Chelsea Handler returns to standup and reassesses

Chelsea Handler in “Chelsea Handler: Evolution”

Backstage Live

Chelsea Handler’s Still Got It

The stalwart comedian returns to standup after a six-year hiatus

By Matthew Nerber

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.”

Want to hear more from Handler? Watch our full interview at backstage.com/ magazine, and follow us on Instagram: @backstagecast.

TELEVISION

Elizabeth Banks Returns to the Small Screen

By Casey Mink

AFTER SPENDING SOME TIME IN THE

film world, Elizabeth Banks is heading back to television in a major way. The multihyphenate is developing a series adaptation of Victoria Aveyard’s novel “Red Queen” for Peacock, which she’s set to executive produce, direct, and act in. The one-hour drama will be set in the near future, in an alternate universe in which the American government has been taken over by a monarchy of superhumans. Aveyard co-wrote the pilot along with Beth Schwartz (“Arrow”), who will additionally serve as showrunner.

“DAZZLING”“SHARP”ROCK IS ABSOLUTELY TERRIFIC” “BRILLIANT” EXCELLENT” “THRILLING SAGA”