Chelsea Handler: US Comedian on her career, the climate of comedy, and the ‘Little Big B****’ tour

Another of America’s most prolific comedians, Chelsea Handler has had quite the extensive career. 

She not only hosted her own late-night comedy show on E!, she’s also had a couple of Netflix shows, performed countless standup shows, hosted her own podcast, and written a number of books. 

She’s bringing her comedy tour ‘Little Big B****’ to New Zealand shores for a couple of days this coming July, the show already on the road. 

“It’s going pretty well,” Handler told Newstalk ZB’s Mike Hosking. 

“So, I’m coming to New Zealand.” 

The act will eventually be filmed and turned into a Netflix special, but Handler says she doesn’t have to fulfil that obligation until the end of the year. 

“I was like, oh, let me take this on the road because it’s, I’ve got this whole year and, you know, I love to visit these places and come back and see people, and meet people up close and personal.” 

“It’s a different, you know, different level of travel fun.” 

Comedians often try to tailor their acts to their locations to at least a small degree, localising certain jokes and leaving out others that just wouldn’t land, but for the most part Handler say’s her act goes down the same. 

“If you’re coming to see me, you probably know me, so you know what to expect, you know?” 

“It’s not like I’m introducing myself to people all the time.” 

Although it is definitely motivated by her love of travel, Handler admits that her international tours are in part motivated by her desire to get out of the United States, telling Hosking that “America’s pretty rough”. 

“These days it’s a pretty hard pill to swallow,” she told him. 

“So, I choose to smoke a lot of cannabis and travel as much as I can out of the country.” 

Her upcoming travel plans included a month in Spain, a visit to Australia, and one to New Zealand. 

“Anything to get out of this country.” 

Comedy serves a variety of purposes, some using it for commentary, others for escapism and levity. Handler falls into the latter category.  

"I wanna like, pass high vibes around,” Handler told Hosking. 

“I want people to come to my show, leave having forgotten whatever that was annoying them that day in their life.” 

Many comedians chafe against the idea that there could be boundaries to their art, holding the opinion that as long as it’s a joke, it’s free game. Handler doesn’t agree. 

“I’m not against having people set parameters about what you’re about to say, what you’re allowed to say, or what’s going to be frowned upon,” she said. 

“If you want to say I can’t make fun of, you know, different cultures because that’s insensitive, okay, that’s fair!” 

Art is often about breaking boundaries but when it comes to entertainment, there’s also value in working within a framework. Handler told Hosking that working within boundaries is a good challenge for any comedian or artist, as it challenges them to focus on something beyond the lowest common denominator.  

“Perhaps focus that energy back on yourself and make a joke about yourself first,” she said. 

“Like with everything, start within. It’s the same in comedy.” 

Over the years Handler has created a wide variety of content, allowing her to really nail down the type of art she likes to create and the means with which she creates it. 

“I don’t like to be, having to be in the same place every day,” she told Hosking. 

“I like to be around the world and like, you know, I do my podcast from Majorca

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Chelsea Handler's on her way back. Chelsea likely big news
for her. Of course, There've been the Netflix shows over
the years. The latest stand up as a thing called
Little Big Bitch Tour and Chelsea Handler is what it's
from New York. Good morning, oh, good morning to you.

Speaker 2 (00:12):
So nice to speak with you again.

Speaker 1 (00:13):
And not at all and heading back our way looking
forward to it. I'm assuming.

Speaker 2 (00:18):
Yes, you're assuming correct. I wouldn't return if I didn't
love it so much.

Speaker 1 (00:21):
No, that's true the tour itself. Funnily enough, I talked
to Jerry Seinfeld the other day and what I didn't
realize about his tour is it was already on the road,
So I was trying to get a vibe about what
sort of show he had and whether it was going
to work, and whether he knew it. Your show's already
on the road, so you'll have some feedback so far
as to what you're bringing here, right.

Speaker 2 (00:41):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yes, I have a sat that idea.

Speaker 1 (00:45):
So yeah, how's it going.

Speaker 2 (00:50):
It's going pretty well. If I'm coming to New Zealand.

Speaker 3 (00:54):
I've been on tour for a while because I don't
have to film my Netflix special for this tour until
the end of the year, and I was like, oh, well,
let me take this on the road because it's I've.

Speaker 2 (01:03):
Got this whole year, and uh, you know, I love
to visit.

Speaker 3 (01:06):
These places and come back and see people and meet
people up cloth and personal.

Speaker 2 (01:09):
It's just a different, you know, different level of travel fun.
So yeah, I'm looking forward to coming back.

Speaker 1 (01:16):
Does it go down differently depending on where you are, No.

Speaker 3 (01:21):
I mean a little bit, but not really. I mean,
we're all human beings and if you I mean, if
you're coming to see me, you probably know me, so
you know what to expect.

Speaker 2 (01:29):
You know.

Speaker 3 (01:31):
It's not like I'm introducing myself to people all the time.
So it's kind of like I have a reputation.

Speaker 1 (01:36):
What's your yes, you do, what's your vibe? In terms
of how easy good fun it is to be a
comedian in a place like America at the moment, which
appears from the side of the world to be an
angsty old arrangement.

Speaker 2 (01:49):
Yeah, America's pretty rough these days.

Speaker 3 (01:51):
It's pretty hard pill to swallow being in this country
thinking of all the you know.

Speaker 2 (01:56):
It's pretty ugly.

Speaker 3 (01:57):
So I choose to smoke a lot of cannabis and
travel as much as I can out of the country.

Speaker 2 (02:04):
Tomorrow, I leave for Spain for one month. I'm coming
to New Zealand, I'm going to Australia. I'm doing a
anything to get out of this country. So we'll see
what happens in November. But yeah, it's looking pretty grim.

Speaker 3 (02:15):
I think this might it might be a wrap on America,
Like I think the experiment is probably close to ending,
you know, this democratic experiment.

Speaker 2 (02:24):
It feels like that. I mean, I can tell you
it feels like that.

Speaker 3 (02:27):
I have a house in Spain and Canada because I
think that's going to happen and I'm going to have
to become like.

Speaker 2 (02:32):
A Canadian news anchor at some point in my career.

Speaker 1 (02:35):
Would you choose Canada or Spine?

Speaker 2 (02:38):
Great question.

Speaker 3 (02:39):
I mean, my Spanish keeps getting better every year. I'm
going tomorrow for a month, so it's going to get
even better. If I could speak fluent Spanish, I think
I would be, like, you know what the thing is,
I love to ski. I love to ski naked, and
you've probably seen that.

Speaker 2 (02:52):
And skiing is a real part of who I am.
So I love to be in Canada. But Spain and.

Speaker 3 (02:57):
The Spanish people like there's never going to be a
war or in Spain, like they don't fight with anyone
and everyone takes you know, naps in the middle of
the daytime and they eat at ten o'clock at night.

Speaker 2 (03:08):
I just that's a vibe I can get down with.

Speaker 1 (03:10):
I like it. But you count ski naked and spin though,
can you?

Speaker 2 (03:14):
Oh?

Speaker 3 (03:14):
No, I'd have to bring my own snow, and with
global warming, that's getting more and more.

Speaker 2 (03:17):
Difficult to do.

Speaker 1 (03:18):
Does it able to lose? It's through skiing naked?

Speaker 2 (03:22):
No, it's invigorating for a female from a woman.

Speaker 3 (03:25):
To have your Yeah, it feels awesome. I feel like
a badass when I do that. And it's not that
cold either.

Speaker 2 (03:30):
I think the adrenaline kind of keeps you.

Speaker 1 (03:32):
Warm, right, and so even when your face plant will
fall over and stuff like that, it's you know.

Speaker 2 (03:37):
Base plant fall over. Have you seen me ski?

Speaker 1 (03:40):
I'm not fine, nobody. And every now and again you
hit an icy patch or whatever and you go for
the snowplow and the skis cross. You know how it goes.
It doesn't matter how good you are.

Speaker 2 (03:49):
No one that good as snow plowing. So that's your
person mistake.

Speaker 1 (03:53):
All right. Listen, as far as I was watching looking
at you on social media the other day, right, and
you hit some protests at one of you show. This
whole is anti Palestine, pro Palestine thing going on. Is
it an angsty old time at the monment to be
a comedian.

Speaker 3 (04:05):
I mean, it doesn't have an It won't never have
an impact on me not performing. It happened at one
show and they were removed and it was disruptive, but
the show went on and I would always carry on
because I'm.

Speaker 2 (04:17):
A professional, and you know that that's all you can do.
And I understand people are upset. I'm upset too. Everyone's upset.
It's not a happy time about any of this.

Speaker 3 (04:27):
So it just doesn't feel like, you know, it's just
not an issue that you can even discuss.

Speaker 1 (04:33):
No, how does unhappiness though, dovetail into being comedic? Does
it help?

Speaker 3 (04:38):
Does it?

Speaker 1 (04:39):
Hinda, I'm not unhappy.

Speaker 2 (04:41):
I'm pretty happy.

Speaker 3 (04:42):
So you have to ask, like more male comedians seem
more unhappy to me? I would ask them because I
feel like female comedians aren't as nearly as lugubrious as
male comedians.

Speaker 2 (04:52):
Good female comedians are.

Speaker 3 (04:54):
Like they're I mean, they can be depressed, but male
comedians can be very very depressed, and then it's like
and then that's like a dark energy. I want to
like pass high vibes around, you know what I mean.
I want people to come to my show leave and
having forgotten whatever the was annoying them that day in
their life.

Speaker 2 (05:12):
You know. I want to spread joy, laughter and sunshine.
Like that's my vibe right now.

Speaker 1 (05:16):
Yeah, yeah, and that's and that's good. But a lot
of comedians say that same thing. But people can't get
past that, you know. They's it's like that lone this said, Look,
it's it's just rooky device, it's just humor. It's just
a joke. Don't take it seriously. But the fact he's
got to say that and you say it, it means
that you, you know, people aren't like that, they can't
get on board with your vibe.

Speaker 3 (05:37):
Well, I mean, I feel like enough people are on
board with my vibe. I don't have to I'm not
I'm not worried about the people who disagree with me.
But I'm not against having people set parameters about what
you're about to say, what you're allowed to say, or
what's going to be frowned upon. Like I know men
are and primarily a lot of men are. But I'm
not like, if you want to say I can't make

(05:59):
fun of, you know, different cultures because that's insensitive.

Speaker 2 (06:03):
Okay, that's fair.

Speaker 3 (06:06):
To judge what's sensitive to another person and based on
their culture.

Speaker 2 (06:09):
Like, I don't have an issue with that. And also
it's a.

Speaker 3 (06:12):
Good challenge as a comedian or as any artist to
have to work within boundaries and challenge yourself to not
think of the lowest commons denominator, but perhaps focus refocus
that energy back on yourself and make a joke about
yourself first, you know, start within.

Speaker 2 (06:27):
Like with everything, start within. It's the same in comedy.

Speaker 1 (06:30):
It very well said. It's a very good point too.
You mentioned Netflix in Mima Ago. I saw you funnily
enough on Netflix the Kevin Hot the mock Twain thing,
and you were involved in that.

Speaker 2 (06:38):
Ha.

Speaker 1 (06:39):
Netflix strikes me, and it's not just him. Streaming generally
strikes me as having been fantastically good for the comedic community.

Speaker 3 (06:47):
Oh yeah, well, Ted Surrandos loves comedians, He loves comics.

Speaker 2 (06:51):
I mean, we just had the.

Speaker 3 (06:52):
Netflix as a Joke festival in la and I did
a show for it.

Speaker 2 (06:55):
Everyone did a show for it. They have like so.

Speaker 3 (06:58):
Many comedians, they buy out all these venues. It was
so over the top, but they created like a total
festival vibe and by the end of the week, like
you had been to like eighty different events. I mean,
it felt exhausting, but you know, also really like kind
of electric. You're like, oh, this is a comedy festival
like created one in the last five years basically.

Speaker 1 (07:18):
And it allows you to get to an audience you
might not have been able to. And because it's streaming,
you can say a bunch of stuff. Because I saw
Dave Chappelle's piece the other day. Have you seen that
his latest Netflix ling?

Speaker 2 (07:29):
No, I haven't.

Speaker 1 (07:30):
It's very good. I'm not a Dave Chappelle fan on
never Walls, but but I think I am now because
it was very cleverly constructed. I thought it was very
very funny. Anyway, the point being that in terms of streaming,
you can say whatever you like and get your message
out there and people get to understand who you are
and what you're about. And that's no bad thing, is it.

Speaker 2 (07:48):
No? No, it's great.

Speaker 3 (07:49):
I mean Netflix gives all comedians anyone on that platform.

Speaker 2 (07:52):
This is the platform. It's the biggest platform there.

Speaker 3 (07:54):
Is, so it's really like they've competed, like they've created
like almost a non compete zone. You know, that's where
you want to be because that's also where the audience
is going to watch their specials. I did a special Max,
my first special back to stand up, like five years ago,
and then I did a special on Netflix and now
I'm doing my second special on Netflix. Because you can
see the difference.

Speaker 1 (08:14):
What the talk show thing that you've been involved in.
Is that fun? Is that worth doing?

Speaker 2 (08:19):
I don't do one now, so I know.

Speaker 1 (08:21):
I mean you have as a thing as a stand
up versus a talk shows, a book of whatever.

Speaker 2 (08:26):
It's a grind. It can be a grind. I mean,
it's very exciting and it's very new. So every day
you're talking about new things. That's exciting for me. That
was a great time in my life.

Speaker 3 (08:37):
But like for now, like I like, like I don't
like to be having to be in the same place
every day. I like to be around the world and like,
you know, I do my podcast from my ORCA. I
can do my podcast in London. I can do my
podcast wherever. I write my books. I just you know,
finished my seventh book. I write my books wherever I
am in the world, and I can do stand up

(08:58):
anywhere in the world. It's like, I I kind of
feel like I found the best thing to live my
life to the fullest. You know, I get to ski
three months out of the year. I'm crushing it, Like,
you know, on a spiritual level, I'm like, is this
for real? Like I really hope this is my last life, because.

Speaker 2 (09:15):
I'm like, I'm so spoiled, I don't want to come back.

Speaker 1 (09:18):
Oh that's fantastic. I'm so glad you're enjoying that. The
hard limonide the two things I didn't know about you
is the hard limonade story. Real.

Speaker 3 (09:27):
I started a hard lemonade stand when I was eight
years old because I knew that was going to yield
much better profits.

Speaker 1 (09:33):
That's brittiant.

Speaker 3 (09:34):
And I served gin, whiskey and tequila to not only
the adults, but anyone over ten because obviously I wasn't
completely irresponsible.

Speaker 1 (09:41):
And the first class story, the first class ticket story.
That's true too.

Speaker 2 (09:45):
Yeah, that's a true story.

Speaker 3 (09:46):
I bought my own first class ticket when I was
thirteen years old, after I saved up money from my
hardly hard lemonade stand and babysitting Empire that I also
started where I spent where I spent one summer as
a ten year old posing as a fifteen year old
sitting for a fourteen year old boy.

Speaker 1 (10:02):
That's too cool.

Speaker 2 (10:03):
I love that.

Speaker 1 (10:04):
Is the Vegas Residency started yet or not?

Speaker 3 (10:07):
No Vegas Residency, I just announced we are starting.

Speaker 2 (10:10):
I did one show a month.

Speaker 3 (10:12):
At the Cosmopolitan at the inside the Chelsea Theater, so again.

Speaker 2 (10:17):
I'm inside myself.

Speaker 3 (10:19):
I do it once a month and it starts September first, on.

Speaker 2 (10:21):
Labor Day weekend. So that's pretty fun.

Speaker 1 (10:24):
Explain to me the residency thing. So the once a
month thing strikes me as good because there are some
people in residency that do it like seven days a week,
and you do a matinee on a Saturday, and I
think you've got to be kidding me. Yeah, I mean,
how boring could this be? So the residency people want
to come and see you as opposed to get drunk
and they're just playing roulette and wander into the room
and you happen to be there, and therefore they don't

(10:45):
appreciate what you're delivering.

Speaker 2 (10:49):
Is that what's the question?

Speaker 1 (10:50):
Well, the question is are they drunk and playing roulette
and wandering in to see you? Or are they actually
come out to see you because you're a Chelsea Handler
and you're a show worth watching.

Speaker 2 (10:58):
Well, you have to buy the ticket, you know what
I mean?

Speaker 3 (11:00):
You wander so you have to have some intention about it.

Speaker 1 (11:05):
Good on, you will listen. When are you coming here?
You might be able to get some skiing done here
in the middle of the year because winter's just arriving,
the snows about to fall in the next month or so,
and there are some serious slopes in this part of
the world.

Speaker 2 (11:18):
July fourth, I believe July fourth? Shall I fifth? I
think somewhere? That sounds right?

Speaker 1 (11:24):
It could be good. And you have a skied queenstonne Wonka.

Speaker 2 (11:28):
No, I've never skied there.

Speaker 1 (11:30):
Ye, you haven't lived. You might be crushing it, but
you haven't lived until you've skied Queenstown or Wanaka.

Speaker 2 (11:37):
Then I'll have to get that done.

Speaker 1 (11:38):
Fantastic, lovely to see you. Look forward to catching up
when you're in the country and go well, okay, you
go well too, all right, there we go Chelsea Handler.
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