#ralph hardesty

[oob-blog]

- Posted by Dustin Svehlak -

Ralph Hardesty (@ralphiehardesty) let us into his home to discuss his beginnings as a comic.

You can catch Ralph during the standup showcase this Wednesday at 10:30pm at the Velveeta Room.

[dansolomon]

As a comedian, I have tons of stand up comedy heroes — but none I really see myself in. There are plenty of doughy, mean white guys out there, but they talk about their girlfriends or their wives or their kids; they never talk about their boyfriends or their partners or their kids. When I sat down to write this, I was ready to write about the dearth of openly gay male stand up comedians in the world. Because when the hilarious Todd Glass came out on WTF, my immediate reaction was “Yes! We got one!” One. Like I was living in a drought of gay comedy, and Glass coming out was the first non-ANT drop of water since Charles Nelson Reilly. It’s curious because I can name a dozen lesbian comedians off the top of my head. And there are superstars of stand up like Kathy Griffin and Margaret Cho who gay men spend big bucks supporting, but from what I knew, there were no gay guys telling jokes outside of gay bars. Turns out: I’m wrong and I'm part of the problem.

My pal Ralph Hardesty (note: when my friends write funny, insightful things I always like to play up the fact that I know them because it makes me look smarter) has some thoughtful things to say about gay jokes, gay comics, and the challenges presented by and to them.