August 11, 2024 • 15 mins
Original Air Date: August 11, 2024
Chelsea Devantez is an Emmy Award-nominated writer, comedian, director and host of the podcast “Glamorous Trash”. She was Jon Stewart’s head writer for “The Problem With Jon Stewart”. She’s out with a memoir “I Shouldn’t Be Telling You This (But I’m Going To Anyway)”. Among her revelations: what it’s like to grow up with a sperm donor for a dad, meaning you will never know him or anything about him; how Delta Burke’s book changed her life and why she’s hooked on memoirs; and how she survived a toothy, hairy (no lie), tumor the size of a baby!
Chelsea Devantez is an Emmy Award-nominated writer, comedian, director and host of the podcast “Glamorous Trash”. She was Jon Stewart’s head writer for “The Problem With Jon Stewart”. She’s out with a memoir “I Shouldn’t Be Telling You This (But I’m Going To Anyway)”. Among her revelations: what it’s like to grow up with a sperm donor for a dad, meaning you will never know him or anything about him; how Delta Burke’s book changed her life and why she’s hooked on memoirs; and how she survived a toothy, hairy (no lie), tumor the size of a baby!
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to Sunstein Sessions on iHeartRadio, conversations about issues that matter.
Here's your host, three time Grasie Award winner, Shelley Sunstein.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
I want to introduce you to a very funny lady.
Chelsea Davontez is an Emmy Award nominated writer, comedian, director,
host of the podcast Glamorous Trash, and before she had
an overall TV deal with twentieth Century Studio, she was
John Stewart's head writer for Apple Plus, Is The Problem
(00:33):
with John Stewart? And Her other TV credits include Not
Dead Yet and Bless This Mess. But the reason I
have Chelsea joining me today is a thoroughly enjoyable memoir
I just read. I shouldn't be telling you this, but
I'm going to anyway. So all right, so I have
(00:54):
to tell you right off the bat. I know that
your whole life changed when you read Delta Burke's memoir.
Speaker 3 (01:04):
That's right.
Speaker 2 (01:05):
And it just clicked in my head suddenly that the
books of late that I have most enjoyed, and it
didn't I didn't realize till you mentioned it in your
book were memoirs.
Speaker 4 (01:19):
Yeah, yeah, And are you reading celebrity memoirs nonfiction memoirs.
Speaker 2 (01:24):
It's all memoirs. It's not just that.
Speaker 3 (01:26):
Yeah, yeah, I love memoirs so much.
Speaker 4 (01:30):
Celebrity memoirs have always been my favorite book genre, which
is what happens when your nearest bookstore growing up as
a Walmart, and you know, they just fall right into life,
and I love them. I can't believe that these books
have been called trash or not real books. They have this.
Speaker 3 (01:44):
Horrible reputation, but when you read them, it's like.
Speaker 4 (01:48):
All these powerful women, you know, if they're celebrities, sharing
their secrets, sharing their trauma, sharing how they got.
Speaker 2 (01:54):
Where they are, and it's helpful.
Speaker 3 (01:57):
Oh it changed my life. They're my favorite self help books.
Speaker 2 (01:59):
Okay, explained how Delta Burke changed your life.
Speaker 4 (02:02):
Yes, So I found her book on a yard sale
table when I was a teenager, and Delta's Burke is
half memoir half style guide and it's called.
Speaker 3 (02:13):
Eve wasn't a size six, and neither am I.
Speaker 4 (02:15):
And it was all about how Hollywood punished her for
the crime of being a size ten and how horrible
they were to her, and kind of how beauty was
when she had beauty. She you know, she was punished
for it in many ways when she didn't have beauty,
she was punished for it. And I was this teenager
struggling with an eating disorder. It was the early two
(02:37):
thousands where you know, it was heroin chic and I
was struggling so much with my image. And this was
the first book that actually said something very real about it.
And she taught me so many things that I still
use today, like everything from leggings.
Speaker 3 (02:54):
And tunics are lengthening for your torso to.
Speaker 4 (02:58):
When you look back on your youth, will be so
upset that you hated photos of yourself or were so
cruel to yourself, and you'll be and how hard you
can be on yourself when you really should be enjoying
who you are.
Speaker 3 (03:10):
And the book changed my life.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
But you had struggled with your weight, Yeah, and after
reading Delta Burke's memoir, you put it aside, I don't
care anymore. You were basically saying, I accept me for me,
and then the weight problem kind of went away.
Speaker 4 (03:30):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (03:30):
Well, it's so interesting too.
Speaker 4 (03:32):
In the time I was in I would say I
was struggling with my weight because this is when Abercrombie
introduced double zero. I know what, just saying, right, Yeah,
and so looking back, it shouldn't have been a struggle,
but within popular culture, you know, it's just hating myself
so much. And Delta was the start of my journey.
It did take many, many years where I was I
(03:53):
did everything. I did akins, I did the French diet,
I did the Mediterranean diet.
Speaker 3 (03:59):
I did, you know, only drink a.
Speaker 4 (04:01):
Cup of milk because it has you know, the perfect
amount of fat and protein. So, you know, just a
teenager drinking milk for lunch. And so all those dts
didn't work, and finally I gave up, and because I
was just like, you know what, I'm just not meant
to be thin. And when I gave up is when
I finally had a healthy relationship with food for the
first time.
Speaker 3 (04:21):
And then but it.
Speaker 4 (04:22):
Was so frustrating because effort and trying hard got me nowhere.
Speaker 3 (04:28):
I had to truly give it up to be happy
with myself.
Speaker 2 (04:32):
Why did you write a book You're so busy with
other projects. Why?
Speaker 3 (04:37):
Great question. I've always wanted to write a memoir.
Speaker 4 (04:40):
It's something I've had as a dream that I never
thought would come true. And when I started my podcast,
I would share little stories about my life and I
started getting messages of you have a memoir in you,
and I said, yes.
Speaker 3 (04:52):
I know, but I don't you know, can I can
I write a memoir?
Speaker 4 (04:55):
And I really every time I went to pick up
a book, I always hoped it would give me.
Speaker 3 (05:02):
The things I needed to live my life.
Speaker 4 (05:04):
I was always hoping that every time I read a
memoir I would they would help me, and so many
of them did, and so I wanted to write the
book I was always looking for when I was in
the library, looking for something that would lift me up.
Speaker 2 (05:17):
You know, they say everybody has a song in them,
and everybody has a book in them. One of the
most fascinating things about your life, and I really never
gave any thought to this. You the person you thought
was your father was not your biological father. And your
mother claimed that she told you this when she was
(05:39):
when you were a little girl, and of course you
just okay, Lottie dah. But then you weren't a little
girl when you finally realized I am the daughter of
a sperm donor, and that leaves I never thought of
it this way, Chelsea, This leaves an enormous hole in
your life.
Speaker 4 (05:59):
Explained, Yeah, so a lot of people when they think
of fertility and donor conception, every story is always focused
on the parent, you know, trying to conceive, and including
all the scientists and doctors who came up with this method,
and no one really ever bothered to wonder what would
happen to the kid who had to grow up one
(06:21):
day and find this strange man is their father, or
not find them. And so for me, it was pretty
earth shattering. I found out when I was fourteen. Technically,
I guess I found out when I was five, But
like I said, I don't remember that, but a five
year old, right, yeah, yeah, but I mean it's you know,
and I've gone back, I've investigated. I do believe my
mom told me. But there was no information back then.
(06:44):
Now we have books you could give to your child
whose donor conceived. They got to read it every day.
Understanding identity is such a complex concept on top of
you know, the process of donor conception, you know, let
alone the process of conception, and so there was no
inform back.
Speaker 3 (07:00):
Then at all. They had no idea.
Speaker 4 (07:03):
These doctors who were doing this had no idea the
Internet was going to exist, which meant that they really
believed it could be anonymous and that they could get
away with all kinds of things, which is why you
see these documentaries now of like the Man who Fathered
one hundred children and much much, much worse. And so
finding out my identity had up to that point been
a lie, and refinding my identity and the struggle of
(07:29):
what being donor conceived does to your identity.
Speaker 3 (07:32):
Has been a huge part of my life.
Speaker 4 (07:36):
I wish it hadn't been, but yeah, it's been a
huge part of my life, and it's been extremely painful,
to be honest.
Speaker 2 (07:41):
I'm speaking with Chelsea Davontes and her book. I shouldn't
be telling you this, but I'm going to anyway and
tell me what it was like working with John Stewart.
I mean, he's such a passionate, amazing, articulate, influential man,
(08:01):
but we only know that part of him you worked
with them.
Speaker 4 (08:06):
All those things are true. He's incredible. He gave me
my first job in television off of.
Speaker 3 (08:12):
A blind packet.
Speaker 2 (08:13):
Yeah, how did it happen?
Speaker 4 (08:14):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (08:14):
So I put in these things.
Speaker 4 (08:16):
You put in these things called packet submissions when you
want to work in late night TV. And I got
one of these submissions. It was a blind submission, which
means they remove your name from it. And whenever me
and my fellow comedians, you know, we're all in Second City,
we would think like, no one's reading this, and sometimes
maybe no one was. But then I get a call
and they said, John Stewart himself has read your packet
and he wants to hire you for his first show.
(08:38):
And so I went out and worked with him for
a year on a show that never aired. And then
when the Apple Show came about, he called me and said,
will you be my head writer? And it was both
experiences were so incredible. He not only taught me a
lot about how to be an artist, the kind of
artist I want to be, how to be a head writer,
how to be a manager, how to write, but also
(09:01):
to do it with joy, you.
Speaker 3 (09:02):
Know, and to make people laugh along the way.
Speaker 2 (09:05):
You have a way of making the best of the
most god awful situations, like the tumor you had that
was like the size of a full size of her
the baby. Yeah, yeah, tell us about that.
Speaker 4 (09:22):
Yes, So, as my mom would say, and she is
the queen of this, you got to make chicken salad
out of chicken.
Speaker 3 (09:29):
And that is what I've been doing my whole life.
Speaker 4 (09:32):
And yeah, when I was twenty two, I found out
I had a seven and a half pound dermoid tumor
on my right ovary.
Speaker 2 (09:39):
And which could have been cancer.
Speaker 4 (09:41):
Yeah, for ten days they told me it likely was
cancer because of some blood tests I had taken. And
then they said, you might have a hysterectomy. You might
never have kids. And I came out of the surgery
and the first thing I asked was was I alive?
Did I live? You know, obviously yes? And did I
(10:02):
still have anything left? And they said They've removed my
right ovary and I kept my uterus and my left ovary.
Speaker 3 (10:08):
And it was benign, after.
Speaker 4 (10:09):
All, the biggest dermoid tumor New Mexico has ever seen.
Speaker 3 (10:14):
Thank you and honor.
Speaker 2 (10:15):
But wait, explain what this tumor has because you get
this visual, this this visual in the book. Do not
google this. You're gonna want to.
Speaker 4 (10:27):
I'm telling you, you know, I know you're going to.
But at least I warned you. A dermoid tumor specifically,
because it grows off the ovary, it has all of
it has some of the elements of reproduction.
Speaker 3 (10:41):
So the tumor grows hair and teeth.
Speaker 2 (10:45):
Yeah, it's like an alien alien come true.
Speaker 4 (10:49):
Yeah, it was like I had an alien monster baby,
which is why I named my tumor Sheila.
Speaker 2 (10:56):
Of course you have to name, you gotta give her
a name. So you described a number of women who
really influenced your life, much more so than the men,
because the men, the fathers were well, you know, they
left funny thing, or they weren't there at.
Speaker 3 (11:15):
All, that's right. Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (11:19):
Women have always been the center figure in my life,
just naturally growing up.
Speaker 3 (11:25):
And you know, some of them have been heroes and
some of them have been villains. But what are both
those things? A leading role?
Speaker 4 (11:31):
And we do love women and our leaders and learning experiences,
oh so many learning experiences.
Speaker 1 (11:36):
You know.
Speaker 4 (11:36):
At one point in my life, my mom and her
best friend, my godmother, divorced their second husbands at the
same time and agreed to start over in a little
town in the mountains together. And watching them do that
in the late nineties in a small conservative town where
everyone at school would be like, your moms are lesbians,
and I'd be like, they're just good friends, you know,
(11:59):
And but watching them go through life, they were so
bored in that town. Sometimes they would put on cocktail
dresses and wigs just to go.
Speaker 3 (12:06):
Pick up milk.
Speaker 4 (12:07):
And I watching women like that, Raise you really obviously
affected my life as I sit here today writing a
book about it.
Speaker 2 (12:16):
How did you discover that comedy was going to be
your career?
Speaker 3 (12:23):
Great question. I grew up with. You know, we didn't
have TV a lot of my life. We grew up
very poor.
Speaker 4 (12:28):
I really did not know this career was possible for many,
many years. I sort of thought the options were Julia
Roberts and Sandra Bullock because those are the only movies
I watched, And so I didn't know this was possible.
Speaker 3 (12:40):
And it took me until.
Speaker 4 (12:42):
I was in college in New York City and I
saw a show advertised for free, and free was really enticing,
and so I went to it and it was the
Upper Citizens Brigade.
Speaker 3 (12:52):
Askat, I don't know if I can say that on here.
Speaker 4 (12:54):
It was a show with Amy Poehler, and yeah, changed
my life. I sat down and I said, this is
what I've been looking for my entire life.
Speaker 2 (13:01):
What are your goals? Now?
Speaker 3 (13:03):
Wow, that is a beautiful question.
Speaker 4 (13:05):
So I just I mean, as of four days ago,
sold a new show and I'm My goal is to
get working class, Southwestern, very funny women and female stories
into TV and movies, and to tell stories with really complicated,
nuanced women where the comedy comes first.
Speaker 2 (13:28):
Okay, we only have less than two minutes. What if
we not touched on Chelsea Davantes and your book. I
shouldn't be telling you this, but I'm going to anyway
that you want our audience to know.
Speaker 4 (13:39):
Well, if you love celebrity memoirs, or if you don't
think you.
Speaker 3 (13:43):
Do, you think there's no way I could like this.
Come listen to my podcast, Glamorous Trash.
Speaker 4 (13:47):
We recap and book club a celebrity memoir every single week,
and usually I have other women in entertainment recapping the
books with me, and sometimes they've written their own books.
Speaker 3 (13:57):
And so we just released.
Speaker 4 (13:59):
Paris Hilton, Jamie Lynn Spears, Delta Burke, Violet Davis, Jane Fonda.
Speaker 3 (14:04):
There's like two hundred and fifty episodes already up.
Speaker 4 (14:08):
And I truly believe if you need something in life
to jolt you into a good place, the right memoir
will be the perfect thing for it.
Speaker 2 (14:15):
And if they make a movie. If I shouldn't be
telling you this, but I'm going to anyway, who should
play you? Chelsea davontees, Oh, thank you so much.
Speaker 4 (14:25):
I you know what, I've always been told that I
look like a cheerful Aubrey Plaza.
Speaker 3 (14:30):
Oh yes, and so can you see it?
Speaker 4 (14:32):
Yeah? I sometimes get comments online about that, and then
I would say, in later years, which honestly haven't occurred,
Katie Segal would.
Speaker 2 (14:40):
Love I love her. Yeah, yeah, Sons of Anarky one
of the best ever.
Speaker 4 (14:47):
Yeah, absolutely married with children, pig Bundy forever.
Speaker 3 (14:50):
Oh yeah, those bangs. I think I have her bangs now.
Speaker 4 (14:53):
Doo.
Speaker 2 (14:55):
Okay, Chelsea Davonte's congratulations. I shouldn't be telling you this,
but I'm going to anyway. It's such a fun and
revealing read, and you're gonna recognize things about yourself and say, yeah,
there's somebody like me. You just you nailed it. Thank
you so much, so much.
Speaker 3 (15:12):
That really means a lot.
Speaker 1 (15:13):
You've been listening to Sunsteen sessions on iHeartRadio, a production
of New York's classic rock Q one O four point
three
Welcome to Sunstein Sessions on iHeartRadio, conversations about issues that matter.
Here's your host, three time Grasie Award winner, Shelley Sunstein.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
I want to introduce you to a very funny lady.
Chelsea Davontez is an Emmy Award nominated writer, comedian, director,
host of the podcast Glamorous Trash, and before she had
an overall TV deal with twentieth Century Studio, she was
John Stewart's head writer for Apple Plus, Is The Problem
(00:33):
with John Stewart? And Her other TV credits include Not
Dead Yet and Bless This Mess. But the reason I
have Chelsea joining me today is a thoroughly enjoyable memoir
I just read. I shouldn't be telling you this, but
I'm going to anyway. So all right, so I have
(00:54):
to tell you right off the bat. I know that
your whole life changed when you read Delta Burke's memoir.
Speaker 3 (01:04):
That's right.
Speaker 2 (01:05):
And it just clicked in my head suddenly that the
books of late that I have most enjoyed, and it
didn't I didn't realize till you mentioned it in your
book were memoirs.
Speaker 4 (01:19):
Yeah, yeah, And are you reading celebrity memoirs nonfiction memoirs.
Speaker 2 (01:24):
It's all memoirs. It's not just that.
Speaker 3 (01:26):
Yeah, yeah, I love memoirs so much.
Speaker 4 (01:30):
Celebrity memoirs have always been my favorite book genre, which
is what happens when your nearest bookstore growing up as
a Walmart, and you know, they just fall right into life,
and I love them. I can't believe that these books
have been called trash or not real books. They have this.
Speaker 3 (01:44):
Horrible reputation, but when you read them, it's like.
Speaker 4 (01:48):
All these powerful women, you know, if they're celebrities, sharing
their secrets, sharing their trauma, sharing how they got.
Speaker 2 (01:54):
Where they are, and it's helpful.
Speaker 3 (01:57):
Oh it changed my life. They're my favorite self help books.
Speaker 2 (01:59):
Okay, explained how Delta Burke changed your life.
Speaker 4 (02:02):
Yes, So I found her book on a yard sale
table when I was a teenager, and Delta's Burke is
half memoir half style guide and it's called.
Speaker 3 (02:13):
Eve wasn't a size six, and neither am I.
Speaker 4 (02:15):
And it was all about how Hollywood punished her for
the crime of being a size ten and how horrible
they were to her, and kind of how beauty was
when she had beauty. She you know, she was punished
for it in many ways when she didn't have beauty,
she was punished for it. And I was this teenager
struggling with an eating disorder. It was the early two
(02:37):
thousands where you know, it was heroin chic and I
was struggling so much with my image. And this was
the first book that actually said something very real about it.
And she taught me so many things that I still
use today, like everything from leggings.
Speaker 3 (02:54):
And tunics are lengthening for your torso to.
Speaker 4 (02:58):
When you look back on your youth, will be so
upset that you hated photos of yourself or were so
cruel to yourself, and you'll be and how hard you
can be on yourself when you really should be enjoying
who you are.
Speaker 3 (03:10):
And the book changed my life.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
But you had struggled with your weight, Yeah, and after
reading Delta Burke's memoir, you put it aside, I don't
care anymore. You were basically saying, I accept me for me,
and then the weight problem kind of went away.
Speaker 4 (03:30):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (03:30):
Well, it's so interesting too.
Speaker 4 (03:32):
In the time I was in I would say I
was struggling with my weight because this is when Abercrombie
introduced double zero. I know what, just saying, right, Yeah,
and so looking back, it shouldn't have been a struggle,
but within popular culture, you know, it's just hating myself
so much. And Delta was the start of my journey.
It did take many, many years where I was I
(03:53):
did everything. I did akins, I did the French diet,
I did the Mediterranean diet.
Speaker 3 (03:59):
I did, you know, only drink a.
Speaker 4 (04:01):
Cup of milk because it has you know, the perfect
amount of fat and protein. So, you know, just a
teenager drinking milk for lunch. And so all those dts
didn't work, and finally I gave up, and because I
was just like, you know what, I'm just not meant
to be thin. And when I gave up is when
I finally had a healthy relationship with food for the
first time.
Speaker 3 (04:21):
And then but it.
Speaker 4 (04:22):
Was so frustrating because effort and trying hard got me nowhere.
Speaker 3 (04:28):
I had to truly give it up to be happy
with myself.
Speaker 2 (04:32):
Why did you write a book You're so busy with
other projects. Why?
Speaker 3 (04:37):
Great question. I've always wanted to write a memoir.
Speaker 4 (04:40):
It's something I've had as a dream that I never
thought would come true. And when I started my podcast,
I would share little stories about my life and I
started getting messages of you have a memoir in you,
and I said, yes.
Speaker 3 (04:52):
I know, but I don't you know, can I can
I write a memoir?
Speaker 4 (04:55):
And I really every time I went to pick up
a book, I always hoped it would give me.
Speaker 3 (05:02):
The things I needed to live my life.
Speaker 4 (05:04):
I was always hoping that every time I read a
memoir I would they would help me, and so many
of them did, and so I wanted to write the
book I was always looking for when I was in
the library, looking for something that would lift me up.
Speaker 2 (05:17):
You know, they say everybody has a song in them,
and everybody has a book in them. One of the
most fascinating things about your life, and I really never
gave any thought to this. You the person you thought
was your father was not your biological father. And your
mother claimed that she told you this when she was
(05:39):
when you were a little girl, and of course you
just okay, Lottie dah. But then you weren't a little
girl when you finally realized I am the daughter of
a sperm donor, and that leaves I never thought of
it this way, Chelsea, This leaves an enormous hole in
your life.
Speaker 4 (05:59):
Explained, Yeah, so a lot of people when they think
of fertility and donor conception, every story is always focused
on the parent, you know, trying to conceive, and including
all the scientists and doctors who came up with this method,
and no one really ever bothered to wonder what would
happen to the kid who had to grow up one
(06:21):
day and find this strange man is their father, or
not find them. And so for me, it was pretty
earth shattering. I found out when I was fourteen. Technically,
I guess I found out when I was five, But
like I said, I don't remember that, but a five
year old, right, yeah, yeah, but I mean it's you know,
and I've gone back, I've investigated. I do believe my
mom told me. But there was no information back then.
(06:44):
Now we have books you could give to your child
whose donor conceived. They got to read it every day.
Understanding identity is such a complex concept on top of
you know, the process of donor conception, you know, let
alone the process of conception, and so there was no
inform back.
Speaker 3 (07:00):
Then at all. They had no idea.
Speaker 4 (07:03):
These doctors who were doing this had no idea the
Internet was going to exist, which meant that they really
believed it could be anonymous and that they could get
away with all kinds of things, which is why you
see these documentaries now of like the Man who Fathered
one hundred children and much much, much worse. And so
finding out my identity had up to that point been
a lie, and refinding my identity and the struggle of
(07:29):
what being donor conceived does to your identity.
Speaker 3 (07:32):
Has been a huge part of my life.
Speaker 4 (07:36):
I wish it hadn't been, but yeah, it's been a
huge part of my life, and it's been extremely painful,
to be honest.
Speaker 2 (07:41):
I'm speaking with Chelsea Davontes and her book. I shouldn't
be telling you this, but I'm going to anyway and
tell me what it was like working with John Stewart.
I mean, he's such a passionate, amazing, articulate, influential man,
(08:01):
but we only know that part of him you worked
with them.
Speaker 4 (08:06):
All those things are true. He's incredible. He gave me
my first job in television off of.
Speaker 3 (08:12):
A blind packet.
Speaker 2 (08:13):
Yeah, how did it happen?
Speaker 4 (08:14):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (08:14):
So I put in these things.
Speaker 4 (08:16):
You put in these things called packet submissions when you
want to work in late night TV. And I got
one of these submissions. It was a blind submission, which
means they remove your name from it. And whenever me
and my fellow comedians, you know, we're all in Second City,
we would think like, no one's reading this, and sometimes
maybe no one was. But then I get a call
and they said, John Stewart himself has read your packet
and he wants to hire you for his first show.
(08:38):
And so I went out and worked with him for
a year on a show that never aired. And then
when the Apple Show came about, he called me and said,
will you be my head writer? And it was both
experiences were so incredible. He not only taught me a
lot about how to be an artist, the kind of
artist I want to be, how to be a head writer,
how to be a manager, how to write, but also
(09:01):
to do it with joy, you.
Speaker 3 (09:02):
Know, and to make people laugh along the way.
Speaker 2 (09:05):
You have a way of making the best of the
most god awful situations, like the tumor you had that
was like the size of a full size of her
the baby. Yeah, yeah, tell us about that.
Speaker 4 (09:22):
Yes, So, as my mom would say, and she is
the queen of this, you got to make chicken salad
out of chicken.
Speaker 3 (09:29):
And that is what I've been doing my whole life.
Speaker 4 (09:32):
And yeah, when I was twenty two, I found out
I had a seven and a half pound dermoid tumor
on my right ovary.
Speaker 2 (09:39):
And which could have been cancer.
Speaker 4 (09:41):
Yeah, for ten days they told me it likely was
cancer because of some blood tests I had taken. And
then they said, you might have a hysterectomy. You might
never have kids. And I came out of the surgery
and the first thing I asked was was I alive?
Did I live? You know, obviously yes? And did I
(10:02):
still have anything left? And they said They've removed my
right ovary and I kept my uterus and my left ovary.
Speaker 3 (10:08):
And it was benign, after.
Speaker 4 (10:09):
All, the biggest dermoid tumor New Mexico has ever seen.
Speaker 3 (10:14):
Thank you and honor.
Speaker 2 (10:15):
But wait, explain what this tumor has because you get
this visual, this this visual in the book. Do not
google this. You're gonna want to.
Speaker 4 (10:27):
I'm telling you, you know, I know you're going to.
But at least I warned you. A dermoid tumor specifically,
because it grows off the ovary, it has all of
it has some of the elements of reproduction.
Speaker 3 (10:41):
So the tumor grows hair and teeth.
Speaker 2 (10:45):
Yeah, it's like an alien alien come true.
Speaker 4 (10:49):
Yeah, it was like I had an alien monster baby,
which is why I named my tumor Sheila.
Speaker 2 (10:56):
Of course you have to name, you gotta give her
a name. So you described a number of women who
really influenced your life, much more so than the men,
because the men, the fathers were well, you know, they
left funny thing, or they weren't there at.
Speaker 3 (11:15):
All, that's right. Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (11:19):
Women have always been the center figure in my life,
just naturally growing up.
Speaker 3 (11:25):
And you know, some of them have been heroes and
some of them have been villains. But what are both
those things? A leading role?
Speaker 4 (11:31):
And we do love women and our leaders and learning experiences,
oh so many learning experiences.
Speaker 1 (11:36):
You know.
Speaker 4 (11:36):
At one point in my life, my mom and her
best friend, my godmother, divorced their second husbands at the
same time and agreed to start over in a little
town in the mountains together. And watching them do that
in the late nineties in a small conservative town where
everyone at school would be like, your moms are lesbians,
and I'd be like, they're just good friends, you know,
(11:59):
And but watching them go through life, they were so
bored in that town. Sometimes they would put on cocktail
dresses and wigs just to go.
Speaker 3 (12:06):
Pick up milk.
Speaker 4 (12:07):
And I watching women like that, Raise you really obviously
affected my life as I sit here today writing a
book about it.
Speaker 2 (12:16):
How did you discover that comedy was going to be
your career?
Speaker 3 (12:23):
Great question. I grew up with. You know, we didn't
have TV a lot of my life. We grew up
very poor.
Speaker 4 (12:28):
I really did not know this career was possible for many,
many years. I sort of thought the options were Julia
Roberts and Sandra Bullock because those are the only movies
I watched, And so I didn't know this was possible.
Speaker 3 (12:40):
And it took me until.
Speaker 4 (12:42):
I was in college in New York City and I
saw a show advertised for free, and free was really enticing,
and so I went to it and it was the
Upper Citizens Brigade.
Speaker 3 (12:52):
Askat, I don't know if I can say that on here.
Speaker 4 (12:54):
It was a show with Amy Poehler, and yeah, changed
my life. I sat down and I said, this is
what I've been looking for my entire life.
Speaker 2 (13:01):
What are your goals? Now?
Speaker 3 (13:03):
Wow, that is a beautiful question.
Speaker 4 (13:05):
So I just I mean, as of four days ago,
sold a new show and I'm My goal is to
get working class, Southwestern, very funny women and female stories
into TV and movies, and to tell stories with really complicated,
nuanced women where the comedy comes first.
Speaker 2 (13:28):
Okay, we only have less than two minutes. What if
we not touched on Chelsea Davantes and your book. I
shouldn't be telling you this, but I'm going to anyway
that you want our audience to know.
Speaker 4 (13:39):
Well, if you love celebrity memoirs, or if you don't
think you.
Speaker 3 (13:43):
Do, you think there's no way I could like this.
Come listen to my podcast, Glamorous Trash.
Speaker 4 (13:47):
We recap and book club a celebrity memoir every single week,
and usually I have other women in entertainment recapping the
books with me, and sometimes they've written their own books.
Speaker 3 (13:57):
And so we just released.
Speaker 4 (13:59):
Paris Hilton, Jamie Lynn Spears, Delta Burke, Violet Davis, Jane Fonda.
Speaker 3 (14:04):
There's like two hundred and fifty episodes already up.
Speaker 4 (14:08):
And I truly believe if you need something in life
to jolt you into a good place, the right memoir
will be the perfect thing for it.
Speaker 2 (14:15):
And if they make a movie. If I shouldn't be
telling you this, but I'm going to anyway, who should
play you? Chelsea davontees, Oh, thank you so much.
Speaker 4 (14:25):
I you know what, I've always been told that I
look like a cheerful Aubrey Plaza.
Speaker 3 (14:30):
Oh yes, and so can you see it?
Speaker 4 (14:32):
Yeah? I sometimes get comments online about that, and then
I would say, in later years, which honestly haven't occurred,
Katie Segal would.
Speaker 2 (14:40):
Love I love her. Yeah, yeah, Sons of Anarky one
of the best ever.
Speaker 4 (14:47):
Yeah, absolutely married with children, pig Bundy forever.
Speaker 3 (14:50):
Oh yeah, those bangs. I think I have her bangs now.
Speaker 4 (14:53):
Doo.
Speaker 2 (14:55):
Okay, Chelsea Davonte's congratulations. I shouldn't be telling you this,
but I'm going to anyway. It's such a fun and
revealing read, and you're gonna recognize things about yourself and say, yeah,
there's somebody like me. You just you nailed it. Thank
you so much, so much.
Speaker 3 (15:12):
That really means a lot.
Speaker 1 (15:13):
You've been listening to Sunsteen sessions on iHeartRadio, a production
of New York's classic rock Q one O four point
three
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