Chelsea Handler Is Here for Us

Comedy Powerhouse Kicks Off Tour and Santa Barbara Bowl Season

By Shannon Brooks | August 19, 2021

Chelsea Handler | Credit: Courtesy

Comedian Chelsea Handler will make her Santa Barbara Bowl debut when she officially kicks off her national Vaccinated and Horny tour this Saturday, August 21. The fearlessly candid author, podcaster, and activist is no stranger to Santa Barbara — she has been frequenting our sandy shores, State Street, and Mexican eateries for years, and earlier this month, she escaped to the Rosewood Miramar on a girls’ getaway. But this show will be her first time gracing the hallowed Santa Barbara Bowl stage. And many in the audience will be attending their first, long-awaited live show in 18 months.

When I spoke to Handler last week, she was fresh off vacation with her extended family in Nantucket and very eager to get her tour started. More specifically, she’s “excited about being the reason people come back together and go to their first big outdoor event.” She added, “It’s time for good times and laughter. Let’s get this show on the road again!”

Handler relishes any opportunity to bring lightness and belly laughs to her fans — many of whom have been following her career since her successful seven-year stint as the host of E!’s Chelsea Lately, which wrapped in 2014. Notably, she was the only female late-night host on air at the time. “[The tour] is me getting back to stand-up in the way I started stand-up, which is making fun of what has happened to all of us,” Handler said. “How we all reacted in the last year. And how badly behaved some were, and how well-behaved others were.”