Jonny & Kate plus 8

From June 25 through June 28, ImprovBoston will host Queer Qomedy Festival: Laugh Loud, Live Proud, billed as the city's first LGBT comedy fest. And the local first is drawing national names.

The Gay Pimp himself, Jonny McGovern, will be among the acts taking the stage. It's a homecoming of sorts for McGovern, who studied theater at Boston University before embarking on a comedy career that has raised notoriety and eyebrows alike. He's bringing with him his Big Gay Sketch Show co-star Kate McKinnon (viewers will immediately recall her recurring character Fitzwilliam, a transgender British boy), who at just 25 years old makes McGovern - only in his early 30s himself - a comparative industry vet. McKinnon, who was hired to star in Big Gay Sketch Show while a student at Columbia University, is certainly on her way to joining him: on LOGO's New Now Next 2009 Awards, aired just this weekend, she took home the trophy for the "Brink of Fame: Comic" award.

McGovern and McKinnon will appear for three shows on Friday night, and on Saturday Boston audiences will get another Big Gay Sketch Show star: Stephen Guarino (with The Nuclear Family). Other performers in the four night festival include Chantal Carrere, featured in the 5 Funny Females national tour; impressionist Bob Gautrea; and Faith Soloway, creator of the shlock operas Jesus Has Two Mommies, Miss Folk America, and The F Word.

We took a few minutes to chat with Jonny and Kate via a conference call from NYC.

So where are you all calling from today?
Kate: I'm in New York, standing outside of an audition for a commercial.
Jonny: And I'm in my Manhattan penthouse surrounded by naked men.

Could be worse, Jonny. Kate, what's the commercial for?
Kate: Oh, they're all the same. ... You know you're not going to get it, but you still go. It's my only chance to put on makeup.

I talked to Jonny a few weeks back about some of his Boston connections. Do you have any connections to our fair city?
Kate: I took my sister there once to visit Emerson College. I ate at many of your finest restaurants. I walked in your Common and I was given religious pamphlets by the men outside.
Jonny: She's also one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence.
Kate: Oh yes. But that was a very long time ago.

Well Kate, congratulations on LOGO's New Now Next Award for "Brink of Fame: Comic."
Kate: Well, thank you! It came as quite a shock. I was caught unawares. I said some lame thing about my mother and called it a night.
Jonny: I can't believe they cut the part where you thanked me!
Kate: It's true. I did a whole ten-minute strip dance about Jonny McGovern and the way you influenced me.
Jonny: Well, you can't win them all.

Well really, Kate, when you were still in college and hired for the Big Gay Sketch Show, Jonny was already established as a queer comedian. Is there any kind of, oh I don't know, mentorship between you two?
Jonny: She's my little gay sister! We have a lot of time to bond over our love for retarded humor. When Big Gay Sketch Show was coming out, I was of course already a gigantic star. But that was both of our first run on a TV show. So in the process of going from the pilot to the shooting, we all held on to each other.
Kate: There's a lot of love. I hear that on other sketch shows there's a lot of competition. But it really is a family. We all complain about being underpaid together.
Jonny: And whenever I need to know about lesbo behavior - you know, like the mating habits of lesbians - I go to my little Kate.
Kate: We're like foreign exchange students in each other's lands.
Jonny: And we both have a fascination with F2M penises made from clits. One day we and Julie Goldman [Big Gay Sketch Show co-star] spent all day on the Internet looking at all the many varieties.

Speaking of variety, I'm wondering: as queer humor becomes more mainstream, do you see that reflected in your audiences at all? More straight people?
Jonny: I definitely notice that straight people get it a little more now. Homos are on every channel, in every way. It's not as shocking to people, [whereas] when I first started singing "Girl, I Fucked Your Boyfriend," there was an audible gasp in the audience. Now I get ladies in the audience who volunteer their boyfriends up to me.
Kate: I notice that when I do comedy for gay men there are more and more straight women in the audience. I think it's getting safer and safer to say you're gay in a predominantly straight audience. ... [But] it's always the best to play to gay audiences.

It's kind of like sharing a private joke, right?
Kate: There's a whole range of private jokes that, unless you're living it, you don't know it and don't get it. To be in a roomful of people [who do] is wonderful.
Jonny: I love doing comedy for a mostly gay audience. Though straight people, you're welcome, too! Your money is just as good here.

Have either of you ever noticed that certain forms of comedy appeal differently to gay men and lesbians?
Jonny: Gay men are easier to accept a drag queen or diva, a lady. And as a dude sometimes you have to throw in a couple extra tricks. That's why I travel with shirtless guys. I've built a career on that.
Kate: I found that gay men are quicker to respond to sass and dish. You know what I mean? Lesbians don't really like things that are mean-spirited. I wouldn't say that's always the rule, but it's fun to be sassy for a gay [male] audience.

What can we expect from your show in Boston?
Jonny: I'll be doing new material, including songs I've just written for a new album, but that won't be coming out for a bit. I'll be testing them out and previewing them there. As well as some of my hits. I'll definitely be doing "Don't Fall in Love with a Homo," and a whole bunch of new standup.
Kate: I'm pretty much doing the same. There will also be a Powerpoint presentation, and I may pass out on stage.
Anything else you look forward to doing while you're in Boston?
Jonny: It's been a while, so I'm just gonna get on the B line and pretend that I'm back in the [BU] dorms! As a city, Boston is really one of my homes. I'm going to take Kate on a Duck Tour.
Kate: A Duck Tour? What's a Duck Tour?
Jonny: Oh, girl! It's a truck tour, but then the truck becomes a boat and goes in the water.
Kate: Oh, a truck tour! I thought you said a duck tour.
Jonny: No, it's a Duck Tour. 'Cause it goes in the water.
Kate: Well, I'm probably just going to sit in a coffee shop and eat something Vegan. And not shave my legs. That's what I'm going to be doing.

ImprovBoston hosts the Queer Qomedy Festival from Thursday, June 25 through Sunday June 28. Jonny McGovern and Kate McKinnon will appear on Friday, June 26 for shows at 8:00 p.m., 10:00 p.m. and 11:30 p.m. $20. For the full line-up and other performers, visit improvboston.com.