Randy Rainbow

With over 50 million Facebook views to his name, Randy Rainbow is a certified social-media sensation. His original musical video parodies are constantly being watched, shared and tweeted.

Rainbow s wicked sense of humor and political instincts have made him must-see viewing in the age of Trump. I recently had the pleasure of speaking with him about his career and meteoric rise.

Gregg Shapiro: Randy, I d like to begin by asking you to say something about your background and performance training.

Randy Rainbow: I ve been on the stage since I was a kid. I started with ballet when I was six. I have a musical theater background; a lot of theater camp as a child, a lot of community, regional theater. I dropped out of college and worked on a cruise ship for a time. (My background is) primarily in musical theater, and mostly in South Florida.

In what ways, if any, does being a South Florida-native come across in your work?

I got some really great training there. I spent most of my childhood at the Hollywood Playhouse, all of my summers growing up. Me and Josh Gad, who you probably know (from The Book of Mormon and Frozen). We were buddies back then. I did a lot of children s theater in Miami Shores. My base musical theater training happened there.

Have you heard from any of the people whose songs you parody?

Yes, actually, I ve heard from some big ones. Most recently Andrew Lloyd Webber tweeted the Cats parody that I did. I guess that counts, huh (laughs)? That was very exciting. I ve also heard from Stephen Sondheim. Stephen Sondheim is apparently a fan of my videos. When I did the Mary Poppins video to Supercalifragilistic I heard from Jeff Sherman, who is the son (of songwriter) Rob Sherman. That s been thrilling for me. I m such a huge fan of all this material that I m spoofing. To hear from those people is amazing to me.

Who are some of the song parodists that you consider to be inspirations and influences?

That s interesting because I can t say that I am inspired by song parodists. I m trying to think of notable ones, like Weird Al Yankovic. But I never really grew up with him. My inspiration really comes from musical theater and musical theater performers.

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Randy Rainbow

Randy Rainbow is hosting PrideFest Miller Lite Mainstage shows.

In terms of your process, how do you go about selecting a song to parody and pairing it up with the appropriate subject matter?

It kind of depends. I m a big show queen to begin with. I think in show tunes. For example, for the Braggadocious! video my mind went to docious from Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious. When I did the Meryl Streep Into the Woods parody, I thought about Meryl Streep singing Greens, greens, nothing but greens in the song. I transformed that quite easily into Tweets, Tweets, nothing but Tweets. Sometimes it just pops into my head. Now that I have a nice big following, sometimes I ll get suggestions from people that I ll use. Sometimes it s just word play, like Alternative Facts! which has nothing to do with Jellicle cats, but it sounds close enough. That s how that happened. I have a vast vocabulary of musical theater references, so I can easily draw from that.

Have you heard from any of the subjects of the songs that you parody?

Well, Trump hasn t called yet. Thank God! I think the first time that that happened was with Jennifer Holliday. I spoofed an interview that she did regarding her declining to play the (Trump) inauguration. She tweeted it and said, Thanks for the laugh. That was hysterical. That was exciting. Sometimes I ll hear from some of the CNN people if I use their interviews and plug myself into their positions as the interviewer. Jake Tapper follows me now and I ve heard from Brianna Keilar. I m happy to know that they are fans and supportive of the joke.

What is your most popular video to date?

As far as numbers, it s still the Braggadocious video, which has 31 million views. They re all doing a good 10 million now. The last few I ve put out are around 10 million and over.

Because of your theater background, have you ever considered taking your act on the road and, if so, how would you do that?

Very much. I m booking a lot of touring stuff now. I m pretty booked up now for Pride and for the next few months into the summer. I ll have evenings, and I ve done a few here in New York, where I ll show some videos and link everything together with a little bit of stand-up. Then I ll do musical parodies live. I m hoping later in the year to flesh out a more large-scale production to take on tour. As of now, it s just doing the material that I have out there. Touring is definitely on the top of my list.

If you don t my mind my asking, what is your current romantic status are you single, partnered or married?

Ugh, now I m depressed. I wasn t sad, but now I am.

But, Randy, everybody wants to know.

I am single as hell. If anyone s looking, let me know. You know my email, put it up there (laughs). I m telling myself I m focusing on my career, which is what everyone says when they re not dating.

UNPOPULAR! - Randy Rainbow Song Parody

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