Latest / Life Will Be the Death of Me with Chelsea Handler / Fueled by Anger with Billy Eichner
Transcript
- 0:01Speaker 1: Hello everybody. Hello, Yo, Hi Chelsea, Hi, Hi, how are you?
- 0:07Speaker 2: Oh?
- 0:07Speaker 1: You know all over the shop? I'm all over the shop.
- 0:11Speaker 3: Indeed, Chelsea, can I ask you for a piece of advice?
- 0:14Speaker 3: Or really it's a general question for the Hoi POLOI
- 0:17Speaker 3: the hoy bleet, for our dear listeners. What's the ideal
- 0:21Speaker 3: length for a dinner with friends?
- 0:25Speaker 4: Well, if it's an obligatory dinner, okay, I would say
- 0:30Speaker 4: ninety minutes.
- 0:31Speaker 5: Okay.
- 0:32Speaker 1: I like to make a dinner two hours.
- 0:34Speaker 4: When you're with friends and it's not obligatory and you're
- 0:37Speaker 4: catching up, I would say two hours, two and a
- 0:40Speaker 4: half hours, okay. And if it goes anything longer than that,
- 0:43Speaker 4: you're having a fucking blast.
- 0:45Speaker 1: That is true. Lunch is better if it's obligatory, because
- 0:48Speaker 1: that can.
- 0:48Speaker 3: Be an yeah and everyone No one expects for that
- 0:50Speaker 3: to go to in a half hours, because people.
- 0:52Speaker 4: Got no, no, no, no, unless you're in Europe and everyone's
- 0:54Speaker 4: shit faced, which is my kind of LuFe shit.
- 0:58Speaker 3: So if you're ready for people to leave, Let's say
- 1:01Speaker 3: you had a dinner at your house, and.
- 1:02Speaker 1: I already that.
- 1:03Speaker 4: I don't do that anymore for that reason. But I
- 1:06Speaker 4: actually haven't had a house at a long time. I
- 1:07Speaker 4: mean I've been in that rental house. I was in
- 1:09Speaker 4: that rental house for two years, so I wasn't really
- 1:12Speaker 4: into entertaining there. I have had people over for dinner,
- 1:15Speaker 4: like for certain you know, but very casually, not dinner parties.
- 1:18Speaker 4: When I had my old house, I would I would
- 1:20Speaker 4: have dinner parties a lot. So I hope that when
- 1:22Speaker 4: I move into my new house, I will continue to
- 1:25Speaker 4: do the same thing.
- 1:25Speaker 1: I'm sure I.
- 1:26Speaker 4: Will, because then i'll have you'll have your own, my
- 1:28Speaker 4: own prime. And I don't like showing off a rental house,
- 1:31Speaker 4: right right, Not that I have people over to show
- 1:33Speaker 4: off my house, but there it feels more like you're
- 1:35Speaker 4: it's representative of.
- 1:36Speaker 1: Who you are, totally.
- 1:38Speaker 2: Yeah.
- 1:38Speaker 4: So like my rental house feels like I'm in an
- 1:40Speaker 4: apartment that I don't know about.
- 1:41Speaker 1: Like and I don't know my way around.
- 1:43Speaker 5: Yeah.
- 1:43Speaker 3: Well, and I know that when we were in MAYORCA
- 1:46Speaker 3: with you, when you were ready for the party to
- 1:48Speaker 3: be over or you were done with the dinner, you would.
- 1:51Speaker 5: Just go to bed, which yeah, yeah, I've done.
- 1:53Speaker 1: That's my move. I just go to sleep, And I
- 1:54Speaker 1: don't mind if people hang out without me. You know,
- 1:57Speaker 1: like at my house. Oh see that's great. Yeah, so
- 2:01Speaker 1: what I'm done.
- 2:02Speaker 4: I mean, I do go to bed early, you know,
- 2:04Speaker 4: I typically like even, but in my Orca like early
- 2:07Speaker 4: is like eleven o'clock.
- 2:09Speaker 1: But yeah, I don't stay up late. It's just not
- 2:13Speaker 1: my thing.
- 2:13Speaker 3: We've had a couple of times recently where we've had
- 2:15Speaker 3: people over and I'm like, okay, there's like the few
- 2:18Speaker 3: stragglers and I'm like, what is the thing that you
- 2:21Speaker 3: say to be like it's time to leave?
- 2:23Speaker 4: If you just have to say I'm wrapping it up.
- 2:25Speaker 4: You guys are welcome to stay, but I've got to
- 2:26Speaker 4: get into bed.
- 2:27Speaker 5: Oh I love that and I love it.
- 2:28Speaker 4: And then they can decide if they want to hang
- 2:30Speaker 4: out while you're in bed in your own house. Yeah,
- 2:32Speaker 4: you know which to me, Actually, I love having people around,
- 2:36Speaker 4: but it's like I'm not I can't be beholden too
- 2:38Speaker 4: the situation for too long.
- 2:40Speaker 5: Yeah.
- 2:40Speaker 4: Yeah, I know what you mean. You kind of got
- 2:42Speaker 4: to get it rid of people sometimes.
- 2:43Speaker 5: Yeah.
- 2:44Speaker 3: Well, we have a very exciting guest today.
- 2:48Speaker 4: Oh yeah, very very funny. Little birdie in a tree.
- 2:51Speaker 4: His name you might recognize him from how many things?
- 2:54Speaker 4: As would you recognize he's an actor, writer, producer, Billy.
- 2:57Speaker 1: I can never well, I'm happy to see you you.
- 3:00Speaker 5: Ever be we've met, not in person.
- 3:02Speaker 1: I don't think it can't be possible, I know, but.
- 3:05Speaker 6: I don't think we did ever. Maybe No, wait, I
- 3:10Speaker 6: think we maybe did at March for our Lives in DC.
- 3:15Speaker 5: Okay, were you there?
- 3:16Speaker 1: Sounds about right?
- 3:17Speaker 6: Yeah, I think I met you very briefly. Wow, Charlie's
- 3:21Speaker 6: was there?
- 3:21Speaker 1: Yes, Yes, a group of us went.
- 3:23Speaker 5: We were like in a big group.
- 3:26Speaker 1: That's when marches first started happening again.
- 3:29Speaker 5: Now we're desensitized. Oh another march.
- 3:33Speaker 1: This world is so it is that we're living in
- 3:36Speaker 1: it is.
- 3:37Speaker 4: I'm like, the more depressing it becomes, the more optimistic
- 3:41Speaker 4: I become because I took good thing I have to.
- 3:44Speaker 4: I can't go down that road again from like when
- 3:47Speaker 4: I talk about that, I mean when Trump was president,
- 3:50Speaker 4: but all the dissension, the divisiveness, the hate, the meanness,
- 3:54Speaker 4: the discrimination, Like I can't even look at it for
- 3:57Speaker 4: too long.
- 3:58Speaker 1: And I've understood now how important is to.
- 4:01Speaker 4: Remain optimistic and invoke hope and other people, even if
- 4:06Speaker 4: it's faking it. I want other people to feel better
- 4:09Speaker 4: after they see me.
- 4:10Speaker 6: Yeah, No, you're right. I mean, God, who knew it?
- 4:14Speaker 6: March for our lives? Like how much worse it would be?
- 4:17Speaker 1: How much marching we were going to have to do
- 4:19Speaker 1: about everything?
- 4:20Speaker 5: Yeah, nothing is really a wake up call.
- 4:22Speaker 4: That's the problem, because everything is so ephemeral, and I
- 4:25Speaker 4: think that is a direct result of well, I would
- 4:28Speaker 4: say the Kardashians, but I would say more social media.
- 4:31Speaker 5: Right, I was just going to say it's social media.
- 4:34Speaker 4: Nothing seems important because no one cares about anything because
- 4:38Speaker 4: there's such an influx of information that who what are
- 4:41Speaker 4: you supposed.
- 4:41Speaker 1: To care about? And I'm happier like Billy Iikner. I
- 4:46Speaker 1: want to talk to you.
- 4:46Speaker 4: First of all, congratulations on the first major gay movie production.
- 4:51Speaker 5: Thank you.
- 4:51Speaker 4: I wanted to specifically talk to you about a scene
- 4:54Speaker 4: in the movie where you talk about confidence, huh, because
- 4:57Speaker 4: Catherine agreed that that was a very poignant part of
- 4:59Speaker 4: the movie. And I want to talk to you about
- 5:02Speaker 4: confidence because the conversation talks about whether you're faking it
- 5:06Speaker 4: or whether you have it, and I find those two
- 5:09Speaker 4: things to blend together a pretty right.
- 5:12Speaker 6: Yeah, you know, it is essentially fake it till you
- 5:15Speaker 6: make it, and anyone in show business understands that. I think,
- 5:19Speaker 6: I mean, you have to in order to keep going.
- 5:22Speaker 6: But I'm talking about how confidence is a choice like
- 5:26Speaker 6: any other, and it really is you have to wake
- 5:29Speaker 6: up and decide to be confident. It's not like you're
- 5:32Speaker 6: born with it.
- 5:33Speaker 4: You know, it's not a tree, not you guys. It's
- 5:36Speaker 4: not much more serious than that. But I do think
- 5:39Speaker 4: it's an interesting topic because there's arrogance, right, which is
- 5:43Speaker 4: different than confidence.
- 5:44Speaker 1: Arrogance.
- 5:45Speaker 4: I've been very guilty of arrogance in my life likewise,
- 5:48Speaker 4: and I've also had a lot of confidence too, And
- 5:51Speaker 4: some people say, oh, you know.
- 5:53Speaker 1: Those two things can get money as well.
- 5:56Speaker 4: And I think from an early age you kind of
- 5:59Speaker 4: decide what kind of person you are naturally, and as
- 6:04Speaker 4: you get older, you're kind of always if you're looking within,
- 6:08Speaker 4: you're trying to chip away or add and make that
- 6:11Speaker 4: person the potential of who you can be, right, the
- 6:14Speaker 4: best potential of who you can be. Yeah, So tell
- 6:17Speaker 4: me about your kind of experience with that.
- 6:20Speaker 1: Do you go to therapy? Do you have a therapist?
- 6:22Speaker 6: I do, although only I started therapy about a year
- 6:28Speaker 6: and a half ago for the first time ever in
- 6:31Speaker 6: my life, and I was always very pro therapy. I
- 6:36Speaker 6: lost both of my parents, but just even then, never
- 6:39Speaker 6: felt the need to go to therapy until about a
- 6:42Speaker 6: year and a half ago, and I'm glad that I did.
- 6:45Speaker 5: It's great.
- 6:47Speaker 4: How did you decide that you needed to go to therapy?
- 6:50Speaker 4: What was happening in your life that you decided, If.
- 6:53Speaker 6: You want to know the truth, it was. We had
- 6:57Speaker 6: just wrapped shooting. It was challenging. It was really hard,
- 7:02Speaker 6: and sometimes it would really stress me out, and my
- 7:06Speaker 6: anxiety about it was, I think, looking back, irrational sometimes,
- 7:12Speaker 6: but I just put so much pressure on myself and
- 7:14Speaker 6: I wanted it to be so many things, and that
- 7:17Speaker 6: movie had very specific challenges, you know, like stay honest
- 7:21Speaker 6: for the gay people and for yourself, but make it
- 7:25Speaker 6: clear for straight people and you know, not alienating. And
- 7:29Speaker 6: I lost sleep at night worrying about studio notes and
- 7:32Speaker 6: things like that. So I got through the writing process
- 7:35Speaker 6: we shot the movie. Shooting the movie was wonderful, and
- 7:39Speaker 6: the cast was incredible, and the whole cast was openly LGBTQ,
- 7:43Speaker 6: which never happens, and so the set felt felt very special.
- 7:47Speaker 6: We got to shoot it in New York that was magical.
- 7:50Speaker 6: But when we wrapped the movie. I was really worried
- 7:54Speaker 6: about the post production process and about editing the movie
- 8:00Speaker 6: because I thought, Okay, well, I was a co writer,
- 8:02Speaker 6: so I had some control over the script, and I'm acting.
- 8:05Speaker 5: In the movie.
- 8:06Speaker 6: I'm starring in the movie, and I've been on many
- 8:08Speaker 6: sets and I've acted in many things. So the shooting
- 8:10Speaker 6: of the movie I felt good about. But the editing process,
- 8:14Speaker 6: I thought, I don't have power here. Technically, I'm not
- 8:18Speaker 6: the director, I'm not an editor.
- 8:20Speaker 5: I'm an EP. But EP is kind of a bullshit thing.
- 8:23Speaker 6: And I thought, oh god, I'm going to lose control
- 8:25Speaker 6: of the movie over the quality of the movie, which
- 8:29Speaker 6: actually didn't happen at all, and so many things that
- 8:33Speaker 6: I it was interesting. So many things that I worried
- 8:35Speaker 6: about ended up being things I did not need to
- 8:38Speaker 6: worry about, and things I never really thought about ended
- 8:41Speaker 6: up being things maybe I should have thought about more.
- 8:44Speaker 6: But I got a therapist because I was so worried
- 8:48Speaker 6: about the post production, which is really where the movie
- 8:50Speaker 6: comes together. The movie can live and die in the
- 8:52Speaker 6: editing room, and I was so stressed about that that
- 8:56Speaker 6: I thought I am going to get a therapist. At
- 8:58Speaker 6: the beginning of this process to help me navigate all
- 9:02Speaker 6: of this, because there were times where I would get
- 9:06Speaker 6: into my car after a meeting or something and I
- 9:08Speaker 6: would like get into a fetal position. I was like
- 9:12Speaker 6: so stressed, and that's why I got a therapist, honestly,
- 9:16Speaker 6: was to guide me through that process. And I'm really
- 9:19Speaker 6: glad I did.
- 9:20Speaker 1: And within your therapy did the death of your parents.
- 9:23Speaker 4: Obviously that's something a topic that you have to discuss
- 9:26Speaker 4: in therapy, right How no were you?
- 9:27Speaker 2: Can?
- 9:28Speaker 1: I ask you how old you were?
- 9:28Speaker 4: Sure?
- 9:29Speaker 6: I was young when my mom died. I was twenty
- 9:31Speaker 6: years old when my mom died. I was in college
- 9:34Speaker 6: and it happened out of nowhere. She had a heart
- 9:36Speaker 6: attack and died. Which is that you know, people have
- 9:40Speaker 6: parents died at a younger age. It's very different to
- 9:43Speaker 6: have a parent die when you're five than to have
- 9:45Speaker 6: a parent die when you're twenty. I had my mom
- 9:48Speaker 6: through my formative childhood years and teenage years and she
- 9:52Speaker 6: was fantastic, But twenty is still young. And then my dad,
- 9:57Speaker 6: my dad was older than my mom, had me late
- 10:00Speaker 6: later in life, so he died about eleven twelve years ago.
- 10:04Speaker 6: He was eighty, you know, he wasn't young, but also
- 10:10Speaker 6: was somewhat unexpected.
- 10:12Speaker 5: He was pretty healthy for.
- 10:13Speaker 6: An eighty year old, and all of a sudden was
- 10:16Speaker 6: diagnosed with leukemia. The doctor said he has two to
- 10:19Speaker 6: nine months to live, and less than three months later
- 10:22Speaker 6: he was gone. So but you know, strangely enough, I
- 10:27Speaker 6: haven't really talked about that in therapy much.
- 10:30Speaker 1: Really.
- 10:31Speaker 5: Yeah, he's my.
- 10:32Speaker 6: Therapist, isn't very he'sn't like one of these like let's
- 10:35Speaker 6: deal with your childhood types of guys. It's more practical,
- 10:39Speaker 6: like the day to day Uh huh, you know, for
- 10:42Speaker 6: better or worse.
- 10:42Speaker 5: I don't know.
- 10:43Speaker 1: Yeah, no, I think I think all of that stuff.
- 10:46Speaker 4: You know, I think, well, when it happens when you're twenty,
- 10:48Speaker 4: I think you're still a baby. You know, that trauma
- 10:53Speaker 4: when someone's snatched away from you in your life, it
- 10:56Speaker 4: is definitely traumatic. But yeah, there are all sorts of
- 10:59Speaker 4: different types of therapy. From what I gleaned from therapy,
- 11:02Speaker 4: which was a lot.
- 11:04Speaker 1: If you don't deal with your.
- 11:05Speaker 4: Trauma, it will deal with you at a certain point,
- 11:07Speaker 4: and it'll deal with you in situations like you're talking about,
- 11:10Speaker 4: like where we get in our heads and we're totally
- 11:12Speaker 4: stressed out because our trauma does work for us for
- 11:15Speaker 4: a while, because that's your motivation. Like you almost have
- 11:17Speaker 4: more gas because you've been so hurt or you've.
- 11:21Speaker 1: Felt such loss that you're even more motivated.
- 11:24Speaker 6: Anger can be such a motivated factor. Yeah, both creatively
- 11:28Speaker 6: for me. I mean, I've really leaned into anger as
- 11:32Speaker 6: a comedic tool. Obviously I did in my early live
- 11:36Speaker 6: stage shows in New York, So that persona I realized
- 11:40Speaker 6: kind of early on, not as an actor per se,
- 11:43Speaker 6: but as a comedian. Once I had to generate my
- 11:45Speaker 6: own material, people really loved it. The angrier I got,
- 11:49Speaker 6: the more the audience loved it. And I thought, oh,
- 11:52Speaker 6: that's interesting because it's really not how I am in
- 11:55Speaker 6: real life. I know people always kind of don't believe that,
- 11:58Speaker 6: but if you know me, the whole angry thing, it's
- 12:01Speaker 6: very divorced from who I am in real life, and
- 12:04Speaker 6: yet I.
- 12:05Speaker 5: Can really turn it on.
- 12:07Speaker 6: I'm good at it from a performance standpoint, and people
- 12:11Speaker 6: really liked when I did it. And then behind the
- 12:14Speaker 6: scenes anger, the rejection and all of that, you know,
- 12:19Speaker 6: the oh I'm openly gay. I was always openly gay
- 12:23Speaker 6: at a time in comedy, you know, twenty plus years ago,
- 12:27Speaker 6: when there weren't many.
- 12:28Speaker 1: Of them, only tig. It was only tigh.
- 12:30Speaker 6: I mean literally there were a few. You know, Guy
- 12:33Speaker 6: Brandham was around, but I didn't know him.
- 12:35Speaker 1: I knew Guy, I knew guy I worked with me.
- 12:38Speaker 6: Yeah, of course, and so but at the time I
- 12:40Speaker 6: was looking around, you know, and I was I just
- 12:42Speaker 6: didn't have many gay peers in comedy.
- 12:45Speaker 5: Now there are so many.
- 12:47Speaker 6: I'm so like envious of these younger kids in comedy
- 12:50Speaker 6: because so many of them are gay, queer, non binary,
- 12:54Speaker 6: and they have each other to lean on and to
- 12:56Speaker 6: work with.
- 12:57Speaker 5: I didn't.
- 12:57Speaker 6: I didn't really have that, and yet that became a
- 13:00Speaker 6: motivating force. Like I remember, I had a manager in
- 13:03Speaker 6: New York, a straight woman actually, who told me that
- 13:07Speaker 6: she was going to invite a bunch of agents to
- 13:09Speaker 6: see me and asked me if I could make the
- 13:12Speaker 6: show less Gay that month, right, just flat out asked me.
- 13:16Speaker 6: That This was at a time. This is two thousand
- 13:18Speaker 6: and six, so you could still ask that question, I guess,
- 13:20Speaker 6: and not fear, you know that someone was gonna tweet
- 13:23Speaker 6: about it and destroy your career. And she was asking
- 13:26Speaker 6: me that because she wanted the best for me, and
- 13:28Speaker 6: she thought that was in my best interest, and I
- 13:32Speaker 6: did the show that month. The agents came and they
- 13:35Speaker 6: signed me, and it was, you know, worked out. And
- 13:37Speaker 6: she said to me, you know, I have to ask
- 13:39Speaker 6: the agents. Loved it, but I think you made the
- 13:42Speaker 6: show gayer this month than it's ever been. Why did
- 13:46Speaker 6: you do that when I asked you to do the opposite?
- 13:48Speaker 6: And I was like, I don't know. I mean I
- 13:50Speaker 6: didn't sit down and say I am going to rebel
- 13:53Speaker 6: against what you told me. But I think subconsciously maybe
- 13:56Speaker 6: I did. I always had that in me. It was
- 13:59Speaker 6: like I was that gay kid who like I loved
- 14:01Speaker 6: Madonna growing up and like she was so rebellious and
- 14:04Speaker 6: like I had that in me. And I also think
- 14:08Speaker 6: because my parents were so supportive as a kid, they
- 14:12Speaker 6: were so supportive and overprotective. It was I had a
- 14:16Speaker 6: lot of unconditional love as a kid, even as a
- 14:18Speaker 6: gay kid.
- 14:20Speaker 5: I was really lucky.
- 14:21Speaker 1: Even what age did you know that you were gay?
- 14:24Speaker 6: I mean, I don't remember the exact moment I thought,
- 14:27Speaker 6: oh I'm gay.
- 14:28Speaker 1: You know, tell you were gay?
- 14:30Speaker 5: Basically they knew.
- 14:31Speaker 6: I was like, you know, when you took me to
- 14:32Speaker 6: the you know, Barbar Streisan concert.
- 14:34Speaker 5: I think that you knew. Well, yeah, it was exactly.
- 14:38Speaker 6: The first guy I remember having a crush on was
- 14:41Speaker 6: this is funny Keith Hernandez of the nineteen eighty six
- 14:44Speaker 6: Oh I got that.
- 14:45Speaker 1: Was the year of the World Series.
- 14:46Speaker 5: Yes, and they won. And I grew up in Queens
- 14:49Speaker 5: where with Gary Carter.
- 14:51Speaker 1: I was obsessed with Gary Carter.
- 14:53Speaker 5: It was an amazing team. Let me extra all the mookie.
- 14:56Speaker 1: Well she became Coast Strawberry mookie.
- 14:59Speaker 5: That's right, Yes, they became awful people.
- 15:01Speaker 4: I remember seeing this like what it was before Cribs,
- 15:04Speaker 4: but whenever they showcased someone's house, and they were showcasing
- 15:07Speaker 4: Darryl Strawberry's apartment in New York City, and he had
- 15:10Speaker 4: white leather sofas everywhere, and the whole house was decorated
- 15:13Speaker 4: in a way. And even at that age, I was like,
- 15:15Speaker 4: this guy is doing cocaine. I could tell by his
- 15:18Speaker 4: furniture that he was fucking doing cocaine.
- 15:20Speaker 2: Oh.
- 15:20Speaker 6: Absolutely, and so and I remember a few years ago.
- 15:23Speaker 6: So my first crush was Keith Hernandez. This was nineteen
- 15:26Speaker 6: eighty six. I was eight years old, and I remember
- 15:29Speaker 6: and I at the time, I wouldn't have said like, oh,
- 15:31Speaker 6: I have a crush on him, but I remember just
- 15:35Speaker 6: being very drawn to him, like there was an attraction.
- 15:40Speaker 6: And I got so bummed because then a few years
- 15:42Speaker 6: ago I saw a photo of him and his wife
- 15:43Speaker 6: walking into mar A Lago. Of course, you know, it
- 15:46Speaker 6: was such a bummer, but yeah, him and John bon Jovi.
- 15:50Speaker 6: I really loved John bon Jovi as a kid.
- 15:53Speaker 1: Yeah, well that's hard not to do.
- 15:55Speaker 5: Yeah, and he was great looking and.
- 15:58Speaker 6: So yeah and so yeah, I was always like a
- 16:01Speaker 6: little rebellious, and I think I needed that. That anger
- 16:06Speaker 6: was a motivating.
- 16:07Speaker 4: It's a driving factor for sure, because I never knew
- 16:10Speaker 4: what people said when like it works until it will
- 16:12Speaker 4: work for you until it doesn't. I never understood that
- 16:15Speaker 4: phrase until I experienced it myself. Because my anger, my
- 16:18Speaker 4: personality was a huge driving force gave me a lot
- 16:21Speaker 4: of success. And then all of a sudden, it was
- 16:23Speaker 4: a big dark shadow on me. You know, all of
- 16:25Speaker 4: a sudden, I felt like, wait, I have it. And
- 16:28Speaker 4: it was because I had unrealized you know, grief trauma.
- 16:31Speaker 4: My brother died when I was a little girl, so
- 16:33Speaker 4: it was all that stuff, and it's amazing how far
- 16:35Speaker 4: can take you.
- 16:36Speaker 1: It's just really is like lightning in a bottle.
- 16:39Speaker 4: When somebody's angry and wants to get away from their feelings,
- 16:41Speaker 4: they will become successful.
- 16:43Speaker 5: It's true.
- 16:44Speaker 6: But you have to be careful because it can end
- 16:46Speaker 6: up defining you too in a way that you're not
- 16:50Speaker 6: comfortable with.
- 16:52Speaker 4: Well, that's yeah, and especially if you don't make the
- 16:54Speaker 4: pivot or you don't like look in, you know, because
- 16:57Speaker 4: it isn't the most pleasant work all the time. Anyway,
- 17:01Speaker 4: We're gonna take a quick break and we'll be right back.
- 17:08Speaker 5: And we're back perfect.
- 17:10Speaker 1: Okay.
- 17:10Speaker 4: So we give advice to real live callers on this podcast,
- 17:13Speaker 4: so we have people call it hopefully curated towards Billy
- 17:17Speaker 4: and his gayness.
- 17:18Speaker 5: Oh boy.
- 17:18Speaker 3: Our first question comes from Trev. Trev says, Dear Chelsea,
- 17:22Speaker 3: First time, long time. I'm a gay man in my
- 17:25Speaker 3: early fifties, and I'm married to a man who is
- 17:27Speaker 3: five years my junior. The age difference doesn't really come
- 17:30Speaker 3: into play often, but I'm dealing with one area of
- 17:32Speaker 3: our lives that I'm starting to grow out of and
- 17:35Speaker 3: he isn't, and that is alcohol. Don't get me wrong,
- 17:38Speaker 3: I'm not a teetotaler. I've had plenty of wild years
- 17:41Speaker 3: in my life. You name it, I drank it, snorted it,
- 17:43Speaker 3: put it on my tongue, fucked it, and lived to
- 17:45Speaker 3: tell the tale. I don't judge, and I believe the
- 17:48Speaker 3: body and mind are fun toys and you should experience
- 17:51Speaker 3: all the things they can do while you're alive. But
- 17:53Speaker 3: as I'm getting older, I find myself moving away from
- 17:56Speaker 3: wanting all of that, partially because I don't have the
- 17:58Speaker 3: energy or patience to deal with hangovers anymore, and partially because,
- 18:02Speaker 3: let's face it, a sloppy, drunk fifty something man ain't cute.
- 18:06Speaker 1: Amen, sister Amen.
- 18:10Speaker 3: Meanwhile, my spouse still loves to get trashed with buddies
- 18:13Speaker 3: on the weekends. I used to go along with it
- 18:15Speaker 3: and try to enjoy the raiders with him, but over
- 18:17Speaker 3: the past year or two I realized I honestly don't
- 18:19Speaker 3: enjoy getting drunk. I don't feel the need to chase
- 18:22Speaker 3: that buzz anymore. My husband isn't at that point yet.
- 18:26Speaker 3: Getting drunk is still kind of a hobby for him.
- 18:28Speaker 3: It's how he socializes with people. I don't think he
- 18:31Speaker 3: has any kind of serious problem, and he's responsible about
- 18:34Speaker 3: it generally. He's only a weekend day drinker, and his
- 18:37Speaker 3: drinking has never compromised his job or our household. But
- 18:40Speaker 3: when he throws down, he really throws down. He knows
- 18:43Speaker 3: I'm trying to bow out of the heavy drinking lifestyle.
- 18:46Speaker 3: But he does provide a little pressure with like, you
- 18:48Speaker 3: haven't gone to the bar with me in a long time,
- 18:50Speaker 3: and our friends are starting to ask about you. I
- 18:53Speaker 3: certainly don't want to give up drinking altogether. I will
- 18:55Speaker 3: always like a glass of wine or a good craft cocktail,
- 18:58Speaker 3: but I feel like my mind and body are both
- 19:00Speaker 3: aging out of wanting to drink just to get drunk.
- 19:03Speaker 3: I'm really excited about the thought of hanging out with
- 19:05Speaker 3: friends without having to get shit faced. After writing all this,
- 19:09Speaker 3: I need a stiff drink of kamboo chap.
- 19:11Speaker 1: Thanks Trev.
- 19:12Speaker 6: I was gonna say she's still on adderall because that's
- 19:14Speaker 6: a very long letter, and that's the.
- 19:17Speaker 5: Trimmed down version. Yeah, we got it.
- 19:20Speaker 6: Yeah, you don't want to drink as much as your
- 19:22Speaker 6: boyfriend got Yeah, some of.
- 19:24Speaker 1: These are very long winded lately. Indeed, indeed, I'll go first.
- 19:28Speaker 4: I think that if somebody if you're not into drinking,
- 19:30Speaker 4: that's great, And if your partner is responsible and doing
- 19:34Speaker 4: all the right things, but just gets ship faced and
- 19:36Speaker 4: sloppy once a week. Then I think you can tolerate
- 19:39Speaker 4: that and let him do his thing. He's going to
- 19:41Speaker 4: outgrow alcohol too. Probably it happens with age. You're not
- 19:44Speaker 4: as interested in getting shit faced when you're older.
- 19:47Speaker 1: I mean most of the time.
- 19:48Speaker 4: I think with most people, I'm trying to think of
- 19:50Speaker 4: some old ship face drunks that I know, But I'm like, wait,
- 19:53Speaker 4: I do.
- 19:54Speaker 1: Actually know a couple old drunks. Of course I do.
- 19:56Speaker 1: But yeah, I would say, let him do his thing.
- 19:58Speaker 4: Nobody wants to be policed or told what to do
- 20:01Speaker 4: within a relationship. And if you don't want to go
- 20:04Speaker 4: to the bar with him, you could just totally be
- 20:05Speaker 4: honest with him and say like, I'm not into that
- 20:07Speaker 4: right now, and don't frame it as that forever. Frame
- 20:10Speaker 4: it as right now, Like I'm just not interested in
- 20:13Speaker 4: that right now. I'm not interested in getting sloppy drunk.
- 20:15Speaker 4: And you know, who knows, maybe he'll be like, oh,
- 20:18Speaker 4: you know, once it's out there, and you know, without
- 20:21Speaker 4: judgment on him, you do your thing, let him do
- 20:24Speaker 4: his thing, and as long as it's not interrupting your lifestyle,
- 20:26Speaker 4: then there's really nothing for you to do except tolerate
- 20:29Speaker 4: it and go do something else on a Saturday night,
- 20:31Speaker 4: whatever you want to do.
- 20:32Speaker 6: Yeah, I agree. I think not framing it as forever
- 20:36Speaker 6: is really good advice. It could be tough in the
- 20:38Speaker 6: gay world. I know, it's obviously alcoholism exists everywhere, but
- 20:42Speaker 6: there's a lot of like social anxiety when gay men
- 20:45Speaker 6: get together. You know, it's very sexually charged, even if
- 20:48Speaker 6: you're in a long term couple, you know, because that
- 20:50Speaker 6: can be its own pressure. And you see a lot
- 20:54Speaker 6: of jug and alcohol abuse in the gay world, you do.
- 20:58Speaker 6: I have a lot of sober friends. They're sober because
- 21:01Speaker 6: for a long time they were very much not sober.
- 21:03Speaker 1: Is that how it works?
- 21:05Speaker 5: Have you ever heard of that?
- 21:06Speaker 6: Well, you know, gay guys party hard, sometimes not all.
- 21:10Speaker 6: I don't want to make generalizations, so and I would
- 21:13Speaker 6: imagine that, Yeah, there can be pressure to sort of
- 21:16Speaker 6: keep doing that, especially if you know your other half
- 21:19Speaker 6: is still doing it. But I think as long as
- 21:21Speaker 6: you communicate the fact that you have no problem with
- 21:24Speaker 6: him having a good time and that you just are
- 21:27Speaker 6: kind of, you know, shifting your behavior a little bit,
- 21:31Speaker 6: it shouldn't be an issue.
- 21:32Speaker 1: Yeah, I think that's a simple one.
- 21:34Speaker 4: I think we've I think we uh, we're not going
- 21:37Speaker 4: to talk as long as it took him to write
- 21:38Speaker 4: that letter.
- 21:40Speaker 3: Do you think he should still like go out, have
- 21:43Speaker 3: a couple of mocktails and then be like, see you
- 21:44Speaker 3: guys have fun getting shit faced, like I'm gonna.
- 21:46Speaker 1: Go see a movie.
- 21:47Speaker 3: Or is it sort of like say how many your jammies?
- 21:50Speaker 1: Yeah? Yeah, totally, Like that's nice.
- 21:52Speaker 4: That's a great suggestion, but go before everybody gets sloppy.
- 21:56Speaker 4: The sloppy part, Like, I couldn't agree with you more.
- 21:58Speaker 4: Nobody wants to be around a slop drunk, So I
- 22:01Speaker 4: mean that might be a motivation for his partner to
- 22:03Speaker 4: like not get so sloppy, you know, knowing how he
- 22:05Speaker 4: feels or knowing that he's not going to be part
- 22:07Speaker 4: of the equation.
- 22:07Speaker 1: It becomes a little bit lonely. Yeah.
- 22:10Speaker 3: Well, our first caller today is Amber. Amber says, dear Chelsea,
- 22:15Speaker 3: I'm writing to you as a long standing good girl
- 22:18Speaker 3: with codependent tendencies who's working hard to overcome my people
- 22:21Speaker 3: pleasing ways, all while raising a little badass eight year
- 22:25Speaker 3: old girl who has a strong ability to set boundaries.
- 22:28Speaker 3: Say it like it is with no filter, steps toe
- 22:30Speaker 3: to toe with anyone who challenges her, and is leading
- 22:33Speaker 3: the rest of the second grade girls into her sassy ways.
- 22:37Speaker 3: Problem is, I'm now discovering that she's not always using
- 22:40Speaker 3: her power for good. She's the leader of the mean
- 22:42Speaker 3: girls in second grade. Wow, I'm a long I know.
- 22:46Speaker 3: I'm a long standing fan and admirer of women like
- 22:49Speaker 3: my daughter, women like you who are comfortable in their
- 22:52Speaker 3: skin and don't seem to give a shit what others think,
- 22:55Speaker 3: free to set boundaries and live a life out loud.
- 22:57Speaker 3: I love it, I admire it, and I'm working hard
- 23:00Speaker 3: to be more like women like you and my daughter.
- 23:02Speaker 3: Question is how do I raise my little badass to
- 23:05Speaker 3: be powerful and kind? I don't want her to be
- 23:08Speaker 3: the asshole of everyone's childhood, but seriously don't want to
- 23:11Speaker 3: stunt her strength and power. What would you have wanted?
- 23:14Speaker 3: Thanks for the laughs and inspiration, Amber, And she's joining us.
- 23:18Speaker 7: Here, Hi Amber, Hi Chelsea, how are you?
- 23:21Speaker 2: Hi?
- 23:21Speaker 1: Billy Eichner's here as a special guest.
- 23:24Speaker 7: Billy's so nice to meet you.
- 23:27Speaker 1: That's so annoying.
- 23:28Speaker 4: I mean, I know what you mean, but I don't
- 23:30Speaker 4: think listen, I don't think of having a conversation about
- 23:32Speaker 4: kindness is going to put out her flame for life.
- 23:37Speaker 4: Kindness is part of being powerful, and I wish I
- 23:40Speaker 4: had learned that lesson at a very early age.
- 23:43Speaker 1: Was she bullied?
- 23:44Speaker 7: You know, that's interesting. You should ask that she did
- 23:47Speaker 7: deal with a bully a couple of years ago. And
- 23:49Speaker 7: I think that what's happening is she's she's learned she
- 23:53Speaker 7: is powerful, and so she's willing to step toe to toe.
- 23:56Speaker 7: So she's also perceiving aggression when sometimes there isn't a
- 23:59Speaker 7: gre I also think it goes a little bit deeper
- 24:02Speaker 7: in one of the reasons. She's got some things going
- 24:04Speaker 7: on in her world too that are upsetting her. And
- 24:07Speaker 7: I think that she's trying to control things that she
- 24:11Speaker 7: thinks she can control, and she's doing it because she's
- 24:14Speaker 7: leading the all the girls in school to be mean girls.
- 24:17Speaker 7: But her brother, she's really close to him. He's ten
- 24:20Speaker 7: years older than her. He is leaving on a morm
- 24:24Speaker 7: admission and he'll be gone for two years, and she's
- 24:28Speaker 7: preparing for abandonment. And so she's got all these uncontrollables
- 24:32Speaker 7: that are happening in her world right now. And so
- 24:34Speaker 7: now I feel like she's punching back at the world
- 24:37Speaker 7: when she's at school and controlling all the other girls
- 24:41Speaker 7: and getting into you know, mean girl.
- 24:43Speaker 4: Scenarios, right, and so have you had an open conversation
- 24:46Speaker 4: with her about all of this. That's a good analysis
- 24:49Speaker 4: of the situation, lots of conversations.
- 24:51Speaker 7: But what I'm also starting to see is kind of
- 24:55Speaker 7: she's starting to lose a little bit of a spark
- 24:57Speaker 7: in her eyes. She's like, I'm tired of talking about
- 24:59Speaker 7: being nice.
- 25:00Speaker 2: Mom.
- 25:00Speaker 7: I get it, but I mean we're in the principal's.
- 25:02Speaker 1: Eye and it's not about being nice.
- 25:04Speaker 4: I think maybe you should change the word to kind,
- 25:06Speaker 4: because nice doesn't mean anything anyway.
- 25:08Speaker 1: Who gives a shit if somebody's nice. I hate when
- 25:09Speaker 1: people say, oh, she was so nice, Who cares? That's
- 25:12Speaker 1: that memorable?
- 25:13Speaker 5: It also feels deeply uncool, you know.
- 25:19Speaker 1: Yes, it feels deeply uncool.
- 25:20Speaker 4: But like, I think, what would be a good conversation
- 25:24Speaker 4: to have, and tell me if I'm repeating something you've
- 25:26Speaker 4: already said, is using all that power she has and
- 25:29Speaker 4: that personality for good rather than bad, you know, using
- 25:34Speaker 4: that to look at the power she has.
- 25:36Speaker 1: She's a leader, She's.
- 25:37Speaker 4: Got all these girls behind her, and she's setting the
- 25:40Speaker 4: tone for how everybody's going to be treated. Wouldn't she
- 25:43Speaker 4: want to be the good witch instead of the bad witch?
- 25:46Speaker 7: She did tell me just yesterday, she said, I feel
- 25:49Speaker 7: like I have an anger. I feel like I'm mad
- 25:52Speaker 7: inside and I need to get it out. And I
- 25:56Speaker 7: know she's got a friend that's in therapy, so she's
- 25:57Speaker 7: actually been talking about that, But I don't know point
- 26:00Speaker 7: we figure that out.
- 26:01Speaker 4: No, I think you listen, you have a responsibility to
- 26:03Speaker 4: the other little kids at that school to get her help,
- 26:06Speaker 4: because that's not fair. Bullies ruin people's lives. There are
- 26:10Speaker 4: things that happen as a child that are cemented in
- 26:12Speaker 4: your brain that are traumatizing when you are attacked by
- 26:15Speaker 4: another kid at school, whether it's verbally, emotionally, physically, whatever.
- 26:19Speaker 4: But you you have a responsibility to everybody else to
- 26:21Speaker 4: make sure you get her on the straight and narrow.
- 26:23Speaker 4: And yes, you absolutely must bring her to therapy right
- 26:26Speaker 4: away because you don't want her growing up and being
- 26:29Speaker 4: like that.
- 26:30Speaker 1: You know what I mean? How old is she again? Eleven?
- 26:33Speaker 5: Eight? Wow? Is she on social media yet?
- 26:38Speaker 2: No?
- 26:38Speaker 1: Good? Good keep her off of that.
- 26:40Speaker 5: That'll only make it worse, So go to therapy.
- 26:43Speaker 4: Now, yeah, you have to have I think you've got
- 26:47Speaker 4: to switch your your approach as well, because obviously what
- 26:50Speaker 4: you're saying is falling on deaf ears, which is a
- 26:52Speaker 4: natural thing to happen between a parent and a child.
- 26:55Speaker 4: But I think you should also switch your terminology and
- 26:58Speaker 4: talk about kindness and spreading you and spreading love and
- 27:01Speaker 4: not in a way that she's gonna be like it's
- 27:03Speaker 4: so stupid. It's like, use examples of people that are
- 27:06Speaker 4: doing that, you know, on a grand scale. Think of
- 27:09Speaker 4: people that she looks up to that would never tolerate
- 27:12Speaker 4: her that behavior. You know, who does she admire Taylor Swift?
- 27:15Speaker 4: Is she into Miley Cyrus?
- 27:17Speaker 1: What's she into?
- 27:18Speaker 7: I don't think she's exposed to them as much. I
- 27:20Speaker 7: have a good friend Diana, who she really admires that
- 27:22Speaker 7: I could really lean into. And Diana is all love
- 27:25Speaker 7: and all kindness and all joy. So that's a really
- 27:28Speaker 7: good point of thinking of mentors that she has in
- 27:30Speaker 7: her life that she does admire that are kind.
- 27:32Speaker 1: Yeah.
- 27:33Speaker 4: When I was really irresponsible at a point in my life,
- 27:36Speaker 4: I was just I didn't give a shit about my family.
- 27:39Speaker 1: I was rebelling rebelling, rebelling my.
- 27:41Speaker 4: Sister, my oldest sister, who's the person in my family
- 27:44Speaker 4: I respect the most. She sat me down and said
- 27:46Speaker 4: to me, like, you're going down the wrong road. This
- 27:49Speaker 4: is your opportunity right now, and this is your last chance.
- 27:52Speaker 4: You either stay with the family or we're not going
- 27:54Speaker 4: to put up with us anymore. I was like seventeen,
- 27:57Speaker 4: eighteen years old, but I was bad, and that changed
- 28:00Speaker 4: my life because I respected her the most.
- 28:02Speaker 1: She had never said anything.
- 28:03Speaker 4: She just showed me unconditional love, unconditional love, and that
- 28:06Speaker 4: didn't deter me. That didn't change my course because she
- 28:09Speaker 4: was just showing me so much love, and until she
- 28:11Speaker 4: threatened to turn that love off, even though that would
- 28:14Speaker 4: be impossible, I believed it and I got scared. So
- 28:18Speaker 4: I think you have to find the person that you're
- 28:20Speaker 4: talking about. You have to get her into therapy. That's
- 28:22Speaker 4: not a question, And you have to have different conversations
- 28:26Speaker 4: around the subject matter because your approach isn't working and
- 28:29Speaker 4: she's not listening to you in that way. It has
- 28:31Speaker 4: to be spoken to her. I would enlist your friend
- 28:34Speaker 4: try and do it that way. But also, you know,
- 28:37Speaker 4: read some books about children and their anger and how
- 28:40Speaker 4: to exhaust it, you know, so she's not taking it
- 28:42Speaker 4: out on other people. And there are a lot of
- 28:44Speaker 4: movies about.
- 28:45Speaker 1: Bullying, you know.
- 28:46Speaker 4: I mean, Mean Girls is a great one. But she
- 28:48Speaker 4: probably might see that at this point and think, I
- 28:50Speaker 4: like that. I want to be one of those girls,
- 28:52Speaker 4: and you want her to actually see the light.
- 28:55Speaker 1: Were you bullied?
- 28:56Speaker 6: Not significantly, which is surprising considering I was pretty obviously gay,
- 29:02Speaker 6: But I think you know, I grew up in New
- 29:03Speaker 6: York City, and I think that helped the cause. Yeah,
- 29:07Speaker 6: you know, I was bullied a little bit, but not
- 29:09Speaker 6: not extensively.
- 29:10Speaker 5: I was very lucky in that way.
- 29:13Speaker 1: So I think, listen, anyone who's a bully was bullied.
- 29:16Speaker 1: That's what happens.
- 29:17Speaker 4: I was bullied. I became a bully. But you have
- 29:20Speaker 4: to dismantle that, and you have somebody, and have somebody
- 29:22Speaker 4: who's a professional deal with it, because you know you're
- 29:25Speaker 4: coming up empty handed. And she's eight years old, and
- 29:27Speaker 4: this is really the time between eight and eleven that
- 29:30Speaker 4: you want to get girls in their heads to be kind.
- 29:32Speaker 3: Agreed, Yeah, And just as a couple of ways to
- 29:35Speaker 3: help sort of exhaust that anger and let her have
- 29:39Speaker 3: an outlet for that anger. This might be a one
- 29:42Speaker 3: or two time thing, but I know when my niece
- 29:44Speaker 3: and nephew had a loss in their family, my nephew
- 29:47Speaker 3: had so much pent up anger and he said to
- 29:49Speaker 3: my sister one day, He's like, I just feel like
- 29:51Speaker 3: I want to break something. And so she went out
- 29:55Speaker 3: to the thrift store and bought a whole bunch of plates,
- 29:58Speaker 3: and we all put on our safety glasses and we
- 30:00Speaker 3: grab these plates and we like threw them down on
- 30:02Speaker 3: the ground and just broke plates. And it was so
- 30:06Speaker 3: such a relief to sort of express that anger. But
- 30:09Speaker 3: maybe there are other things that are more long term.
- 30:11Speaker 3: Like I mean, eight is probably young for a girl
- 30:14Speaker 3: to start boxing, but like some other physical activity, they'll
- 30:17Speaker 3: allow her to sort of get some of that aggression
- 30:19Speaker 3: out of her body rather than sort of trapping it
- 30:23Speaker 3: inside where it comes out in these nasty ways. In addition,
- 30:25Speaker 3: of course, to a therapist.
- 30:27Speaker 4: And I say, it's an emergent situation because eight years old,
- 30:31Speaker 4: you shouldn't even know how to be that mean yet,
- 30:33Speaker 4: you know what I mean?
- 30:34Speaker 5: An eight year old throwing plates.
- 30:37Speaker 1: While she has her safety goggles.
- 30:39Speaker 5: Don't forget about that part.
- 30:41Speaker 4: I don't know where did she get the safety goggles
- 30:42Speaker 4: at the thrift store too, because who has safety.
- 30:44Speaker 1: Goggles lying around in the carpenter?
- 30:47Speaker 4: But yes, please get enlist other people to help you,
- 30:50Speaker 4: you know, and get on it right away. And I
- 30:53Speaker 4: know you are, and I know you're trying to figure
- 30:55Speaker 4: it out because it's embarrassing to have a kid that's
- 30:57Speaker 4: acting like that.
- 30:58Speaker 1: I'm sure you're dealing with all these other parents.
- 31:00Speaker 7: And and her father and I are both kind of
- 31:04Speaker 7: at a loss, like, oh my gosh, what's happening. We
- 31:06Speaker 7: are having all these conversations, and candidly, we just found
- 31:09Speaker 7: out about the level of what's happening. We thought it
- 31:13Speaker 7: was just drama, just girl drama, and we found out
- 31:15Speaker 7: on Saturday that I'm actually the ring leader of mean girls.
- 31:20Speaker 7: And so I appreciate your rapid response. Forty. I'm getting
- 31:24Speaker 7: great advice from.
- 31:25Speaker 4: You, and also talk to the teachers at the school
- 31:27Speaker 4: and the counselors at the school and how and come
- 31:29Speaker 4: up with a plan that you guys are all coordinated on,
- 31:32Speaker 4: you know what I mean, Because there has to be
- 31:34Speaker 4: repercussions for her bad behavior, and there has to be
- 31:36Speaker 4: a form of punishment, and that you're working with the
- 31:39Speaker 4: teachers and that there are eyes everywhere will have an
- 31:43Speaker 4: impact on an eight year old, you know, as soon
- 31:45Speaker 4: as she starts paying the price for her behavior and
- 31:48Speaker 4: realizes popularity isn't you know, she's not gonna want to
- 31:50Speaker 4: stay after school. She's not gonna want to get punished
- 31:53Speaker 4: when she comes home. So have you exercised any of
- 31:55Speaker 4: those options yet?
- 31:57Speaker 7: I am following up and saying no, I want her
- 32:00Speaker 7: one on one with the school counselor to discuss this specifically,
- 32:02Speaker 7: they do friendship circles that I requested before.
- 32:05Speaker 1: The end of the school year. Good because I don't really.
- 32:07Speaker 7: Worried about one girl in particular that's been targeted.
- 32:10Speaker 4: Yeah, well, get on it and spend your summer working
- 32:12Speaker 4: on her, you know, and spend as much time as
- 32:14Speaker 4: you can with her, because a lot of that probably
- 32:16Speaker 4: comes from you know, I think girls can easily not easily,
- 32:21Speaker 4: but girls and their moms. There's just a huge healing
- 32:25Speaker 4: effect that being around your mom has. I mean even
- 32:28Speaker 4: little boys, especially at that age. You know, Just spend
- 32:31Speaker 4: as much one on one time with her as you can,
- 32:33Speaker 4: and be as communicative as you can, and engage as
- 32:37Speaker 4: much as you can with therapists and help and you know,
- 32:39Speaker 4: hopefully over the summer you can make some major improvements.
- 32:43Speaker 1: Yeah. Was that helpful to you at all?
- 32:46Speaker 7: Yeah, it really is. I think really supporting that idea
- 32:49Speaker 7: of like, we got to get into therapy sooner than later,
- 32:51Speaker 7: because you know, I'm doing all the things, saying things,
- 32:54Speaker 7: I'm highly communicative, but I need backup. I need that village.
- 32:59Speaker 7: I need to start building a village around her because
- 33:01Speaker 7: I her father and I can't do it on her own.
- 33:04Speaker 7: Need we need backup.
- 33:05Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, and that's okay.
- 33:06Speaker 4: And also being communicative with the other parents that you're
- 33:09Speaker 4: working on it, you know, so that they you can
- 33:11Speaker 4: alay some of their fears, because it's so scary for
- 33:13Speaker 4: other parents to have to deal with that. I was
- 33:15Speaker 4: just in a doctor's appointment yesterday and he was talking
- 33:17Speaker 4: about this poor girl. She's eleven and she got kicked
- 33:20Speaker 4: out of her friend group and now she's in a
- 33:22Speaker 4: new friend group and the old friend group is making
- 33:24Speaker 4: the new friend group dumper too.
- 33:26Speaker 5: Oh god, And I.
- 33:27Speaker 4: Was just like, oh my god, it makes my vagina
- 33:29Speaker 4: shut tight, Like the idea of children going through this
- 33:33Speaker 4: is just heartbreaking, you know, on both.
- 33:35Speaker 6: Ends, it is I'm also concerned about the Mormon mission,
- 33:40Speaker 6: just for the records.
- 33:42Speaker 5: All right, we'll get to that next.
- 33:45Speaker 7: Okay, good, we'll talk about that later.
- 33:48Speaker 1: Are you not Mormon?
- 33:50Speaker 7: Now?
- 33:52Speaker 5: Why is he going on at Mormon mission if you're
- 33:54Speaker 5: not Mormon?
- 33:55Speaker 1: Oh my god, I was trying to respect.
- 33:58Speaker 5: I could feel Chelsea each to be polite.
- 34:01Speaker 7: I'm healing. It's post post Mormon healing for me, my friends.
- 34:04Speaker 1: So my sisters are recovering Mormon.
- 34:07Speaker 5: Your kids have a lot going on.
- 34:09Speaker 7: They called him to New Zealand, which is a really
- 34:11Speaker 7: cool place. So I was like, I was hoping he'd
- 34:14Speaker 7: back out, but not no.
- 34:15Speaker 4: Leck so far, How did can I just how did
- 34:18Speaker 4: he find Mormonism without you guys?
- 34:21Speaker 7: Well, I grew up Mormon and left the church gosh
- 34:24Speaker 7: till twelve years ago or something. But his father's still active.
- 34:27Speaker 7: And so he through COVID, went up to Canada and
- 34:31Speaker 7: is in Canada now, and went to high school there
- 34:33Speaker 7: and it's a very predominantly Mormon community and that's where
- 34:35Speaker 7: he found community and belonging was in the church and
- 34:39Speaker 7: with his friends that are members, and so he's fully indoctrinated.
- 34:43Speaker 1: And it is.
- 34:46Speaker 7: Said it's another issue all right in.
- 34:49Speaker 1: Yeah, well, I guess we'll all talk to you next week.
- 34:51Speaker 6: Send him to a therapist too, while you're yeah.
- 34:54Speaker 7: And me, all three of us.
- 34:55Speaker 1: We all need yeah you that's healthy.
- 34:57Speaker 4: It sounds like you do there. All right, Well, it
- 35:03Speaker 4: was nice to speak with you. Thanks for calling in.
- 35:05Speaker 1: Thanks thanks Samber. What about an eight year old bully?
- 35:11Speaker 1: What about that?
- 35:12Speaker 4: How did would she even learn I don't be me
- 35:15Speaker 4: because someone did it to her?
- 35:16Speaker 5: That's all right?
- 35:17Speaker 3: Yeah right, yeah, but I like your idea about movies
- 35:20Speaker 3: and like fill her summer reading list with all Judy
- 35:23Speaker 3: bloom books, bully books, all this stuff, because when you
- 35:26Speaker 3: see how awful it is, you don't want to be that.
- 35:29Speaker 3: Like my one girlfriend, her kid's eleven, she's like, being
- 35:32Speaker 3: called a bully is the worst thing you can get
- 35:34Speaker 3: called at this school.
- 35:35Speaker 1: I told my friend the other day.
- 35:36Speaker 4: She was harassing me about something and I was like,
- 35:38Speaker 4: you're being a bully, and she goes.
- 35:39Speaker 1: Don't ever say that. I was like, oh god, sorry,
- 35:42Speaker 1: that hit a little too close to home. I guess.
- 35:49Speaker 2: Well.
- 35:49Speaker 3: Our next caller is Alan. Alan says, dear Chelsea, I'm
- 35:54Speaker 3: a gay male in my thirties and I've found myself
- 35:56Speaker 3: in a bit of a strange, disorienting space when it
- 35:58Speaker 3: comes to relationships, including friends. I guess I had my
- 36:02Speaker 3: share of fun times and entry level relationships in college
- 36:06Speaker 3: and through most of my twenties when I found my
- 36:08Speaker 3: first real relationship that brought me into my thirties after
- 36:11Speaker 3: a brief break. I was blindsided with an unforeseen relationship
- 36:14Speaker 3: break in the first year of COVID. It ended with
- 36:16Speaker 3: him cheating on me probably sixty percent of the time
- 36:19Speaker 3: while I was recovering from a physical accident. It was
- 36:21Speaker 3: my first time being cheated on. I've always been self sufficient,
- 36:25Speaker 3: and I get older, I don't seem to have much
- 36:28Speaker 3: of a sexual drive for just hookups less I decided
- 36:31Speaker 3: to take time for just me again. Now I'm in
- 36:34Speaker 3: the spot where I've been putting my dating feelers out again,
- 36:36Speaker 3: But most of the guys I find turn out to
- 36:38Speaker 3: be boring or way too simple. I followed you for
- 36:41Speaker 3: a long time, and I've always thought I'd also have
- 36:43Speaker 3: a similar trail of being an independent, single boss. But
- 36:46Speaker 3: I can't shake this craving. I'd hook up more, but
- 36:49Speaker 3: men are so predictable and boring, lackluster sex and lame
- 36:53Speaker 3: what do you think is my relationship block? Have you
- 36:55Speaker 3: had times like this before in your life? Love you? Alan?
- 36:58Speaker 3: A gay and a gay city?
- 37:00Speaker 1: Hi Alan, Hi Alan?
- 37:03Speaker 4: Oh my gosh, Alan, we have Billy here today, Billy Eichner.
- 37:07Speaker 2: For you, of course it would be Billy especial.
- 37:11Speaker 4: Are those headphones on your ears or is that a
- 37:13Speaker 4: mullet that's coming down behind your neck?
- 37:14Speaker 5: Oh?
- 37:15Speaker 2: No, this is mullet baby. Oh yeah, the summer cut.
- 37:21Speaker 1: That's cute.
- 37:22Speaker 4: Okay, So well, your attitude is what's in the way.
- 37:25Speaker 4: But that's okay because you're not you're I mean, you
- 37:27Speaker 4: sound just slightly depressed.
- 37:30Speaker 1: Do you feel depressed?
- 37:32Speaker 2: No, not in any way. Okay, I kind of feel
- 37:34Speaker 2: like a ghost a ghost, yeah, like not really a hermit.
- 37:39Speaker 2: But I'm just kind of there. I'm just going out
- 37:42Speaker 2: doing my thing, put myself out there. But I'm just
- 37:46Speaker 2: really not interested in a lot of other people. I'm
- 37:49Speaker 2: kind of just like so consumed and like becoming more
- 37:52Speaker 2: of a better person.
- 37:54Speaker 1: Oh well, then that's the opposite of depressed.
- 37:56Speaker 5: Yeah. I think that's good.
- 37:57Speaker 1: Actually, it is good.
- 37:58Speaker 4: I mean that's great. Yeah, there's nothing wrong with that.
- 38:01Speaker 4: I think there are periods of time. Listen, I have
- 38:04Speaker 4: no desire to have sex with fucking anybody, And that's
- 38:06Speaker 4: how I've felt for the last six months, probably just none.
- 38:10Speaker 1: Like I have to make myself go and look for.
- 38:13Speaker 4: Sex, yeah, and like set things up so that I
- 38:15Speaker 4: can get sex because I don't want to forget. But
- 38:18Speaker 4: I think that's a normal thing for people to go through,
- 38:21Speaker 4: especially when you're doing some self reflection, and like in
- 38:23Speaker 4: our work, I don't think that there's anything.
- 38:25Speaker 5: Wrong with that.
- 38:27Speaker 6: I think that society and culture, especially gay culture, sometimes
- 38:31Speaker 6: makes you feel like you're supposed to always be on
- 38:34Speaker 6: the hunt for like sex or a boyfriend or a
- 38:38Speaker 6: relationship or something right, And we don't really talk about
- 38:43Speaker 6: the periods of your life where you just sort of
- 38:45Speaker 6: take for yourself. You know, that's not as sexy to
- 38:49Speaker 6: talk about when you have those like introspective periods, especially
- 38:52Speaker 6: in the gay world, where again especially on social media,
- 38:55Speaker 6: everyone's like naked in they're here and you know, they're
- 38:58Speaker 6: on vacation and they're with these guys, those guys, and
- 39:01Speaker 6: I don't know, I think we need to value just
- 39:04Speaker 6: as much the times that we're again being more introspective
- 39:08Speaker 6: and self reflective.
- 39:09Speaker 4: There's a season for sewing and there's a season for reaping.
- 39:13Speaker 4: Like you're not always on the it's not always incoming.
- 39:16Speaker 4: Sometimes it's outgoing, and sometimes it's just you and self reflection.
- 39:20Speaker 4: Like that's very cyclical in all all of our lives.
- 39:23Speaker 4: So you're not alone.
- 39:24Speaker 2: Yeah, And I live in Austin, Texas, which is one
- 39:27Speaker 2: of the gayest things. Yeah, so I'm surrounded by very
- 39:30Speaker 2: much that where everything is so like sexually driven, and like,
- 39:34Speaker 2: I want an open relationship. I wants many partners. I
- 39:36Speaker 2: just need the sex, you know, and I'm just not
- 39:39Speaker 2: for that at this age.
- 39:41Speaker 4: And you really desire what your long term plan is
- 39:43Speaker 4: to be in a committed relationship.
- 39:45Speaker 2: Yeah, ultimately, uh huh. And really from my early twenties
- 39:50Speaker 2: until now, I've been in a relationship. So I got
- 39:53Speaker 2: my kind of hookup phase out of the way, established
- 39:56Speaker 2: a really strong relationship that was really great, and I
- 40:00Speaker 2: thought it was going to go somewhere, but we were
- 40:02Speaker 2: on different pages and then was taking a break and
- 40:05Speaker 2: immediately got sideswiped by a relationship during COVID, and so
- 40:09Speaker 2: we were kind of stuck together necessarily. So since we
- 40:14Speaker 2: broke up, I've been taking a lot more time for
- 40:16Speaker 2: myself and I've really built myself up in a lot
- 40:19Speaker 2: of different aspects in my life, and now I'm putting
- 40:22Speaker 2: the feelers back out there, and it's just I don't know,
- 40:25Speaker 2: I don't have any desire or nothing seems appetizing, for
- 40:30Speaker 2: lack of.
- 40:30Speaker 6: Better words, Well, I think oftentimes nothing is appetizing. Yeah,
- 40:34Speaker 6: it can be a grind. It can feel like a chure,
- 40:37Speaker 6: like another thing on your to do list, like go
- 40:40Speaker 6: on dates, and that takes the fun out of it
- 40:42Speaker 6: and the spontaneity out of it.
- 40:44Speaker 2: So yeah, it's amost like another job exactly.
- 40:46Speaker 6: It is another job, and then a relationship itself is
- 40:49Speaker 6: another job, you know, and you have to be prepared
- 40:52Speaker 6: for that and wanting that. I think it's perfectly fine
- 40:54Speaker 6: and actually a good thing to be in a phase
- 40:57Speaker 6: where you're not aggressively wanting that.
- 41:00Speaker 4: Actually, yeah, I think you should embrace that, embrace like
- 41:04Speaker 4: the moment that you're in and actually treasure it because
- 41:07Speaker 4: you may not be single for very long, and you're
- 41:11Speaker 4: certainly not going to be single forever. There are going
- 41:13Speaker 4: to be people that come in and out of your life,
- 41:15Speaker 4: so you want to really treasure this time alone with yourself,
- 41:18Speaker 4: Like I have the best time with myself and I
- 41:20Speaker 4: don't feel guilty about that at all.
- 41:22Speaker 2: Yeah, me neither. But when I get on you know,
- 41:25Speaker 2: dates or dating aps and they're like, what do you
- 41:29Speaker 2: I've been asked like do you have any friends? And
- 41:31Speaker 2: I'm like, of course I do. I just like myself,
- 41:34Speaker 2: is there a problem with that?
- 41:36Speaker 1: And why do people ask you if you have any friends?
- 41:38Speaker 2: Because like what do you do? Well? I do a
- 41:40Speaker 2: lot of things that involve myself. You know, I don't
- 41:43Speaker 2: mind going out to eat by myself. I don't mind
- 41:46Speaker 2: going to the library or a bar to read a
- 41:48Speaker 2: book by myself.
- 41:49Speaker 1: I like me, Yeah, well that's those are all healthy things.
- 41:52Speaker 5: Those are good things.
- 41:53Speaker 1: I don't understand what the problem is.
- 41:55Speaker 4: I mean, you're just not attracted to people right now,
- 41:57Speaker 4: and that's okay, that's okay. You have to give yourself
- 41:59Speaker 4: permission to be in that phase without judging yourself for
- 42:02Speaker 4: not being interested in sex, because that's what you're doing.
- 42:05Speaker 4: You're kind of playing a game with yourself and a
- 42:07Speaker 4: trick on yourself because you're like looking at society and
- 42:10Speaker 4: what everyone's expecting of you and thinking you have to
- 42:11Speaker 4: deliver to them, and really you only have to deliver
- 42:14Speaker 4: to yourself, So enjoy this time, don't judge yourself, be like,
- 42:18Speaker 4: this is what I'm going to do. Do you know
- 42:19Speaker 4: how fucking healthy it is to go be able and
- 42:21Speaker 4: read a book by yourself?
- 42:22Speaker 1: And how people how few people can do that in
- 42:26Speaker 1: this world?
- 42:27Speaker 5: Yeah?
- 42:28Speaker 1: Like that's awesome.
- 42:29Speaker 4: And you're just think of this time as preparing for
- 42:31Speaker 4: the person that you're going to end up with, Like
- 42:33Speaker 4: you're doing the inner work and the self work and
- 42:35Speaker 4: spending time alone to prepare for your long term relationship.
- 42:39Speaker 2: I think being an extrovert is the counterpart of that.
- 42:43Speaker 2: I don't need a relationship to make me feel fulfilled,
- 42:46Speaker 2: but I recharge my battery with relationships and being around people.
- 42:52Speaker 2: So I think that's what's getting me stuck where I'm like,
- 42:55Speaker 2: I'm good with this, but I also want to recharge
- 42:58Speaker 2: my batteries in a different way.
- 43:00Speaker 6: Do you have like a circle of friends that you hang.
- 43:03Speaker 2: With, Well, most of my people will have moved out
- 43:07Speaker 2: of town. Oh so I really don't have anybody left.
- 43:12Speaker 6: That might be the bigger issue. Because I'm a very
- 43:16Speaker 6: social person. I rarely feel a need to go on
- 43:19Speaker 6: a ton of dates or be in a relationship, but
- 43:22Speaker 6: I couldn't exist without my friends around me. I really
- 43:26Speaker 6: rely on them, you know, so that might be the
- 43:29Speaker 6: bigger issue, you know, like where are you fulfilling that
- 43:33Speaker 6: need to be social? Not to date someone or even
- 43:35Speaker 6: go on a date or have sex, but to just
- 43:37Speaker 6: interact with friends is really important.
- 43:41Speaker 2: Yeah, most of my friendships right now are on the phone, because.
- 43:44Speaker 1: They're all that's good. You should keep those going.
- 43:46Speaker 4: Make sure you're having phone calls and facetimes or whatever
- 43:49Speaker 4: you're into on a consistent basis. But you can go
- 43:51Speaker 4: make friends in Austin. That's not going to be hard
- 43:54Speaker 4: and it's important. I think Billy's exactly right, Like you're
- 43:57Speaker 4: looking to fill a void and you're not really sure
- 43:59Speaker 4: what that void is. And I think, yeah, you should
- 44:02Speaker 4: work a little bit on making friendships rather than dating.
- 44:06Speaker 2: Yeah, that's a good point.
- 44:08Speaker 1: What do you do like to do? Do you do
- 44:09Speaker 1: stuff outdoors? Hike?
- 44:11Speaker 4: Do you are you into exercise? Are you into like chess?
- 44:14Speaker 4: What's your story?
- 44:15Speaker 2: Yes, So that's the other thing. I'm a very straight
- 44:18Speaker 2: acting male. I come across a very masculine in my realm.
- 44:24Speaker 2: I like the BMX, I like the outdoors, I like
- 44:26Speaker 2: the camp, swim and the guys I've gone on dates
- 44:29Speaker 2: with are like, I've never been camping before. I've never gone.
- 44:33Speaker 2: I don't like swimming or I don't like hiking. Like
- 44:36Speaker 2: what do you do? Just sit inside, go to the bar,
- 44:39Speaker 2: Like that's basic to me.
- 44:41Speaker 5: There are gay guys out there that like camping.
- 44:44Speaker 6: I know many gay people who swim, who have the
- 44:46Speaker 6: ability to swim.
- 44:48Speaker 1: A ton of day swimmers.
- 44:51Speaker 6: Yes, any swim team is full of closeted gay men.
- 44:55Speaker 5: How old are you thirty five?
- 44:57Speaker 6: Yeah, it can be hard to meet friends. That can
- 45:01Speaker 6: actually be harder, I mean with for boyfriends and dating.
- 45:03Speaker 6: While there's an ad, there's like a million apps, right,
- 45:06Speaker 6: but just to meet friends, which I see a lot
- 45:09Speaker 6: of people suffering from at all different stages of their lives,
- 45:13Speaker 6: straight and gay and everyone. You know, it can be
- 45:15Speaker 6: hard to meet friends. I know guys who when they
- 45:18Speaker 6: move to a new city, gay guys, they'll join a team.
- 45:21Speaker 5: You know, they'll be like a gay dodgeball team or
- 45:24Speaker 5: a gay softball team or whatever it is. Gay campers,
- 45:27Speaker 5: gay campers.
- 45:28Speaker 6: I'm sure all of those things exist actually, and so
- 45:32Speaker 6: I don't know, maybe maybe that's a.
- 45:33Speaker 4: I think that you should join something you know, go online,
- 45:36Speaker 4: do a little research either whether it's camping, swimming, hiking,
- 45:39Speaker 4: whatever your outdoor stuff is that you've mentioned, and that's
- 45:43Speaker 4: out of your comfort zone. So that's like a good step,
- 45:46Speaker 4: like a proactive step towards addressing the issue, and that
- 45:49Speaker 4: kind of I think you're feeling a little bit lonely,
- 45:52Speaker 4: and do that, make active steps to just change your
- 45:55Speaker 4: life in little small ways, and before you know it,
- 45:57Speaker 4: you will develop friendships and you will have ale there
- 46:00Speaker 4: and you'll probably worry a lot less about this relationship
- 46:03Speaker 4: issue once you have some more community.
- 46:06Speaker 2: Yeah. Now that they hear that, I think maybe I'm
- 46:08Speaker 2: trying to fill two things instead of focus on one.
- 46:11Speaker 1: Yeah, So can you do that?
- 46:13Speaker 4: Can you go and just just go online after this
- 46:16Speaker 4: call and just start researching hiking groups, camping groups, there's one,
- 46:20Speaker 4: there's something for fucking everybody online, definitely.
- 46:23Speaker 2: Yeah.
- 46:24Speaker 6: Or just post on Instagram I have no friends or
- 46:27Speaker 6: a or a book club.
- 46:28Speaker 5: Yeah, that works.
- 46:30Speaker 1: Looking for friends.
- 46:31Speaker 4: Thank Chelsea Handler and Billy Eichner told me I need.
- 46:34Speaker 1: To get some friends.
- 46:37Speaker 2: I can do that.
- 46:39Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, but try not to judge yourself within the process.
- 46:42Speaker 1: Just have a good time. You're going to meet some friends.
- 46:44Speaker 4: You're going to meet a guy, and just you got
- 46:47Speaker 4: to do a little bit of different stuff to get different.
- 46:49Speaker 5: Results for sure.
- 46:51Speaker 2: Yeah.
- 46:51Speaker 1: Okay, well thanks for calling. I love your fucking mullet.
- 46:56Speaker 1: Rock that out hard.
- 46:57Speaker 5: It looks good.
- 46:59Speaker 2: Thank you.
- 47:00Speaker 1: Okay, bye bye.
- 47:03Speaker 4: Okay, we're going to take a quick break and we're
- 47:04Speaker 4: going to come back to wrap it up with Billy Eibner.
- 47:11Speaker 1: And we're back.
- 47:12Speaker 4: Well, that was all over the place, yeah, and then
- 47:16Speaker 4: it Yeah.
- 47:18Speaker 6: There have been so many articles lately about how loneliness
- 47:23Speaker 6: is one of the biggest epidemics that we face, and
- 47:27Speaker 6: and I think for especially younger people. It's everyone, actually,
- 47:32Speaker 6: but at least people in our generation and older. We
- 47:35Speaker 6: had to communicate with each other in person. We didn't
- 47:38Speaker 6: have our phones, and so phones have replaced actual human
- 47:42Speaker 6: interaction and it's kind of tricked people into thinking they
- 47:45Speaker 6: don't need it or they're getting it, but they're not, like,
- 47:49Speaker 6: that's not real human connection. And especially post COVID, I
- 47:53Speaker 6: think people got stuck in their homes, you know, there
- 47:56Speaker 6: is a little less socializing going on in certain places.
- 47:58Speaker 6: Maybe it's it's really important right to get out there
- 48:02Speaker 6: and meet people, not to date, just for friendship.
- 48:06Speaker 4: Yeah, and also just to change it up. It's always
- 48:07Speaker 4: good to challenge yourself. It's always good something to do.
- 48:10Speaker 4: Like I would never want to join a book club
- 48:12Speaker 4: or a hiking club, but if I were in that situation,
- 48:15Speaker 4: I would make myself do that, you know, because it's
- 48:17Speaker 4: about doing that, like you have to stretch a little bit, Billy.
- 48:21Speaker 1: Thanks for coming in, Thanks.
- 48:22Speaker 4: For having me in New York City on this beautiful
- 48:24Speaker 4: summer day.
- 48:25Speaker 1: Have a great afternoon, everybody.
- 48:29Speaker 4: Okay, guys, we have added more shows to my Little
- 48:32Speaker 4: Big Bitch tour because I'm coming all over. We added
- 48:35Speaker 4: a second show at the Pantagius in Los Angeles, so
- 48:38Speaker 4: that's October twelfth and Friday the thirteenth. We added a
- 48:41Speaker 4: second show in Boston at the Waying Center September twenty
- 48:45Speaker 4: ninth and thirtieth is two shows in New York. I
- 48:47Speaker 4: also have a show in East Hampton, New York August
- 48:50Speaker 4: twenty six. We added a second show in Portland, so
- 48:53Speaker 4: Thursday November tewod Friday November third, and Portland November fourth
- 48:57Speaker 4: and fifth. In San Francisco, two shows there. We added
- 49:00Speaker 4: a second show with Seattle November tenth and eleventh. Two
- 49:03Speaker 4: shows Boston are November sixteenth and seventeenth at the Boch
- 49:08Speaker 4: Center at Wang Theater. And I'm also coming to Toronto
- 49:14Speaker 4: and Montreal and Ottawa and so many other cities Columbus, Cincinnati, Detroit, Louisville.
- 49:22Speaker 1: So i will see everybody at all of these shows.
- 49:25Speaker 1: Thank you.
- 49:26Speaker 4: Get your tickets at Chelseahandler dot com.
- 49:30Speaker 3: If you'd like advice from Chelsea, shoot us an email
- 49:32Speaker 3: at Dear Chelsea podcast at gmail dot com and be
- 49:35Speaker 3: sure to include your phone number. Dear Chelsea is edited
- 49:38Speaker 3: and engineered by Brad Dickert executive producer Catherine Law and
- 49:42Speaker 3: be sure to check out our merch at Chelseahandler dot
- 49:45Speaker 3: com