The comedian wasn’t ready for “menopause in the morning” when she appeared on Breakfast. But she did reveal why she loves being 49 and is “embarrassed” to be American.
Being shamelessly upfront is a key element of Chelsea Handler’s brand. “I think the more honest you are, the more authentic you are, the more ardent your fan base becomes, because they know they can rely on you for the truth,” the comedian told Jenny-May Clarkson when she dropped into the Breakfast studio to promote her latest standup tour.
“I think it’s good to air your dirty laundry and have a smile on your face while doing it.”
Clarkson took the invitation to jump into a potentially sensitive topic. “Menopause?” she asked 49-year-old Handler. “Do we need to go there?”
Handler blinked a single time before replying, “I don’t think that’s for the morning. I’m not ready to talk about menopause yet.”
The US comedian tells Breakfast of the joy she finds in being 49.
But she did anyway – well kind of. “I had an ablation,” she revealed. “This is probably too much information but I already started talking so I’ll finish it. I had an ablation which means you get your uterus scorched, so you don’t get a period anymore. So I don’t even know – if and when I go through menopause – if I’ll find out about it.”
Handler went on to talk about the joy she finds in being 49. “It’s very cliche to say ‘oh I’m more confident’ (but) I’m pretty happy with my life. I’m pretty happy with the decisions I’ve made, that I don’t have any children I have to deal with, that I don’t have a husband I have to check in with. I’m pretty excited I get to bounce around the world the way I do… I have plenty of children in my life but they’re not my own and that’s the way I like it.
“There’s a lot of freedom in being a single successful woman and keeping my options open at all times.”
Handler’s latest tour, called Big Little Bitch, has taken her around the world and will eventually conclude in the US, where she’s about to take up a stand-up residency at a hotel in Las Vegas. “That whole craziness,” asked Clarkson, referring to Handler’s decades of high output and endless travel. “Do you enjoy that?”
Handler replied, “It is a hustle, I’m a hustler, I like to keep things moving. When I’m on the road I get a lot of free time. I just finished [writing] my seventh book, I just turned it in. So I get things done while I’m doing stand-up…
“All of my work, my podcasts, my standup, my books, it all overlaps and interweaves and it doesn’t feel like work, it feels like fun. The only work part is the travel part, but you just decide that time zones don’t exist, they’re not a thing, so wherever you wake up you go ‘OK it’s time to go’.”
‘My country is a hot mess’
Clarkson pointed out that Handler, who’s been to New Zealand several times, never takes the popular option of touring Australia and giving Aotearoa a miss. “I’m a traveling Wilbury,” said Handler. “Anywhere I can travel and perform in an English speaking country – if they want to welcome me, I’m excited to be here.”
And particularly, she said, right now. “It’s exciting to be anywhere out of the country when the elections are going on in the US. It’s an embarrassing place to be from at the current moment, and for some time now. I like to occupy myself in other places because our country is a hot mess as you well know I’m sure.”
Handler said she heard news reports on New Zealand TV while getting her makeup done at TVNZ before the appearance. “I can’t even get away from it here, you guys have to hear about it too. My apologies on behalf of my country and my homeland.”
Comedy not too PC for Handler
While other high profile comedians such as Jerry Seinfeld and Ricky Gervais have recently spoken out about the limits placed on comedy in an increasingly ‘woke’ culture, Handler said she doesn’t feel constrained.
“The only boundary right now is not to make fun of children who are unattractive. That’s not a nice thing to do,” she joked. “Obviously there’s more ‘PC’ involved, which I actually welcome because it give you parameters. If people are sensitive to certain things that’s a good thing for a performer to know.
“And I actually think it makes it more challenging and more clever. You actually have to think beyond making fun of other people… You start with yourself, you make fun of yourself and I have no problem doing that.”
Chelsea Handler performs Big Little Bitch in Auckland tonight and in Wellington on Saturday.
