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can make a difference in your life

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at capella.edu. This

0:13

is Fresh Air. I'm Tanya Mosley. In

0:16

the days after September 11, 2001, Michelle

0:20

Buteau made a life-changing move. She was

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working overnight as a TV news editor

0:24

when she decided to take a leap

0:26

and do stand-up comedy. For

0:28

years, her coworkers had been telling her she was

0:30

funny, but it would take one of

0:32

the most tragic events in U.S. history to give her

0:35

the courage to take the step into comedy. 23

0:38

years later, Michelle Buteau is booked

0:40

and busy. She has her

0:42

own show on Netflix, Survival of

0:44

the Thickest, a semi-autobiographical comedy that

0:46

will soon enter its second season.

0:49

And this summer, she stars in the new

0:51

film, Babes, with Alana Glazer. The

0:54

two, who are friends in real life, play

0:56

best friends on their journey to motherhood. In

0:59

this scene, Eden, played by Glazer, has

1:01

taken several pregnancy tests and can't believe

1:03

the results keep showing up positive. Her

1:06

best friend Dawn, played by Michelle Buteau, has

1:09

recently given birth herself, and as

1:11

she's pumping for breast milk, she gives her

1:13

friend a dose of reality. Alana

1:16

Glazer speaks first. I'm

1:18

thinking maybe, just maybe, I

1:23

am a pregnant person. I'm

1:26

28 for 28. I could do a 29th. Yeah,

1:30

no. You are

1:32

clearly pregnant. Okay. I don't know

1:35

how this could have happened. I've had sex

1:37

once since my last period, but I was

1:39

on my period. So?

1:41

So you can't get pregnant on your period. Girl.

1:45

Girl? Girl. Girl.

1:48

Girl. Girl. I guess you can. Girl, stop.

1:51

Girl, you stop. We went to the same

1:53

school. We learned the same sh- Come

1:56

on. No, you can't. Ma'am, I'm

1:58

a doctor. You

2:01

are a dentist. That

2:04

was Alana Glaser and Michelle Buteau and

2:06

the new movie Babes out now. Buteau's

2:09

Netflix series, Survival of the Thickest,

2:11

which is loosely based on her

2:13

memoir of the same name, has

2:15

earned seven NAACP Image Award nominations.

2:18

Buteau is also the co-host of the

2:20

podcast Adulting, and her 2021 stand-up

2:22

special Welcome to Butopia is on

2:25

Netflix and Comedy Central. And

2:27

Buteau has just recorded her next Netflix

2:29

comedy special at Radio City Music Hall,

2:32

and she's the first woman to do it. Michelle

2:34

Buteau, welcome to Fresh Air. Hi, thank

2:37

you. Wow. How does it feel? I mean,

2:39

you just completed this special at Radio City.

2:42

How was it? It was

2:44

one of those moments, as I like

2:46

to say, where Netflix is like, let's

2:48

do a special. I'm like, let's and

2:51

I'm sort of scouting New York City

2:53

venues because I love

2:55

New York City with like

2:57

from the root of the tutor. It's your home. It's

3:00

my home. And so I went to

3:02

a couple of different venues and I,

3:06

you know, Radio City was kind of like

3:08

that episode in Say Yes to the Dress,

3:10

where it's like, I know I can't afford

3:12

this dress. I just want to see it

3:14

on. Did you know when

3:17

you went that you might be the first

3:19

woman to come to the union? No, no,

3:21

no clue. No, because I know that other

3:23

females have performed there. But in

3:25

terms of taping a special, when

3:28

I got there, in terms of taping a special, when

3:30

I got there, I was like, who else has

3:33

filmed here? And they're like, oh, no

3:35

one. Excuse me. No

3:37

other females. No, no, no, no other females. You'd be the

3:39

first. And then, you know,

3:41

I got that feeling like a little tingling and

3:43

it wasn't because I had too much coffee. It

3:46

was like it was the spirit. It was the

3:48

spirit moving me and saying I have to do

3:50

this. This is this is bigger picture. This is

3:52

not just about me. I want

3:54

to talk a little bit about this new movie

3:56

that you're in, Babes, which is now in theaters.

16:00

or was it a process for you to get there? Oh

16:02

my God, can you imagine if I just had

16:05

the confidence of Lizzo at the Grammys in first grade?

16:09

No, not at all,

16:11

it was a process. And that's why when

16:13

people talk to me, I

16:15

mean men, women, and non-binary were real too. And

16:17

they talk to me about their body and learning

16:20

to love their body, that's a process.

16:22

It's just like learning to

16:25

eat well or figure out what kind of

16:27

exercise works for you. It's

16:29

a process, you know? Unfortunately,

16:32

unfortunately with age, it gets

16:34

better because then you realize it's not you,

16:36

there's a bigger problem. It's this unrealistic

16:39

patriarchal standard of beauty that we'll never

16:41

live up to. Things

16:43

are getting a bit better. I mean, I

16:45

can't believe there's like plus size clothing because

16:48

I truly always look like a Greek widow.

16:51

It was always black. And like, I

16:53

love black, no shades of black, but it's like,

16:55

are those the only choices? And so it's

16:58

all the things. It is taking care of

17:00

your body, your mental health, your

17:03

physical health. It is the company you keep,

17:05

the food you eat. It is all these

17:07

things. It's what you listen to. I mean,

17:09

that's all a part of your process. And

17:11

so even with my

17:14

mom, who I love, I love my

17:16

mom. And my mom loves me. We

17:18

are, as the kids

17:20

would say, Gucci, LOL, who's

17:22

listening to this? But you

17:24

know, even when I was playing a sold

17:26

out Beacon Theater Show last year, I showed

17:29

her my outfit and she said, I'd

17:32

prefer something a little bit more age appropriate

17:34

because you're almost 50. I'm

17:36

like, what? What?

17:40

Still? No. That's her

17:42

job, right? I know. Is it? And

17:44

so I'm just like, yeah, even the

17:47

people that love you will say something about

17:49

your body, but the most important opinion you

17:51

will ever have is the one you have

17:53

about yourself. So you really have to

17:55

believe that. And if that means cutting people off for

17:57

a little while, you know.

32:00

meeting my husband this way, my life partner.

32:03

It's so funny, you played that one joke because

32:05

even this morning, we put

32:07

the kids in the van, I was headed over

32:09

here, he didn't have the key, and

32:12

he's like, where's the key? I'm like, you're driving. He's

32:16

like, how'd you open the door? I was like, it was unlocked. You

32:19

don't have a key? He's like, why do you sound like that? I'm like, why

32:21

do you sound like that? I'm DMXing.

32:26

I'm DMXing. I

32:29

was just wondering if you're ever,

32:31

because you talk about how different you guys

32:33

are, how if you're ever just cracking yourself

32:35

up with references that he has no idea

32:38

about, like just tickling yourself at home. Oh

32:41

my goodness. Yeah, but

32:43

I think we've been together so long that

32:46

we share a lot

32:48

of references and like inside

32:51

baseball kind of stories, you

32:53

know, like we love to watch

32:55

90 Day Fiance, that is

32:57

our jam, because that was

32:59

kind of our process. And

33:03

so we just love that the government has given

33:05

people 90 days to figure out how sad they're

33:07

gonna be, or happy, let's just say. And

33:09

yeah, that's our love language. The

33:12

90 days was your story too. Of

33:16

course you met as a one night stand, but yeah, for him to come

33:18

here? Yeah, yeah,

33:21

I've never even lived with someone before. I

33:23

never even had a pet, and here comes

33:25

this guy, and I

33:27

don't know how to say his name or speak

33:29

his language, and now I'm gonna be responsible for

33:32

him. That's a lot of pressure. You are definitely

33:35

thrown into like a

33:37

washing machine of

33:39

like adulthood where you're like, figure it

33:41

out. But

33:45

you know, at our

33:47

core we vibe, because we both

33:50

have the same moral compass, which is

33:52

nice, and the Dutch are very, For

48:00

Mary Gross, I'm Tanya Moseley. Every

48:31

weekday, NPR's best political reporters come to

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you on the NPR Politics Podcast to

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know, when we're interviewing someone, we're

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not just throwing out questions at

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them. We are listening to the

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