Can We Talk? Ian Harvie Part II

Ian Harvie
Photo: Austin Young

"I don't understand it, but I accept it is societies go to phrase. It stops us from really putting ourselves in someone else's place. It keeps us from really going there. But we could go there, and if we allowed ourselves to do that we would really understand it." - Ian Harvie

The above quote is a little paraphrased but it stuck with me after I turned off the recorder and Ian and Myself were chatting off record. This is one of the most eye opening, honest things I have heard in a long time.

For those of you not in the loop Ian is a transgender comedian/actor and friend. Post Bruce Jenner's recent interview let's keep the dialogue flowing...

Note: This is part II of my interview with Ian, here is the link to part I:

http://mshinafelt.blogspot.com/2015/05/can-we-talk-ian-harvie-part-i.html

MS: I get feeling comfortable in your own skin. Now that I am almost fifty twenty somethings are hitting on me all the time. When I was in my twenties I could never get guys my own age interested. 

IH: Their attraction is now, that you posses something inside that they wished they had. Let's take our exteriors out of this. I think people today, as we get to this place, we still deem exteriors important on some level, but...I'm in recovery, and I remember when I first got sober, the person that you ask to sponsor you, they have something that you want. There is something about them that reflects how you want to live your life. Someone might be pretty on the outside, but when you are really attracted to someone it's that they posses something that you wish you had, that you know you have, and you want to crack it open in some way. Sometimes for me it's on the surface, but usually it's what someone says, and I'm like: "Oh shit that was good!"

MS: I was headed there with this.

IH: Well, I just cut you off, sorry (laughs)

MS: Hey, this is an open forum. (laughs) You are really fearless with your comedy shows. 

IH: I won't be exhausted with it until everybody fucking gets it. People ask me "are you tired?" I'm like: "No, no I want everybody to hear this." I will say it to whoever and as many times as I need to. Maybe I will say it differently with new material, but it's a really important part of what I want to do in this art medium. 

MS: Awesome!

IH: Let's jump back to The Nightly Show for a second. 

MS: Go for it.

IH: What I thought was really awesome about it was, that this is the Comedy Central demographic watching this show. Hearing these words and these perspectives, maybe for the first time. Maybe, maybe not, there was a live audience there and there were eruptions of applause. When I said there should be etiquette on behalf of Cisgender people to Transgender people everyone applauded. But that's a live New York audience, the average viewer of that show, who gets their information from what used to be The Colbert Report and what is now this show, most likely hasn't heard this before. What a great gain to have that dialogue on Comedy Central and their demographic. 

MS: Absolutely.

IH: I was like Fuck Yeah! Fuck Yeah! Fuck Yeah, good!

MS: You did discuss Bruce Jenner on the show, I loved your Kardashian joke about all of them having plastic surgery by the way,

IH: Seriously with all the work that entire family has had done this should not be a shock. (laughs)  Yes, it's someone who was male at birth, an iconic athlete who has been in  the homes of all of America for years. Yes, so this is a new story, someone officially coming out like this is going to save lives. It's funny I use to tell a similar joke about Chaz Bono and Cher with all the work she has had done. (laughs) I like thinking of things that flip the narrative and to say the opposite of what everybody is thinking. This is not just a Trans peoples issue to figure out it is also other people's work to do as well. So I like thinking about things in reverse terms, thinking about them in other ways. 

MS: Well in West Hollywood, CA they now have all access bathrooms and I love that because I know when I want to pee, I don't care where I go, I just want to go!

IH: How many times is there a line in one bathroom or the other? I mean, we all use the same bathroom when we are at home. But when we cross the threshold into the public: WE CAN NOT USE THE SAME BATHROOM! (laughs)

MS: One last thing. What the fuck are incinerating boobs?

IH: I just did a podcast where I discussed my chest surgery and was asked what happened to my boobs afterward. I said I didn't know they were probably in a incinerator somewhere in San Francisco. (laughs) 

Keep it real with Ian at:
http://ianharvie.com/
https://twitter.com/ianharvie