Incredibly surprised by how amazing this was. I actually did not like Chelsea Handler much before this and watched this on a whim. But so grateful I did. This should and should not be considered a comedy stand up routine. Because yes, there was comedy, and some really funny moments. The godforsaken President we have elected that causes her to be revolted by the color orange and, therefore, the actual orange fruit that her therapist, Dan, casually offered her one day, the infuriating nature of things like artisanal deodorant and chakras and kale chips and room temperature water or- god forbid!- room temperature sparkling water; her impatience with the "koalas hanging out in a branch back there" that are never available at Hudson Booksellers whenever she goes to the airport; hey lifelong love affair with drugs of any sort and hidden talent as a "pharmological intuit" to determine what drugs, legal or not, that anyone needs to make their life better, advice solicited or not; the absurdity of a world where men are masturbating into plants, talk about a victim that cannot get away!- can someone here stand up and explain to me why?; the sole possibly negative experience with drugs she has experienced in her life where she was sure she was walking out from a theater, wondering why everyone was taking so long, were they waiting for the credits?, but she was in fact on an airplane, and had now taken down all her luggage from the overhead compartment bins and was trying to walk out mid-flight!
I shudder to know what the "old" Chelsea Handler would do, now that, in 2025, we have actually re-elected this president that, she confesses, actually triggered her rampage and caused her to do such things as yell and attack people and do such shocking things as drive up and down the streets saying "You belong here!" to Mexican workers, regardless that she does not know how many are actually illegal. Ironically, it did turn out to be a good thing for her though, because her anger over his election actually caused her to finally see a therapist, and subsequently led to her finally letting her guard down enough to open up and process her trauma over her brother's death when she was only nine years old and how much that- paired with her parent's inability to deal with it at the time feeling like abandonment- affected who she had become.
Yes. Along with the very comedic comedy, there were also courageous confessions, raw and insightful stories, and even a moment where she cried on stage and audiences were forced to do that respectful thing where they watched in stunned silence, lacking the words to respond to such a candid, vulnerable divilgence of pain. She said it best: "... I had come to a better understanding of what it meant to dig deep and admit that you are in pain and thereby relinquishing that pain or beginning to relinquish that pain... I define me. I decide who I am. No event or person does this. I decide who I am going to behave and I know now that vulnerability is not weakness. That vulnerability is strength."
And admitting to the world that you suffer from having no empathy- essentially saying "I'm someone who has a hard time caring about you or anyone else", is quite a demonstration of this aforementioned thing called vulnerability! It takes guts to admit you are rude to almost everyone, like the hotel room service waiters when they have the nerve to read your order back to you- obviously they are trying to shame you- send what you think I said up, I don't care if it's a mistake, but don't effing read my order back to me or make me shame twice by clarifying, and hurry up when you delivery it, otherwise I have to make up a game daughter that is in the bath so you will leave! It takes guts to admit that you slapped a black woman on her ass and couldn't understand why you got in trouble for it. It takes real guts to admit you went into a theater and when you discovered what you were watching, it was "Call Me By Your Name", a gay love story, you turned to your gay friend that invited you to this and loudly express your disinterest and when he tells you to be quiet, you tell him he's so selfish!
Fact that she has begun working on changing that- taking what what she kiddingly calls baby steps but what are really huge steps- should not takeaway from what ought to be acknowledged as incredibly brave confessions. Confessions that do nothing but benefit us- to examine our own lives, how we live them, the choices we make, and how those choices affect our loved ones and the strangers that surround us in our daily pursuits.
This special was based on Chelsea Handler's memoir published in 2019, "Life Will Be The Death of Me". You can bet your bottom dollar that I will be tracking this book down now- because as charming and engaging as she is in person, we all know the book is usually better!
