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Interview: A Meeting With Comedian Justin Sayre
By: Marissa Sblendorio Apr. 01, 2016
Justin Sayre is doing it all.
With a new play that he has both written and will be starring in called LOVE'S REFRAIN debuting at La MaMa, a comedy album "The Gay Agenda," a podcast called "Sparkle and Circulate" and a monthly comedy show THE MEETING*, Justin seems to have a lot on his plate and a resume anyone would die for. BroadwayWorld had the chance to chat with him about his busy life.
Check out the full interview, below!
You have a new play called LOVE'S REFRAIN which seems like a slight departure from the comedy that you're known for, so where did the idea for the show come from?
The idea for the show came from when I was in Los Angeles, driving in a Uber, and I was listening to an NPR story. Astronomers were predicting the fact that in the future, that stars, from at least where our vantage point is, will go out, that space will be dark, and since we use stars in placement of navigation, and how they kind of deal with that and what the landscape would look like at that point. I was listening to it in the car and just thought "Oh my god, I can't imagine what this is," you know? And my thoughts in a very strange way immediately went to love, like "How will people know about love if there are no stars?" and it went very tragic very quickly. And out of that idea really came this, "Oh well maybe those ideas are ingrained in my mind," and the show kind of came out of those ideas. But what the show kind of evolved into was tracing the life cycle of a star, and also dealing with my own ideas and understandings and developments about love.
You wrote and will perform the piece yourself, so do you feel like you have more control performing your own piece? Would you have felt less comfortable if someone else were to perform it?
I at one point thought it would be fun to have, because it is so personal and all the stories are my actual life, I had toyed with the idea of having different people play me every night, so I could gain the perspective in a different way, but my directors and friends very nicely said, "Come on, you'll do it and you'll be fine." The more I've been writing, the more I loved the possibility of it, that as a performer I still feel like I can do a lot, but I know that I know that I'm going to do it, this interpretation of who I am. So, since then I've loved seeing something I've wrote taken in a different direction by a performer that's very different than I. It's always kind of a blessing and a challenge. I will say that I am thrilled to be doing it and to be working with the people I get to work with, so it's a real honor to do. And to perform my own work, it's really lovely.
So you mentioned that you pulled the show from stories from your own life. So does most of your writing pull from your own experiences?
I will say not totally. I tend not to write about specific things in my life, just out of respect and privacy. I know that some my pieces are formed by things that have happened to me. This piece, however, has been autobiographical, it's the truth, and it's been a struggle. Usually I like a little distance, I like finding my ay into someone else's story. It's been quite different.
So, with your "Sparkle and Circulate," podcast, I feel like you've touched base in every part of entertainment. Where did the idea of doing a podcast come from?
I don't really listen to a lot of podcasts but Dan, [producer of THE MEETING*], said, "You're so great with people, would you be interested in doing it?" And I said, "Yeah, sure. It'll be fun and interesting." And it was really easy, in the sense that it is conversational. Once you get into it, once you get into topics and issues certainly, it is kind of fun and it rolls out. It's been a great experience and I'm just very nervous when they come out. Because in a show you know what happened in the moment and then the people say, "Oh I like that part," and you're kind of rolling with it. When the podcasts come out weeks after, people will say things or quote stuff back to me and I have no idea what they're talking about. I'm like "What? Oh yeah," because I've already moved on to something else. We're very lucky we have a fan base that really loves it, and it's doing well. It's a great opportunity to be able to sit down and talk with people, which I love.
You also have a comedy album "The Gay Agenda," coming out soon. With that, are you pulling from older shows or is it upcoming material people haven't heard?
It's kind of like a "Best of THE MEETING*." There's a lot of things that we pulled from older shows, some stuff that's never been heard before, like videos we've never put out and things like that. Yeah, it's really a "Best of THE MEETING*" which is amazing because it's been going on for 6 or something years now and we can really be like "Oh wow, we've done a lot." It's a really cool project and I'm excited for it to finally get out there.
Is it pulled from shows farther back or from very recently?
I think we go back quite a few years, actually.
Just from the album title alone, I can tell you're a big part of of the LGBTQ community. So, what does the importance of being an LGBTQ writer mean to you? Especially in comedy?
I think that right now it's been at a really cool point in the fact that we have this kind broader instance, yet there is still a certain amount of stigma. You can move to a certain level and not move much further. Like, there will be one gay character on TV instead of five. And I think the interesting part of that is we should be able to stay true to who you are as a gay person. But you aren't limited by that worth. I think that I'm probably on the lowest of what's happening. I think there are a lot of great people who are bridging the gap. You know, all these transitions into mainstream work without really doing anything from that which makes them unique. And I think that's the great trick of it: you don't want to assimilate, you don't want to lose your voice, you kind of want to honker down to your voice, harder, and realize that your experiences, while specific, are entirely universal. Everybody knows what it's like to be stood up, everybody knows what it's like to get pressure from your parents. All those things that, from a gay perspective, may look different, and may sound different, but overall have a universal truth. And that's where I think all great art and all great comedy are linked.
Justin Sayre has been described by Michael Musto in The Village Voice as "Oscar Wilde meets Whoopi Goldberg," and was recently named one of LA's 16 Most Talented LGBT Comics by Frontiers Magazine. Sayre is best known as the creator and host of the downtown hit The Meeting*, where he presides over the board of the International Order of Sodomites and educates the membership on the latest in political news and social trends, which is now in its 7th season at Joe's Pub. The Meeting* was named among the Top Nightclub shows of 2013 by Time Out New York and Sayre received a 2012 Bistro Award for "Comedy Artistry." The Meeting* has also spawned the Annual Night of Thousand Judys, which benefits the Ali Forney Center for homeless LGBT youth. He currently works as a staff writer on the CBS sitcom "2 Broke Girls" and has appeared opposite Lisa Kudrow on HBO's "The Comeback."
Tracing the lives of stars from nebula to supernova, Justin Sayre extracts a fresh definition for love in his latest solo play, LOVE'S REFRAIN. Wedding personal stories with the science and poetry of astronomy, LOVE'S REFRAIN is romanticism for the modern age. The show will be running from April 1st to April 10th, with performances on Friday and Saturday at 10pm and Sunday at 6pm. Tickets for the show can be purchased here.
To keep with Justin's other projects, including upcoming THE MEETING*'s his comedy album, "The Gay Agenda," and other projects, including a new book that will be released lated this year, check out his website here.
Photo Credit: Kevin Yatarola
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