Reading Rainbow: Randy’s Latest Book and His Favorite Reads
By Michael Giltz,
15 hours ago
Randy Rainbow talks about his latest humor collection and his favorite books. Yes, it’s the Rainbow Reading Room! You certainly should be reading Randy Rainbow . The singer/actor/satirist/internet sensation’s latest book is Low-Hanging Fruit ($28; St. Martin’s Press). That’s the followup to his New York Times best-selling debut Playing With Myself. Playing was the story of his life leading up to internet fame. Rainbow posted a parody video claiming to be dating Mel Gibson, and it became wildly popular. He followed that with increasingly sophisticated and daring political take-downs set to the music of classic Broadway songs and current pop hits. It’s as if Lenny Bruce and Tom Lehrer had a son (and now many of you are looking up who the heck Tom Lehrer is).
“I did freak a little bit,” says Rainbow, “because I'm kind of new to the world of literature. It was at first daunting, because…I put a lot of my heart and soul into that first book. But then I realized this was a great opportunity to kind of do something different. The first book was more of a chronological memoir and this one is a collection of humor essays. So this was more fun to write and I hope it's even more fun to read than the last one. It's good for a laugh.”
Reading Rainbow: Randy’s Latest Book and His Favorite Reads
It is indeed funny. Kirkus Reviews says the book is "tart, sassy and hilariously funny from start to finish." Check out our exclusive excerpt where Randy says goodbye to the internet (not really). In this new collection, Rainbow makes like David Sedaris, using his life to spin off witty pieces, such as one from the perspective of his cat, another about the men (often closeted) that he met online and another very funny and revealing one about surgery to deal with an issue he’d struggled with since childhood. “That’s the Nora Ephron chapter,” says Rainbow.
Perhaps the highlight is a brilliant, New Yorker-worthy piece about the letter “a” which was banished from the name of a certain performer named Barbara so she could become the more distinctive Barbra. What happened to that lower-case “a,” kicked to the curb just as fame beckoned? It ain’t pretty.
“My mother will be thrilled that you said that,” says Rainbow, “because since I read that to her, she said that has to go in the New Yorker. You're in good company, absolutely.”
Read the book or take Rainbow’s advice and play the audiobook, because it’s a fully produced production. (You knew he was going to put on a show, didn’t you?) And surely, someday soon Rainbow will perform on Broadway.
He’d kill in a revival of How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying. Or maybe when Audra needs a break from Gypsy? And couldn’t The Book of Mormon use a new Mormon? Or he could host the Tonys, though apparently there’s some silly rule about having to appear on Broadway before you can host the Tonys. (Details!) Or join the cast or guest star or at least appear on Saturday Night Live, perhaps debuting a new song?
“I'll never move away from my Broadway dreams,” says Rainbow about the many opportunities open to him now. “I'd like to do some more TV stuff now, maybe an animated situation with music–that's been discussed. I feel like I'm a comedic actor at heart. So I would love to get more opportunities in that department and we're working on all of it.”
Until then, here are some of the books keeping him company as he waits for that big 42nd Street moment in live theater.
“In this latest book, there were two comedic poems and that was a direct homage to Shel Silverstein,” says Rainbow. “I was just enthralled by his books. And I guess that plays into sort of the lyricist in me. You know, I've always loved lyrics and poetry. I have them actually displayed [in his home]. I'm looking at them right now: A Light in the Attic, Where the Sidewalk Ends, The Missing Piece. Those were big, big for me. He's a wonderful talent and writing humorous lyrics is really hard.”
Did Rainbow have tunes in mind when writing his poems for the book?
“I did not think of them sort of melodically, but maybe they should be songs. I'm getting a lot of good ideas talking to you,” says Rainbow. “The [poem] ‘Would That I Had An Ass’ I thought of as kind of a Shakespearean sonnet. When I pitched the book, I just sort of came up with a bunch of possible chapter titles and that just poured right out.”
Courtesy of Child&CloseCurlyQuotes Play International Ltd&period&comma Random House Books For Young Readers
Baloonia by Audrey Wood (out of print; check your library or used bookstore!)
Magic Shoelaces by Audrey Wood ($12.97; Child’s Play International Ltd.) Buy now on Amazon or check your local library and used bookstores
“There were many of them I loved, says Rainbow when asked about his favorite picture books. “There was one called Baloonia and I think there was another one in the series, Magic Shoelaces or something like that. I don't know how popular those were, but they were very big in my house.” Did he read them out loud? (Which was kind of a dumb question because of course he did.) “I read them out loud. Well, both my mother would read them and I would read them myself.”
And the Berenstain Bears, which faced blowback from the gay community when it partnered with the restaurant chain Chick-Fil-A, which at the time donated money to anti-gay causes. “Was I not supposed to read them as a nice Jewish boy on Long Island?” jokes Rainbow. “I don't remember any overtly Christian themes. I mean, they weren't like kicking the gay neighbors out of the neighborhood. Or maybe I didn't have that one.”
“I've been so busy writing this one that I haven't read anything in quite some time,” says Rainbow. But the last book I read obviously was Barbara Streisand's memoir. I listened to it, all 48 hours.” I haven’t read it yet and asked what he thought. “It came out–how dare you! It came out perfectly. I was on an eight month tour this year, and so that's what I did on planes and it was fabulous. I'm going to start it again. I don't care. I'm a lunatic.
“Oh, and can I say one other thing I listened to honestly?” says Rainbow. “Do you know the Joan Crawford book, her memoir? What is it called? Life My Way, or something like that. You'll google it. She did like a memoir, slash, better living. She recorded it like an audiobook. It must have been in the Seventies or something. I didn't know that they did that back then. And you can listen to her read it, and it gives me such joy. It’s crazy. There's a chapter in my book that's written from the perspective of my cat and I kind of drew inspiration from Joan Crawford.” Related: “Amazing” Cartoonist Jules Feiffer Shares His Favorite Books
“I was, of course, obsessed with The Wizard of Oz as a kid,” says Rainbow. “And I got one of those sort of commemorative, kind of behind the scenes books. I think it had the entire screenplay and beautiful pictures and little tidbits. I remember receiving that one Hanukkah and that just put me over.”
And to wind up, I ask for his favorite book about the theater. “Oh, Patti LuPone! That one. And that's when you have to listen to the audiobook or you're a fool. It's so, so good. I just was obsessed with it. Actually, before I was making my political videos, I did a whole series of videos where I lip-synced with excerpts from her memoir and it became very popular. Cut to, she's now become a friend, and she was in my apartment and she walked in and immediately went to the coffee table, like a magnetic field is drawing her to her book. And she said, ‘Oh,’ and she inspected it and said, ‘Oh, okay. Hardcover. Nice.’ I said, ‘That's not product placement. That's always there even before I knew you were coming over.’ But that's just incredible. You know, it's dishy, and you learn a few things too.”
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