As of today, the romance of Amy Schumer and Chicago furniture designer Ben Hanisch is going strong. As of tomorrow, she says, it will be anybody’s guess.
“I think there’s a chance we’ll be together for a long time — or not,” Schumer tells USA TODAY. “Sometimes I’m like, ‘Yeah we’re going to be together!’ And sometimes I’m like, ‘This is doomed.’ It’s hour to hour.”
The comedian is on the stump promoting her new memoir, “The Girl With the Lower Back Tattoo,” out Tuesday. In the book, she recounts meeting Hanisch during a brief experiment with an unnamed “dating app for your phone specifically aimed at creative people that attracted a lot of celebrity members.” She created a profile on the advice of her friend and “Trainwreck” co-star Vanessa Bayer (“Saturday Night Live”).
“Within 40 minutes,” Schumer writes, “I got my first match. The guy was Ben. He was dancing with his grandmother in his profile picture at what looked like a wedding.” That was a welcome sight for Schumer, by then sick of seeing guys pictured riding motorcycles and cannonballing off cliffs.
“He wasn’t an actor or photographer by trade like all the other guys — and he didn’t live in L.A. or New York. He was a Chicago guy.”
After several hours of texting, they got on the phone and “I liked talking to him.” It was several weeks before they arranged to meet up on a rainy day in New York.
“Ben was standing there, no umbrella or hood, with a soggy paper bag with a bottle of wine in it,” Schumer writes. “We smiled at each other and in that moment, everything felt right.”
Schumer went public with the relationship in January, posting an Instagram photo of herself with Hanisch at the White House. They’ve been sharing photos of vacations together ever since, and over the weekend Hanisch was Schumer’s date as she stood up at the wedding of some friends.
She tells USA TODAY she hesitated about including him in her book. “I’m 35, I’ve never been married,” she said. “My parents have both been married three times, so I no longer believe in the fairy tale. In my mind it’s so great, whatever, but statistically I can’t shake the facts. I’m a romantic person but I’m a realist. So I’m not like, ‘We did it! Now we’re going to be together forever! That’s it! That’s all she wrote!’ ”
Schumer is scheduled to sign copies of “The Girl With the Lower Back Tattoo” at 2 p.m. Saturday at North Central College in Naperville. Tickets, $32, include a copy of the book and are available here.
