Queer Eye celebrity Jonathan Van Ness is kick-stepping right into 2025 with their first-ever funny unique, Enjoyable & & Slutty, premiering Jan. 23 on the streaming system Veeps. For the truth star-turned-comedian, the turning point really feels deeply individual.
” I have actually been stressed with funny considering that I inadvertently shoplifted Margaret Cho’s [comedy special] Well-known C.H.O. from Smash hit when I was 14,” Van Ness, that utilizes they/them pronouns, informed Yahoo Enjoyment. “Stand-up funny is where I really feel one of the most myself– it’s raw, unfiltered and it’s simply me and a microphone.”
Years later on, Cho turned into one of the customers of the hairstylist in Los Angeles and provided the best press to go after funny. “She was the one that informed me I was expected to be a comic, and she was the one that obtained me to rise for my very first time at an open mic evening,” they stated.
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Van Ness debts Cho, together with the comics Lisa Lampanelli and Wanda Sykes, as critical numbers that aided them discover self-confidence as a young queer child maturing in Quincy, Ill.
Although Van Ness is familiar with the phase– having actually invested years on sold-out funny trips like Roadway to Beijing, Fictional Living Space Olympian and Jonathan Van Ness and Buddies, which sold out Radio City Songs Hall in 2019– this unique really feels unique.
In Enjoyable & & Slutty, Van Ness takes target markets on a roller-coaster of susceptability and wit, checking out connection society in the days of MapQuest, their sex-related awakening, healing from meth dependency and, inevitably, their trip towards self-discovery and recovery.
” I wished to treat it like a grown-up sex-ed course,” they stated of the unique, which blends wit with lessons on discovering one’s sex-related self-confidence. For Van Ness, transforming difficulties right into punchlines has actually been absolutely nothing except cleansing.
” Stand-up is teasing points that would certainly or else make you weep,” they clarified. “It’s the method where I discover pleasure in the unhappiness. I discover life-affirming magic also in truly unfortunate injury. And I believe that’s queer magic. It’s queer pleasure. I believe that’s just how we do it.”
Recovering words ‘slutty’ and discovering pleasure
For Van Ness, the title “enjoyable and slutty” isn’t almost sex– it has to do with accepting things that bring unchecked joy.
” Slutty is anything that brings you unchecked pleasure,” they clarified. For them, that pleasure originates from a range of unforeseen areas.
” I’m truly slutty for horticulture, like, I simply can not obtain sufficient of a pumpkin, I can not obtain sufficient of a watermelon, and, so unironically, I enjoy expanding eggplants,” they quipped. “I’m likewise such a skin care slut. And tv sensible, I’m truly slutty for programs like Poor Siblings, Alone and An Attractive Mind So great!”
Although Enjoyable & & Slutty(* )commemorates the large meaning of being “slutty,” below the laughs exists a much deeper tale– a look for pleasure and belonging that connections back to Van Ness’s childhood years.” For the initial 17 years of my life, I really felt truly uneasy in my skin, and I was type of required to find out just how to amuse myself, and just how to picture a far better globe,” they stated.
Van Ness held absolutely nothing back onstage while recording the unique in Austin, Texas. (Veeps)

In their very early 20s, Van Ness transformed to methamphetamine as a coping system, a trip they take another look at in the unique with sincerity and giggling.
” Despite the fact that points that have actually been heartbreaking and traumatizing really did not go the manner in which I desired them to go, I’m still so ecstatic that I’m below which I reach find out and truly live,” they stated. “When you have actually invested a lot of your developmental years not having the ability to see a future on your own, when you are really living the future on your own. … I’m mosting likely to discover pleasure.”
Van Ness’s capacity to transform discomfort right into giggling is main to
Enjoyable & & Slutty, where they share raw and individual tales concerning dependency, rehabilitation and browsing life as a nonbinary somebody.” Whatever has to do with viewpoint,” they clarified. “Also the hardest points in my life have actually formed that I am, and I’m happy for that.”
After putting on a Christian Siriano dress at their Golden Globes red-carpet holding launching, Van Ness was
, consisting of targeted online, that slammed their position on gender-affirming treatment the day after the Globes.by the author J.K. Rowling” I have actually been putting on wear public for many years, and it still shocks me when it shocks individuals,” Van Ness stated of the objection. “Style has to do with self-expression– it’s for you, except recognition from others.”
They included, “Femininity isn’t concerning a gown. Transness isn’t concerning clothing. It has to do with just how you really feel.”
Queer Eye
link For Van Ness, belonging to
Queer Eye has actually provided the self-confidence to go after stand-up with full blast. They attributed their most recent castmate, Jeremiah Brent, with bringing a fresh feeling of power and concern to the team dynamic.” He is so pleasant,” they shared. “The initial point that Jeremiah did was provide me this pink quartz crystal, and he resembled, ‘I desire you to understand that I’m a secure area for you. You can involve me whenever you require anything.'”
Brent’s compassion came with a crucial time for Van Ness, that defined being “extensively shocked” by individual difficulties over the previous year. “I truly do not understand if I might have sustained what I sustained without his relationship beyond,” they stated.
Currently streaming its 9th period on Netflix,
Queer Eye remains to influence target markets with its heartfelt makeovers. It coincides power that gas Enjoyable & & Slutty, which Van Ness calls component of their goal to make individuals really feel seen, commemorated and equipped– also throughout life’s darkest minutes.” There’s this proverb: ‘You can not obtain blood from a turnip.’ Well, not me, honey,” Van Ness joked. “If there’s any type of cheerful blood because turnip, I’m gon na discover it.”