Comedienne Chelsea Handler startled a nearly sold-out audience at the Chevrolet Theater in Wallingford, Conn., on Dec. 5 when she proclaimed that beloved assistant Chuy was dead.
“That body is wearing off real quick,” Handler joked. “I don’t want to talk about Chuy.”
Handler was just kidding, of course, and that shocking material was the basis for Handler’s hour-long stand-up routine that kept a mostly drunk audience buzzing all night long.
“Chelsea Lately” writer and frequent roundtable panelist, Heather “Long Boobs” McDonald, opened the delayed show with a number of topics from pop culture to marriage to her children.
McDonald discussed the dilemma she faces when her 3-year-old would rather watch the sponge who lives in a pineapple under the sea over his own mother. She relayed to the audience that her child thinks she is “boring” whereas Spongebob Squarepants is not.
During McDonald’s set, she did her impression of deaf Academy Award-winning actress Marlee Matlin, who played a lesbian on the Showtime drama series, “The L Word.” McDonald finds Matlin’s character on the program argumentative and just dislikes her, which prompts McDonald to make fun of her in the act. The audience roared with laughter when McDonald did her infamous impression of Matlin’s character. McDonald reprimanded the audience for laughing.
“Whatever, she can’t hear us anyway,” McDonald retorted.
McDonald also joked about “The Real Housewives” series on Bravo, specifically mentioning Atlanta and New Jersey. She acknowledged the irony in the Atlanta series that the only woman wearing a wig is the lone white woman in the cast, Kim Zolciak.
McDonald wrapped up her set amidst thunderous applause, which echoed throughout the theater and it continued as Chelsea Handler stepped on stage.
Handler began her set shortly after 8:30 p.m. and did not disappoint. Despite looking slightly disheveled, Handler exceeded expectations when it came to bringing the funny. On “Chelsea Lately,” Handler mainly leads discussion on the current events of celebrity culture, but this stand-up set mainly focused on comedy outside of the entertainment world, which was a refreshing change of pace from her usual schtick.
Despite the snowy weather outside, the atmosphere of the audience was lively and everyone let loose laughing at everything Handler talked about, including the portion of the evening where she discussed hair in the nether regions.
The hour-long set allowed for Handler to delve into anything and everything.
“There are two types of people who I don’t trust: people who don’t drink while taking medications, and people who clap when a plane lands,” Handler stated point-blank. Handler not-so-lovingly compared those who clap on a plane to people featured in an exercise video.
Handler’s personal diatribe did not end with those two groups, either.
“There is nothing worse than a man in flip-flops in the middle of the winter,” Handler said with full support from the crowd.
Handler defended her drinking habits. Notorious for her Grey Goose vodka affinity, she mentioned that she becomes a sloppy mess inside the comfort of her own home, not out in public. In terms of public drunkenness, Handler allowed one plastered woman from the audience to take the stage toward the end of the show to tell a joke. The joke bombed, but it was clear Handler was amused that there were people in the room drunker than she was.
It is evident how appreciative Handler is of her success through her interactions with fans in the audience and staying after the show to sign as many books as possible before having to catch her plane.
Handler has two best-selling books, “My Horizontal Life” and “Are You There Vodka? It’s Me, Chelsea” and can be seen on “Chelsea Lately” every night at 11 p.m. on E!
