When she came out of the closet in 1997, the first out lesbian lead of her own sitcom, “Ellen,” she became a huge star, on the cover of Time, accompanied by the headline “Yep, I’m Gay.” But what’s remembered less is what happened next. ABC put a parental advisory warning on the show and canceled it the next season. According to DeGeneres, her straight audience left her and she received wounding criticism from gay viewers for not being political enough. (Elton John’s comment that she should stop talking about her sexuality and be funny still stings.) She sank into a depression.

And yet, while DeGeneres has a spikier, more confessional style in her new special, this is more of a recalibration than a reinvention. She still dances and shows videos of adorable animals, even though de Rossi told her it was too much like her talk show. DeGeneres’s inclusive sensibility remains fundamental to her outlook. She’s too much of an old-school entertainer to pour out her neuroses onstage, as some comics do.

Her vision of comedy is old school, too. She said that she loved “Nanette” by Hannah Gadsby, who stopped by Largo, in Los Angeles, to see DeGeneres work out material for her special, but described Gadsby’s celebrated special as less stand-up than solo show. She also disagreed with Gadsby’s biting critique of the art form, saying, “I think comedy is the best medicine.”

Before DeGeneres stumbled into stand-up, really honing her craft at a comedy club in New Orleans, near where she’s from (Metairie, La.), she had little idea what career she would pursue. In fact, DeGeneres said, in elementary school she didn’t think she would live to see adulthood. “I just didn’t think I’d be alive,” she said, vaguely. Asked why, she said without a trace of self-pity that she was a very sensitive kid. She remains sensitive, she added, confessing that she stayed up the night before worrying that she had sounded like she was accusing Jimmy Fallon of stealing her show. (She not only raved about him, but also texted me on Thanksgiving wishing me a happy holiday and mentioning she should also have praised James Corden and Seth Meyers along with Jimmy Kimmel. Then, after this article went online, she asked if we could add Stephen Colbert’s name to that list.)

Of the few memories she recalls from her youth, many are of feeling out of place or bottled up, in part because of her upbringing as a Christian Scientist. She recalls the other kids’ being given shots, but her parents barred her from getting them or taking aspirin. With glassy eyes, she described her father, an insurance salesman who died in January, as kind and cautious, someone who wanted above all else for things to be harmonious. “He was a very fearful man,” she said. “He couldn’t hear or engage with anything not pleasant.”