A Conversation With Bruce Vilanch

Bruce Vilanch and Drew Wilson on the 16th Street Mall in 2010

Famous funnyman Bruce Vilanch has worked with everybody, won every award, and he'll be back in Colorado on Saturday, October 14 as part of Boulder Jewish Family Services' fifth annual Reel Hope Boulder. This fundraising event will include a wine and beer reception and all proceeds support the life-transforming work of Boulder JFS, which provides older adults, adults with disabilities, their families, and individuals in crisis with services to enhance their quality of life.

We had a chance to talk to him about being gay and Jewish, legalized marijuana ... and taint.

Drew: Hey, Bruce, it's Drew with MileHighGayGuy.
Bruce: MileHighGayGuy? A gay thing? Good, so we can talk about taint and all of that.

Drew: I’m hoping that the majority of the conversation will be taint-related but first, tell me about your upcoming appearance at Reel Hope Boulder with Jewish Family Services.
Bruce: Well, the Jews have got me. I’m visiting my people. I was wandering in the desert and now I’m visiting my people.

Drew: Your people are both the Jews and the gays. How would you say your Jewishness and your gayness have shaped your life, personality and career.
Bruce: Interesting question. When you’re Jewish you’re kind of automatically in show business and I think that’s because that was what we were allowed to do early on. So we became showpeople. There’s a lot of emphasis on that. Same thing when you’re gay. When you’re gay you’re always kind of in performance mode. At least we used to be, because that’s what made us distinctive. Now that we’ve become so mainstream, not so much.

But what really binds them together is the idea of being outside of the mainstream, a fairly exotic minority. When you grow up Jewish you learn that a lot of people hate you and they’re not going to help you so you have to do it yourself. You have to take care of your own because you can’t rely on anybody else to do that. And that is also a great mantra for the gay community. There’s a joke Jewish people have that every Jewish holiday can be summed up in three lines - They tried to kill us. They lost. Let’s eat. And it’s the same thing with the gay community.

There are valuable lessons to be learned from the Jewish experience by gay people of all creeds. I love that word, creeds. So I guess that’s part of it. Other than all of that, nothing.