The Child Ain't Right

Brett Butler built her club act on a distinct contradiction: a thick Southern drawl delivering dry, sarcastic, and surprisingly erudite material. Before network television smoothed her edges, her stage work leaned into the darker realities of her life. She talks about feminism, racism, and her abusive first husband, whom she refers to as “Mr. Right Hook”. She mixes blue-collar aesthetics with quick-paced literary references, alongside a memorable chunk about Lee Majors negotiating a hearing aid commercial just so he can publicly announce his sadness. Produced for Showtime in 1993, this twenty-six-minute set arrived just as Butler was transitioning from touring comic to household name. Grace Under Fire premiered on ABC that same year, taking the framework of her life and sanitizing it for primetime. This recording preserves the caustic, untethered version of Butler who spent the late eighties working out her material in front of comedy club crowds.