In 'How To Survive Menopause,' Comedian Samantha Bee Wants Her Audiences To Laugh and Feel Seen

In 2022, comedian Samantha Bee developed a segment for her show, “Full Frontal,” about menopause. In the roughly six-minute segment, she interviewed Dr. Jen Gunter, an OB-GYN and New York Times bestselling author of the book, “The Menopause Manifesto.” In that interview, they spoke about menopause and perimenopause — the period of time, which can last years, that leads up to menopause and can cause a wide range of often disorienting symptoms for women starting in their mid-40s and beyond.

During the seven seasons she hosted “Full Frontal” on TBS, Bee earned a reputation as a fierce, fiery and funny truth-teller, unafraid to call out all manner of hypocrisy, misogyny and double standards, particularly as they rose to prominence during the Trump era. She was unafraid and unflinching, night after night, looking directly into the camera. It was a job that was not for the faint of heart, to say the least.

And yet, Bee said that putting together the segment on perimenopause was one of the hardest things she’s ever done. Ultimately, it was also one of the most fulfilling and set the stage for the next phase of Bee’s career.

In October 2024, Bee debuted a new one-woman show, “How To Survive Menopause.” During the one-hour routine, Bee, now 57, draws on her own personal experience going through perimenopause — she is quick to point out during an interview that, roughly a decade later, she’s still going through it — shares some of the hard-earned knowledge and wisdom that has helped her navigate it, and puts her trademark comedic touches on a period of life that, as she points out, every woman will experience. She is taking that show to the Westhampton Beach Performing Arts Center on September 6.

The “Full Frontal” segment with Gunter has plenty of laugh-out-loud moments, particularly if you are a woman standing on the precipice of perimenopause and, perhaps like Bee, are also a working mother of three (ahem). Gunter shares some of the phrases used in the past to describe menopause — “women’s winter” makes them both laugh at the incredulity of it all. Gunter describes it as “puberty in reverse.” At one point, the segment plays a fake pharmaceutical ad for menopause, rattling off a list of symptoms including several real ones — vaginal dryness, hot flashes — as well as a few like “a desire to punch Ted Lasso in the mustache.”

Gunter points out the key underlying problem with menopause and perimenopause — that, until recently, medicine has been geared around an understanding of male bodies and systems and simply “retrofitted” for women. “You are more than your reproductive parts,” she points out. She also puts it in perspective with her own comedic touch.

“We don’t call penile dysfunction ‘penile failure’ or ‘penile winter,’” she says. (To which Bee responds, “I like that better,” through a fit of laughter.)

In “How To Survive Menopause,” Bee picks up on the threads that Gunter established in that interview. That women should not feel shame or feel bad about themselves simply because they are going through perimenopause and feel unprepared, confused or disoriented by it; that they are not alone; that they will not only survive it but continue to thrive long after they cease ovulating. And, of course, that there’s plenty to laugh about along the way.

In an interview in July, Bee spoke about what led to creating the show and why it’s something she was motivated to do. Bee, who hails from Toronto, rose to prominence on the comedy scene in 2003 when she joined “The Daily Show,” where she was a correspondent for 12 years. In 2015, she debuted her own weekly late-night comedy series, “Full Frontal With Samantha Bee,” on TBS, which ran for seven seasons. Perimenopause came knocking on Bee’s door while she was still hosting the show, and she admits she was not prepared.

“I had it in my head that around 57 I’d be menopausal,” she said. “And here I was in my late 40s, going, ‘What’s going on?’”

She revealed to a doctor around that time that she’d been “crying for a year and a half” and was experiencing other bewildering symptoms. There are more than 150 symptoms attributed to perimenopause, according to Gunter, although the range of what individual women experience and how long those symptoms last varies greatly.

Bee said that, in many ways, it’s not surprising that she ended up being the standard-bearer for this particular cause.

“I’m a year or two older than all my friends, and I’m kind of a pioneer for life experiences across a wide spectrum,” she said. “I was the first to get married, the first to have a baby, the first to go through perimenopause.”

As such, she did not have someone to guide her through the experience. At work, she was the oldest person there, she said, with most of her staff and co-workers five, if not 20, years younger than her. Any background knowledge she had on menopause and perimenopause was paper thin.

“When I was growing up, I definitely read a book about menopause because my mom never had kids’ books around,” she said, referring to a copy of “The Change” by Germaine Greer that she read as a child. “I read it and was like, what the hell is this?” she said with a laugh. “I haven’t read it since, but I’m pretty sure that it coasts into the finale of, ‘I guess I’ll just be a crone.’ She’s like, ‘I think I’m a witch now, bye everyone!’”

Bee’s show has a decidedly different message, but is infused throughout with her trademark wit and comedy. Arriving at a place where she could feel comfortable talking about “all the gross and weird stuff” that happened to her, she says, took time.

“My job in life was to say very difficult things out loud in joke form for years and years, and it took me a really long time to be able to talk openly about perimenopause,” Bee admits. “I was very vulnerable and very sensitive about it for years. It was so personal, and it made me feel so bad about myself.”

Despite the fact that it was her job to be unflinching, Bee said that building the “Full Frontal” episode about menopause was “incredibly vulnerable.”

“I cried a lot and there were a lot of jokes that were written that I wasn’t ready to say,” she added.

She expressed gratitude for Gunter, who she said helped her rewire her thinking around the entire experience. And eventually, she realized that menopause was the number one thing she wanted to talk about.

“I felt like when it came time to do a touring show, really the only thing I wanted to talk about was perimenopause and menopause,” she said. “Even in a time when we’re starting to talk about it, a lot of the conversation is still very anodyne to me,” she continued. “It’s not very fun. It’s either medical or it’s a pamphlet that tells you to wear more layers. The rainbow, wild Technicolor spectrum of the experience deserves a comedy treatment, one that’s real.”

That’s exactly what Bee has done, and she’s been the perfect person to do it. The laugh-out-loud moments in the show are delivered rapid fire, and anyone with first-hand experience of what she’s talking about (once again, ahem) will experience the specific joy and pleasure of laughing and nodding along in response to the immensely reassuring communal experience of being seen and understood. That intimate give and take with the audience has made the experience equally rewarding for Bee.

“I love doing it so much,” she said. “I can’t even tell you how much I love doing it. I’ve never had the experience of wanting to do a performance more in all my life. It’s a very self-selecting crowd, which is so important to me. Nobody is buying a ticket to this and thinking they’re going to get 45 minutes of Trump jokes.”

While Bee’s trademark style and delivery remain the same, the show is in many ways a big departure from what her “Full Frontal” audiences were used to. Bee says the timing of this new phase of her career worked out perfectly. She said that “Full Frontal” ended right around the time she had begun to feel burned out.

“I had been doing political comedy for 20 years and not watching things get any better,” she said. “I don’t feel bad at all. I don’t watch political comedy and think, ‘God, I miss it.’ I don’t feel like the moment is passing me by. I feel like this is what I have to say now — this is what I’m offering. Other shows have taken up the mantle.”

Throughout “How To Survive Menopause,” Bee offers real-world advice for women going through it or about to go through it and makes everyone laugh every step of the way. But what’s perhaps the most important takeaway is the message of hope she provides and the idea that seeing the benefits of entering menopause shouldn’t be considered radical.

“It’s a large part of our lives that we’re coasting into,” she said. “We’re not talking about palliative care here. It’s a third of our lives, so it can be of quality, where we’re not the butt of every joke.

“I’m so tired of middle-aged women being the butt of every joke,” she continued. “I want us to stand up and say things. I think this is the single most important contribution I can make to the culture right now.”

Bee said that, a decade ago, she probably wouldn’t have predicted that this is what she’d be doing at this stage of her career, but she’s happy about it. She’s taking advantage of one of the great benefits of perimenopause and menopause — the freedom to let go, to give up on things that no longer serve you, to let go of people pleasing, and to fully embrace what actually matters.

“I guess I’m at the stage of life now where I want to do the things I’m passionate about,” she said. “I don’t want to go to political conventions and hunt people down and talk to them. This feels evergreen to me. I want people to feel better. I want them to feel seen.”

For more information on the show, visit whbpac.org/events.