The last time Ian Harvie was in Alberta, he was opening for Margaret Cho. Unfortunately due to scheduling issues, he only performed in Calgary that tour. Edmontonians really missed out on the incredibly talented Harvie, but they will now get their chance, as the Exposure Festival brings Harvie to the Myer Horowitz Theatre on November 17th.
This is the second year the festival has brought a high-profile Trans artist to Edmonton: last year, adult star Buck Angel was invited. Often community events forget about the “T” aspect of the alphabet, so Harvie was thrilled to be called on.
“I knew that Buck was there last year, he was tweeting about it. It is incredible that there seems to be this steady, moderate surge of people wanting to be inclusive and educated and share experience. I have heard people say, I don’t understand why trans-people are included in the queer community. I am like, Are you kidding? Really? You don’t know why? Trans people were the first ones at Stonewall to throw punches at the cops! That’s why! We are all in this together as gender or sexual ‘deviant’ people who dare to do things and tear down things that people over the years have told us we are not supposed to be or do. We are family because of our history and experience not because of what we call ourselves. That is just the queer alphabet. It is exciting to me to hear such inclusive festivals like Exposure inviting Buck and me. That is a movement that is happening - colleges are calling and wanting trans performers. It is definitely noticeable for me, that it seems to be happening more often that I am asked to perform as a Trans performer. I am proud of Exposure for doing that.”
Harvie made a few jokes in his Calgary appearance about the city. He had the crowd in stitches and really made a positive impression.
“Initially if you go to a place you can do one of two things. You can have an experience that happened to you that you would like to share that might relate to them. There is something about that which connects you to people, you are talking about them and they love that. You can look for that real experience and write something funny about it, or take something of your own that you already have and tailor it for them. The first part of that usually happens when you get there. I have performed on the Atlantis cruise and I was on the boat for 12 days, the first four I didn’t have a performance. I had a lot of observation time of gay male culture on a cruise ship that provided a lot of material for me to talk about. There is something about that which is powerful, people go, this person was paying attention, cool. People really enjoy that.”
Part of Harvie’s growth into a headliner comes from three years of working with Cho.
“She does a small tour and a big tour, and I worked with her for two small tours and a big tour over three years. She and I are great friends, it was amazing to be able to get up in front of as many people that come to her shows. For her to give me that opportunity for exposure and make people laugh and give them my personal message with my comedy is something that any queer comic would dream of doing. I am so grateful.”
In January Harvie and Cho had a heartfelt conversation about his future, which lead to a positive decision, nevertheless a difficult one.
“I had a conversation with her saying, I love working with you but I don’t want to be a career opener. If I want to be as big as you someday I’ve got to fly. She said, You totally do. It felt like the right timing, but afterwards there is that moment where you go, shoot, what did I just do?! As an opener for her you are really well taken care of, and cared for and respected, brought up and held up by the comedy community. To take that solo flight was a scary step to actually vocalize and begin to do it. It has been incredible, I am working just as much, and learning so much about how to build a fan base and not be a sidebar on somebody else’s tour. I get to do a lot of colleges, the Exposure Festival, it has been going really well.”
That isn’t to say they don’t remain close. Harvie attended a few tapings of Dancing With The Stars this season.
“I went a couple of times to see her dance. I went to the very first episode and was really excited about being there. I definitely think they were being far too harsh on her. She worked really hard. I had a feeling that they know who they want as frontrunners based on what middle-America wants to watch. Margaret is a great dancer so I am a little down on the whole show but, was really excited to watch her dance again in these totally different styles. She did an awesome job.”
Part of Harvie’s success is being viral. He can be friended on Facebook, tweets, and uses the internet to make fans and friends.
“Someone in this business is looking for a way to keep in touch with people who want to keep in touch with them and know where they are. You can draw from that so when you do a show there aren’t empty seats there.”
”I went to Australia in April and performed in the Melbourne International Comedy Festival, and before I left, I started writing to people and developing friendships so that when I got there I knew some other queers, queer friendly and gender variant folks who were incredibly welcoming. We ended up hanging out for a good portion of the time I was there. It is not just for shows, it is to make friends in other parts of the world so you are not so alone when you get there. It could be a lonely gig if you didn’t have something like Facebook. I would be curious what someone who has been doing comedy for 25 years would say about [the way it was] before Facebook or Myspace, when there was only the after-show connection with the audience, they didn’t have your address to send you fan mail. There is a connection and acceptability that can ground people like me in actually knowing people. I like to connect with people and hang out with them after shows or if I get there early, I love that kind of stuff. Facebook is a huge help with that. There are a lot of people who are still very resistant to it, and that is fine too, they are more traditional. I feel very connected to the tech avenues.”
It has also allowed Harvie to be a role-model, and put a face to the Trans community. In putting himself out there, it helps people see that Trans folks are just like everyone else. He personally takes time to tell others, including those with their own confusion and struggles over it.
“It has allowed a lot of young people to write to me and say things like, do you mind if I write to you because I don’t know anyone in my small hometown who feels or talks about things the way you do. I had a therapist write to me with a client who was FTM and wanted to connect him to people who would be willing to mentor via pen-pal. I said, absolutely, I think that is important. I have maybe a dozen different FTM guys and a couple of their partners that write to me and exchange experience. Sometimes that is all it takes to help somebody not feel so alone with their feelings. That part is really important to me, to connect with other people who share the same feelings, or not. A lot of our feelings and experiences are so similar and that is important to me to have that connection to people.”
While it certainly speaks to the progress of our society that a Transgendered comedian works, as the recent outcries against bullying and suicides show, we still have a long way to go.
“I was having this conversation with someone recently about the bullying and harassment that goes on. A friend of mine said, the bashings that we hear about is rarely gay bashing, it is usually gender bashing. The moment that he said that it clicked. People can’t tell by looking at you if you eat pussy or suck cock, they can’t tell just by looking at you. But if you are gender variant in any way, shape or form then people will peg you as one of these derogatory words. It is most often that people are gender bashed. I think about that and am saddened by it, but also encouraged because there are organizations helping schools build things, coalitions, Gay/Straight alliances. When I was in Junior High it was the cruellest, most brutal time of my life. I was just miserable. The girls were the meanest, the boys were the dumbest; everything was hormonally motivated. On top of that, whatever families were teaching their kids [about] what was weird or different, sanctioned some of these kids’ actions in school. So I know that exists but, there is a lot of progress being made to teach kids very young that it is a diverse world out there and it is all ok.”
Out of the media coverage and tragedy, Harvie hopes that it will lead to further progress.
“The news of these people recently committing suicide, the sad thing is, it is not new news, it was just on air. The gentleman whose intimate relations were aired on the internet, the reason we heard about it was because of technology. This happens all the time and I think is 2 to 3 times higher than other teen suicides. It is not that it is new news, it is just news that finally hit the airwaves and someone is bringing light to it in a way that hasn’t happened before. It is horrible that it happened but it definitely inspires progress and a dialogue on how we can prevent this from happening. That will eventually require families not just to teach tolerance, but loving acceptance. People’s tolerance is part of the problem. Saying, I don’t agree with it but I tolerate it is part of the problem. People need to keep their opinions out of it so that the message isn’t given that it is wrong, and the message isn’t sanctioned to do these things to other kids. So I am sad but hopeful that it will inspire progress.”
Whether seeing Ian Harvie for the first time, or again, one thing you can be assured of is a fun evening on November 17th.
“There will be a little bit of old, a little bit of new, and [the audience] might learn something new and hear something they have never heard before. I promise they will laugh their asses off.”
