Rhea Butcher earns plenty of unifying laughs
Even the most woke among us likely feels trepidation about labeling others, so Rhea Butcher sets everyone straight on the new comedy release “Pull Yourself up by Your Bootleg.”
And the nonbinary Los Angeles-based comic does it hilariously and in the most accessible way possible. The Ohio native uses they/them pronouns, which Butcher quips makes some people, “Question whether they want to talk to me or not.” It also prompts hilariously wrong reactions from others, like an excited, “She uses ‘they/them’! She’s very brave!” And Butcher seems tickled at strangers who just make guesses, like the clerk who initially identifies the comic as a woman and then ends the conversation with, “Here’s your change sir.”
Butcher simply rolls with it (“The only gender I really care about is my dog’s gender”), demystifying issues of identity with the same easy air as revealing they’re a hillbilly by their first reaction to a pack of Miracle Whip on the ground (“Ooh, free Miracle Whip!”) and that they eat vitamin gummies for women “because they don’t make nonbinary gummies yet.”
Butcher’s charismatic voice and perfect timing fuel momentum going, and a diverse audience can relate to subjects that include Lyfts, movie-theater candy and a neighbor’s potbelly pig.
There’s also the tale of Butcher’s awkward first experience hitting on someone, a story about going back to Ohio for a friend’s wedding and hysterical stuff about the comic’s dad, like his impossible advice to, “Keep your head down and your chin up.” Then there’s the time Butcher got access to Dad’s Google search history and discovered they have one interest in common: “boobs.”