EVENINGS OUT

After coming out on TV, comic's career builds

by Kaizaad Kotwal

Dayton-Long before Ellen DeGeneres became the biggest name to burst through Hollywood's closet door, other actors and comedians were already coming out for years. Jason Stuart, who will soon become the first

Jason Stuart

gay comic to appear at Wylie's Comedy Club in Dayton, came out as a gay man in 1993 on the Geraldo show.

The 30-something Stuart has had a wide ranging and gifted career. Born in the Bronx, New York, Stuart's family moved to Los Angeles, where he eventually began his stage career. He appeared in Brecht's Caucasian Chalk Circle and Ayn Rand's Night of January 16th.

Then, exactly 16 years ago in May, Stuart was convinced to try stand-up comedy at the behest of his manager, a move he had never considered.

"I never thought I was funny like that," Stuart recalls.

But Stuart is funny all right enough to have been a guest star on a recent episode of the Drew Carey Show. Stuart plays an obtrusive salesman at the Winfred Louder department store who hosts a contest between Drew and his office nemesis, Mimi. Both Carey, whom Stuart considers a long-time friend, and actress Cathy Kinney (who plays Mimi), are very supportive of Stuart and his career.

"Drew is a doll and he is so proud of and supportive of gays and of me," Stuart said. He added that he got to know Carey really well while playing the board game Risk at the sitcom star's home.

Playing Risk got the two talking about real-life risks, like the soon-to-be Hollywood scoop that Home Improvement teen heart-throb Jonathan Taylor Thomas is about to come out on the show Access Hollywood. (The National Enquirer said April 22 that the national gay and lesbian magazine Advocate is sitting on an interview with Taylor Thomas in which the 16-year-old announces he is gay, and says he wants to be a role model for other gay youth. His parents are said to be supportive, but it seems that Home Improvement star Tim Allen and Taylor Thomas' press people are desperately trying to suppress the story.)

Stuart said he very much understands the strength and courage it would take for a

teenager to come out on national television. In fact, Stuart sadly admitted that he never went to college because he was gay.

"I know that sounds really odd,” he said, "but in school I was the one always picked on and thrown around and I thought college would be the same, so I never went." Stuart admits that he wasn't wise enough then to know that it might have been different.

For years, Stuart played the straight stand-up routine, never-speaking about being gay and then, "tired of the lies, exhausted of the fear of getting caught" he finally came out.

Today, Stuart takes on all sorts of issues in his routine and a lot of his material is about being gay. Some of the subjects he tackles, from life outside the closet, include his family, coming out, the Clintons, dating, gay marriage, and he even does a gag about a Star Search singing contestant.

Speaking of gay marriage, Stuart is quick to point out that he currently is single: "No boyfriend, no daddy, no boy, no lover, no partner, no husband, and no sex buddy."

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He is quick to add, after that litany, that he "is looking for a husband,” hopefully, someone "smart, funny, creative, and sexy." But a husband isn't the only thing that Stuart is waiting for.

"I am waiting for that one acting part that will definitively change and define my career," he said.

Stuart has played many gay and straight parts. He read for Greg Kinnear's role in the Oscar winning As Good as It Gets but he observes that "it seems as though in Hollywood they want straights to play gays like in Object of My Affection and In and Out."

But Stuart is also aware that things have changed a lot and they will only continue to get better. He is extremely complimentary of DeGeneres' move to come out. "She changed everything, the door is open and we cannot go back," he added. The visibility and prominence of gays and lesbians in showbiz has been a "slow build," much like Stuart's career. Stuart feels today that he actually has “a niche as an actor" and he hopes that he can keep working.

Stuart has already acquired an impressive resume from appearances on shows such as Murder She Wrote, NYPD Blue, Walker Texas Ranger, and SeaQuest. However, he is looking for even better work with "great stories, great dialogue, brilliant directors and actors." The list of people he says he would like to work with includes "DeNiro, Denzel Washington, Whoopi Goldberg, Meryl Streep, Gena Rowlands, Stanley Kubrick, Barbra Streisand, Ron Howard, Spike Lee, Quentin Tarantino and many more."

Stuart recently appeared in the HBO film Gia with Faye Dunaway and Mercedez Ruehl and with Chevy Chase in Vegas Vacation. Later this year he will be seen playing a closeted teacher who mentors a boy who is physically abused by his father in Rick Rosenberg's Southern Man.

Perhaps, Stuart's "slow build" career is about to begin a steep incline to new heights.

But before you see Stuart's serious side in Southern Man, you can enjoy his outrageous comedy at Wylie's in Dayton. Stuart promises a roller coaster ride including his take on the movie Titanic. Stuart will perform twice cach night on May 14 and 15. For tickets and information, call 937-224-5653.

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