I don't go out much these days. Instacart, DoorDash and the virus SARS-CoV-2 have turned me into a big stay-at-home. Ah, but this evening I took my friend, the lovely Brinke Stevens, to the Orpheum Theater in Downtown L.A. There, we saw this gay guy singing well-known show tunes but he'd rewritten their lyrics to be about Donald Trump, Rudy Giuliani, Kevin McCarthy, Marjorie Taylor Greene and other Red State Sweethearts.
This wasn't the first time I've taken Brinke to see Randy Rainbow perform live. Four years ago, I took her down to the Wiltern where, as Mr. Raindow did this evening, he played to a sold-out crowd which loved just about every note and word that came out of his mouth. In fine voice and without so much as sitting down to rest a second, he performed a mix of old faves and new pieces for two hours. And he was very funny.
A lot of the show consists of videos he's made — some you may have seen on YouTube, some that haven't been there yet — and he sings his parts live with a small live band playing along. It's kind of semi-Karaoke. The video and audio on the screen were a bit outta-sync with each other tonight but no one in the audience seemed to mind. They loved everything he did except for when he ended the show.
About that audience: Brinke and I both felt it was markedly older than the folks at the Wiltern…or maybe it was the same people and they've aged a lot in four years. It also felt a lot straighter in the Orpheum. I have no idea what, if anything, that indicates.
I also have no idea why he's only playing the one night here in Los Angeles. Given the speed with which tonight sold out, I bet he could have filled the joint several more nights…but no. He's also doing one show only in San Francisco tomorrow night. You can find out if/when he's coming your way over on this page. If you enjoy his videos, you'll enjoy him in person.
The theme of this tour is Randy Rainbow for President and he explained his platform and sang his campaign song (this one). He also announced his forthcoming second book, Low-Hanging Fruit, which will be out in October.
I'll tell you one of many things I like about this fellow: I'm impressed by people who have, in effect, made their own industry. Longtime readers of this blog are probably weary of me raving about my buddy Frank Ferrante and it isn't just because he puts on a marvelously-entertaining show. It's because he invented his career. He didn't answer a classified ad in the newspaper — "Wanted: Groucho Marx impersonator." No, Frank was a self-starter in this. He started doing it and did it so well that it turned into a thing.
Randy Rainbow, not so long ago, was just a guy making YouTube videos. There are skillions of 'em and most of those who make these videos do not make a living wage or anything close to it. Mr. Rainbow had the talent to perform, the skill to make and edit those videos and the perseverance to keep doing them until they got better and better and more and more noticed. And now that's a thing and he's a thing…a very successful thing.
And like I said, he's funny. Very funny. I suspect even some Trump supporters would have laughed at some of what he did tonight. Just not as long and loud as the rest of us.