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Transgendered comics don’t exactly captivate the septuagenarian crowd. Female-to-male funnyman Ian Harvie learned that the hard way at a stand-up gig this past June in his native Maine. A performance at an arts facility that was packed with seniors on that particular night was met with silence.
“As a comic, you have to make that executive decision,” Harvie says. “Am I going to go out and do my regular stuff and force it on them, or am I going to do my jokes about roller skating? I plowed through all my queer stuff and it was just crickets for 25 minutes. I left them confused and without a laugh.”
That doesn’t mean Harvie isn’t finding applause elsewhere. In fact, the thirtysomething comic, who tried everything in showbiz before picking up the mike five years ago, has been on a roll ever since he juiced up his car and zigzagged his way across the country last year in search of the California dream. Within a few weeks of moving to Los Angeles, he introduced himself to fellow comedian Margaret Cho at a gay bar. She was so impressed that she invited him to do stand-up with her as an opening act. They’ve been working together intermittently ever since.
“She watched my reel online and asked if I would come do a show with her,” he says. “When Margaret Cho says, ‘Let me see your reel, come do a show with me,’ you shit your pants and you do whatever she says.”
Most recently, the two made waves as comedians aboard the Queen Mary, on an all-gay cruise. This week, they aim to do so again during the six performances of Cho’s Sensuous Woman, a sexy smorgasbord of burlesque and vaudeville that plays through Saturday 22 at the Lakeshore Theater before heading to New York.
While Cho helped him hone his craft, Harvie was already ahead of the curve. He spent four years cutting his teeth at comedy clubs up and down the Eastern Seaboard. He’s also played all over the U.S. at well-known venues like the Funny Bone and Zanies. In every show, he aims to play his gender identity for both laughs and understanding without ever being self-deprecating.
“I’m the youngest of three brothers,” Harvie says in his act, introducing his trans identity to the audience, “[but] I feel like the oldest because I’ve gotten more pussy.” Harvie then switches back and forth between gay and nongay material, while relying on his quick wit and affability as a performer to connect with the crowd. Throughout the set, he maintains his mission of busting old stereotypes.
“A lot of people think that trannies or transgender or transsexuals are freakish,” he says. “In the end, what I’ve done, in front of any audience hopefully, is I’ve made them laugh. They got to know me a little bit and they laughed and it maybe transcended some of the ideas they had about trans people.”
Sometimes the biggest compliments come from the most unexpected places. “I’ve gotten guys [who] come and give me the old ‘guy handshake’ and pat me on the back and say, ‘Dude, that was funny,’ ” he says. “I say mission accomplished with that, too.”
Yet changing the hearts and minds of fellow comedians is another story. Harvie admits that stand-up remains an old boys’ club, and in that respect he’s still just one of the girls. “It’s really interesting because guys have never really invited me in. If it’s nine guys and me, they’ll treat me like I’m the girl. I’m the lesbian. That’s fine. I don’t mind. I really don’t want all that fucking white male privilege, anyway.”
But Harvie does have privilege. In Sensuous Woman he’ll perform his act, partake in a burlesque number and, in once scene, play an evil flying monkey. How many comics get to do that?
Ian Harvie joins Margaret Cho’s Sensuous Woman Thursday 20 through Saturday 22.
