Michelle Buteau on Blasting Chappelle, Knowing Her Worth and Making History for Netflix

Michelle Buteau will be ringing in the New Year with Netflix.

The streamer will release her Michelle Buteau: A Buteau-ful Mind at Radio City Music Hall on Dec. 31. In shooting the hour, which she did in early June, Buteau became the first female comic to record a special at the iconic Manhattan locale. From the stage, she reflects on subjects including motherhood and marriage, all while sipping rosé … through a straw.

This marks Buteau’s second stand-up special for Netflix, for whom she’s also readying a second season of her A24 comedy Survival of the Thickest. Her first hour, 2020’s Michelle Buteau: Welcome to Buteaupia, won a Critics Choice Award for best comedy special. Wanda Sykes and Page Hurwitz accompany Buteau as executive producers on the new hour, which is being produced through their Push It Productions. Hurwitz also co-directs alongside Sandra Restrepo.

In mid-Octover, Buteau spoke to THR about the venue choice as well as her calculated decision to make jokes about both money and controversial comic Dave Chappelle.

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You’ve shot this at Radio City, which makes it historic and, judging by the tears you wipe away at the top of the special, emotional. Tell me about that choice, and what you wanted to telegraph with it.

I was looking at very iconic New York City venues because oftentimes I watch a special and I’m not really inspired. I’m like, “Where are you?! You could be in Ohio, you could be in Kansas. I don’t know!” And because Netflix has such a reach, 190 countries around the world, I always want people to feel like, look, when you watch a special with me, it’s going to be a New York City night, whether you can afford to come here or not. I just love when the world feels small and big at the same time. But I’d never headlined Radio City before. And when I walked in, to tour it, I was like, “Oh shit, this place is magical. It’s calling me.” And I asked the people that were taking us to the tour what other female comedians have taped their specials here and they were like, “None. Females have headlined here, but no one’s taped a special.” I was just like, “Oh, wow, okay, okay, I’m in.” But also, like, how do I do it?

Presumably it’s very expensive to book and very hard to fill.

Oh, yeah. Any other agent or manager would’ve told their client, “Go somewhere else. Save that money.” Because I don’t know if I’m allowed to say this, but you pay for production out of your fee, so I’m really betting on light-skinned black. LOL. Usually, you go to a theater that has fewer seats, that way you can do two shows — an early show and a late show, and in case you don’t get what you want, you can mix and match in the edit. But with Radio City Music Hall, it’s like, I only get the one show, and I can barely afford that one show. But I also felt like this is bigger than me. And also, like, how come no one has done this before? And I should, and I do believe in karma, so I’m just like, “I’ll be taken care of.” So, yeah, we’ll see. (Laughs)

Your 5-year-old twins feature prominently in your material. They’re obviously too young to have input, so I’m curious how you gauge where the line is with regard to what you deem appropriate to include?

It’s always walking that fine line. It’s like, you want to live your truth, you want to be honest. But 20, 30, 50 years from now, if somebody looks back on this, are they going to be wildly hurt and embarrassed or are they going to say, “Damn, she was going through a lot of shit and she was living her truth and she made history and money.”

I imagine there are also things you may joke about in comedy clubs that you leave out of a Netflix special?

One-hundred percent. I mean, I did a 20-city tour last year and there was a ton of stuff that I didn’t put in the special. There are things that you should only hear live, where it shouldn’t be recorded, and you get to speak your truth and say that nasty little thing that you only get with a two-drink minimum, and then you figure out what you can say on a platform like Netflix that will live forever and all of time.

Mid-show, you take a dig at Dave Chappelle, and it’s not your first one. I’m curious why you choose to give space to him during your show?

I’ve always been an inclusive person. And especially with comedy or anything in the arts, we have to speak truth to power. I don’t understand why we get to make fun of and punch down and berate on beautiful communities because the world is changing and we should change along with it. I mean, that’s what should happen. Change isn’t linear, but as performers, we also have the power to move that needle. And quite frankly, I really wish more performers that have a bigger platform than me would also speak out, because it’s the reason why an injustice will happen for so long. No one’s calling it out.

And if we have the opportunity to not only call it out, but also make it funny and then pay taxes on it and make some money, it’s a win-win. And look, I’ve gone to so many protests and I’ve done a lot of hash-tagging on social media, but I feel like, if I really want to make people think about something, I’m going to have to sneak the vegetables into the meal like I do for the kids. I’ve got to sneak in my wokeness with some hilarity, so you repeat it back to your friend at the water cooler on a Monday morning and hopefully learn something.

You also make several jokes about money, both about making it and wanting it. Plenty of women, in particular, will tell you that money is a taboo topic, but you speak about it in such bold, refreshing terms. Where does that come from?

I’m really kind of over gender roles. I think your role is to be a moral human being. So, I’m really over the fact that men get to talk about what they want, but women shouldn’t. I’m over the fact that I’m supposed to be a size eight with straight hair and just speak when spoken to. And so if I want something, I’m going to ask for it and say I want it and there’s nothing wrong with that. I want to take the shame out of, well, basically everything. Except for putting your sneakers on my coffee table. There’s a lot of shame in that. Don’t do that. That’s disgusting. Ask if you should take your shoes off at the door.

At this point in your career, do you feel like you’re being paid what you’re worth?

Nooo! Especially when I see what others are making. The men! Whew, baby!

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Michelle Buteau: A Buteau-ful Mind at Radio City Music Hall streams on Netflix Dec. 31.