One thing you said in that talk is that “comedy chooses you.” And you also said, “The stage understands me, and it’s where I’d like to live.” To bring it back to comfort, I’m the most uncomfortable one on one or in small talk or at little dinner parties. But onstage, when everything goes black and the lights are on me, I feel like I’m in a womb. I’m free. I always worked small, and then bigger, bigger, bigger, and now I’m working on a massive scale, and I feel at home.
Why do you think that is? I don’t know how to explain it better than that, but I do think that comedy chooses you. You can choose it, and the people who choose it, some of them, you can tell they chose it and it didn’t choose them. [Laughs] As soon as I started stand-up I was like, “I’ve got to do this now. This is really throwing a wrench into my plans. I was going to marry good, get a good job, maybe have a condo, have a husband. Now I’m gay, and I have to really consider pursuing art,” which seemed like the poorest thing you could do, and I’m trying not to be poor anymore. Like, this is no joke. But I felt like it was a calling.
You said earlier that growing up, nothing was too taboo to joke about, and in a recent interview you said that anyone can do anything. Do you mean you don’t have to be part of a group to make fun of it? I think anyone can do anything, but you’re at your own risk. So for instance, Dave Chappelle can joke about trans people. He’s not trans, he’s not on the trans spectrum, but he can do it. But people can clap back. I think you can do whatever the hell you want, but also know that it could be perceived by people however the hell they want.
How do you think about what you would or wouldn’t do? Because you’ve joked about AIDS, pedophilia, late-term abortions. You’ve got to go listen to the jokes! You can’t just list.
You’ve got to go listen to the jokes. It’s hard to talk about comedy out of context! But is there something that you won’t joke about or haven’t found the right way to joke about? I’m sure. I don’t know how to answer that. Jokes come to you. It’s divine. Where does an idea come from? Yes, you’re informed by your life and all of the experiences, and then one day you’re walking and you’re like: “Oh, that would be funny. Can I do that? Can I not? Well, I’ll have to try.”