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These days, if you end upwards on an elevator with comedian Joel Kim Booster, he might give you this elevator pitch for his new film, "Fire Island."

"It's about a group of friends who get to a fantastical gay island trying as hard as they can to fall in love and become laid. Then anarchy ensues."

It's probably not fair to inquire Booster — who both wrote the film and stars as the main grapheme, Noah — to reduce "Burn down Isle" to a two-judgement pitch. After all, the queer rom-com, which begins streaming on Hulu this Friday, has been generating a lot of buzz for many reasons — and the right kind of buzz at that.

"Fire Island," a reference to the iconic gay-friendly holiday destination off of New York's Long Isle, is 1 of the rare gay-themed rom-coms from a major studio, in this case Searchlight Pictures. Another loftier-profile gay rom-com, Universal Pictures' "Bros" — directed by Nicholas Stoller and written by Stoller and Billy Eichner — is set for a Sept. 30 release.

Besides beingness that cinematic rainbow-hued unicorn, "Fire Island," much like "Bros," is that other rarity: a queer romantic comedy with queer actors. In the case of "Burn down Island," the cast includes some of the industry's top queer actors, Asian or otherwise, including Booster, "SNL's" Bowen Yang, TV actor Conrad Ricamora ("How to Get Abroad with Murder"), theater player Nick Adams ("Priscilla, Queen of the Desert" and the Lincoln Center revival of "Falsettos") and one Margaret Cho.

The who's-who caliber of this cast is non lost on Booster.

"Information technology was really of import that this friends group felt accurate," Booster said by phone from his home in Los Angeles. "We saw every role player — straight and gay. Every fourth dimension a gay actor came in, the authenticity just felt more at that place, more real. In that location aren't a lot of gay rom-coms and certainly not one past a major studio, so it wasn't hard to get these gay actors on board.

"Having Bowen be a role of information technology is special, and having Margaret Cho wanting to exist a part of information technology? That'due south magical. She'due south an icon and a fable, and it's very surreal for her to be a part of this. I wouldn't be doing what I'm doing if information technology were not for her."

What he'due south doing pretty much keeps him busy — very busy, actually.

A regular on the stand-upward comedy circuit, he's appeared on "Conan" and had his own stand-upward special on Comedy Key. He's made regular appearances on NPR'south "Look, Look... Don't Tell Me!" He is co-host of the podcast "Urgent Intendance with Joel Kim Booster + Mitra Jouhari." This weekend, "Fire Isle" — directed by Andrew Ahn ("Spa Nighttime") — finally streams on Hulu. Starting June 16, he has a v-show appointment at American Comedy Co. in San Diego's Gaslamp Quarter.

And if all that weren't plenty: On June 21, his next special, "Joel Kim Booster: Psychosexual," makes its debut on streaming giant Netflix.

Matt Rogers (from left), Bowen Yang and Tomas Matos in a scene from the film "Fire Island."

(Jeong Park / Searchlight Pictures)

'Actually a conversation'

On a recent Tuesday morn, Booster beamed with excitement about existence back on the stand up-upward circuit.

"It's actually exciting to come to San Diego days before my special comes out," Booster said. "I've been building new fabric, so it's great to go that out there."

Audiences tin can expect "kind of a half and half — with some erstwhile material and some new, never-before-heard textile that I've been workshopping in L.A. So it's really exciting for me to able to work out some new stuff and work in some of the greatest hits."

Days before this interview, Booster and Co. appeared at RuPaul's DragCon in Los Angeles. Think Comic-Con, but more than sequins and stilettos. Information technology's billed as a "convention that celebrates the art of drag, queer culture and self-expression for all."

"It was a lot of fun," Booster said. "I've never been to DragCon. I was grateful that people came to our panel. There were a lot of panels to attend, and a lot of drag queens to see, so the fact they showed up to hear nearly our pic, I'thousand grateful."

Booster has a lot to be thankful for. For 1, things are finally opening back up, and for a performer, that's been a god-send.

"It was really tough for me during lockdown because so much of what I talk almost and write comes out of my interaction with the audition," he said. "I'thousand not one of those comedians who writes stuff and repeats them verbatim from one show to the adjacent. To me, it's all most that collaboration with the audition. It'due south a really a conversation for me. So without that during lockdown, I wasn't able to develop a lot of fabric. That's merely non how I work."

(Jeong Park / Searchlight Pictures)

Intersection of identities

Joel Alexander Kim Booster was born in 1988 in Due south Korea and was adopted as a baby by an American couple. His upbringing, he admitted, would surprise many, mainly because it wasn't the kind of environment that would take typically nurtured a comedian.

"Information technology's funny, I don't know if growing up, people would have called me funny," he said. "I was homeschooled until I was in loftier school," raised in what he's called a "bourgeois, White, Evangelical Christian family" in Plainfield. Ill.

"Just I guess role of what made me funny was my bluntness. I didn't know how to go along my rima oris shut. I didn't know what was advisable to say and what wasn't appropriate to say. I was the child who asked the questions you weren't supposed to enquire because I actually didn't know any better. And I guess I nonetheless don't."

The juxtaposition of a bourgeois upbringing in a White family led the young Booster to a lifelong search for identity, especially for an adopted Korean boy who simply happens to be gay. All that, and much more from his life, informs his comedy — a style he'southward described as role autobiographical, function commentary on classism and racism in the gay community.

In past interviews, he'due south joked that he knew he was gay before he knew he was Asian, but that, he said in a serious tone, wasn't without its challenges.

"When you exist at the intersection of a lot of unlike identities, like I do, y'all're always trying to triangulate ... . Information technology's a very complicated calculus yous have to exercise everyday," he said. "Are they coming to me because I'm gay, or because I'm Asian, or because I'm gay and Asian?

"I try not to focus on the day-to-solar day, but let's face information technology, Asian men are treated differently than White men, gay men are treated differently than straight men, and Asian gay men are treated differently as well. At that place are many different ways to exist when yous're at this intersection, but I'm proud of who I am, and I don't plan on changing for anybody."

Nonetheless, he admits information technology'south non like shooting fish in a barrel.

"It does take a lot of organizing my thoughts and balancing different parts of your self," Booster said. "Therapy helps and comedy helps a lot, honestly. To exist honest, a lot of these things I worked out considering of comedy. Did I struggle? Yes. Only these days, I'd say things are a bit more settled at this point. It's not something I write much about anymore comedically, only that is always running in the background."

(Jeong Park / Searchlight Pictures)

Inspired by Jane Austen

Much of that tension and search for identity flows through "Fire Island," which he created and wrote afterward beingness inspired past Jane Austen.

"It started very simply when I brought 'Pride and Prejudice' out during a trip to Fire Island in 2015," Booster said. "I read it that calendar week, and it just struck me as: 'Oh, my god, it felt so relevant.' Gay guys being on Fire Island and observing how gay men oppress and divide each other based on race, body image and actual wealth. Who's amend than other people? How on this island, there was this class organisation, but this time among gays. It was a wearisome fire, just I finally came up with a concept of modern-mean solar day class warfare and how, in the middle of that, two people could fall in honey."

In an interview with queer cannabis mag Buds Assimilate published on 4/twenty, Booster said: "In that location are a lot of people who wanna dismiss this motion-picture show because it takes place on Burn Island. Specifically, I think in that location are a lot of queer, young people of color who don't have the ways because, let's face it, Fire island is impenetrable economically for a lot of people. I remember it was easier for u.s. because we lived in New York and nosotros had 16 friends laying effectually that could, you know, split a firm with usa. I become that. I understand what the Island's reputation is."

The concept of a cultural and economic split up on Fire Island — and about who's able to go and why — became credible to Booster and his friends, including Yang, during their early on visits.

"It's less apparent at present, but yes, you notwithstanding see a lot of self-segregation," Booster told the Union-Tribune. "I get with my best friends every year. That is empowering to become with your chosen family. All of that other stuff — race and class and masculinity and trunk image — all of that is so arbitrary when yous're with your chosen family unit."

Across that, he said, going to a place similar Fire Island is liberating. In a previous interview, Booster has said: "Everybody should exist able to accept a week surrounded by gay people and no straight people."

Asked to expound on that, he said: "A lot of gay people don't realize how much weight they deport around navigating a heterosexual earth every day. Order is built for straight people, not built for us. On Fire Island, you're in a world where y'all can be yourself, and that'south transformative."

Filming on Fire Island presented its own set of challenges: "There was a lot of weather, a lot of rain, a lot of waves. Shooting on the island was not easy. Weather condition was very choosy. The isle is its own kind of graphic symbol. I was very proud of the coiffure and how they were able to problem-solve in the moment."

Despite that, he said, creating and filming "Fire Isle" will always mark a milestone moment for him and for Yang as gay Asian comedic actors.

"The No. 1 nigh rewarding part was getting to do this with Bowen," Booster said. "Conventional wisdom in the industry is: 'They're the same. They're both gay. They're both Asian. They're both funny.'

"Nosotros've gone in for the same parts. Nosotros've never been in the same motion-picture show. ... This entire procedure — getting to practise this with my friend — was a way to prove how different we are even though we check the aforementioned demographic boxes."

'Joel Kim Booster Live!'

When: eight p.thou. June xvi, 7:xxx p.1000. and nine:30 p.m. June 17, 7:30 p.k. and 9:30 p.m. June 18

Where: American One-act Co., 818 6th Ave., San Diego

Tickets: $ten (21-and-up but with a two-drink minimum)

Online: americancomedyco.com

Bowen Yang (from left), Tomas Matos, Matt Rogers, Torian Miller, Joel Kim Booster and Margaret Cho in the moving-picture show "Fire Island."

(Jeong Park / Searchlight Pictures)

Source: https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/entertainment/story/2022-06-01/fire-island-star-joel-kim-booster-on-being-gay-and-asian-im-proud-of-who-i-am

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