Outspoken, outrageous, and out-here!
Comedian Chelsea Handler is bringing her new High and Mighty Tour to Santa Barbara's Arlington Theater this Friday (September 18).
In an interview with KCLU, she said the tour explores "Ways to remain positive, happy, upbeat, and inspired during these dark, dark hours that we are living in."
At a time when women’s rights are being chipped — or even stripped —away, Handler said it’s more important than ever to speak up about women making their own choices.
"I think the reason we're living in this moment, I mean, to state the obvious, is just people's understanding that women are so spectacular and that we are so independent and that we can make our own choices," said Handler. "There are a lot of men that do not like that."
"Society is wild, but that's why I feel so empowered to use my platform to inject women with the optimism and the confidence and the self-esteem to understand that your value is not tied to all of the traditional ways that we've been sold. You can be valuable without being a mother or wife. For those that want to do that, great. But for those that don't, there is no shame in that. I will be singing that from the rooftops until the day that I can no longer speak.
So any man that comes to my show is setting a good example for himself. And for all the men he tells he went [to the show] because you guys need to stand up, not just with us, but for us," said Handler.
Handler is not known for holding back, but in this instance, she said she’s also holding space for audiences to laugh together, and that having fun, for her, is serious business.
"I take having a good time very seriously. I take making my audience leave with a great experience and a sore belly; I take that very seriously also," she said.
"And as somebody who makes a living doing this, when I'm on stage, and I get to look out into an audience that is filled with strangers sitting next to each other, laughing so hard that they're rubbing their shoulders, I think that's a great reminder of humanity and togetherness and something that we could all use a little bit more of right now."
She continued, "As I've gotten older, I've grown such a deep respect for what I do, the wisdom that I've attained and that I learned all of the things, like how to be present in these moments, how to have gratitude in these moments and to not only use your light for yourself, but to really use it to shine it on other people that need it."
And you get the feeling that the shock-and-awe Handler of the past is not so much gone as repackaged, rewired, and refreshed, as she thrives as a successful woman in her 50s.
"It's like you get an iPhone update," she says of being in her 50s.
"All of a sudden, everything becomes clearer. You understand that you're a woman. I always felt like a girl. In my 40s, even when I was 49, I'm like, 'I am just a girl'. I'm a woman now, and I'm proud of it."
