There are sketch shows which have the occasional gay character (for example, Daffyd on Little Britain, or Buddy Cole on Kids in the Hall). However, there hasn’t really existed a sketch show written by our community that ridicules the world from our perspective. That changed April 2007, when The Big Gay Sketch Show (BGSS) premiered on the Logo network in the United States. With industry veterans Rosie O’Donnell and Amanda Bearse guiding it, the show built a regular audience and folks north of the border are starting to take notice.
Troupe member Stephen Guarino took time out from his schedule to talk to GayCalgary and Edmonton Magazine about the show and his career.
Q: The reviews for the first season of the BGSS were reserved – the most common theme seems to be “shows promise” or “growing pains” and the inevitable comparisons to Saturday Night Live and MADTV. You finished season two earlier this year; some of the reviews are more positive. What do you feel was different coming back? Does it feel like the show is finding its pace?
A: Absolutely. The show takes a while to find its footing. The most important thing is convincing the executive level (Logo and Viacom). Logo plays it very middle of the road; they don’t want to make it very far in any direction, but once they saw that the possibility of being edgier was an option, and the kind of characters people responded to, then they could convince the higher powers the other stuff could go in. The second season is INFINITELY better.
Q: For season 3, do you anticipate pushing it even further – on the lines of the stuff you see in Little Britain, or in Canada Kids in the Hall?
A: Little Britain was an inspiration for us. They’re very catch-phrase character oriented, as opposed to satirizing a particular element of the gay culture, which ours does more. That’s just a character-driven show. I think it will go that way (Little Britain) a little more.
When I was growing up, Kids in the Hall was it – my number one show of all time. The way they play women so casually, compared the American sort of full out drag (“isn’t it hilarious that I’m in a crazy dress with a big wig?!”). “Kids” are just like the girl at work. They would wear those 80s sort of cinched-waist belted dresses the one with the belt loops built in.
Q: In season 2, Chastity Bono and (executive producer) Rosie O’Donnell appear in comedic “bookends” sitting in a theatre balcony heckling the sketches. Do you see Rosie often on a day-to-day basis?
A: No. You’ll probably see her once at the beginning of the season and once at the end. In the first season she was there all the time approving sketches and improvising with us. But she trusts Scott King, our head writer so much that she let him go off and do it; she signs off on it in the end. The bookend is interesting, because it’s a test of somebody’s sensitivities. I have a lot of people, mostly straight people, who think it’s rude of her to rag on the show after and I think it’s the perfect quintessential gay entertainment bookend. Kind of bitchy. It’s not an apology, as much as a “hey, it’s just comedy, lighten up if you don’t like it.”
Q: You also work as a professional comedian; with the writers of the BGSS, is there some collaboration and back and forth on ideas?
A: You come in at the beginning of the season, stand in front of the writers and pitch them all your characters. I think I did about 16 different characters on my pitch, and if a writer responds to that character, they’ll go off and write a treatment, submit it to the head writer and give it a table read. If it doesn’t succeed the first time at a table read, you never see it again. (For characters that succeed) they will make it TV-friendly, but they’ll keep the essence of what the actor made up, so it’s very much a collaboration.
Q: You’ve got parts in two upcoming movies – “Confessions of a Shopaholic” – and “The Clique”. What roles are you playing in them?
A: The Clique is a Tyra Banks movie – a series of six. It’s Mean Girls but set in junior high, and I’m the persnickety art teacher that’s very good friends with the popular girls. That comes out in the fall, and I hope it’s a huge hit. I’m sort of like the Tina Fey character in Mean Girls.
“Shopaholic” is really a big budget Disney Jerry Bruckheimer film that’s coming out in Thanksgiving (November) with all these really interesting female comics like Joan Cusack and Julie Hagerty. It’s kind of a big New York fashion magazine/Devil Wears Prada type of story. I play Allon who is (lead character) Isla Fisher’s confidante and partner-in-crime for her to get the job and get the guy. The gay part will always be secondary in a big budget movie, but we’ll get there.
Q: Besides the two movies, and the upcoming season 3 of BGSS, what’s next for you that you can tell us?
A: I might be doing a play in New York; I’m up for a couple shows on ABC. Nothing else is set in stone. I can’t commit for anything else until I get word on the third season of the contract. Since Logo is not covered by Neilson ratings, the network depends on iTunes sales and DVD sales to foot the bill.
Q: You have played some straight roles. Which medium would you say has so far given you the chance to expand beyond playing gay roles?
A: At this point I’d say television. I played a straight guy on Wedding Bells on Fox who everyone thought was gay. Can I tell you that someone still bitched? No one’s happy: if a straight person plays a gay person they bitch – if a gay person plays a straight character but they don’t come out, they bitch. Here I am, a gay man playing a straight person that everyone thinks is gay and there was STILL internet blogs saying “How dare they not cast a straight person who’s just effeminate”. They were offended that a gay person had to play a nelly straight person.
I definitely lean towards the character stuff – killers, weirder parts. It’s probably unlikely that I’ll be a romantic straight lead – it’s not really in my nature, and my looks don’t go that direction necessarily.
Q: Has being on BGSS changed your social life – either with your friends or any men you date?
A: It changed my social life in the sense I don’t have to work any other kind of job, so therefore I have a lot of time off. But socially…I play a lot of nelly characters on the show. In real life I try to keep a beard and I’m acting all tough when I’m at the bars, so no one ever really recognizes me until I tell them. It hasn’t helped or hindered my sex life. Contrary to popular belief, no one likes to sleep with famous people. They want to hang out with them but they don’t want to have sex.
Q: Has there been any memorable fan mail or fan reaction to you or the show that surprised you (good or bad)?
A: There was this boy – about 13 – and his sister who’s 9 or 10; they put on YouTube fully acted skits from the show. It’s amazing that a) this kid is aware of himself and b) of all the things to mimic, I’m so glad he’s mimicking our show. I think it’s pretty impressive so I wrote him a note that I really appreciated that.
Q: Anything else you’d like to add?
A: Just that I tip my hat to all the Canadian comics that have inspired us. Back when I was in the improv festival tournament world, we’d always play Canadians and they would just kick our asses. There was a team from Calgary that would just annihilate us every year. I love Vancouver and I dream of living there. I think it’s one of the cities of the future.
The Big Gay Sketch show will soon start shooting their third season. Seasons 1 and 2 are currently available at www.logoonline.com, through the iTunes store, and through HMV (in-store or online at HMV.ca).
