Mal. Rainbow has become so popular that he has acquired a top Los Angeles agent, who is exploring television and film opportunities for him. “I had a boy but was also washing out tights and ballet shoes,” says Gwen. I learned my rhythm from that.”, He was born in the Long Island town of Huntington, where his father, Gerry Rainbow, was a bandleader for the Huntington Town House, a now-demolished wedding and bar mitzvah hall. By Neal Broverman Randy Rainbow His satire is about “connecting with people who can’t accept the craziness and cruelty they’re seeing.”. He innocently questions their strange behavior — Trump mocking a disabled person or Conway believing that microwave ovens are cameras. Credit one Bonnie Levitt of Scottsdale, Ariz. “My neurotic Jewish mother was pushing him on me,” laughs Andy Levitt, vice president of Live Nation’s comedy touring department. He also lampooned former congressman Anthony Weiner’s sexting misadventures (“Randy Rainbow Is Dating Carlos Danger”). Always dead funny.”, Rainbow’s passion for performance arose early in a family in love with show business. Because that’s Randy Rainbow (yes, it’s his given name). How did Live Nation hear about him? For his latest musical parody about President Donald Trump, comedian Randy Rainbow enlisted Tony-winning actress Patti LuPone. He is an actor and writer, known for GOP Dropout (2016), Cheeto Christ Stupid-Czar (2019) and You Can't Stop His Tweets (2018). She sent him a video and, like a good son, Levitt watched. Rainbow, with his snappy riffs on the politics of the day, is a prominent part of this new and influential group, but he offers something distinct: a very old tradition of musical satire updated for the YouTube age. His best friend and current tour director, John Retsios, later got Rainbow the accounting-firm receptionist job that paid his rent and electric bills. By senior year, he was barely taking classes, skipping several final exams and hanging out in the drama room, courtesy of a sympathetic teacher. I have to say, the lyrics are so sharp. Randy Rainbow was born to a Jewish family in Huntington, New York. Seemingly seconds later, he’s been Randy Rainbowed.”, On a chilly February afternoon, Rainbow is lunching at the legendary Sardi’s in Manhattan’s theater district, and the fans just keep coming by. How a musical theater nerd reinvented political satire for the YouTube age. He also spent hours making camcorder movies with his dolls. It was a reward for donating to Rainbow’s Patreon account, an arts membership plan. “His narcissism. He flashes his choirboy smile and weaves their words and actions into songs like “If You Ever Got Impeached” (“If I Only Had a Brain” from “The Wizard of Oz”) and “Microwaves (Are Watching You)” (Hall & Oates’ “Private Eyes”). [Randy Rainbow] If Donald got fired according to plan Just think of the things I could do I'd stop having nightmares about Kellyanne And finally, sing songs about somebody new I have to say, the lyrics are so sharp. His trademark pink glasses are but one item in his Randy Rainbow line of merch, which includes socks, Christmas ornaments, T-shirts, “covfefe!” mugs, tote bags and magnets for your car. He spent so much time in his bedroom that one of his mother’s friends referred to him as Dracula. We are now Entertainment Nation, and society’s jesters — Stephen Colbert, Samantha Bee, John Oliver, Trevor Noah, Bill Maher, etc. In a spoof interview with Vice President Pence about the border wall, Rainbow asks, “What are we calling it today? But, he says, “I’ve never had a passion for politics. Before he died, my father said of Trump, ‘I can’t watch him, because he reminds me of me.’ My father had all that phony B.S.” Gerry Rainbow was a grudging, if jealous, admirer of his son’s talents and ultimately accepted his being gay. “I wore a polo, khakis and a clipboard,” he remembers. And demonstrates his ample intellect on social media. He has also caught the eye and ear of musical theater giants who applaud his clever concoctions. In Uncategorized. Think of him as a modern-day Gilbert and Sullivan, or the millennial version of the piano-playing Mark Russell or Tom Lehrer — the key difference being that his get-it-out-fast production marathons and savvy use of social media bring his commentary to the public quickly, directly and with no filter. Randy Rainbow. His satire isn’t about changing the world, but about “connecting with people who can’t accept the craziness and cruelty they’re seeing.”, I catch up with his tour at the Michigan Theater in Ann Arbor, where more than 1,300 fans have arrived for the show. She had opinions.”. Though he occasionally bleeps off-color words for comic effect, they are sprinkled openly throughout his routines. Then in 2011, he started editing himself into videos mocking celebrities — such as Mel Gibson (“Randy Rainbow Is Dating Mel Gibson”) — who screamed at women and underlings. He glances into an open suitcase of props that he keeps in the next room, his home office. “She’d come visit and say, ‘Where’s Drac?’ ” recalls Gwen. “I take notes throughout the day. Rainbow made the leap to Manhattan when a friend offered him a place to crash for three weeks. “I’d hear hysterical laughing from the two of them. He grew up in Commack, New York. Still don’t.”, That doesn’t mean politics can’t rile him. In “Putin and the Ritz,” with Trump portrayed as the familiar orange cracker, a lyric says the bromance couple “really love dic … tatorships!” Halfway through the show, he confides, “I’m super gay. In a topsy-turvy era, is it surprising that a political commentator should dress in sequins, feather boas and pink cat-eye glasses? randy rainbow the original cast of rent mj rodriguez brian stokes mitchell anna wintour and more . The case of Dorothy’s stolen ruby slippers. I always dreamed of being in a Sondheim birthday concert. For Gwen, the death pushed her to end her unhappy marriage. Her son, a Bernie Sanders voter, is a broadcast and cinema arts graduate who is enamored of the technical competence displayed in Rainbow’s videos. “I had a quick family. “You can’t buy these,” he explains. She was the Bea Arthur type. Watch below. Most Viewed Videos . He is a hero to the LBGTQ community” — Rainbow is gay — “and, of course, my mom.”. Randy Rainbow is back today to celebrate Joe Biden’s win with a parody of Getting Married Today from Stephen Sondheim’s 1970 musical Company. Political satirist Randy Rainbow offers his post-Robert Mueller report ‘feelings’ via his parody of Stephen Sondheim’s “Buddy’s Blues” from FOLLIES. “This girl knows me,” Rainbow observes. Hey Gurl, Click for Info. Here’s the regimen he follows about three times a month, ever since his musical satire of a 2016 presidential debate — built around the line “Super Callous Fragile Egocentric Braggadocious” — launched him into the viral stratosphere: After identifying a target, he spends about four hours writing new lyrics to a pop or Broadway standard, based on his obsessive knowledge of musical theater. Rainbow enters to great applause and launches into a fast-paced rendition of his greatest hits. While Randy Rainbow and the rest of the sane world celebrate Joe Biden’s presidential win, the White House is still in denial, or maybe they are just afraid of the boss’s tantrums. School, on the other hand, was difficult. He was devastated.” Recalls Rainbow: “On her deathbed, she asked my mother, ‘How am I going to know when Randy gets famous?’ Not if I get famous, but when. Broadway composers including Andrew Lloyd Webber and Stephen Schwartz have communicated their fandom directly. A large part of Rainbow’s shtick is inserting himself, pink glasses perched on his nose, into interviews with, say, the president, or Ivanka Trump, or Conway. She missed her beloved grandson’s rise to fame by “just a little bit,” her daughter says. Maybe when this is all over, Kellyanne [Conway] and I can have a drink together,” he quips. Permanently hoisted there is a green screen, along with a camera on a tripod and four MacBook Air laptops. Many of his jokes and asides are nods to gay culture. “I can still see the disappointment when the men walked in and saw me.”. “I owe you my liiiiife.” Rainbow understands those emotions. He died in 2017. Having a catchy stage name wasn’t exactly an advantage. But first, with a practiced swipe, he applies his Rouge Dior lipstick, a gift from “Little House on the Prairie” star Melissa Gilbert, a fan who messaged him on Twitter and showed up at his birthday party in July with a bag of cosmetics from Sephora. These DIY productions are funny and oh-so-topical and include clever video manipulation of news footage to create sassy mock interviews with prominent political players — mostly of the Trumpian variety — topped off with costumes ordered online. Thank you, Randy… 0 Facebook Twitter. Survey: Acceptance of homosexuality by society in 39 countries, Florida: Sen. Bill Nelson supports marriage equality. A Republican who was a last-minute vote for Trump, she carries a pair of Rainbow’s pink glasses. At night, he and Retsios hosted at Cafeteria, a gay restaurant in Chelsea. Exactly right. Google this s—.”) “It’s a great thing about this Internet thing we’ve got going,” he says, smiling demurely. “The world’s attention is on Trump, and I’m part of that. “It’s Sa-tan!” he warbles in his stage-worthy tenor as he affixes the red horns to his head. Thank you, Randy Rainbow, for the respite. Rainbow and Kissel need to figure out how a four-piece band can coexist onstage with an entertainer who appears in everything from a banana costume to a Mrs. Potts teapot and throws paper towels at the audience while wrapped in an orange boa. Early life. Sondheim's work especially, and musical theater like that, just spoke to me so much and taught me so many lessons. Most Viewed Videos . But millions share his splashy, over-the-top digital life: Since 2016, Rainbow, a Broadway hopeful who fled from cattle-call auditions, has found his own spotlight through the Internet, emerging as a YouTube sensation who dispenses musical-comedy salve for a divided nation. “I feel the responsibility of being a therapist to people who need it,” he says. Actor-comedian Steve Martin told Rainbow that “A Very Stable Genius” — a takedown of you-know-who sung to Gilbert and Sullivan’s “I Am the Very Model of a Modern Major-General” — is a favorite ditty in the Martin household: He is the very model of a very stable genius, Of all the U.S. presidents he is the Mussoliniest, He learned a lot of things according to his Wikipedia. “My main goal is to give people a little vacay from our troubles.”, A registered Democrat, Rainbow votes in elections, but he says that beyond his videos and performing for LGBTQ fundraisers, he is not politically active. Randy Rainbow is Dating Mel Gibson . She got me out of a 32-year nightmare.”. “All six children in our family and their spouses are fans,” says Jeanne. The two are still amazed that Live Nation, the entertainment colossus that produces 30,000 events in 40 countries each year, is sending a YouTube star on the road — that the same company that presents Jay-Z, Ariana Grande and Madonna reached into a bedroom in Queens and gave Rainbow the stages he longed to play. I have to say, the lyrics are so sharp. Political satirist Randy Rainbow offers his post-Robert Mueller report ‘feelings’ via his parody of Stephen Sondheim’s “Buddy’s Blues” from FOLLIES. He tugs on a black sequined jacket, checks his satin tie and adjusts the angle of his bowler hat. Randy Rainbow Duets With Patti LuPone to Tell Trump to Kick Rocks Dream a little dream of Trump being fired, the two sing to a Sondheim classic. He believes the country is getting bullied on the playground, and he feels the need to speak, even if humor doesn’t alter events. As his mother describes it, “He had a lot of financial help from us that probably went on too long. The job made him desperate for a creative outlet, and he started writing. Both mother and son attended the show the next night as well, again paying the extra $40 each to take another photograph with Rainbow. Video Season of Trump. Two folding chairs and a bike lock?” Or, responding to Trump describing ousted FBI director James Comey as a showboat: “Those are pretty harsh words coming from the Titanic.”, Unlike late-night comedy hosts, Rainbow has no executives, sponsors or censors to please. When he wasn’t cutting up with his grandmother, Rainbow was captivated by puzzles, mazes and creating cartoons on his computer. I approach every video like I’m doing a book report.”. Recent Videos. Stephen Sondheim, arguably the god of Broadway musical theater, spends a half-hour on the phone telling me that Rainbow’s lyrics are “brilliant” and “as good as anyone writing today.”, Mark Russell, who at 86 still writes song parodies that he posts online, is equally impressed by Rainbow’s ear for exactly the right musical match. Blogging and then creating topical videos for the platform, Rainbow … . Official Fan Page of Internet Sensation, Comedian, Actor, Writer and Entertainer Randy Rainbow. I should have led with that.”, Later, he tells the crowd, “This administration is doing scary, unsettling things and causing irreparable harm to our nation, but it’s been great for my career.” Indeed, income from two years of touring allowed him to move a year ago from a Queens studio apartment into his two-bedroom. I grew up with that generation of guys from New York, a generation of New York phony snake-oil-salesmen kind of energy. A few hours after the photographer and I leave, Rainbow will step before the camera and belt out some just-written lyrics describing the despicable, dastardly or just plain dumb behavior of today’s prominent political figures. “It was the biggest heartbreak of my life. For his latest musical parody about President Donald Trump, comedian Randy Rainbow enlisted Tony-winning actress Patti LuPone. They moved to Brownstown, Mich., from Silver Spring, Md., a year ago, when she retired from the Securities and Exchange Commission and he from the Federal Communications Commission. Randy Rainbow’s first post-election parody video is here. When he was 10-years old, his … “I knew he was gay by the time he was 3,” says Gwen Rainbow, 68, a medical transcriptionist. Rainbow earned the admiration of multiple Broadway music composer god-figures, according to The Washington Post: He has also caught the eye and ear of musical theater giants who applaud his clever concoctions. She was such a believer in me.”, Her death had a profound impact on both Rainbow and his mother. Maneuvering around a huge backdrop set up in the room, he’s trying on a variety of costumes for a photo shoot for this article. Randy Rainbow has made a career out of skewering Donald Trump, but even he is ready to move on. Thank you, Randy Rainbow, for the respite. “When she died, I looked into the casket and thought, I’m next,” she remembers. https://www.washingtonpost.com › ... › 28 › feature › randy-rainbows-witty-world He tried Broward Community College, then lived on the University of Central Florida campus with friends before landing a gig singing on the Regal Empress cruise ship out of Tampa. “He was constantly putting on shows and making the girls be the prince. “You have to laugh.” Which is Rainbow’s point exactly. He patiently strikes multiple funny poses and doesn’t object when I pick up his Persian cat, Mushi, who protests with a meow. YouTube star Randy Rainbow is back today with his special guest, Broadway legend Patti LuPone. — have become as influential as the Walter Cronkites and David Brinkleys of yore. Hey Gurl, Album Release. The famously rapid-fire original is considered one of Broadway’s classic “patter songs.” From Wikipedia: “With 68 words sung in a total of 11 seconds, Getting Married Today was notable for being the … In real life, the 37-year-old leads a solitary existence in an orderly apartment adorned with oversize photographs of Audrey Hepburn, Judy Garland and Barbra Streisand. Welcome. “I joked my parents hated me by making me sound like a Care Bear,” he recalls. “Mom would go to bed at night and pray that God would make her Bernadette Peters,” he says with a laugh. In my dream I got to leave my house, but 路 ♀️. Fan Favorite …And One For Melania . 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