JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:
Every week, a well-known guest draws a card from the Wild Card deck and answers a big question about their life. Michelle Buteau says she wasn't sure she belonged in the world of stand-up comedy.
MICHELLE BUTEAU: I had, like, co-workers when I first started stand-up, tell me, like, you should do stand-up. And I'm like, I should not because I would go to shows, and everybody was, like, so unhappy. And I was like, maybe this is not for me. Maybe I'm too happy for this. But I was like, you know what? After sitting through shows, I want someone to feel like they are, like, also living life. I want to be inspired. And so I'm just like, there's all different types of music, and there can be different types of comedy.
SUMMERS: Buteau has found a lot of success. Last year she starred in the movie "Babes," and the TV show based on her memoir "Survival Of The Thickest" was renewed for a second season. Her new Netflix comedy special, "A Buteau-ful Mind At Radio City Music Hall," is out now. She talked to Wild Card host Rachel Martin about body image.
RACHEL MARTIN, BYLINE: One, two or three?
BUTEAU: OK, I'm going to go for three.
MARTIN: Three.
BUTEAU: It's a lucky number.
MARTIN: What's a piece of advice you were smart to ignore?
BUTEAU: Oh, my God, lose weight. Shut up. People that tell you to lose weight are never a doctor. They never look happy. Like, what are you talking about? What are you talking about? Lose weight. People won't like you, love you, or you can get a job. Shut up. Not only am I going to keep my weight. I might gain some weight. OK? I'm going to gain some weight, and I'm going to create jobs, and I'm not going to give you one of them. I'm just going to show you what it looks like to love my body, my double chin, my extra rolls. OK?
MARTIN: Did someone say...
BUTEAU: My buckets of thighs, sauce on the side. You can't afford it. So sorry.
MARTIN: But did someone say the words to you, you will be more successful if you lose weight?
BUTEAU: Not only have people said those words to me.
MARTIN: Wow.
BUTEAU: Let's say family members at dinner parties. Don't eat that. You're going to get fat, and no one's going to marry you. College professor - when I told him I wanted to be an entertainment reporter, he said, you're just simply too fat to be on camera. Casting directors, quite honestly, culture and society...
MARTIN: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
BUTEAU: ...'Cause if I don't see myself, then you're saying that something's wrong with me, and that's why diversity matters. It's not just a hashtag. If you see it, you believe you can actually be it because you're like, oh, there it is, and here I am. But if it's never there, then how do you know that you can even knock on the door to say, I'm here? So that's why it matters.
MARTIN: But, like, did you come out that way? - because you're saying even your family told you this. So was there a moment...
MARTIN: Yeah.
MARTIN: ...When you made the choice to be like, I'm not going to listen to this? - 'cause that's hard.
BUTEAU: My wedding because all my friends were like, you got to diet. You got to exercise. You got to diet. That's what you do. And I was like, why? And they're like, you just got to do it. And I did it, and I lost a lot of weight. And I was like, this doesn't feel good. And I miss turkey bacon. And my dress was too big and kept falling off of me during my father-daughter dance and my - and all the dancing. And then I literally had, like, some tequila and a potato and blacked out for the rest of my wedding. And I'm like, why? Had I been pregaming - I already found a man who's going to love me no matter what. What am I doing? And that's when I was just like, no.
SUMMERS: Michelle Buteau's new Netflix comedy special is "A Buteau-ful Mind At Radio City Music Hall." You can hear more of that conversation with Michelle Buteau on the Wild Card podcast. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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