For years, gay male performers were left out of the edy landspe or tokenized wh . Now, a new wave of entertaers are succeedg by playg to themselv.
Contents:
- EXCLIVE INTERVIEW: NETFLIX IS A JOKE STAND-UP STAR MATTEO LANE “I’M JT TALKG ABOUT WHAT I LIKE & IF HAPPENS TO BE SUPER GAY, GOOD!”
- WHY STT THOMPSON IS CANADA'S TE GAY NATNAL TREASURE
EXCLIVE INTERVIEW: NETFLIX IS A JOKE STAND-UP STAR MATTEO LANE “I’M JT TALKG ABOUT WHAT I LIKE & IF HAPPENS TO BE SUPER GAY, GOOD!”
Fluent five languag, wh a sgg range of six octav, pup good looks, and charisma for days, Matteo Lane is already a gay hearthrob (as a quick glance at his Instagram will nfirm) and fast beg a New York stand-up edy stutn, regularly performg at the legendary Comedy Cellar the Wt Village. Before… * youtube gay stand up *
Risg to fame followg her special "Nate, " Gadsby has phed edy to new levels by weavg together personal stori, art history lsons, and sthg monologu — routely takg hs at men and the chronicl her childhood growg up as a lbian Tasmania, where homosexualy was illegal until 1997. Yang beme the first Che-Amerin and third openly gay st member on NBC's "Saturday Night Live" edian, who hosts a pop culture podst lled "Las Culturistas, " has proven his range on the "SNL, " masterfully portrayg characters om a Che tra reprentative ed as "Tra Daddy" to former Democratic printial ndidate Andrew Yang. Amstell, who beme known for appearanc on "Pop World" and "Never Md The Buzzcks, " stand-up edy as a nfsnal, workg through issu like his parents' divorce, eatg meat, and timacy the Brish ic speaks openly about his sexualy durg sets, Amstell said he was "terrified" of beg gay before g out durg his Netflix special "Set Free.
WHY STT THOMPSON IS CANADA'S TE GAY NATNAL TREASURE
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Fluent five languag, wh a sgg range of six octav, pup good looks, and charisma for days, Matteo Lane is already a gay hearthrob (as a quick glance at his Instagram will nfirm) and fast beg a New York stand-up edy stutn, regularly performg at the legendary Comedy Cellar the Wt Village. Ahead of his Netflix Is A Joke shows, Matteo Lane had an exclive chat wh The Queer Review’s edor Jam Klemann about why Joan Rivers was rponsible for him gettg to stand-up, how he was able to keep preformg when New York’s door edy venu were closed, why Stand Out at the Greek is gog to feel like a fay rnn, and who his gay in for life is.
Havg a moment, the late ’90s and early ghts, meant that, sudnly, a gay performer or character would appear a space that had been prevly domated by straight people — say, at the center of a TV s like “Will & Grace” or a stand-up special, or as the voice of reason to the leadg lady a romantic edy like “My Bt Friend’s Weddg” — and everyone uld appld and say, “We solved !
Click here to SUBSCRIBE to our channel: Will Watks talks about the rtrictns when performg at Gay Pri para. Comedy Time brgs you the bt edians the world, Stay tuned for new vios. Like on: Follow on: Vis our official webse: Also check out our other work channels -~-~~-~~~-~~-~- Please watch: "Gettg Olr Supris (Stand Up Comedy)" ➨ -~-~~-~~~-~~-~ * youtube gay stand up *
Gay edy isn’t niche ’s all changed so fast that at one pot, while he’s discsg a sketch about rporate sponsorship of gay pri paras that he did wh Lil Nas X last May, Yang, 31, tch himself and says, lghg, “Why am I talkg about this the past tense, like ’s another era? ” says Rogers, who, like all of his lleagu, has many ncurrent projects; he spent an early month of the panmic hostg (hilarly) a pet-groomg realy show lled “Hte Dog” for HBO Max; he -created a short-form seri lled “Gayme Show” (“for Quibi, rt peace”), whose wrg room was “entirely stocked wh queer people”; and he will have a regular role on a new Showtime edy lled “I Love That for You, ” tentatively schled for this sprg, wh the “S. ” Lyn’s style of humor — bchy, suatg, spiked wh alhol, rancid wh self-mockery — was rarely overtly queer; was what would now be scribed as “queer-d” — other words, legibly gay to anybody, gay or straight, who knew what signifiers to look for but to the obliv, merely droll.
Lyn (who was self-protectively disparagg about gay men terviews) and ntemporari like Charl Nelson Reilly on “Match Game” (another game show) the 1970s were gay entertaers before that was a tegory; they are the first DNA strand ntemporary gay male edy’s triple send strand was the first generatn of out male edians — guys like the performance artist Frank Maya, who beme the first out gay man to get a spot on the early ’90s MTV seri “Half Hour Comedy Hour, ” and Bob Smh, the first to crack “The Tonight Show” durg the Jay Leno era, and Stt Thompson, the gay member of the Canadian edy qutet the Kids the Hall. And the third strand was drag — there all along, olr than pop culture self, the subject of angry ntentn the gay muny between those who embraced as an act of transgrsive fiance and genr subversn and those who nounced as mstrelsy or, worse, bad for the e; pop culture, was a s-long journey om “La Cage x Foll” on Broadway the 1980s to “RuPl’s Drag Race” the 2000s, at which pot the naysayers fally had to adm feat.
In the scene, Styl plays a distracted, gay, sexually (hyper)active social media brand manager who’s ught advertently postg his own horny Instagram msag unr the pany acunt — cludg one to Shawn Mens, to whom he sends what he sheepishly adms to his boss ( a le that drew screams of lighted shock om the stud dience) was “a picture of my open throat.
Alison Grillo n see both sis of the bate around Dave Chappelle’s latt Netflix stand-up special, “Sticks & Ston,” which has been cricized for jok about LGBTQ people. As a edian, she thks Chappelle should be ee to joke about anythg. But as a trans woman, she said one of his jok “rankled” her a ltle b.“I wouldn’t say you shouldn’t make jok about Michael Jackson, or you shouldn’t make jok about trans people unls you’re trans, or you shouldn’t make jok about school shootgs unls you’ve been a school shootg. No. I wouldn’t put that level of censorship on anyone,” Grillo told she didn’t love a joke which a character isn’t sure what pronoun to e for trans people: “I gus the most offensive joke I would say, personally, was the joke about the LGBT people the r, and when he says, ‘Oh, y, hi, whatever pronoun you’re fortable wh.’ That kd of rankled me a ltle b. But otherwise, I didn’t thk was a terribly mean-spired performance.”By nature, edy specials mix tth wh jok that aren’t meant to be taken serly. But Chappelle has ught cricism om some viewers who thk he’s punchg down, targetg people who historilly haven’t been given a voice edy or society at “Sticks & Ston,” Chappelle go after many unexpected targets, cludg the men who’ve acced Michael Jackson of moltg them as children. He also likens LGBTQ people to passengers on a long road trip who don’t always get Read: Bradley Cooper, Jon Stewart, Tiffany Haddish to Honor Dave Chappelle at Kennedy CenterMany have taken sis, but TheWrap sought out the opns of people who n see the special om both a edic and LGBTQ perspective.“I’m sure a lot of people will be not happy wh , or have their feelgs hurt,” Grillo said. “If you don’t like , you don’t buy his album or you don’t click on his face. I don’t mean to dismiss his power as an entertaer — I mean, y, he has a sense of rponsibily. But if you look at his whole act, you n say that many ways, he means well.”He also talks about an argument he once had wh a work standards-and-practic employee that clus him askg, “Why is that I n say the word n—– wh such impuny, but I n’t say the word f—–?”Chappelle’s pot is that there’s a double standard around the slurs. But lbian edian Elsa Eli Wahe said that askg the qutn is “not a good look” for Chappelle.“For the same reason wh n’t say n-word. You don’t belong to the group. This is mad simple, not clever and low hangg u. Not a good look Dave,” Wahe Read: 'Survivg R. Kelly' Director Dream Hampton Says Dave Chappelle Misquoted Her When He Acced Her of Misquotg Him“Sure, everythg is fair game,” she elaborated, a statement to TheWrap. “But he his platform to make jok about rape victims, trans folks, and the LGBTQ muny. Wh all that’s gog on the world, that’s what he choos to do?”As opns swirl around whether Chappelle’s jok are fair play or if they’ve gone too far, some nservativ have e to Chappelle’s fense, llg him a ee-speech champn.“Of urse, ee speech, and I support his right ’e I want the same latu,” Wahe said. “But when the alt-right thks you’re dog somethg right, you’re probably wrong.”Also Read: Michael Jackson Accers Cricize Dave Chappelle's Joke About Not Believg ThemGay edian Guy Branum, known for “The Mdy Project” and “Awkward,” tweeted succctly: “Comedians should support each other and one way Dave Chapelle [sic] uld support me more is by llg me a f—– ls,” he didn’t rpond to a requt for English looks at a different way. A gay stand-up edian who has appeared VICELAND’s “Funny How?” and wrten for “The Rundown wh Rob The” on B.E.T., he says that Chappelle uld actually be “providg visibily” to the LGBTQ muny.“In my opn, people don’t take the time to actually listen to everythg thg he says his jok,” English told TheWrap. “As a gay person, I’d actually feel left out if he didn’t have any material on . In my personal opn, anythg and anyone n be ma fun of, but only an actually funny person n pull off. A edian’s job is to observe, so way, he’s providg visibily to a group of people whom are ignored nstantly, pecially the LGBTQ muny (which was the unrlyg tth his ‘r’ b).”Dewayne Perks, a gay edian and actor who has wrten for “Brooklyn Ne-Ne” and “The Break wh Michelle Wolf,” said the nversatn should be much bigger than jt Chappelle.“Stand-up as an artistic medium has historilly been exclive terms of who is targeted jok and even gets to participate. Hence the lack of mastream queer ics, pecially queer black ics. But this isn’t new, didn’t start wh Dave Chappelle and won’t end wh Dave Chappelle,” Perks told TheWrap.“So to make the nversatn about him ignor the bigger issue of a simple lack of reprentatn edy,” Perks add. “If more energy was actually spent jt givg those margalized voic a bigger platform, their art uld speak for themselv, and turn be an active unterpot to edy that people feel is problematic.”Read origal story LGBTQ Comedians Rpond to Dave Chappelle’s ‘Sticks and Ston’ At TheWrap * youtube gay stand up *
”The sketch was an stant h, which was surprisg not jt bee Styl gamely threw himself to the role but bee the language ed — “still on a poppers high, ” “feelg really prsed after threome, ” “wreck me, daddy” — was for-, by- gay talk of a kd that was unprecented on “S. Sce Ellen DeGener me out 1997, lbians and gay men have had, and ntue to have, separate and plited trajectori through edy, and one major and persistent difference is that the ia of sex between men still triggers a more vol, openly disgted type of homophobia om some dienc than do the ia of sex between women. VioThe edian shar an anecdote about g out to his LeeIn one way, that sensibily was nsistent wh Yang and Rogers’s unforced gay-bti vibe on “Las Culturistas, ” which is not gay as “We’re here, we’re queer, ” but gay as “We’re two adult men havg an extremely long and impassned discsn about Glenn Close — don’t expect to make fortable for you.
The character, makg a tense and hghty appearance on “Weekend Update, ” exemplifi the ways which gay edy is now, so to speak, genre-fluid: It’s performed and -wrten by an out gay man; ’s not overtly gay but is, Yang’s words, “very much queer-d”; and ’s also drag. A kd of drag that seems steeped ls the world of RuPl than the mp zans of “Pee-wee’s Playhoe” (a subversive, tangibly queerish show that’s still makg s fluence felt s after buted 1986), but drag nohels — apparently, we all know a gay iceberg when we see one.
Source photos: Young-Whe: Flora Hanijo; Esla: Sean Santiago; Torr: Amy Lombard for The New York TimThis all happened what was supposed to be the post-acceptance era, when the age of enlightenment picted on numero TV shows didn’t match the on-the-ground realy for a lot of gay kids. So do Margaret Cho, whose journey om the sanized, promised 1994-95 work s “All-Amerin Girl” to a rawer, more outspoken, utterly fearls set of edy specials and shows the ghts felt like an early road map for young gay edy fans, not to mentn an alternative to the bro culture that seemed to be edy’s domant stra. Johnson/ © HBO Max/Courty of Everett CollectnThe same was te for Cole Esla, the 35-year-old wrer-performer who first earned a cult followg for a seri of YouTube vios wh the actor-edian Jeffery Self lled “VGL [Very Good Lookg] Gay Boys” that evolved to the sketch seri “Jeffery & Cole Casserole” 2009.