Comedian Todd Glass hits the ground running in the New Year when he returns to his home turf Jan. 14-16 at Helium Comedy Club.
The 30-year comedy veteran came out in 2012 at age 48 and released his memoir, “The Todd Glass Situation: A Bunch of Lies about My Personal Life and a Bunch of True Stories about My 30-Year Career in Stand-Up Comedy,” last summer.
In the book, he talks about growing up in a Philadelphia suburb in the 1970s and navigating the ups and downs of his comedy career. By 18, he was opening for big musical acts like George Jones and Patti LaBelle (comedians did that kind of thing back then). He survived the comedy heyday in the ’80s, as well as the decline in the 1990s and its rebirth through the alternative-comedy scene and podcasting in the 2000s. But the harder he worked at his success, the more difficult it became to hide his sexuality, Glass wrote. It took a brush with death and a heightened awareness of suicide among LGBT teens to convince him that it was finally time to come out.
Glass said that committing his story to print was enlightening.
“I guess whenever you tell your story it’s always a good thing,” he said. “I hope it would be entertaining and then also the part about coming out was a major part of my life. So I think it ends up introducing you to a new audience. At the same time, it helped me a lot because when you are writing a book it’s the best way to figure yourself out because you are not trying to; you’re just writing a book and, as you are doing it, you subconsciously figure yourself out.”
While Glass talks candidly about coming out as a gay man, he prefers not to be referred to as a “gay comedian.”
“That’s not what I lead with because I don’t think that is what the most interesting about me is,” he said. “And as I’m saying that, I get it. I’m shitting on somebody else whose whole act is about that. But if you are in front of the right audience, you don’t have to lead with it. Is it part of you? Of course it is. If you’re gay, should you talk about when you came out to your parents? Of course. But with the right audience, I don’t think you have to lead with it. Your sexuality shouldn’t be the most important thing about you. I think everybody goes through this that comes out.”
He noted that he prefers not to be labeled by his sexuality, just as other comedians might not want to be categorized by their identities.
“You wouldn’t put ‘Black comedian comes to Philadelphia for a show’ and hopefully we’re getting to the point where we don’t say ‘woman comedian,’” he said. “I don’t want a gay audience, I don’t want a woman audience, I don’t want a male audience. I just want people that love comedy. I noticed that I’ve connected with some more people through the book as they learn about me. The book has helped me be more honest on stage. That honesty doesn’t just have to be I’m gay. Honesty is honesty. Maybe it attracts other people that aren’t gay but like what you are doing. I’ve always thought that if you are doing something right in comedy, you should have everybody in your audience. I hope that I would draw people that are accepting of everybody. I’m proud of the people that come to my show because they seem like gentle, kind, decent souls. That’s all I really want to come to the show.”
Glass added while he doesn’t label his brand of comedy, he understands why other performers and theme nights find it necessary to do so.
“I get it,” he said. “I do understand why they put ‘gay comedian’ and why there would be a gay comedy night — the same reason that there is a gay bar, but eventually that will be gone too. Gay comedy nights came about because for years so many comedians had so many homophobic jokes and [LGBT people] would go and it would make them feel like shit. So if there was a gay comedy night and even if the comedy was bad, which it could be, at least it wasn’t homophobic. So I do get it. Hopefully we’ll move past it. Just like gay bars. In 50 years, they’re not going to have gay bars because gay couples will be comfortable kissing in front of everybody.”
Aside from his coming-out journey, Glass’ memoir also gives readers a look at how the art of comedy has evolved, and sometime stayed the same, over the last 30 years.
“I think it always gets better,” he said. “Comedy is always better than it used to be. That’s not disrespectful to the greats; that’s an homage to them. They would want to believe that it is better. Comedy is just as good as it ever was. There are a lot of new really funny young people more than ever. With Twitter now, everything changes. I get to towns early because I don’t travel the day of my show. Sometimes I go to the local open-mic night because it’s fun to watch new comedians and it’s the same as it was 30 years ago. It’s basically getting on stage and performing. There are new ways to connect yourself with an audience, but at the end of the day it’s no different than it was 30 years ago.” n
Todd Glass performs Jan. 14-17 at Helium Comedy Club, 2031 Sansom St. For more information or tickets, call 215-496-9001 or visit www.toddglass.com.