Chelsea's Fearless Gay Guy

For regular viewers of E's Chelsea Lately, the group of comedians that regularly appear during the round table discussions as well as the various skits on the show are on par with being as funny as host Chelsea Handler. So it's no surprise that E is airing The Comedians of Chelsea Lately over the next four Fridays with a chance for each comic to perform his or her own stand-up routine.

In the first special, openly gay Guy Branum appears with his blend of humor about being gay, large and, as he puts it, "self-loathing." Branum's appearances on Chelsea Lately are always sure to bring laughs either from his take on pop culture or when he swoons over the crush of the moment. Edge's Jim Halterman talked to Branum from his office at Chelsea Lately and found out first hand how he ended up in Handler's world, who inspires him and which Jonas Brother is [hopefully] batting for our team.

Working with Chelsea

Jim Halterman: Where did you grow up and how did you got started in comedy?

Guy Branum: I'm from Northern California and after college I went to law school and, after finishing law school, I realized I did not want to do that. I was like 'I need to stop dicking around like boring people who are always trying to do the right thing and be around interesting people for awhile' so I was in San Francisco and started doing standup and I figured I'd at least be hanging out with interesting people every night.

JH: How did you end up on Chelsea Lately?

GB: I was writing for a little cable network called G4 and it's also owned by the same company and I was bitching about my job to another guy who worked there and I wrote up a submission packet and three or four days later I was in a meeting with Chelsea and the producers.

JH: When you were hired did you know that you would be on-air??

GB: No, I was hired as a writer and she didn't know me as a stand-up or anything but I am gigantic so one day she came in and said they needed a fat man in a speedo and she said 'Hey, we've got Guy!' And so I was doing stuff like that and after eight months she asked me if I wanted to be on the round table.

JH: Is her sarcastic humor something that you had to get used to or did you get her right away?

GB: Well, as you were calling, she left the desk of my office mate, Heather McDonald. She just came in - Heather left her desk unattended - and she left a series of emails from Heather's computer so who knows what the ramifications of that are going to be. It seems very sarcastic... you know, a standard comic environment. It's pretty fun.

[Asked about Branum and his comedy, Handler responded via email, "Guy is our largest staff member, therefore he holds the most talent as well as undigested food in his body."]

Pretty fearless

JH: The things you've done on the show make you seem pretty fearless. Do you have a line that you won't cross?

GB: You know, whatever it is, it's like, "Oh, let's just do it for the show. I like being on TV so I'll do it." She's really good about respecting when people do lay down boundaries. She gets that and wants people to feel safe so that they can take risks and mostly what I have to do is be naked. I know we were shooting this thing and it involved me on our conference table in a pair of white briefs and I had to move around and one of my balls came out. It was very awkward that one day when my boss...she was standing right there and she saw one of my testicles. That was a very personal moment for both of us.

JH: Has being on television improved your social life and gotten you more dates?

GB: The interesting thing is that I used to work for a video game show and so gay guys had no idea who I was. If I went into a video game store, they didn't know who I was. This is so much better because now strangers in bars know who I am, which makes it a lot easier to start conversations.

JH: Backing up a little bit, obviously you're out as a gay man. Was that something you always knew would be a part of your work?

GB: That's always been a part of my comedy and what I talk about. I really feel like you're doing yourself a disservice if you're not letting yourself talk about your entire life. There are a fair number of guys who are socially out but closeted onstage and that strikes me as bizarre that I'm not going to be able to write jokes about a huge chunk of my life? Outness and visibility is the best thing you can do because it forces people to become more normalized to homosexuality. It's very cool when kids email and they say "I don't know how to tell my parents and it makes me feel better about it to know that you're normal." When I was writing for G4, I was dealing with shit-headed 15 year olds and this one kid was saying 'faggot' and stuff like that and I started talking to him online and I was wanted straight kids as well as gay to realize that gay people aren't the caricatures that have been presented to them. There are all sorts of different kinds of gay people. You have to be yourself. That's what comedy is all about.

JH: Fellow Chelsea Lately comedian Josh Wolf -- sexy? Yes or no?

GB: Josh Wolf...that torso is ridiculous! He's also suave and charming and the nicest guy on the planet. He's super nice and fun and flirty and his wife is totally cool with it and he's a great Dad. He's the whole package.

JH: I think when Chelsea did the shirtless Round Table, we all took more notice of him.

GB: I never really paid attention to Josh Wolf until I was upstairs watching Shirtless Round Table and I was like 'Hello, Josh Wolf!'

JH: Chelsea needs to do that more often and Josh always has to be a part of it.

GB: I'll let her know there is popular demand for that.

Gay material?

JH: And the Comedians of Chelsea Lately is a chance for each of you to get your own platform, right? How was that for you?

GB: It was really fun. We're doing it with comics that I really like, enjoy and respect. It's sort of like a little family. Everybody here has their own perspective and take on thing and different styles like Heather McDonald does a lot of impressions, Sarah Colonna is very sort of 'Um...' and has lots of horrible stories of years of having a good time and Jen Kirkman is just a bizarre ball of intensity.

On the Round Table you make jokes about pop culture and this and that but the core of this is just to get to the stuff that matters most to you personally so that's really fun.

JH: Is your comedy centered around being gay or do you hit on a little of everything?

GB: The set that is going to be on the show on Friday has a certain amount of gay in it, but actually I try to talk about the world from my perspective [but] unfortunately my perspective involves far too much falling in love with things and losing myself. It comes back to me an awful lot. I may talk about Twilight or going to the supermarket but eventually it's all going to come back to my self-loathing and boys who I think are cute.

JH: Besides your boss, who is your comic inspiration?

GB: Growing up, I always really liked Sarah Silverman, Janeane Garofalo. Joan Rivers...watching Joan Rivers on The Tonight Show? It was amazing. It was ridiculous. She was so cool and so sassy and all that. She just talked shit about Chelsea and that can turn you off but she inspired me but I'm a fan. I got email from Rosie O'Donnell and it was one of those things where I was like "Jesus, I watched you on Star Search in 1980-something!" It's amazing.

JH: What else do you aspire to do besides stand-up and being on Chelsea Lately?

GB: I'm working on a feature script right now. I'm known as a performer but I'm also a writer.

JH: And, most importantly, who are you crushing on right now?

GB: Bradley Cooper and Ryan Reynolds. And if it were legal for me to admit it, which it's not so I won't...Taylor Lautner.

JH: And what do you think of the Jonas Brothers?

GB: Joe is amazing and he's three shades darker than the rest of them so you know that amount of tanning means he's going to be 'us' one day. Joe is clearly the pick of the litter. I think it's so funny that girls look at Nick and thinks he's so sweet and cute and gay guys universally say "No!" The one with the flat-ironed hair. That one.

The Comedians of Chelsea Lately airs every Friday through September 4th at 10:30 ET/PT pm on E. Guy Branum appears in this week's episode along with comedians Jo Koy and Sarah Colonna.