Chelsea Handler shared why you can't roll your eyes at a celebrity without first honoring the originator: Joan Rivers.
As part of her stand-up for the Netflix Is A Joke festival—which also featured Pete Davidson, Amy Poehler and Maya Rudolph—Chelsea paid tribute to the late co-host of E!'s Fashion Police by sharing how she practically invented the sassy, yet comedic act in entertainment.
"She started out as many of us did: working odd jobs to make ends meet," Chelsea said in a first look clip of the stand-up routine, which will hit Netflix on May 19 as part of The Hall: Honoring the Greats of Stand-Up.
As seen in E! News' exclusive sneak peek, Chelsea continued by recalling Joan getting her start as a tour guide at Rockefeller Center and as a proofreader at a New York ad agency. "She also worked for a brief time as a fashion consultant," Chelsea said, "a skill that would come in handy decades later when she formed the Fashion Police with her daughter Melissa [Rivers]."
She added, "They invented eye rolls and celebrity smackdown decades before Jada [Pinkett Smith] and Will [Smith]," seemingly referencing that infamous Oscars slap.
In addition to the 47-year-old's bit about Joan, The Hall will see Jon Stewart pay homage to George Carlin, Dave Chappelle recognize Richard Pryor and John Mulaney honor Robin Williams.
Chelsea's show was just one stop in her year-long Vaccinated and Horny Tour. She's returned to the stage with the tour after a six-year hiatus that started after her 2014 Netflix special Uganda Be Kidding Me.
Chelsea exclusively told E! News about her feelings returning to the stage, saying, "There was a death of joyfulness that you want to feel like you're of service even though you're doing stand-up, you're not saving lives. But at the same time, you do have an impact on people. And it's your responsibility to come out and remind people of everything they've been missing."
While eight months into her return to stand-up, the comic told E! News that she's hoping to continue her evolution, eventually turning her Vaccinated and Horny set into a one-hour special. She's also working on her Life Will Be The Death Of Me script, which is based on her last book. She even teased a possible book about her love story with boyfriend Jo Koy.
Chelsea explained that her return to stand-up is taking a more serious tone, which she considers a "very tricky dance" to achieve.
"I had spent so many years with this persona of people thinking I was so one-dimensional—that I was just this tough chick who doesn't care what anybody thinks," she recalled. "It's like, no, there's deeper stuff there."