Although his official bio begins describing him as a gay pop superstar, TV personality and nightlife legend, there is something about Jonny McGovern that defies the boundaries of even that description. He is all that and more, of course, but like Tinkerbell in the lantern, it can be hard to contain the outrageous comedian and star of LoGo’s The Big Gay Sketch Show.
Armed with a collection of unforgettable songs like Soccer Practice, Bossy Bottom and Girl, I Fucked ‘Yo Boyfriend McGovern is bringing his stand up show to Orlando’s Parliament House for one night only and then returning in the Spring with a completely different one man show that he will perform at the Orlando Fringe Festival.
By phone from Arizona where he was visiting family and enjoying some warmer weather, McGovern was thrilled to chat with Watermark about his upcoming show, some new music and what it’s like to be a part of the country’s first all-gay all the time cable channel.
Watermark: I know this isn’t your first trip to Florida but it will be the first time you have visited the Parliament House, right?
Jonny McGovern: Honey, I’ve heard legends and stories. My first time hearing of the Parliament House I remember hearing, years and years ago, Erickatoure Aviance who is on my podcast and is one of my backup drag queens, he was like ‘Gurrrl!’ She did the trip with Kevin Aviance down there and whoooo it was scandalous. Anything that is all gay all the time is good for me.
W: It certainly is legendary and it keeps getting better all the time. I was checking out your web site and from the looks of things you sure have been keeping busy.
JMG: Oh yes, honey! As an independent gay artist you gotta make things happen yourself. Nobody hands it to you on a silver platter. For years I thought I would get my own show and everything would magically be handed to me but I’ve come to realize that you have to just keep on pushing. Luckily the internet has made things a lot more democratic. It has allowed me to put out stuff without having to look to approval from men in suits. It allows me to do basically what I want and to showcase the artists that I want and say what I want so I just keep doing my thing.
W: You showcase a lot of the New York nightlife artists on the forthcoming CD that you produced Legends Ball: East Village Mixtape 2. How did that project come about?
JMG: It’s been a labor of love over the last couple years. I did a compilation called This is New York City Bitch a couple of years ago and it got such a great response and I had been wanting to do a sequel to that for a long time. The compilation is all my favorite nightlife artists and all my favorite nightlife characters and some of those people normally just lip synch or I just know them from the podcasts. I wanted to create something that showcased each of their individual personalities so I spent the last two years writing and recording tracks with the different artists and we finally got it out. It’s a whole lot of fun.
W: Well, working with folks like Kevin Aviance, Sophia Lamar and Xander something tells me that none of your recording sessions started before sundown.
JGM: (Laughs) Oh, they were all very late sessions. They all happened in different ways. On some of the tracks the audio came directly from the podcasts Gaytime with Jonny McGovern. Sophia Lamar’s Shitty Faggot Rich Bitch track and Xander’s The Look both came from audio from their appearances on the show. Things that they said were so outrageous and so amazing I thought ‘you know, if I put these to a beat this is a track waiting to happen.’
W: It sounds like a project that was a lot of fun to do. They say opportunity knocks but I think with you it kicks the door down.
JMG: I feel like there’s so much magic that happens sometimes in nightlife that’s never captured. More and more these days thanks to YouTube and everyone having cameras on their phones and things a lot of that is more captured but there are a lot of people and feelings that I got from certain parties and certain performances that I saw. I wanted to capture that and sort of give some of these people tools to be able to get their magic out there in a way that you can’t unless you have your own songs.
W: Season three of LoGo’s Big Gay Sketch Show is set to debut this Spring. What did you think the first time you heard there was going to be an all gay cable channel and what can we look forward to from the new season of the show?
JMG: Well, I certainly said ‘where’s my show?’ I thought finally I could get a show on this network. It was very exciting and I was very happy to hear that it was happening. I was lucky enough to have it happen and to get on a show on that network. We were one of their first big budget original shows so we’ve been able to see the evolution of what they’ve gone through.
The third season of Big Gay Sketch Show is wilder and gayer and more faggity than ever. I always bring back Chocolate Pudding which is a character I started on the lower Eastside years ago. An ex blacksploitation movie star who is trying to make her comeback. We also do an amazing takeoff on Ru Paul’s Drag Race where chocolate pudding is a contestant.
W: What can the audience expect at your Parliament House show?
JMG: For the stand up show I mix performing different songs with comedy and stories. It’s titled Feeling Really Faggity so it is an evening of pure faggity fun. I will be telling stories about my crazy life and my take on gayness as well as mixing in some of my big songs like Looking Cute, Feeling Cute, I Saw Your Cock On Craigslist and Don’t Fall In Love With a Homo. It will be an evening of stand up and music and a lot of fun. Totally outrageous and completely uncensored.
W: How will this differ from the show that you will be doing as part of the 2010 Orlando International Fringe Theatre Festival in May?
JMG: I also have a solo show called Dirty Stuff in which I play a whole bunch of different characters including Chocolate Pudding. It’s sort of based on my early experiences in nightlife and all the crazy people I met. It’s a story with four different characters whose lives intertwine in this hour long show. After doing it at the New York Fringe Festival it got such a great response that I figured I would try to take it everywhere I possibly could and the first stop is Orlando Fringe. So I’m looking forward to this double feature in Orlando with the stand up show and then coming back to give it to you again with Dirty Stuff.
Here’s how to get tickets to Jonny McGovern’s one night only performance at the Parliament House on Saturday, January 23.
