On his stand-up comedy tour, Jonathan Van Ness briefly discusses starring in Netflix's reboot of "Queer Eye."
"I talk about punctuality, my relationship with the boys a little bit. It's not a heavy part of my act," Van Ness, 32, said in an interview.
Being the "Queer Eye" grooming expert has presented new career paths, including the "Road to Beijing" comedy tour.
The tour offers "just flat out some of the most incredible opportunities and most incredible nights of my life," Van Ness says. He rhapsodizes rapidly about getting onstage to "explore my voice and my stand-up comedy style and create a night for people to come together and laugh and just be really joyful and happy, but also mad as hell, too, about our political climate."
When he gets political, he stresses, he does so in a "furious but joyful way. My style of comedy is storytelling with a lot of setup and punchlines. It's storytelling, it's very languid. I will go off the rails sometimes."
The tour's name, "Road to Beijing," signifies his interest in getting to the Olympics.
"I started figure skating right around when I got to book this tour," he says. "I was like 'if I start figure skating now, I could maybe get to the Beijing Olympics in 2022,' which is the next Winter Games. When I got a quarter of the way through the tour, I was like, 'Oh, my God, I could do gymnastics onstage and no one could leave in the middle of the show.' I'm just so happy to be doing gymnastics within my stand-up set."
He notes the Summer Games will take place next year. "I just want to go to the Olympics somehow. Maybe comedy will get me there."
In his act, Van Ness talks about his memoir, "Over the Top," a bit more since the book was released in September. He worked on it for nearly two years, and he writes about his HIV-positive status, being a sexual abuse survivor and his addictions to drugs and sex. The book's subtitle is "A Raw Journey to Self-Love," and the writing is raw.
"I felt like I needed to be very frank to gain that understanding that I was looking for," he said.
In an interview with The New York Times, he revealed having nightmares before the book's release.
"The anxiety has definitely gone away, but I'm just excited to continue to work," he said. "The book was a jumping-off point to continue my work in terms of advocacy."
Response to the book has been "overwhelmingly positive," he said. "It was a nerve-racking project, but I was eager to do it, and I'm glad I did. It shows there's a lot of suffering and misunderstanding around living with HIV still. There's a lot of work still to be done. My personal support, I feel like people were supportive and I felt a lot of love, but for people living with HIV generally, there's still so much discrimination and stigmatizing and misunderstanding that I'm still eager to work on."
He told The Times, "I want people to realize you're never too broken to be fixed."
That message is for anyone, he says. "Talking about addiction, I think there are lot of people who feel they've been damaged beyond repair," he says. "I don't think that is the case. Whether it's anxiety, depression, addiction, whatever your compulsivity is, if you have a will to heal, you are healable, you are lovable."
On tour, comedy is the main topic. He cites his series "Gay of Thrones," which recaps "Game of Thrones," in helping shape his timing, delivery, improv skills and ability to stick to a script. His approach to stand-up was influenced, he said, by "female comedians I grew up loving and watching," notably Margaret Cho, Lisa Lampanelli, Ellen DeGeneres and Janeane Garofalo.
He credits "Queer Eye" for making his career more expansive _ including the "Getting Curious" podcast _ and changing his life. "Queer Eye," which arrived last year, took him from full-time hairdresser to author, stand-up comedian and TV star.
"Before 'Queer Eye, I was doing great, and I'm so grateful I still feel that way," he said. "It's opened up a lot of doors for me. It also has given me a lot more pleasure because I want to do right by this platform and by the opportunity and by my community."
