DISCOVERING CHELSEA LATELY

Appropriately enough, I came upon Chelsea Lately around 3:10 am last night -- about a half hour into another one of my now too regular middle night channel-surfing-and-sleep-therapy sessions. I'm not sure what to make it (her?) yet, but between my ambivalence, I found Chelsea different enough and interesting enough to keep me awake until about 4:30. (At which point I began dreaming of being late for a group dinner on the 6th floor of the mythical Parasol Restaurant in Peoria - where the tables are set in gondolas, suspended from the ceiling and shaded from the (ceiling lights?) by huge parasols... and PS, there are no 6th floors in Peoria. But I digress.)

I say "it" because after some research I learned that "Chelsea Lately" is the name of the 11pm talk show on E! while Chelsea Handler is the name of the comedian who hosts it. Not what I thought last night.

Stimulated by the novelty, I took a bunch of notes to try to capture my thoughts. But as expected I can't read hardly anything I wrote... something about how "she wears her bear" and the "southly dannliar in sploof". I'm pretty sure this last note was an important one because it had 3 exclamation points.

Her delivery is dry and sarcastic and I liked the material from last night's show(s?) because for the most part, it matched my sensibility - but I can see where this might not always be the case. Her supporting crew of comics however presented a mixed bag - sometimes funny but also often more cruel than necessary.

However, what got my insomniac, post mid-night brain twisted the most was when she did a monologue on Celebrity Apprentice and a Dennis Rodman freak-out. Her comments seemed so familiar - not in a deja-vu sort of way or like when you recognize that you've seen a movie before - halfway through seeing it again, but it was like I was hearing some kind of precursory future past tense. It was like she was reading something I WROTE, like something I might have written on this blog if I had seen Dennis Rodman and then commented on it. It was truely surreal and reflective of my own sarcastic tendencies. I think I could like this woman.