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MIKE ROSENTHAL
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MIKE ROSENTHAL
Chelsea Handler is glowing. It’s visible even through her Zoom camera—despite that fact that it keeps cutting in and out, at one point freezing entirely on the smiling blonde comedienne with a light radiating behind her like a halo. Is this heavenly luminosity just a lighting trick or is it the look of love?
Known as one of comedy’s most honest personalities, Handler began her stand-up career at 21 after moving from her home state of New Jersey to live with her aunt in Bel Air, California. A string of TV appearances followed, including on the cult-hit Women Behaving Badly, a hidden camera reality show on Oxygen. Those gigs led to regular appearances on the E! network and in 2006 she began hosting her first show for the network. It lasted two seasons, but its impact was undeniable.
On the heels of its cancellation, Handler debuted her long running hit late-night show, Chelsea Lately, for the network in 2007. All the while she continued performing stand-up, writing New York Times bestselling books, producing, and acting. Each piece of her work is rife with personal, often biographical insights. It’s what makes Handler’s fans feel so close to her. And lately she’s let them into her life in a completely new way—by sharing her budding romantic relationship with fellow comedian Jo Koy. For those fans who have been privy to her hilarious and harrowing relationship tales through the years, this end game romance feels like a long- deserved happily ever after. For Handler herself, it’s proof that the right person comes into your life at the right time.
“I had given up on men. I had given up on the idea that I was going to get to be in love at this stage in my life,” Handler says. “I thought it’s not going to happen for me, but that’s okay. I’ve got all these other things: I have my family, I love to travel, I’m independent. I don’t have to rely on another person. I thought I was just supposed to be single. Then Jo Koy came into my life.”
Handler and Koy met nearly 20 years ago, and the comedian made several appearances on Chelsea Lately through the years, but when the two reconnected in 2021 things were different.
“When we finally got together after so many months of hanging out and reconnecting from our old lives, I remember realizing this was the first man that wasn’t annoying me,” Handler says with her signature laugh. “I didn’t want him to go when he was leaving. I was looking around going, ‘Where’s Jo? Why haven’t I heard from Jo Koy in a couple days?’ I had never experienced that with anyone.”
Fast forward to spring 2022 and it’s clear that Koy is the love of Handler’s life. “He feels very much like family to me,” she says. “It’s as close to a mother’s love as your lover can feel like—to have someone care for you and look out for you so much.” And now he will have her back in an entirely new way as Koy steps in to direct Handler’s comedy special.
“He just shot his special at the Forum in LA and it was incredible,” Handler says proudly. “He worked with these great female producers who I loved, and I was like, ‘I’m hiring them!’ Both of them were like, ‘Don’t you think Jo should help us direct it?’ It was a great idea—he has so many great, specific ideas and such an eye and an interest that I don’t have in terms of production and dressing a set. And with the Ryman you don’t have to do very much because it’s such a beautiful venue in the first place.”
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MIKE ROSENTHAL
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MIKE ROSENTHAL
But wait a minute—why did this Los Angeles-based actress decide to film her special here in the first place? It all began at Zanie’s Comedy Night Club.
“I started this [act] at Zanie’s. Brian Dorfman, who runs the club, is a friend and that’s where I go to work out my new material,” Handler says. And when her “Vaccinated and Horny Tour” rolls into town on June 10, it will be a homecoming of sorts. “I first put it up there before the tour when I was really working on the material, so I wanted to come back to Nashville to film my special. It’s such a great city for comedy and it’s always an amazing experience to perform there. The Ryman is so special and stands out so much that I thought that’s a perfect place to shoot the special.”
Handler says it’s more than just comedy that keeps her coming back to Music City.
“I have friends I stay with when I come down here and things get pretty out of control pretty quickly,” she laughs. “It’s all typical Nashville stuff—it’s a party city. It feels a lot like New Orleans to me with all the bachelorette parties and people walking around with their drinks. It feels like the wild, wild west. It’s just mayhem, always.”
While it may come as a surprise to some, Handler is a country music fan. At the time of this interview, the comedienne was preparing for a guest hosting gig on Jimmy Kimmel Live where she would welcome guests including singer Kelsea Ballerini.
“I get a real kick out of country music. In our industry the best guests are always country musicians or rappers.” She says in addition to the good times she’s had on Broadway, she loves the culture of Nashville and the people who live here—including those artists. “There’s this huge intersection of country music and progressive ideals coming together,” Handler says. “It feels like one of the most liberal parts of the South. It’s interesting to see that.” And while Handler—a noted liberal and political activist—says it will be nice to “set my material against the backdrop of a Southern City,” Nashville’s Republicans need not clutch their pearls just yet.
“There’s nothing political [in this act]. It isn’t the time for that,” she says. “I am really focused on making sure that everybody is leaving there having had a really good time.” Handler, it’s clear, is having a really good time, too. After a nearly decade- long standup hiatus (not to mention a pandemic that made live performances difficult, to say the least) she’s reinvigorated by the idea of bringing this new material to the masses.
“After I did my last special, Evolution, I took six years off from standup. I had burned myself out with my shows, with my books, with my standup. It just kept going and going, one after another,” Handler says. “Coming back to stand up; it’s how I began. This feels like I’m coming home in a way. It was time. It’s nice to come and have a presence again and to have something to say and be strong and to remind women to stand up for yourselves and not to settle for anything less than you deserve.”
To that end, Handler shares her own love story with Jo Koy in the act—an empowering reminder to women that love may not always show up on time, but that doesn’t mean it won’t show up at all.
“I love that it’s inspired so many other people to have hope about finding love, about finding their person,” Handler says. “I really believe that you don’t ever have to settle. Never lower your standards because you think you’re running out of time; your standards are what attract the right person to you.”
Handler’s attracting more than the right person right now— professionally she’s attracting all the right projects, too. She’s currently in development on a new show for the NBC streaming service Peacock. Life Will Be the Death of Me (the working title) is based on Handler’s 2019 bestseller of the same name. The show sees Handler playing an exaggerated version of herself (a la Larry David in Curb Your Enthusiasm) and, much like the book, focuses on therapy.
“It’s about going to therapy, taking two steps forward, and eight steps back. It’s about having an incredible session with my therapist and meditating for the first time and actually feeling something and thinking, ‘Oh my God, I’m cured!’ Then walking down to the parking lot and getting into a fight with the attendant because you think he’s using a fake Australian accent,” Handler says.
“It’s comedy and drama combined. We just turned in our script—I’m working with Liz Tuccillo who’s from the original Sex and the City. It’s been a great experience. And the first time I’ll play myself on camera.” Beyond that, Handler’s production company is in various stages of development on multiple projects, and she and Koy are exploring ways to produce stand-up specials together and champion other comedians. She also says her guest stint on Kimmel will be a good test to see if she wants to return to late-night television on a more permanent basis.
In the meantime, Handler is re-energized and excited to bring her new work (and new lease on love) back to the place where it all began. “I’m so excited about this special. It’s OG Chelsea mixed with my new [outlook]. I’m just more focused and it’s sharp and it’s tight. This is my strongest work to date. And it’s really nice, especially with this infusion of love that I have and this kind of softening. It’s nice to even see myself in this way,” she says. “They say you get better with age, and this is proof that that’s true.”