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I love stand-up comedy. I’m no expert on it but I watch it quite a bit, both live and taped. I remember the first time I saw Brett Butler perform her “that child ain’t right” bit in the 90s. I still laugh when I play it in my head. That routine was the reason I watched Grace Under Fire, which I also enjoyed. I wasn’t involved enough to realize there was so much going on behind the scenes. I think I knew she’d had a bad first marriage that she escaped with her comedy. And I heard about her alcoholism, but I never put her issues together on a timeline until now. Over the summer, a friend started a crowdfunding for Brett so she could avoid eviction after she admitted she’d gone broke. This led The Hollywood Reporter to get an in-depth interview about what, exactly, went wrong. During Grace, Brett succumbed to drugs and alcohol which made her too difficult to work with. Once sober, she still had trouble finding people who would work with her. She moved to Georgia and began rescuing animals but spent more than she made and lost her farm in the process. She came back to Hollywood where Charlie Sheen, of all people, saved her by fighting to get her a reoccurring role on Anger Management. Following that, she’s done bit parts, but not enough to pay for rent and the animals she’s still looking after. Which is how she fell six months behind in rent. Now, with the GoFundMe almost at its goal, Brett may be able to stay in Hollywood long enough to reignite her stand up career.

It was in early July, when she had fallen six months behind in rent, that Brett Butler fully came to grips with how dire her circumstances had become.

Facing imminent eviction from her Los Angeles apartment, the comedian and actress — who at her career peak during the mid-1990s was making $250,000 per episode as the star of the ABC sitcom Grace Under Fire — confided in one of her closest friends, Lon Strickler, a blogger who chronicles real-life supernatural encounters. (Butler herself claims to be able to communicate with the dead and once even tried to launch a Crossing Over-style talk show.)

“I told him, ‘I might’ve waited too long to do this, but I am so screwed right now,’” Butler, 63, recounts in her Georgian lilt. “‘I’ve been ashamed. Almost ashamed to death.’” Says Strickler: “I decided that it was in her benefit if I tried to form a GoFundMe account for her.”

It took Butler a lot of convincing to submit herself to a crowdfunding campaign — not just as a matter of pride but also, she feared, the satisfaction it would give the enemies she’d made along the way. “He talked me into it,” she says of Strickler’s urging. “The way he put it was, ‘You can’t live your life based on being afraid of what haters will do.’ “

Strickler asked Butler how much she wanted to raise. “And I said, ‘I don’t know — what’s the cutoff line between needing something and being absolutely greedy?’ ” They decided on a goal of $15,000. The campaign raised $12,583 from 246 donors — enough to keep the wolves at bay for a little longer. Strickler since has pushed the target up to $20,000.

“She still needs a little more help,” he says. “She just needs one more little nudge to get back on her feet.”

The past few years have been an unbelievably rough stretch for Butler. But, as she points out, they’ve been tough for everyone. And while she may be down, she’s not out. As Lindelof puts it, “We love comeback stories in this town.”

A comeback for Butler probably won’t come in the form of another sitcom, talk show or even in a series where she communes with the dearly departed. More likely is a long-delayed return to stand-up. The new routine might unpack how her careerlong preoccupation with finding light in life’s darkest corners had finally caught up with her, until all that remained was the darkness. “I’d need a few months to get it done,” she says of writing such a project. “Yeah, I’d say I could work under a 90-day gun.”

[From The Hollywood Reporter]

Years ago, there was a story that Brett was homeless. Brett said in this interview that was never true. In an interview she gave about losing her Georgia horse farm at the time, the producer made up the fact that she’s been in a homeless shelter and Brett was never able to undo it. I’d heard the homeless rumor and I’d heard the difficult to work with rumors. It sounds like Brett contributed to her situation, which she acknowledges, but she’s also hit hard times. She’s lucky so many folks are still looking out for her.

Brett’s earning a better reputation for recent work that includes How to Get Away with Murder, The Leftovers, The Walking Dead and The Morning Show. The article said in 2019 she suffered a bad bout of depression that the lockdown amplified. Apparently, her father was bipolar. Spending money is tightly wound into cycles of bipolar and depression. I don’t know if that’s what happened with Brett but speaking from experience, it could be. Especially if she had to choose between her animals and rent during that time. I’ve always enjoyed Brett’s work, so I’d like to see her restart her comedy. I hope she’s overcome whatever demons keep her from thriving.

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