RANDY RAINBOW
Live show takes aim at Trump
While Randy Rainbow’s name (his real one, by the way) seems perfectly suited for a magician or a cruise director, don’t let the whimsical, colourful moniker fool you.
These days the name Randy Rainbow is synonymous with sassy online video satire aimed squarely at U.S. President Donald Trump and those surrounding him.
Now the YouTube star is getting real. He is currently touring Randy Rainbow Live, and the combination of musical numbers, standup and Q&A will land here at the Vogue Theatre on Sunday, April 29.
Rainbow started out about a decade ago making fun of celebrities in online videos. Then along came Trump, and celebrity and politics came together to form a targetrich environment for a campy commentator like Rainbow.
In 2016, Rainbow’s BRAGGADOCIOUS! (yes, you must yell it) parody of the 2016 presidential debate between Trump and Hillary Clinton pulled in almost 30 million Facebook views.
“I think about (the success) and it’s not so bizarre to me because as a kid, as a young gay drama nerd who was bullied on the playground, my only tools to combat that were comedy, humour and musical theatre,” said Rainbow. “That’s what got me through. So the fact that that’s what I am using now at a time when the nation is being bullied on the playground, I’m not really surprised people are responding this way.”
So with debate video going viral, Rainbow knew it was time to strike while the iron was hot — or, in the case of Trump, glowing bright orange. If you are looking for some classics, check out the interview with Melania Trump or special adviser to Trump Kellyanne Conway.
“Social media, YouTube and all that stuff has made this possible,” said Rainbow, talking on the phone from a recent tour stop in Atlanta. “Anyone who does social media, YouTube, internet content will tell you it can be extremely isolating. I don’t have any writers or directors or anybody. It’s just me alone in my apartment. So to then just put it out into the world and to hear back from people and to hear from all my childhood icons and heroes, it’s insane.”
Some of those he has heard from include Dick Van Dyke, Kristin Chenoweth, Barry Manilow and Republican strategist and political commentator Ana Navarro. The Will & Grace cast conscripted Rainbow to help pen a song for them to perform at a fundraiser for Hillary Clinton.
“It’s crazy to me — the cast of Will & Grace? That show was really important to me growing up,” said Rainbow.
Seeing likes and shares and reading comments and emails is one thing, but with this tour Rainbow has pulled back the curtain, if you will, and exposed himself to the real world.
“The new thing I am experiencing is going to these strange cities where I know nobody,” said Rainbow. “Walking into a room with 1,800 people and getting the receptions that I am, it’s trippy and it’s really, really cool.”
Before discovering the power of the web, Rainbow was in New York performing in theatre events and nightclub shows. He wrote for Kathy Griffin and did the web series Chewing the Scenery with Randy Rainbow on Broadwayworld.com.
Rainbow grew up in Florida in a funny and creative household where expression was not only encouraged but was considered a sport.
“Our dinner table was like Last Comic Standing. Everyone tried to be first with the best joke,” said Rainbow, who began his video career in high school.
“I was doing YouTube before YouTube was a thing,” said Rainbow. “I was making videos on my camcorder for my friends. I would do parodies of Britney Spears videos and stuff like that. I guess it was priming me for what I am doing now.”
What he is doing now is constantly poking a notoriously thinskinned president who has followers who stand by him no matter how many subpoenas, obstruction of justice allegations or porn-star proclamations swirl around him.
But despite the vehemence of those supporters and the presently polarized state of U.S. politics, Rainbow reports that satire has been a safe place for him.
“I always say you would be surprised at how much hate mail I don’t get,” said Rainbow. “I get people saying we are not alike politically, we don’t agree, but I like your videos. I think that is a testament to how unifying humour is, especially in times like this.
“It’s a serious time, but I was always taught you had to laugh in the face of the worst.”