The following interview for Backstage’s on-camera series The Slate was compiled in part by Backstage readers just like you! Follow us on Twitter (@Backstage) and Instagram (@backstagecast) to stay in the loop on upcoming interviews and to submit your questions.
After a six-year break, comedian, talk show host, and author Chelsea Handler returned last fall to standup with her HBO Max special “Chelsea Handler: Evolution.” It’s an apt title from an artist who is interested not only in how we change and grow as people, but also how the stories we tell can grow with us. Handler joined Backstage—from a mountaintop while hitting the slopes, of all places—to talk about her journey as a writer and creator, what sparked her return to the comedy stage, and why she isn’t interested in simply telling jokes anymore.
Her memoir “Life Will Be the Death of Me…And You Too!” helped shape “Evolution.”
“I had made a career out of oversharing my personal experiences, and this was such a personal experience that was so healing that I thought could help so many people. Because you realize when you share your story that so many people have similar stories, and no one is really suffering alone. But sometimes we think we are. For me, it was just so important. The response from the book was so meaningful to me because people finally saw me in a new way. I wasn’t just a ‘loud-mouthed bitch.’ I actually had something to say, and was vulnerable, and had gone through something that I was ready to share.”
Her last book tour served as a warmup for her return to standup.
“I wrote my last book, and I was doing a tour then. And I was kind of having people moderate conversations onstage. And I realized it was just kind of my way of sliding back in to see if I wanted to be onstage by myself, rather than with a person. In retrospect, I just used that as a cushion, I think, and gathered my material through doing one live appearance after another. I did about 20 or 30, and by the end of that, I thought, I should turn this into a standup show. My dream had been to be able to do standup that had some meaning; instead of just telling jokes, I wanted it to have a little bit more depth.”
Handler isn’t interested in doing comedy that doesn’t have substance underneath the jokes.
“I don’t get away with doing anything that doesn’t have substance. I want to set an example, not only for myself, but for the people that look to me to see how it is to be in this world and the way that it is right now, and all of the things that we’re learning about sexism, racism, racial injustice, and social injustice. And [I want] to be a voice that people can look to and say, ‘OK, this is what we need to do: We all have to get on board and look forward and become more clever about the jokes we’re making and the stories that we’re telling, instead of just cashing a check or just being silly or funny.’ Those things are all good, but everything should have some more meaning to it.”
Early in her career, Handler’s confidence and drive helped her push through.
“I was struggling. I was fucking surviving. I was waiting tables and just thinking, Oh, my God. How long am I gonna have to do this for? How long am I gonna have to not be successful in what I wanted to do? Which, I wasn’t even sure what I wanted to do. I just knew I wanted to be successful. So I had to kind of narrow in and focus. I was auditioning, I was doing standup, [and] I was just trying to hustle, basically—what everybody should do when they wanna get into an industry. You gotta kind of pay your dues. So I was happy to do that, but there’s always that thought in the back of your mind: No matter how much you believe in yourself, you think, Oh, my God, what if I’m doing this forever? What if I’m never going to make it? What if it never happens? There’s always that doubt. But the confidence and the drive have to overshadow the doubt.”
She refocused her career by taking time away from comedy to reflect.
“I get burnt out a lot because I go very hard. I went on tour for about three years back-to-back-to-back, with three books, while I was filming [my E! talk show] ‘Chelsea Lately.’ So, of course, by the end of ‘Chelsea Lately,’ I didn’t even want to hear the sound of my own voice. And I certainly didn’t want to get onstage and tell jokes. And I didn’t wanna write a book. I was like, ‘I’m retiring! I need a break!’ And then, of course, you give yourself a little time off, and you become re-inspired and you understand that there is an evolution to all of us. And you become interested in telling a different story, in a different way. And it doesn’t make someone less funny or less serious—any of those things. You kind of get better with age, I think. And you mature. And you realize: OK, what is your motivation? What are you trying to do? Are you out for yourself, or are you out to send a message?”
This story originally appeared in the June 3 issue of Backstage Magazine. Subscribe here.
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