| Its been a long time since I sent out an update about life, comedy gigs and projects. I like sending these out and should be better about it but when it comes to typing these things up, I usually get stumped on what to write. I’ll start with some more personal news.
Getting personal…
 Right after the new year m’lady Sarah and I had some friends come visit here in LA from Maine for a couple weeks. Sarah and I like being tour guides around LA, we’ve done it a bunch and really don’t tire from it. Plus we get to see new things too, so its pretty fun. Sarah got us tickets to 3 different shows (Chelsea Lately, The Talk, and The Burn). We did a Warner Bros tour and ate out a bunch. AND last but certainly not least our friends painted our living room for us! “Why?” might you ask? Long story, too long for here, but just know that it looks effing amazing and we’re really glad about it!
 Right after those pals left, my parents came to LA for a month to stay with us too. My parents are the most chill house guests; my Mom wanted to sit in the sun and read and my Dad mostly wanted to golf. We made lots of great dinners together and I took my parents to Point Dume Nature Preseve and beach one day and to The Getty another. Oh and my Dad would be bummed if I didn’t mention how we went to the final round of the Northern Trust Open (PGA Tour) and sat at the 18th hole for (many) hours watching the pros lay up on the green and put in, finishing their rounds. Sarah and I took them to the show The Talk too.
 After all our visitors left, Sarah and I got lonesome, so Sarah suggested we foster a dog from Pug Nation LA, of which she is a fan on Facebook. We went to an adoption fair in Hollywood and filled out a application and they came and did a home visit the next day and we went to the facility south of LAX airport and got, not just one, but TWO Pug mixes (Benjamin and Becca). We really did just foster them, we have two tiny devil-dogs already so we really just wanted to help find a home for a pup(s) in need. Ben and Becca were not the oldest or medically neediest Pugs at the rescue, but because they were mixes and a bonded pair, they were there there at the facility the longest. You may have seen us both posting about them and their love story on Facebook. Our posts were a big success and Ben and Becca found their new home with an awesome family here in LA!! It was 100% meant to be and I couldn’t be more happy that those two lovelies are now home, safe and loved!
Now for a bit of industry news…
 As you all know, because most of you helped make it happen or were actually present for the event itself; I filmed my fist 1 hour standup comedy special titledIAN HARVIE SUPERHERO a little over a year ago. I had no idea how much work, time and money making a movie takes. I guess I thought because it was a “standup comedy film” and not a dramatic feature at multiple locations, that somehow it would be easier or less costly. Man-o-man was I WRONG! Its completely fine! But it definitely has lengthened production time. So I have an announcement to make, IT DONE! No seriously, its done, done done. Edited, and edited again and edited one more time, color corrected, opening graphics, film credits with extra behind the scenes footage, audio engineering, and soundtrack added. DONE!
 So now that its all done, what are the next steps? In this order: submitting to film festivals, pitching to cable networks, distribute to public (possible avenues: my web site for purchase and download, Amazon, Netflix, maybe others). As of right now, I’ve submitted to about 50 film festivals and would be screened the second half of the year. I will submit to more during the second half of this year for first half of next year. As of right now my film will have its world premier at Out Twin Cities Film Festival in Minneapolis on my birthday, the last weekend in May. Also very exciting, they asked me to be their keynote speaker to open their film festival. I can’t believe it and I have no clue what I’m going to talk about! Looks like my film will also be hitting international festivals too! I will most definitely be announcing those on my web site in my blog and tour dates, so please keep an eye out for those.
 I DO want to do a film premier back in Maine in my home city in Portland to show my peeps back there what they helped me achieve! I will let you know when this is happening via this mailing list and on my web site and social networks.
As far as cable networks go, when I pitch to them, whether its yes or no, its okay by me, because I have a really sweet piece of my art archived in film and I couldn’t be more proud of it! No matter what anyone says about it, I’m proud Papa to SUPERHERO! I will let you know what happens there too.
The public release date of IAN HARVIE SUPERHERO will likely be a year from now.
I have to give a big shout out of love to m’lady Sarah who has helped me with my motivation to keep pushing forward on this project, she not only has helped keep me going but she’s also full of so much good information!
Here’s a little tid bit.. Over the last year, I’ve typed the words IAN HARVIE SUPERHERO about a couple hundred times. and in those couple hundred I’ve accidentally typed SUPERHERP about a hundred times.
Gigs, groups, festivals…
 I’m doing lots of solo standup comedy shows coming up all over the country. In addition to that I’m still working with WE ARE NOT SAINTS, a recovery-based standup comedy group with my funny friend Felon O’Reilly started. Felon is an ole salty dog and former convict, thus the name Felon. Imagine the comedy that ensues when he and I are hanging out, a sober convict and a trans guy walk in to a bar.. In related news I turned 20 years sober last November and Felon will be 13 years sober in just a few weeks! For information check out: www.wearenotsaints.net
A new project that I’m excited to be part of is another comedy troupe that I’m touring with called COME OUT LAUGHING. We are a LGBT band of funny that truly covers all the letters in the LGBT acronym! My tour mates are Jason Dudey (group founder) and Dana Goldberg. We are based in LA but we are traveling all over for theater and club shows and festivals. You can check out our cute little web site at www.comeoutlaughing.com
The Maine Comedy Festival is turning 3 this August in beautiful Bethel, Maine! ! Its such a blast every year and the kind folks at The Bethel Inn Resort are always incredible hosts to our wild event. Each year we try to offer fun events, a golf tournament, and the best and brightest national comedians in the biz. So many fun things to do in the western mountains of Maine! See the line up of events atwww.mainecomedyfest.com
Shortlist of tour dates…
March 28 – Portland, OR
March 29 – Seattle, WA
March 30 – Seattle, WA
April 16 – Las Cruces, NM
April 20 – Phoenix, AZ
April 25 – TBA East Coast
April 26 – TBA East Coast
April 27 – Pittsburgh, PA
April 28 – Columbus, OH
CLICK HERE FOR ALL MY TOUR DATES AND TICKET INFO!
Attention lovers in Seattle, WA…
 As mentioned above, I will be in your fair city and if you’d like to come to the show, I’ve got a discount code for you for $3.00 off tickets price for the Seattle shows Friday, March 29th and Saturday, March 30th! The promo code is LGBT in ALL CAPS. So if you’d like to take advantage, all you need to do is click here for tickets: www.comeoutlaughing.com/tour-calendar and click on the little $ sign next to the show and it will take you where you need to be to enter that promo code LGBT to get that discount! Tell your friends, there is no limit, lovers!
Interviews, appearances & mentions…
 Inner Circle with Neil Strauss is a Sirius XM Radio show that I was on recently and it was a dinner conversation with a bunch of people who don’t really know each other. I was 4 segments (kind of an accident) altogether. Neil is a brilliant writer for the NYT, author of The Game, and a great conversationalist. The first was I was on his show I went with with pal, Margaret Cho and I was in the peanut gallery. A the end of the evening Neil invited me back to be a guest at the dinner table. Both times it was interesting, smart (well mmmmost of the time, listen to Laura-Leigh in the last couple segments, and you’ll see why I said “mmmmost”), and fun. Neil’s show can be found on Sirius XM’s channel 104 9pm Fridays and Noon on Saturdays. Click here to listen to Inner Circle.
 Trisha Goddard is a Briish talk show host who was brought to the U.S. to do a show on the famed dramatic Maury stage. She now hosts a self titled show on the CW network in most cities and they asked me to come on the show with a few other trans men to talk about our lives. Despite the caption that is constantly on the screen on the lower left that reads “trapped in the wrong body” which I have a personal problem with that kind of lingo when describing my own story, it was a fairly tastefully done show. I have not seen a single other show of hers that has substance or taste since this episode that we did. They also edited the shit out of it, so some of my answers in the end were not exactly matching the questions that they asked. But ohhh well, its long gone and swept from the cutting room floor. Watch the segment by clicking here.
 The Advocate just came out with a list of Top 5 Hottest Transgender Comedians, if you’re dying to know whose at the top, click here.
Special thanks…
To my Assistant Samael who is back helping me out with bookings. I’m really glad he’s working with me again, hustling up some fun shows for me. If you have booking inquiries, please let Sam know at assistant@ianharvie.com and he will help you out!
And finally, if you read ALL of this, then you’re amazing! THANK YOU for letting me bend your ear with all of my beeswax!
Love you, mean it!
XOXO Ian |
