Hey, it's Jeff Zito and thanks for checking out another episode of the Celebrity Jobber podcast. You can follow on Instagram, Celebrity underscore, Jobber underscore podcast or the YouTube channel, which is youtube.com slash the at sign celebrity jobber and streaming on I Heart, Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts. So please hit that subscribe button and would love if you gave us a five star rating and left a review. We've got like 170 something episodes and you can go back and see who was on, listen to them all by going to celebrityjobber.com. So we try to find out what life was like for these celebrities before fame. You know, some of them had parents in show business so it was just inevitable. But others like my guest today had a very normal upbringing. Comedian Chelsea Handler shall tell us a little bit about her family, what her parents did for work. We'll talk about the TV show that really launched her Chelsea lately, which also launched the careers of a lot of other comedians. Last year she came out with her own Netflix comedy special and also released a book. This year traveling the country doing stand up on her high and mighty tour. So tell us about her very first jobs, her big break and more. Comedian Chelsea Handler is my guest this week on celebrityjobber. The celebrityjobber podcast with Jeff Zeta. If you like what you hear, please subscribe, give a five star rating and leave a review. Check out all our past episodes on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you put it. What if these celebrities weren't famous? What would they have become? What was their first job? Jeff meet Chelsea. Hi, Jeff. How are you? Nice to meet you. You know, we're from the same, we're from the same neck of the woods. I'm from, I'm from Wachung and I lived in short hills for a short amount of time. Okay, Wachung, I know short, and of course, short hills mall, I know that. You gotta know that, I figured you knew that one, but how are you? Have you seen pictures of the Livingston Mall recently? It's, it's like detritus. It's just garan. There's no, there's nothing there. It's so sad. It's the way it is these days, right? People are shopping online. I know. I mean, shopping malls, it's funny that, because I, you know, growing up in New Jersey, it's like there isn't a shopping mall I hadn't been inside of and I got to LA and I was like, I remember, I was dating this guy who loved going to shopping malls and I was like, buddy, I'm wrapped on shopping malls. Right. In a shopping mall, please don't take me to another one. Well, good news for, well, I guess it's not good news because you don't want to go to a shopping mall. Chelsea's tour, the high in mighty tour comes through Detroit February 21st at the Fillmore. Great mall, great shopping mall in Detroit. It's called Detroit. Yeah, great, great shop. You'll love it. I mean, high end stuff. I mean, you don't have to go there more than once, but great mall in Detroit. It's called the Somerset collection in Troy. It's beautiful. You'll love it. Oh, maybe I can do that. Maybe I can go there and just do a full sweep. Like like what, who was it back in the day? Did like tours in the mall? Was it Debbie Gibson, Debbie Gibson. Erick Tiffany. One of the Tiffany or Debbie Gibson. Yeah. Like it's Chelsea Handlers high in mighty tour coming through a mall near you. Just kidding. Come into the fill on February 21st. I know the internet is all BS Chelsea, but I read something that like early on in your career, you really wanted to be an actor or an actress. What, what made you switch to stand up comedy? I think once I went on a couple of auditions and realized that, that was not easy or it was easier to use my own words than to read another person's words. And I didn't even consider a stand up comedy until I was in until I was like, someone just said you should be a stand up comic. And I was like, huh, I'm like, that's interesting. And I was like, you get on the stage. You have a microphone. No one else is talking. Interesting thought, but I was really scared of the idea. And then I just did it because I was like, you know what, I'll try anything. And it was really terrifying, but also equally as exhilarating. And if I had known, you know, like where it would take me, I would have started a lot earlier. So it was definitely, it's a great avenue to maintain autonomy over your career. Like stand up is where you make the rules and nobody can really tell you what to do. Even with your specials, you deliver them to like Netflix or, you know, whomever is buying it and they put it on the air. So it was a kind of nice template for the rest of my career about being completely autonomous. We always have funny person growing up. Did you make your family laugh? Were you always that type of person? Yeah. I mean, when I was six, I asked my father if he had a dowry because I was so worried about their financial situation. So I was, I was the youngest of six. So I had to be outspoken and I had to get attention in a different way. And I had to get food in a different way. So our whole family is very like sarcastic, you know, we're very dry. And but I noticed that I got the best attention for being precocious and for being outspoken and saying the things because nobody expected a six or seven year old. My brothers used to take me to like their fraternity parties and they'd be like, go go up to this guy and go tell him what an idiot he is. And I'd be like, all right. And I was seven and then that, you know, go off on somebody and walk away. And everyone would be like, way, oh my God, you just got told off my seven year old girl. So, you know, I got rewarded for that behavior early on. And then as you get older and grow up, you're like, okay, maybe I should be a little bit more discerning. So, you know, I'm still learning the celebrity job or podcast with Jeff Zito, the celebrity job or podcast with Jeff Zito. So your parents working professionals. Who what? Who was it that made you want to give? They weren't in the business, right? They were just regular working family. So working is a loose term for my family. My dad was, my dad was a used car dealer. So like he was not really working. He had like a phone call and a, to show a car every three or four days. And my mother only worked when we were really broke. And when we weren't poor, you know, we were fine. I was never hungry, but we weren't rolling in the dough or anything like that. So my dad, but my dad and mom were like, my dad was so embarrassing. He would just walk around and like, you know, boots all summer long. And he would walk, he would come to school for like my two parents teacher conferences and a sweater covered in dog hair. Like he was the parent you just did not want to be seen with publicly. I'm having a visual of another person that I know that comes to the parent teacher conference that looks like a wreck. So I can, you're painting a good picture. What about, what about your very first job? Can you tell me about it before comedy? Did you have a, did you have a job in in Livingston? Did you have a job at New Jersey? What was your very first paying gig? Well, I first I started to lemonade stand when I was eight years old. I started to lemonade stand. And as soon as I realized that I was going to make about $6 a day, I started, I came, I came home. I told my sister who was open the business with me. I said, you're fired. This is too much overhead. I'm going to start a hard lemonade stand and I brought it to Kiela and whiskey to the lemonade stand and started mixing cocktails for the parents of the kids that wanted to lemonade. And then I started to make some serious cash. That was when I was eight years old. And you're not kidding. You really, you were, I mean, a bar tender at eight years old. Oh, yeah. And then after that, my next gig was, this is all of my most recent book that I put out last year, but I, the next year I, or the next, my next job was when I was 10, I was like, this lemonade stand isn't enough money. Like I got to make more money. And I was like, okay, and I always looked older. So when I was 10, I looked like I could pass for 15. So when I was 10, I started a babysitting company and I called all the hotels in the area and it's like, my name is Chelsea handler. I'm 15 years old. I'm a very experienced babysitter. I can babysit for up to three children at one time. I spent that summer as a 10 year old, posing as a 15 year old babysitting for a 14 year old boy. Oh, man, you've lived the life, haven't you? Yeah, I got started early. I needed to separate from my family early because I was like, wait a second. This isn't the scene that I want to be in. Like these people are disorganized. There's too many children. Nobody has a savings account. I wanted organization. I wanted housekeeper. I wanted to be wealthy. I wanted to work and I wanted to be independent. Celebrity jobber, the celebrity jobber podcast with Jeff Zito. So you want to get into showbiz, you're 19 years old. You moved to California. You get into showbiz a little bit. Tell me what the phone call or what changed your life? Was there like that one situation? I'm sure there was a gradual grind. You worked hard, but was there a particular moment in your life? Something happened and you go, wow, I think this could be the big break. The life could change forever. Yeah. I mean, girls behaving badly was the first show that I did, which was a hidden camera show. It was on the oxygen network, which was really, really fun. But I guess my big break was, I think it was, I would say the biggest thing to tell you you're going in the right direction was my first big development deal, which happened before girls behaving badly. I got a deal with NBC about writing a show about my life. And it was like, you know, they paid me a lot of money at that time, which I was waiting tables. And that just made me realize that I was on the right track. You know, like if a network like that believed that I could have a show based around me, then I, then I knew, okay, this is proof that I'm doing the right thing. And then I'm not crazy in that I have something that somebody, you know, something that that is original. And so that was, I would say more of a seminal moment because there were so many breaks, you know, Chelsea lately with break, getting my first book published, having New York, you know, six, seven, you know, like it's just, it's all very, you have ups and downs. And once you start making it, it's not like it's smooth sailing for everybody. It's not. There are always bumps along the way. So I know people sometimes look at like celebrities is like, oh, everything's so easy. It's like, no, no, no, you don't know what goes on. The competitiveness and all of the stuff that goes on behind the scenes is just like what everybody else in the world is dealing with. You, you, this is a podcast about jobs. You do a podcast. You do a lot of different jobs. You just mentioned last last year. Yeah, it came out with a book last year. You had a Netflix comedy special this year going out on the road. High and mighty tour, by the way, the film, more in Detroit February 21st, Chelsea handler dot com. If you want to get a list of all of her tour dates, I think I feel like I need to, uh, why are you going to all of the cold places, uh, by the way, in the winter time, we should, we should get you into the warm sunshine and Florida during the winter time. And then, and then in the summertime, bring it a Detroit and Milwaukee. I think the, the whole thing is, is backwards. Uh, I need to work on your, on your team. I know. Well, I'm not afraid of the cold weather. I have to tell you I actually, I'm, I'm a cold weather person. I'm in Whistler, Canada right now to, you know, I have a place up here because I love skiing so much in the winter. But I do not like the heat. I do not like touring in the summertime. I do not know. I do some of these theaters you get in in the summertime. And you're like, oh, I can't breathe. I like the cold weather. So yeah, that's a personal preference of mine to be quite honest. Well, I'm talking about all of your jobs, like I said, podcast or Netflix comedy, special book, Vegas residency. Um, you just to work a holic or you somebody that can enjoy a little downtime. No, I, I enjoy a lot of downtime. That's where I get all my material for my tours. I have to, I have to relax as hard as I work so that I can actually have experiences to talk about on stage, which is what this tour is about. High and Medi tour. I went, I just came back from Antarctica. I mean, I traveled the world. I went, I've been to like 43 countries this year, last year. So and I've been passing out microdoses of LSD everywhere I go. And it has been healing the world. I felt like I had to really step up my game and start helping people. And that's what I've been doing. So now when I take drugs, it's not just for me. It's for the global community. Celebrity jobber. The celebrity jobber podcast with Jeff Sido. That show Chelsea lately. I mean, I got to mention it because you, what you did for so many other comedians, you were like, uh, you were like a female Johnny Carson in a sense, right? You helped so many other standups become stars, become stars. And that's what, you know, Johnny Carson did for, for comedy. Um, did that, was that just an accident? Tell me a little bit about Chelsea lately. It's, it's over now. Is there a chance you come back to late night TV? No, no, this isn't the time to come back to late night. I don't think I mean, listen, we've had conversations over the years, but it's just never been the right, you know, that show ended because I was kind of done with it. It was seven years. I think I do believe in that seven year itch thing. Like there's always a turning over of like new ideas in seven years. And you kind of grow up and you're like, how much longer can I talk about these things that, you know, at a certain point it became mean. It was like, you know, these girls are suffering Lindsey Lowens and bringing years and I'm not helping the situation. And while it was a very fun show and it launched so many people's careers, I don't regret anything about it. I, I just was ready to move on. And one of the things I really do like about myself is the willingness to quit something of that, like of that nature, you know, most people are too scared to move on. And, and I didn't think twice about it. I just was like, I'm done with this. I'm ready to move on. I want to learn some other things. I want to grow up a little bit and I want to challenge myself. So to me, main, like remaining on that show felt like coasting. And I just felt like I was coasting for over a year. And I'm like, I have to travel. I want to go do, you know, Netflix gave me money to do all these documentaries. I traveled the world. I went to go to India. I got to Japan. We went to Peru. I did Ayahuasca on camera in Peru. It was a meaningful time and it was a great leap that I took because it was really kind of just like, screw it. Let's see what happens. And that's my kind of attitude. And I always, I always want to impart that with people because, you know, to get big rewards, you do have to take big leaps of faith. And a lot of us are gets get really scared and a lot of us don't have the financial freedom to do that, you know. So I just like to talk about, you know, taking chances and risks because they really do pay off. Very cool. Chelsea Handler.com. Her standup coming to a city near you if you live in the cold weather, high and mighty tour. Chelsea handler.com. The fill in the D on February 21st. And don't forget about them all. The summer set collection and Troy. I'll be at the Troy mall. That'll be a fill in the D. I like the way you say. Chelsea handler. Thank you so much. It's real pleasure talking to you. Take care. Have a great day. Thank you. So Chelsea handler moved from New Jersey to Los Angeles when she was 19. Pursued acting while working as a waitress to help support herself. It says when Chelsea was 21, she decided to pursue standup comedy after telling her story about being arrested for driving under the influence to a class of other offenders who actually found her story funny. And as the legend goes, she switched her focus from acting to stand up. Chelsea handler sense a humor came from her family. She said she had a sarcastic family. And she had older siblings. She had two sisters and three brothers. She grew up in a very affluent town in New Jersey. She said her parents weren't poor, but they definitely weren't rolling in the dough. She said her mother only worked when the family was really broke and her father was a used car dealer. And her entrepreneurial spirit actually started when she was really, really young when talking about her very first jobs. She says at eight years old, she started a lemonade stand. Sounds pretty cute, doesn't it? But no, she said it was a hard lemonade stand where she took her parents whiskey and tequila and mixed stiff lemonades for all the local parents in the neighborhood, which is pretty hysterical because I remember just seeing a meme the other day of a kid in the 80s holding a handwritten note signed by their parents granting permission to the clerk at the local convenience store to sell their child a pack of cigarettes. That's how it used to go back then. I remember doing it for my mother. She smoked Salem lights. She would write me a note and I'd hand it to the cashier. They'd sell me the cigarettes eight years old on my bike. So at first I thought Chelsea's hard lemonade stand was kind of a joke, but no, she's serious. Then she talked about a business she formed at 10 years old where she called all the local hotels said she was a 15 year old experienced babysitter. And she said all summer long, she's 10 years old posing as a 15 year old babysitter, babysitting 14 year old kids at 10 years old. And Chelsea said she had a lot of breaks in her career along the way. She said getting her first book published was a break. Of course the show Chelsea lately was a big break for her, but she said probably the seminal moment in her life where she knew she was headed in the right direction was when NBC gave her a development deal to write a show about her life. At the time she was a young stand up, waiting tables and a major network gave her a lot of money to start developing and writing her own show. And that was years before she got the show Chelsea lately, which was her own half hour late night comedy series on E ran for seven years and definitely helped launch the careers of a lot of comedians as I referenced that Chelsea was a female Johnny Carson. It's true. You know, kind of a workaholic I'd say last year Netflix comedy special she came out with a book. Of course her podcast dear Chelsea, she says she does get quite a lot of downtime. She loves to travel and she hates hot weather. And back on the road to stand up kicks off January 31st with a residency in Las Vegas and dates for her high and mighty tour are posted on her website Chelsea Handler dot com. Well it sounds like Chelsea was going to be successful after hearing about her story and her entrepreneurial spirit when she was eight and ten years old forming her own businesses from a sarcastic family where she got her sense of humor kind of all makes sense, doesn't it? So thanks again for checking out another episode of the celebrity job or podcast streaming on Apple podcast Spotify iHeart or wherever you listen to podcasts, please subscribe, hit that subscribe button and with love of five star rating and please leave a review. You can go back in time check out past guests and episodes by visiting celebrity jobber dot com. Chelsea Handler's parents weren't in show business her dad was a used car salesman and just like other young actors and comedians she was waiting tables had a regular life before fame. Everybody's got their own story. Anyway that's all for now. Thank you again for checking out the celebrity job or podcast until next week I'll see you then I'm Jeff Zito.
