Jaffe Cohen, Danny McWilliams and Bob Smith, then and now. The
comedians toured as Funny Gay Males. They reunite Sept. 17 at Gotham
Comedy Club.
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By Dustin Fitzharris
Friday, September 05, 2008
The coffee shop was practically silent on that Saturday afternoon as I waited for my guests to arrive—three history-making comedians who banded together in 1988 and called themselves Funny Gay Males. I wondered, how will I know them when they come in? Suddenly I knew.
“We are going to have our faces carved on Brokeback Mountain just like those presidents on Mt. Rushmore!” a man said as he entered. “Better yet, we’ll just have our asses carved.”
Without a doubt, the Funny Gay Males had arrived.
On Wednesday, Sept. 17, Jaffe Cohen, Danny McWilliams and Bob Smith will reunite for a one-night-only performance at the Gotham Comedy Club to commemorate their 20th anniversary. Joining the celebration will be Sirius Satellite Radio host Frank DeCaro, Toronto’s Elvira Kurt and Eddie Sarfaty, who began performing as the fourth FGM in 2001.
When FGM formed, homophobia within the comedy scene was still prevalent and out gay and lesbian comedians were scarce. Most comedians worked in San Francisco, but these three were New Yorkers. Not since 1995 have Cohen, McWilliams and Smith performed on the same stage together, and they’re enjoying the walk down memory lane.
“We met in the comedy circuit,” McWilliams, the brainchild of the Brokeback Mountain carving idea, said. “From 1983 to 1986, there was a surge of comedy in the city, but no gay comedy.”
Cohen remembers that dark time. “We all have our nightmare stories from performing at these straight clubs. It was early in the AIDS crisis and everyone thought if you were gay, you had AIDS. One emcee came on after me and wiped the microphone off.”
“Actually that was me,” McWilliams cuts in.
Smith, the first openly gay comic to appear on “The Tonight Show,” can’t help but to laugh. He can relate to what Cohen went through.
“We all loved doing stand-up, and it was like, ‘This is who I am and let’s talk about it,’” Smith says. “There was this thing in the ’80s where we all thought, ‘Screw it. All of our friends are dying, so we’re going to do exactly what we want.’”
The group’s name was a take on the personal ads that dominated the hook-up scene that existed long before the Internet. It is the precedent-setting Cohen—in 1990, he became the first openly gay male standup comedian to appear on a major television network, Fox’s “Comic Strip Live”—who gets credit for the trio’s name.
“He’s the CEO— the cu**t executive officer,” McWilliams says. “It’s the only organization she’s ever run, and she runs it with an iron fist—and uses it too on a Saturday night, I hear.”
FGM’s first gig was at The Duplex in the West Village. To their surprise, The Village Voice reviewed the show and called them “groundbreaking.” Over the next several years they enjoyed sold-out summer seasons in Provincetown and took their act on the road from everywhere from Key West, Florida, to Australia. They were invited to appear on “The Joan Rivers Show” and even Howard Stern’s radio show. Perhaps their biggest show was in 1993 when they entertained more than a million people during the historic March on Washington for Lesbian, Gay and Bi Equal Rights and Liberation.
“The timing for us was right,” Cohen says. “The gay community desperately needed something to laugh at.”
Smith agrees. “We had so many people who came up to us and said, ‘I just found out I had AIDS. Thank you for making me laugh.’ That’s how I knew I could give back,” Smith says.
During that time, Smith also had what he calls a “eureka moment.” He realized there were so few subjects in stand-up that had gone untouched and gay issues were one of them.
“There has been a historical progression,” Cohen says. “I’d like to think if there wasn’t us, there wouldn’t have been the shows ‘Ellen’ or ‘Will & Grace.’
Cohen can’t help but to mention the famous “coming out” episode of Ellen DeGeneres’ sitcom. In one of the pivotal scenes, the FGM’s best-selling book, “Growing Up Gay: From Left Out to Coming Out,” was displayed in the background.
“Maybe I’m crazy,” Cohen says, “but I’ve always imagined that some well-informed queen, working as a set decorator, wanted to pay homage to those who helped create that moment in history.”
Although Cohen is proud of their achievements, breaking down barriers was never what he sought out to do.
“I’m proud we made an impact,” Cohen says, “but my goal was that gay kids would grow up and not feel like they were the only ones in the world.”
Now, 20 years later, how do they feel? The name of their new show says it all: “Funnier, Gayer, Crankier.”
“As you get old, you get cranky, and you just don’t give a shit anymore,” Cohen says. “You’re more honest; you just say it.”
Smith says that because times have changed, it’s much easier to work for straight audiences nowadays, especially for young, straight audiences.
“Gay is so uninteresting for them now,” Smith says.
However, Smith does acknowledge that there is still some degree of homophobia within the industry.
“Well, I hope so!” McWilliams roars. “It gets me angry, and I just say, ‘I’ll do my own thing!”
The past two decades, each FGM has done his own thing. Smith turned to writing. His book “Openly Bob” earned rave reviews and last year he published his first novel, “Selfish and Perverse.”
Cohen found success as a writer as well, with the campy book “Tush” and the memoir “The King of Kings and I: The Greatest Story Ever Kvetched!” Currently he’s teaching theater at a college on Long Island.
And McWilliams has been performing his one-man show, “Twelve Angry Women,” a comic compilation of original characters culled from his experiences growing up in Ozone Park, Queens.
There is no telling what will happen when they return to the stage this month. They’ve sent some familiar faces personal invitations to their reunion, including Joan Rivers, Joy Behar and Rosie O’ Donnell, who attended their shows all those years ago. But, if they don’t show, like any good comic, they have a back-up plan.
“Hello, drag agency. Please send us over a Joy Behar,” McWilliams acts out. “Oh, and do you have Rosie? What? You only have a skinny Rosie? Then send two of them—double the order!”
“Funny Gay Males: Funnier, Gayer, Crankier” 8:30 p.m., Sept. 17, at the Gotham Comedy Club, 208 W. 23rd St., $20 cover with a 2 drink minimum, 212-367-9000, gothamcomedyclub.com.
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