Chelsea Handler: "Comedy is more of a sport for men"

The outspoken comedian Chelsea Handler launched the talkshow Chelsea Lately on the E! network in 2007. Earlier this year, Handler announced she was quitting. She has just confirmed that her next projects will be for Netflix, and will include a standup special based on her current tour, entitled Uganda Be Kidding Me. Handler makes her UK debut at the London Palladium on 12 July.

Your live show is based on your book, Uganda Be Kidding Me, in which you write about watching baboons having sex in Africa and confess that you used to think Switzerland and Swaziland were the same place. Is it all true?

Chelsea Handler: I wanted to put together a travelogue about the ridiculousness of my life and the fact that I'm just a girl from New Jersey who really doesn't have any business travelling at all. I plop myself in different countries and then proceed to make people think that Americans are idiots. All the stories are true. Some of the names have been changed, but some haven't and they are not speaking to me right now.

Do you think having a German Mormon mother and a Jewish father affected the way you turned out?

CH: No. I felt different not because of that, but because my parents were ridiculous. I don't think anyone feels like they belong, that's how you go through life. I turned to humour for a lot of reasons, but I do like attention.

What about rumours that your next talkshow will be more serious?

CH: Newspapers do not report things accurately. I read a quote about myself where it said I want to interview invaders. I actually said "innovators". Really, I want to interview Mussolini? What did they mean?

But you have become bored with interviewing reality TV personalities …

CH: I am sick of interviewing celebrities. Some are fascinating but most aren't. A key component for having a television show is for you to be interested, because then your viewers are interested. The minute I'm not interested, it's not interesting to anyone who is watching.

When you were on Piers Morgan's CNN show, you called him "a terrible interviewer". Was it a publicity stunt?

CH: Piers Morgan? Is he still alive? Nothing I ever do is planned. He was annoying me that day, so I decided to tell him. He annoys me most of the time and I always tell him, that time just happened to be on air.

Maybe you could take over his slot?

CH: I don't want to focus solely on politics but it is definitely something I want to delve into. I don't want to be fluffy. I want people to be brave enough to sit there and answer any questions. There is nothing more annoying than people coming on your show and they don't want to talk about this or they don't want to talk about that. If you agree to do an interview you should be interviewed.

There aren't many female standups hosting talkshows …

CH: Comedy is more of a sport for men. There are definite gains and momentum for women, but it took a lot of time. It's like women being in the army. It's combat. You stay in awful hotels, you are not making any money. Joan Rivers is not a role model. Just because she is a comedian and a woman doesn't mean she is a role model. Jane Fonda is a role model. I'm sure she could have had a talkshow if she'd wanted one.

Why did you turn down posing nude for Playboy?

CH: I don't think any of my brothers need to see my vagina. I don't mind nudity, but I don't really need to have my vagina in a magazine.