Randy Rainbow stopped by CHANNEL Q for a convo with Corey.
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00:00all right channel q excited to be spending some time with a very funny human it's randy rainbow
00:08thanks for joining us hi cory thanks for having me you are so busy right now doing all sorts of
00:14different things you're zigging and zagging you've got the tour that's kicking off in just a couple
00:18of weeks the national freaking treasure tour tell us about it what can we expect from the show on
00:25stage well it's a variation of the concert show that i usually do which you know fans of the videos
00:32will not be disappointed i'm giving the greatest hits it's me it's a live band uh i'm singing i'm uh
00:39you know there's uh stand stand-up comedy there's some audience participation
00:45and there's some special you know treats in store i mean i don't want to give too much away but
00:51donald trump is expected to make an appearance oh present me with a kennedy center honor
00:57just things throughout again not to give everything away but we have special special surprises in store
01:04and then you know you you bring that up why did you want to do this tour now the money was i mean
01:11go ahead finish the question yeah i mean obviously this is your this is your full-time job this is
01:16your chosen profession um but was there anything happening in the world that made you say you know
01:21what i need to get my brand of of humor and joy and entertainment out into the world at this moment
01:27across the country do you mean this particular year or for the last decade i mean yeah right sure
01:35all of it all of it well i mean it started you know it all happened very serendipitously for me and
01:41i won't give you i won't bore you with the whole story you can pick up a copy of my memoir
01:45best-selling memoir playing with myself available wherever books are sold and i go through the whole
01:50kind of journey that took me to this brand of humor but it started with just as most things do
01:56with me just kind of like a cheap campy gag of inserting myself into the headlines and interacting
02:03with whatever that may be it started 10 years ago or more actually 14 years ago i think when i was
02:10dating mel gibson which is kind of how a lot of people first were introduced to me and then i just
02:15kept following the bouncing ball of the news cycle and needless to say come 2015 2016 that led to trump
02:24and i just kept going with it and over that time especially it became more and more clear
02:31particularly when i started doing these live concerts and meeting people face to face who would
02:36tell me these lovely stories about how you know the my videos helped get them through and help them cope
02:43particularly when we got into covid times it became more clear that this you know as i always knew
02:50comedy is very important and so that's really the um the the motivation for for getting out there
02:59particularly at this time you know with all we're going through but mainly it's the money
03:04as you're building the um the the plan for the show you mentioned following and keeping up with
03:11the news cycle over the years right now that in itself is a full-time job do you get exhausted with
03:17all that we're inundated and then at the same time trying to put that through your machine and and push
03:22it out as as art that makes people feel good it can be exhausting especially now and again i've been
03:28doing this now going on a decade specifically this covering mostly this administration because that's
03:34just what is the obvious thing to cover that's what's generating the most material whether we like
03:40it or not so that could get tired for the audience and for myself and so um the way that i combat that
03:48is by making trying to make it more fun for myself so you know in the old days i'm not the kid
03:54anymore so like i i don't stay up all night like doing the exact headline of the day because first
04:00of all there's so many different soundbites headlines and catchphrases and all of that so you can't keep
04:07up with that but long story short i i i keep a running list of songs that i want to do and you know
04:14comedy and and musical comedy specifically that i want to do um and i've been able to kind of work
04:21that like for example one of my recent parodies was to define gravity i've i just obviously wanted
04:27to always just do that song and and so it came time to do that and um that had been on my list but
04:33so all that to say i'm just you know trying to make it more fun for myself that in addition to the fact
04:40that i take more time with the production than i used to i used to turn things out overnight which was
04:45great for the brand and to get my name out there but it was it was a pain in the ass and now i take
04:51more time i work with a musical team and they create instead of the old days when i used to just
04:57pull karaoke tracks i have actual broadway musicians putting these orchestrations together
05:02specifically for me so all that stuff makes a hell of a lot more fun for me and therein for the audience
05:08i hope we're channel q spending time with randy randy rainbow uh you mentioned your memoir you're
05:14also now a children's author excited about this book randy rainbow and the marvelously magical pink
05:20glasses it sounds like oh my gosh look at that ready with a prop it just came hot off the presses
05:26it uh it sounds like a really lovely and fun story um tell us about it and also why did you want
05:33to write a children's book um well they you know i wrote two adult books and then they came to me
05:39with the idea of doing this and it just seemed like i mean it was a no-brainer books were always
05:45very important for me growing up and you know when they can you imagine my publicist is texting me now
05:52when i'm on this call not only is she not on the call she's interrupting the call i hope she sees
05:57you should know that you know it's very hard to get to help these days but um so it seemed like a
06:08great wonderful idea they gave me you know full creative control of the idea i said you know let's
06:14do a little character named randy rainbow this has been my name again you can read the memoir and i tell
06:19you the whole story of how this is actually my actual name on my birth certificate it's not a corny
06:24stage name believe it or not i did not know that i would not choose that it was a very painful
06:28childhood but i said damn it i'm gonna make it work and so i thought a children's book was the
06:35perfect way to to to use this character of little me and it's um you know about a little kid who's kind
06:43of lost in the universe and gets bullied on the playground very very based on reality and uh his
06:50grandmother gifts him a pair of these magical pink glasses which allow him to do and be and go
06:57anywhere he wants um and it's basically at the end of the day a story about using your imagination
07:04and creativity to find the courage within to be yourself so it's very much promotes you know
07:10expressive freedom and identity and being yourself and all that stuff that you know we need reminders of
07:17in this day and age it'll be banned everywhere i'm sure well that was going to be a question for
07:23you is do you think about that when you're putting out a book like this of course i expect that it will
07:28be wherever books are banned i'm sure this will be at the top of every list and good you know i'm very
07:35proud uh to be contributing something like this at this time now again nowhere in the book does it say
07:40little randy rainbow is gay it doesn't mention you know pronouns or whatever you know get gets people
07:45riled up it's just about um you know being being genuine and it's about being considerate and and all
07:55of those things but it will be politicized by anyone who i'm sure wants to do that yeah right right it
08:02sounds like you're you're up for that you're ready for that absolutely i mean everything that i do
08:07has obviously a political bend to it so i'm used to you know half the country not digging it although
08:15i think when you you know a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down which i didn't write
08:21but i've heard that and that's sort of what i try to do with all of my work including the
08:26the videos that that are most popular which are seemingly would would be the most polarizing thing
08:33but i have republican type people coming to my shows all the time and saying i don't agree with you
08:39necessarily on everything but i love your videos they make me laugh and in fact
08:42they have uh created a space for my uh left-leaning family members and i to come together
08:49and enjoy something about these topics that to me is the best compliment you can give me because i think
08:54we need a lot more of that kind of thing these days that is a great compliment that's lovely um
08:58you know you talk about the book and the character having this relationship with his grandmother did you
09:04have someone in your life that that you had that relationship with nanny my grandmother so this is
09:09very much um you know i could i could talk about it for hours but it all comes back to nanny
09:15and the actual pink glasses started as a sight gag in my parody videos that just when pretending i was
09:23like a serious journalist pretending to interview these subjects i would put on these plastic like
09:28party favor glasses and it was just gotta laugh but then over the years people started coming to
09:33the live shows wearing their own pink glasses i'm no fool they're now branded and sold in the lobby
09:40but um they would tell me these lovely stories about how like we i wear the pink glasses and they make me
09:46feel better or i wear the pink glasses to get me through challenging times in my life or people have
09:51sent me you know messages and pictures over the years of them wearing the pink glasses while undergoing
09:56chemotherapy treatments so it seemed to take on a deeper meaning these these pink glasses for my
10:03audience and then i kind of adopted that back from them and realized that the pink glasses you know
10:10i i kind of made them the a physical embodiment of my overall philosophy of what i'm trying to do with
10:19these videos and this book and everything which is to see the world through a lens of joy and humor
10:24and specifically musical comedy and that philosophy was really given to me by my grandmother and she
10:33is the other main character in this children's book so the children's book really is very much a love
10:37letter to her what a beautiful tribute to her i think there's a special bond i found with everyone
10:45in their grandmother a lot of people in their grandmother but particularly gay males and their
10:50grandmothers yeah i had i had yeah yeah so i i i i liked that this was you know um this was a
10:59celebration of that yeah oh my gosh you're gonna make me cry thinking oh my god um what a what a
11:06beautiful message excited for the book uh released in just a couple weeks may 27th also got the show
11:13the uh the stage show the tour kicking off very soon you can send tickets to the show you can buy the
11:18book you can buy the old books at randyrainbow.com yes did i sell it well you did the old they're not
11:26even that old there was one the new book there's the new previous books that's all right but the
11:31newer book came out just a few months ago actually so uh yeah get get everything get the glad you get
11:37the you know mother's day is upon us i don't know when this will air pride is upon us get a cute tank
11:42halloween christmas halloween yeah women's might sit in the can the holidays are always appropriate
11:47perfect um first of all thank you so much for the time but thank you for spreading you know joy and
11:53thoughtfulness and all the things that you do with with all of your your content and your art and now
11:57the show in the books so thank you so much appreciate you thank you and jerry we can take care bye thanks
12:03done thank you great lovely thank you for that my pleasure that was love
12:10you