Randy Rainbow

Transcript

00:00Channel Q, excited to be spending some time with a very funny human.

00:05It's Randy Rainbow.

00:06Thanks for joining us.

00:07Hi, Corey.

00:07Thanks for having me.

00:09You are so busy right now doing all sorts of different things.

00:12You're zigging and zagging.

00:13You've got the tour that's kicking off in just a couple of weeks, the National Freakin'

00:19Treasure Tour.

00:20Tell us about it.

00:20What can we expect from the show on stage?

00:24Well, it's a variation of the concert show that I usually do, which, you know, fans of

00:29the videos will not be disappointed.

00:31I'm giving the greatest hits.

00:32It's me.

00:33It's a live band.

00:35I'm singing.

00:36I'm, you know, there's stand-up comedy.

00:41There's some audience participation.

00:44And there's some special, you know, treats in store.

00:47I mean, I don't want to give too much away, but Donald Trump is expected to make an appearance.

00:52Oh.

00:53Present me with a Kennedy Center honor.

00:56Just things throughout.

00:57Yeah.

00:57Again, not to give everything away, but we have special, special surprises in store.

01:02And, you know, you, you bring that up.

01:04Why did you want to do this tour now?

01:07The money.

01:08I mean, go ahead.

01:10Finish the question.

01:11Yeah.

01:11I mean, obviously this is your, this is your full-time job.

01:14This is your chosen profession.

01:15But was there anything happening in the world that made you say, you know what?

01:19I need to get my brand of, of humor and joy and entertainment out into the world at this

01:25moment across the country.

01:26Do you mean this particular year or for the last decade?

01:30I mean, yeah.

01:31Right.

01:32Sure.

01:33All of it.

01:34All of it.

01:35Well, I mean, it started, you know, it, it all happened very serendipitously for me and

01:39I won't give you, I won't bore you with the whole story.

01:41You can pick up a copy of my memoir, bestselling memoir, playing with myself available wherever

01:46books are sold.

01:46And I go through the whole kind of journey that took me to this brand of humor, but it

01:51started with just as most things do with me, just kind of like a cheap campy gag of inserting

01:58myself into the headlines and interacting with whatever that may be.

02:02It started 10 years ago or more, actually 14 years ago, I think when I was dating Mel

02:08Gibson, which is kind of how a lot of people first were introduced to me.

02:12And then I just kept following the bouncing ball of the news cycle and needless to say,

02:18come 2015, 2016, that led to Trump.

02:22And I just kept going with it.

02:24And over that time, especially, it became more and more clear, particularly when I started

02:31doing these live concerts and meeting people face to face who would tell me these lovely

02:35stories about how, you know, the, my videos helped get them through and help them cope.

02:41Particularly when we got into COVID times, it became more clear that this, you know, as

02:47I always knew, comedy is very important.

02:50And so that's really the, um, the, the, the motivation for, for getting out there, particularly

02:57at this time, you know, with all we're going through, but mainly it's the money.

03:03As you're building the, um, the, the plan for the show, you, you mentioned following and

03:08keeping up with the news cycle over the years right now, that in itself is a full-time job.

03:13Do you get exhausted with all that we're inundated?

03:16And then at the same time, trying to put that through your machine and, and push it out

03:20as, as art that makes people feel good.

03:22It can be exhausting, especially now.

03:25And again, I've been doing this now going on a decade, specifically this covering mostly

03:31this administration, because that's just what is the obvious thing to cover.

03:35That's what's generating the most material, whether we like it or not.

03:38So that could get tired for the audience and for myself.

03:41And so, um, the way that I combat that is by making, trying to make it more fun for myself.

03:49So, you know, in the old days, I'm not the kid anymore.

03:52So like, I, I don't stay up all night, like doing the exact headline of the day, because

03:57first of all, there's so many different soundbites, headlines and catchphrases and all of that.

04:03So you can't keep up with that.

04:05But, but long story short, I, I, I keep a running list of songs that I want to do and,

04:11you know, comedy and, and musical comedy specifically that I want to do.

04:16Um, and I've been able to kind of work that, like, for example, one of my recent parodies

04:21was to Defying Gravity.

04:22I've, I just, I've obviously wanted to always just do that song.

04:26And, and so it, it came time to do that.

04:29And, um, that had been on my list.

04:31But so all that to say, I'm just, you know, trying to make it more fun for myself that

04:36in addition to the fact that I take more time with the production than I used to, I used

04:41to churn things out overnight, which was great for the brand and to get my name out there.

04:45But it was, it was a pain in the ass.

04:48And now I take more time.

04:50I work with a musical team and they create, instead of the old days when I used to just

04:55pull karaoke tracks, I have actual Broadway musicians putting these orchestrations together

05:00specifically for me.

05:01So all that stuff makes a hell of a lot more fun for me and therein for the audience.

05:05I hope.

05:07We're channel Q spending time with Randy, Randy rainbow.

05:09Uh, you mentioned your memoir.

05:11You're also now a children's author excited about this book, Randy rainbow and the marvelously

05:17magical pink glasses.

05:19It sounds like, oh my gosh, look at that.

05:21Ready with a prop.

05:22It just came hot off the presses.

05:24It, uh, it sounds like a really lovely and fun story.

05:28Um, tell us about it.

05:29And also why did you want to write a children's book?

05:32Um, well they, you know, I wrote two adult books and then they came to me with the idea

05:37of doing this.

05:38And it seemed like a great, wonderful idea.

05:41They gave me, you know, full creative control of the idea.

05:44I said, you know, let's do a little character named Randy rainbow.

05:47This has been my name.

05:48Again, you can read the memoir and I tell you the whole story of how this is actually my

05:53actual name on my birth certificate.

05:54It's not a corny stage name, believe it or not know that I would not choose that.

05:59It was a very painful childhood, but I said, damn it, I'm going to make it work.

06:04And so I thought a children's book was the perfect way to, to, to use this character of

06:09little me.

06:11And it's, um, you know, about a little kid who's kind of lost in the universe and gets

06:17bullied on the playground, very, very based on reality.

06:21And, uh, his grandmother gifts him a pair of these magical pink glasses, which allow

06:27him to do and be and go anywhere he wants.

06:30Um, and it's basically at the end of the day, a story about using your imagination and

06:36creativity to find the courage within to be yourself.

06:40So it's very much promotes, you know, expressive freedom and identity and being yourself and all

06:46that stuff that, you know, we need reminders of in this day and age, it'll be banned everywhere.

06:51I'm sure.

06:52Well, that was going to be a question for you is, do you think about that when you're putting

06:56out a book like this?

06:58Of course.

06:59I expect that it will be wherever books are banned.

07:01I'm sure this will be at the top of every list and good.

07:05You know, I'm very proud, uh, to be contributing something like this at this time.

07:10Now, again, nowhere in the book does it say little Randy rainbow is gay.

07:13It doesn't mention, you know, pronouns or whatever, you know,

07:16gets, gets people riled up.

07:18It's just about, um, you know, being, being genuine and it's about being considerate and

07:26all of those things, but it will be politicized by anyone who I'm sure wants to do that.

07:32Yeah.

07:32Right.

07:33Right.

07:33It sounds like you're, you're up for that.

07:35You're ready for that.

07:36Absolutely.

07:36I mean, everything that I do has obviously a political bend to it.

07:43So I'm used to, you know, half the country, not digging it.

07:45Although I think when you, you know, a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down, which I

07:52didn't write, but I've heard that.

07:54And that's sort of what I try to do with all of my work, including the, the videos that,

07:59that are most popular, which are seemingly would, would be the most polarizing thing.

08:05But I have Republican type people coming to my shows all the time and saying, I don't

08:10agree with you necessarily on everything, but I love your videos.

08:12They make me laugh.

08:13And in fact, they have created a space for my, uh, left leaning family members and I to

08:19come together and enjoy something about these topics.

08:22That to me is the best compliment you can give me.

08:25Cause I think we need a lot more of that kind of thing these days.

08:27That is a great compliment.

08:29That's lovely.

08:29Um, you know, you, you talk about the book and the character having this relationship

08:34with his grandmother.

08:35Did you have someone in your life that, that you had that relationship with?

08:39Nanny, my grandmother.

08:40So this is very much, um, you know, I could, I could talk about it for hours, but it all comes

08:45back to Nanny.

08:46And the actual pink glasses started as a sight gag in my parody videos that just when pretending

08:54I was like a serious journalist, pretending to interview these subjects, I would put on

08:58these plastic, like party favor glasses and it was just got a laugh.

09:02But then over the years, people started coming to the live shows, wearing their own pink glasses.

09:08I'm no fool.

09:09They're now branded and sold in the lobby, but they would tell me these lovely stories

09:14about how, like we, I wear the pink glasses and they make me feel better.

09:18Or I wear the pink glasses to get me through challenging times in my life.

09:21Or people have sent me, you know, messages and pictures over the years of them wearing

09:25the pink glasses while undergoing chemotherapy treatments.

09:30So it seemed to take on a deeper meaning, these, these pink glasses for my audience.

09:35And then I kind of adopted that back from them and realized that the pink glasses, you

09:41know, I kind of made them the, a physical embodiment of my overall philosophy of what I'm trying

09:50to do with these videos and this book and everything, which is to see the world through

09:53a lens of joy and humor and specifically musical comedy.

09:58And that philosophy was really given to me by my grandmother.

10:03And she is the other main character in this children's book.

10:06So the children's book really is very much a love letter to her.

10:09What a beautiful tribute to her.

10:11I think there's a special bond I've found with everyone and their grandmother, a lot

10:17of people and their grandmother, but particularly gay males and their grandmothers.

10:22Yeah, I had, I had, yeah, yeah.

10:25So I, I, I, I liked that this was, you know, this was a celebration of that.

10:32Yeah.

10:32Oh my gosh, you're going to make me cry thinking.

10:33Oh my God.

10:36Um, what a, what a beautiful message excited for the book, uh, released in just a couple

10:42of weeks, May 27th.

10:43Also got the show, the, uh, the stage show, the tour kicking off very soon.

10:47You can send tickets to the show.

10:49You can buy the book.

10:50You can buy the old books at randyrainbow.com.

10:53Yes.

10:53Did I sell it?

10:54Well, you did the older, they're not even that old.

10:57There was one, the new book.

10:58There's the new previous books.

11:00That's all right.

11:01But the newer book came out just a few months ago, actually.

11:04So, uh, yeah, get, get everything, get the glad, get the, you know, Mother's Day is upon

11:09us.

11:10I don't know when this will air.

11:11Pride is upon us.

11:12Get a cute tank.

11:13Halloween, Christmas.

11:15Women's might sit in the, in the holidays are always appropriate.

11:18Perfect.

11:19Um, first of all, thank you so much for the time, but thank you for spreading, you know,

11:23joy and thoughtfulness and all the things that you do with, with all of your, your content

11:27and your art.

11:28And now the show in the books.

11:29So thank you so much.

11:30Appreciate you.

11:31And Terry, we can take care.

11:33Bye.

11:34Bye.

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