Chelsea Handler brings Life Will Be the Death Of Me standup tour to Canada
Credit to Author: Stuart Derdeyn| Date: Tue, 05 Nov 2019 19:04:07 +0000
Life Will Be the Death of Me: Chelsea Handler‘s Stand-Up Comedy Tour
When: Nov. 7-8, 8 p.m.
Where: Chan Shun Concert Hall, 6265 Crescent Rd., UBC
Tickets and info:tickets.ubc.ca
There aren’t many authors who can lay claim to having five of their six books debut at No. 1 on the New York Times Bestseller List. Chelsea Handler can. Her latest read, titled Life Will Be the Death of Me, explores a year of self-discovery undertaken by the author to exorcise some personal demons such as the death of her brother, and come out on the other end all the better.
It’s a change of direction for the writer best known for blunt dissections of sex, drinking and other assorted activities in books such as Are You There, Vodka? It’s Me, Chelsea (2008), or Lies that Chelsea Handler Told Me (2011), and Netflix series such as Chelsea Does or last month’s Hello, Privilege, It’s Me, Chelsea.
The book also heralds Handler’s return to standup — actually, sit-down — comedy as she embarks on a massive tour in support of the text. Digging deeply into the pain of her childhood loss put the comedian in a very different frame of mind. She remains the self-deprecating New Jersey-ite fans adore, but there is a renewed passion for activism around personal and political issues, as well as everyone’s favourite herb.
We begin our discussion around the line of marijuana products that Handler is launching in 2020, and how one launches a line of cannabis products.
“You have to do a lot of research, into tinctures, oils, lotions, bath salts, weed and edibles, and I made it my priority for the past 2 1/2 years to do that,” said Handler. “It was a surprising pivot from alcohol and one I far prefer, but it makes international travel challenging. I’m back on the sauce here in the U.K., so I’m looking forward to coming to Canada.”
Advised of the continuing supply shortages, slow pace of introducing full product lines into the marketplace and the vibrant black market, she zeros in on the irony that the legal marijuana business is being run by the same people that used to jail people for minor offences and they’re doing it poorly. Handler says that she and her partners at NorCal Cannabis are looking at organizations representing people who are in jail for minor possession charges. The plan is to donate a portion of the proceeds to getting people out.
She also wants women to expand the cannabis category to include products specifically developed for women, who she feels have been ignored for the most part.
“I’ve discovered with micro-dosing that it’s a whole different ball game and I want women and first-time users to know that it’s a safe place, where you can get high and be emboldened and empowered instead of having negative experiences,” she said. “I want to look into developing the THCV strain, which is an appetite suppressant, and has been completely ignored by the guys who have been in charge of marketing weed for the past 100 years. Often, the biggest gripe from women around using weed is, ‘I’ll eat my face off,’ and that’s not true.”
There certainly do seem to be snack-food-filled emporiums located within a few paces of many of our local cannabis retail outlets. A way to combat “convenience” food cravings might provide health benefits to all kinds of users. Handler says to wait and see in the new year, which is when the product line should be launching.
Until then, she has plenty on the go.
Hello, Privilege, It’s Me, Chelsea, found her trying to dive into the issue of what white privilege is and how blind, or antagonistic to it, white people are to the subject. Beginning with Chandler herself, who has admitted in interviews that she likes to “get her opinion changed.” The show has drawn mixed reviews, with many media outlets noting Chandler’s controversial past jokes and actions as problematic. The comic doesn’t deny it, but says that her humour is sharper now that she is more educated around the issues around racism, sexism and so on.
The election of Donald Trump to the office of U.S. president proved to be a major catalyst for her creative energy, and bringing the contents of her new book to the stage on this tour has been rewarding.
“I wasn’t planning on doing the book, or on doing standup, but then the book just vomited out of me and I had something that I could take on the road as a standup show,” she said. “I’ve taken the subject matter from the book, made it side-splitting and that’s always been something that I really wanted. To be a standup with a message that wasn’t just silly jokes, but had a story to go with it.”
There will be another Netflix special coming, filmed on the closing days of this tour. Life Will Be the Death of Me has been optioned for a TV series and Chandler plans on starring in it. She’s not sure that anyone but her could play her at this stage in her life.
“This tour, and this book has been more personal than anything else I’ve ever done before and that authenticity shows,” she said. “People respond to that in different ways, and it’s nicer to be out there not being a loud-mouthed b—h and spreading something more positive instead. After the (U.S.) election, it became so painfully obvious how rampant racism and sexism were, and still are, and I wanted to be part of the solution instead of part of the problem.”
She says that her business is an easy one to live with your head buried so far up an orifice that you don’t see or notice anything around you. But once you open your eyes, there is an awful lot to see. The Life Will Be the Death of Me tour is Chandler’s hopeful next step in developing herself as a better artist and human being.