It’s really a team effort. We all work well together. We all want the show to be the best it can be. There’s a lot of work that goes into that hour every day, a lot of work. But it doesn’t really feel like work. Our staff is so much smaller than the staff of the other late-night shows. I know it sounds so cliché and so cheesy, but we really are having so much fun.”

Aside from the hilariously insightful and uniquely unfiltered commentary offered by Gutfeld’s nightly TV panel (which also typically includes his “massive sidekick,” NWA World Television Champion, Tyrus), Gutfeld! boasts a bounty of laugh-out-loud skits.

“There’s segments for every show,” says Timpf. “We film little sketches on iPhones that a handful of us write together. Tom Shillue, he does the Joe Biden (character) bits, which are always funny.”

Timpf, herself, is known for several side-splitting, spot-on skit impersonations of such political figures as current White House press secretary, Jen Psaki. Her recent impersonation of California congresswoman and House Speaker, Nancy Pelosi, was a particular hoot.

“That one’s really tough to do because my eyes water really bad from lack of moister when I do that one. And I’m actually crying in between takes, from my eyes watering so bad. So it’s hard to do physically.”

Timpf’s journey has been anything but an overnight success story. The Hillsdale graduate held down various “everyman” jobs along the way, such as a cashier and a waitress. A host of media-related internships brought her into broadcasting and then a web editing job at the Washington Times, all while focusing on her writing and stand-up comedy. A gig with Campus Reform led to Timpf’s first TV appearances, including Greg Gutfeld’s early FOX show, Red Eye, appearances that proved to be game-changing.

A screenshot of Kat Timpf on the Fox News show Gutfeld!

“I was on Red Eye, and we just hit it off. Then he (Greg) had me be on the pilot for the weekly Greg Gutfeld Show, and I ended up getting that job. He’s someone who I was a fan of and kind of looked up to before he ever knew I existed. I’m really grateful for Greg. He’s been a huge supporter throughout my career.

‘Supporter’ is not even a strong enough word. I think another reason the show really works is that people watching it can tell we have a genuine friendship there. Which is why I think a lot of the teasing is ok, because it’s obvious that he doesn’t actually hate me, or think these things, or I wouldn’t have been working with him for seven years now. There are bits where I’ll write it and he’ll look at it and change it and make it better. It’s been great to sort of have him take me under his wing and work on things with him.”

Despite the acknowledged FOX reputation as the world’s leading conservative content source, Timpf, a staunch Libertarian, certainly is no right-wing “wacko.” Nor does she lean left. As a result, she’s faced a fair share of fire.

“I didn’t vote for Donald Trump,” she revealed, with her signature-style gusto. “I didn’t vote for Hillary. I didn’t vote for Biden either. But there’s some people who have given me guff about that. It’s definitely been more extreme for example, the fact that I voted this last election for Jo Jorgensen and not Biden. I definitely got more hatred. I lost friends on the left. It’s so defeating. It’s so awful, because it’s ok to disagree, but it’s not about disagreeing. It’s like, ‘well if you don’t agree, then you’re a racist.’ Or, ‘you’re a horrible person,’ and ‘you’re irredeemable.’ And nothing’s going to be able to get done or solved that way.”

But one might think that Timpf’s third party perspectives would protect her from that type of criticism.

“It kind of doesn’t. I don’t think people even bother to make that distinction. Like, ‘You’re horrible and you’re destroying the country.’ You just have to move past it. FOX has given me this platform to share what I believe. I am a Libertarian. I’ve voted third party always. I’ve never voted for a Republican — never voted for a Democrat. It’s easier for me to deal with any hate I might get, because I know that any hate that I’m getting is not because I’m saying something I don’t believe in; that would bother me. I’m able to deal with the hate because I know that I am saying things I believe in and not compromising for anyone.”

“I’ve also had incidences in my personal life with people, with friends that aren’t my friends anymore. Even though I’ve been the same person and believed the same things since we started the friendship. I don’t see the point in having a platform just for the sake of having a platform. I actually do believe in and care about the issues I speak about. I really am passionate about freedom and limited government. And we’ve really lost that in this country.

Someone came up to me and said I was ruining the country. ‘What is it I said that upset you?’ — ‘Well, I don’t know.’ People just know that I work there (FOX). It’s dumb. That’s not to say I don’t have friends on the left, because I do, I have a lot of friends on the left and the right. But there have been incidences of people that will judge me based on where I work.”

Amid her impressive recent professional success, occasional personal criticism, and at the height of the current COVID thing, Timpf married U.S. Army vet Cameron Friscia in May 2021.

“We had 30 people at our wedding. It was so awesome. It was the best. I was glad we kept it small. It was fantastic. I was very, very single for a long time. I didn’t think I would get married. I didn’t really want to get married. I wasn’t looking for that. I was actually pretty against it. And my husband, he just changed all that for me.”

So then, the happy newlyweds must immediately be planning a family — right?

“I literally knew one thing about myself, and that is I never wanted children. I never understood why people wanted children. I was horrified by the thought of having children. With him (Cam), I thought maybe I could have his children. So, actually, yeah. Not soon, but maybe in a little bit.”

Regardless of any possible public perception, Timpf maintains that Gutfeld’s portrayal of her alleged fast and furious lifestyle merely is all on-camera hype.

“Well, let me just say, anyone who wanted to go out for a night with me thinking they were going to do drugs would be very disappointed. Every now and then there will be a few people who don’t ‘get it.’ And I’m like, ‘No, I work so much.’ I don’t actually have a drug problem. People would be alarmed by how boring I am.”

The truth is I would be a terrible stripper and here is why pic.twitter.com/vZyWrb6elb

— Kat Timpf (@KatTimpf) December 14, 2021

Ok, the drug factor is fabricated. But Timpf has been seen on her various social media platforms sporting an array of band t-shirts. So, where does she stand on rock n’ roll?

“I do love punk rock. I love psychedelic rock, like The Brian Jonestown Massacre — probably my favourite band. I love The Ramones, I love The Misfits. (Misfits bassist) Jerry Only is a friend of the program. He built my custom coffin for my 30th birthday funeral party I had.”

Timpf also loves some Beatles — a point proven during a personal on-air dust-up with radio host, Buck Sexton, on a recent Gutfeld! episode.

“I love Buck, that’s the thing. Nobody has to like the Beatles. I just don’t like when people say, they’re ‘overrated.’ I absolutely love the Beatles. I have so many of their albums on vinyl. They were a huge part of my childhood, a huge part of my life. I love them. But to say they’re overrated — they changed music, forever. When a band changes music itself, then they’re not overrated for being seen as an important part of music. Whether you like them or not.”

Wait! Beatles records — on vinyl? Does that mean Timpf is a vinyl aficionado?

“Sure. There are things I prefer to listen to on vinyl. I like a lot of the classic stuff. I like The Doors. I like Hendrix. I like all that stuff.”

Truth be told, you don’t have to be a Harry Styles fanatic to recognize and appreciate Timpf’s consistent super-fun fashion sensibility. And as a fella who never has been accused of being like the other boys, I had to compliment her on her extra-stunning November 10th, 2021 Gutfeld! ensemble, a form-fitting cobalt blue top (accented by a snazzy front zipper and crisp shoulder pads) combined with skin-tight, shiny black leather pants and stiletto heals.

“That (outfit) was new! I really, really like that one. I like that I can dress in a little bit of a more of a fun, cool way on the show, because we’re on at 11 pm, so it’s a little bit of a different look than a lot of the other shows on the channel. We have wardrobe (people), they pick things out, but I can pick among those things and kind of give direction in terms of, ‘Oh, like this is what I’m looking for.’ And some of the clothes are my own.”

Her personal story of hard work, persistence, dedication and ultimate success is both fascinating and inspiring. Looking ahead, given the popularity of celeb-type memoirs and her own massive fan base, could a Kat Timpf book be in the works?

“Yeah, definitely. I’m too young for a memoir, but everyone can stay tuned on that.”

Over the years, a few of my professional phoners have been less than feel-goods. That wasn’t the case with Timpf. Her demeanour was as chill as one might expect, unassuming, indeed.

“I’ve always wanted to do exactly what I’m doing right now. It’s still a ‘pinch me’ feeling, that this actually is my life, this is my job, and this is what I’m doing. It’s just amazing.”