The Half Hour

Michelle Buteau treats the stage like an unvarnished happy hour with friends, puncturing romantic tropes in favor of the messy realities of dating and marriage. Recorded at The Royale in Boston and broadcast on Comedy Central in September 2015, the set coincided with the release of her debut stand-up album, Shut Up!. At the time, Buteau was a decade into working clubs while picking up screen work on the FOX sitcom Enlisted and co-hosting VH1’s morning talk show, but this half hour gave her room to stretch out on personal ground. Much of the run focuses on cross-cultural domestic life with her Dutch husband, playfully sizing him up as vintage white royalty while discovering that living with a partner involves far less Hollywood glamour and far more practical friction.