“Queer Eye’s” Jonathan Van Ness is taking the stage once again for a night of comedy, storytelling and gymnastics at Radio City Music Hall this weekend.
On Saturday, March 12, Van Ness will stop by the iconic New York City venue as a part of their latest tour “Imaginary Living Room Olympian.” This is the second time that Van Ness will be performing at Radio City, with the first performance taking place during their first tour “Road to Beijing.”
“Getting to play Radio City for a second time, I’m ecstatic about it!” said Van Ness. “It’s a whole new show — it has a whole new flow, it’s high energy and fast-paced comedy show.”
This new tour is bigger and better than before. The name of this year’s tour, “Imaginary Living Room Olympian,” comes not just from Van Ness’s own love for gymnastics, but also the idea that everything looks easier from the comfort of your home watching Olympic athletes on TV.
“There are parts of the comedy where I talk about the Olympics and how we think we could do that, it looks so easy,” said Van Ness. “It’s like we’re all imaginary living room Olympians.”
For the show, Van Ness has a whole new and longer gymnastics routine, followed by stand-up and storytelling covering a myriad of topics, including love, marriage, politics, queerness, and joy, with some life tips and personal tales thrown in.
Van Ness came up with the idea to incorporate gymnastics into his shows after performing in Portland, Oregon. Tapping into their high school cheerleading roots, Van Ness felt that on stage was the best place to see if they could still do a standing back handspring.
“I was on stage when I asked the audience, ‘Should I do one to see if I still can?’ They said ‘No, you’re going to hurt yourself!’ But I did it,” Van Ness recalled. “I realized, what were people going to do if I did a gymnastics routine in the show? The first time I did gymnastics in a live show was on the Kesha cruise, literally on a rocking cruise ship, and from there I started opening shows with it.”
For Van Ness, the gymnastics part of the show adds another level of pressure because they essentially had to relearn everything as the pandemic made it difficult to practice.
“It created a whole new level of pressure, I’m going to be 35 this month. To get back up and do it is tough,” said Van Ness. “The pandemic made it hard to practice, relearning it again after learning gymnastics was interesting. But it’s something I never thought that I would get to do, to be a stand-up comedian and have gymnastics back into my career, I never thought that would happen.”
Van Ness hopes that those who come to see “Imaginary Living Room Olympian” feel the joy and possibly learn a little more about themselves along the way.
“[I want the audience to feel] Joy, more joy, especially when the show is over, and more understanding hopefully about themselves and their passions,” said Van Ness.
To purchase tickets for “Imaginary Living Room Olympian,” visit radiocitymusichall.org. You can also watch Van Ness on their new Netflix series “Getting Curious with Jonathan Van Ness,” and their new book “Love That Story” is available for preorder wherever books are sold.
