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River Butcher

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River Butcher
River Butcher
Born (1982-08-12) August 12, 1982 (age 42)
Akron, Ohio, U.S.
MediumStand-up, television, radio, internet
Alma materUniversity of Akron
Years active2012–present
Spouse
​
​
(m. 2015; sep. 2018)​
Notable works and rolesTake My Wife

River Buddy Butcher[1] (formerly Rhea Harriett Butcher, born August 12, 1982) is an American stand-up comedian, actor, writer, producer, and podcast host. Butcher is best known for personal, observational comedy focused on his vegetarianism, feminism, love of baseball, and experiences as a queer person.[2]

Early life

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Butcher was raised in the Kenmore neighborhood of Akron, Ohio,[3][4] an only child whose parents divorced when Butcher was one month old.[5] He attended Our Lady of the Elms High School[6] and graduated from Archbishop Hoban High School in 2001.[7]

While attending the University of Akron, Butcher worked at a skateboard shop named Summer Squall[8] and an indoor skating facility called Joe's Skate Park,[9] and helped design a skatepark that opened in Akron in 2001.[9] He graduated from the University of Akron with a degree in printmaking in 2005.[7][5] Butcher attended graduate school at University of Notre Dame.[7]

In 2006, Butcher had an exhibit at a printmaker’s show called "Prints at an Exposition".[10] This exhibit, which was a series of prints on muslin showing the body's organs, was inspired by his own appendectomy.[10]

Comedy career

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Early years

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Butcher began his comedy career performing improv in Chicago at The Second City and has since performed stand-up at clubs including Zanies, the Jukebox, and Flappers, as well as Chicago Underground Comedy, The Hideout, The Lincoln Lodge, UCB, Cole's, and Meltdown.[11][12] He made his late-night debut on Conan in June 2016.[13][14]

2014–present

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In the fall of 2014, Butcher appeared alongside Cameron Esposito in a series of videos for BuzzFeed Motion Pictures titled "Ask a Lesbian".[15][16] Butcher and Esposito also co-hosted the web series "She Said" for Amy Poehler's Smart Girls Network.[17] The two wrote and starred together again in Take My Wife, on the comedy streaming service Seeso.[18][19] Butcher also co-hosted the stand-up comedy podcast Put Your Hands Together with Cameron Esposito, which was recorded weekly in front of a live audience at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theater in Los Angeles until it ended in July 2019.[20][21][22]

His first comedy album Butcher was released in August 2016 by the independent record label Kill Rock Stars.[23][24] The set was performed at Mississippi Studios in Portland, Oregon.[25] It debuted at number one on iTunes.[5]

In 2016, he appeared in 8 episodes of the first season of Adam Ruins Everything. He returned in 2017 for one additional appearance.

In 2018, he started hosting a baseball-focused podcast called Three Swings.[26]

In 2021, he appeared on Comedy Central Stand Up Presenting called A Different Kind of Dude.[27]

As stated in an interview, Butcher said his strongest comedy influences are Rosie O'Donnell, Ellen DeGeneres, Brett Butler, Elayne Boosler, Maria Bamford, and Paul F. Tompkins.[28]

Voice acting

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Butcher provided the voice for Asher, a fictional nonbinary character, for the animated series Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts, released in 2020.

Personal life

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Butcher met fellow comedian Cameron Esposito at an open mic hosted by Esposito.[29] The two soon started collaborating and then began to date.[29] On December 12, 2015, Butcher and Esposito married onstage at The Hideout in Esposito's hometown of Chicago, Illinois.[30][31] In August 2018, Butcher and Esposito announced their separation to "live individual lives."[32] Their split was covered in a Vanity Fair article.[31] In September 2019, Esposito wrote an article for the New York Times discussing the couple's pending divorce.[33]

Butcher is a trans man and uses he and they pronouns.[1][34] In November 2021, Butcher announced that he had changed his name to River.[1]

Butcher endorsed Kenneth Mejia and Eunisses Hernandez during the 2022 Los Angeles elections.[35][36]

Notable appearances

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Title Medium Role Year
Put Your Hands Together Podcast Host 2013–2019
Wham Bam Pow Podcast Host 2013–2015
She Said Web Video Series Host 2015
Bajillion Dollar Propertie$ Television Jamie 2016
Conan[13] Television Guest 2016
Take My Wife[37] Television Self 2016–2018
Adam Ruins Everything Television Self 2016
The Meltdown with Jonah and Kumail Television Guest 2016
HarmonQuest Television Guest 2016
Queery Podcast Guest 2018
Good Mythical Morning YouTube Guest 2018
Three Swings Podcast Host 2018–present
Good Trouble Television Lindsay Brady 2019–2021
Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts Television Voice of Asher 2020
Friendsgiving Film Denim 2020

References

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  1. ^ a b c
    • Butcher, River [@rivbutcher] (November 23, 2021). "good morning everybody! I'm grateful to let everyone know that my name is River Butcher. [...]" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
    • Instagram post
  2. ^ Flaherty, Bridget (August 17, 2006). "Rhea Butcher lays down all that she is and more on "Butcher"". The Laugh Button. Retrieved November 3, 2016.
  3. ^ Rabinowitz, Amanda (August 26, 2016). "Comedian Rhea Butcher Keeps Akron at the Heart of Her Success". WKSU. Retrieved December 11, 2019.
  4. ^ Rabinowitz, Amanda (August 26, 2016). "Comedian Rhea Butcher Keeps Akron at the Heart of Her Success" WKSU. Retrieved May 31, 2017.
  5. ^ a b c Bigley II, James (November 16, 2016). "Comedian Rhea Butcher is the Real Deal". Cleveland Magazine. Retrieved May 31, 2017.
  6. ^ O'Connor, Bill (May 3, 1995). "Youths Horrified by Nazi Camps: Study of Holocaust Fills Students with Wonder at Evil of WWII Slaughter". Akron Beacon Journal (Akron, Ohio). p. D1.
  7. ^ a b c Heldenfels, Rich (October 12, 2014). "Akron Native to Perform at Musica: Rhea Butcher Returning Home with Stand-up Act". Akron Beacon Journal (Akron, Ohio). p. B1.
  8. ^ Wallace, Julie (September 11, 2000). "Falls to Be Popular with Skateboarders". Akron Beacon Journal (Akron, Ohio). p. B1.
  9. ^ a b Wallace, Julie (September 14, 2001). "Park for Skaters Ready to Roll Out Mayor, Councilman to Unveil Akron Site Tomorrow". Akron Beacon Journal (Akron, Ohio). p. D1.
  10. ^ a b Shinn, Dorothy (February 5, 2006). "Stellar Printmakers Put Stamp on Exhibit: Summit Artspace Has Local Artists Showcasing Fresh Approaches to Art". Akron Beacon Journal":(Akron, Ohio). p. E4.
  11. ^ "Profile: Rhea Butcher". KCRW. Retrieved November 3, 2016.
  12. ^ Jung, E. Alex (August 16, 2016). "Cameron Esposito and Rhea Butcher on Take My Wife, 'The Show Where Lesbians Don’t Die'". Vulture. Retrieved May 31, 2017.
  13. ^ a b "Rhea Butcher Stand-Up". Conan. June 30, 2016. Retrieved November 3, 2016.
  14. ^ "Late Night". The Times Herald-Record (Middletown, New York). June 30, 2016. p. 22.
  15. ^ Habersburger, Keith (October 31, 2014). "Questions You Wish You Could Ask a Lesbian". BuzzFeed.
  16. ^ Star, Erika (February 20, 2013). "Lez Stand Out: Rhea Butcher and Cameron Esposito". AfterEllen.
  17. ^ "Amy Poehler's Made A New Web Series For Women". BuzzFeed. Retrieved November 3, 2016.
  18. ^ Poniewozik, James (May 24, 2017). "Have You Heard the One About the Angsty Comic? Yes, Too Often". The New York Times. Retrieved May 31, 2017.
  19. ^ Yohannes, Alamin (August 29, 2016). "Cameron Esposito, Rhea Butcher Talk Comedy, Diversity and 'Take My Wife'". NBC News. Retrieved May 31, 2017.
  20. ^ "Put Your Hands Together with Cameron Esposito and Rhea Butcher Archived June 27, 2018, at the Wayback Machine". UCB Theatre.
  21. ^ Rapa, Patrick (December 6, 2016). "L.A. standup comic Cameron Esposito diversifies her portfolio". The Philadelphia Inquirer.
  22. ^ Esposito, Cameron (June 26, 2019). "After 6.5 great yrs, @pyhtshow will end July 30. It's been my baseline in LA — thank u to everyone who ran it, performed on it & came to laugh.pic.twitter.com/15encdzcWe". @cameronesposito. Retrieved October 7, 2019.
  23. ^ "Rhea Butcher 'Butcher' Out Now on CD & MP3 Archived October 14, 2016, at the Wayback Machine". Kill Rock Stars. Retrieved November 3, 2016.
  24. ^ Heldenfels, Rich (August 21, 2016). "New Album, Show for Comedian Rhea Butcher: Akron Native Returns to Area for Local Appearance, CD Signing". Akron Beacon Journal (Akron, Ohio). p. E1.
  25. ^ Watts, Rebecca (January 13, 2016). "Rhea Butcher Is Killing It". The Portland Mercury. Retrieved November 3, 2016.
  26. ^ Lee, Rachel (April 25, 2018). "Interview with comedian Rhea Butcher". Got a Girl Crush.
  27. ^ River Butcher: A Different Kind of Dude - Full Special, January 27, 2022, retrieved February 2, 2022
  28. ^ Shapiro, Gregg (2016). "Rhea Butcher: Butcher than all of you: An interview with lesbian comedian Rhea Butcher Archived August 30, 2018, at the Wayback Machine". Chicago Pride.
  29. ^ a b Mason, Amelia (November 2, 2017). "Comedy Wives Cameron Esposito And Rhea Butcher Are Scripting Their Own Story". WBUR.
  30. ^ Wellen, Brianna (August 17, 2016). "Two wives are better than one on Take My Wife". The Chicago Reader. Retrieved January 31, 2018.
  31. ^ a b Harwood, Erika (August 8, 2018). "Comedians Cameron Esposito and Rhea Butcher Announce Their Split". Vanity Fair.
  32. ^ Butcher, Rhea (August 8, 2018). "@rheabutcher". Twitter. Retrieved August 8, 2018.
  33. ^ Esposito, Cameron (September 13, 2019). "New Hope, New Pain, Same Old Divorce". The New York Times.
  34. ^ "Gender Reveal: River Butcher on Apple Podcasts". Apple Podcasts. Retrieved April 20, 2022.
  35. ^ @rivbutcher (April 29, 2022). "Hey Los Angeles I am so so so stoked to vote for @EunissesH for cd1" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  36. ^ "Endorsements". Mejia for Controller. Retrieved April 21, 2022.
  37. ^ Bacle, Ariana (July 19, 2016). "Cameron Esposito promises 'no lesbians die' in new show 'Take My Wife'". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved November 3, 2016.
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