The curtains rose at Orpheum Theater, revealing Jonathan Van Ness in a black t-shirt unitard and rainbow-striped tights on a rectangular mat.
He started his tumbling act around 8:10 p.m. Friday night. Following his floor routine, Van Ness said, “I’ve been all up in that gym,” pulling his tights up to his chest.
As the music played, he strutted around the room while somersaulting and pointing his toes during his spins in true gymnast form.
After his initial appearance, Van Ness introduced his opener and exited the stage, vanishing through the thick fog machine cloud on stage. Shortly after, Van Ness was back on stage in a navy dress-sweater combo and white shiny booties. He clearly knows how to make a memorable entrance.
Van Ness is a writer, hairdresser, podcaster and one-fifth of the Fab Five appearing on the popular Netflix show, “Queer Eye.” His world tour, “Road to Beijing,” is a stand up comedy act about his love of figure skating and gymnastics. Boston was Van Ness’s third city, having previously performed two sold-out shows in Minneapolis and Detroit.
Van Ness recently shared that he is HIV+ and dove deep into his experiences with addiction and sexual abuse story in his memoir “Over the Top,” which shows a much rawer side of him than what appears on Netflix. However, he didn’t dive deep into those topics that night, choosing to entertain his audience with stunts and jokes.
Van Ness declared the theater a shame-free zone and began with an anecdote about 1996 Olympic Gold Medal Gymnast Kerri Strug, launching into his one of many references to gymnastics or figure skating. Despite my knowing little to nothing about either sport, every joke Van Ness made was hilarious.
“And this fucking b—h [Kerri Strug] sticks it on one foot,” he said.
The smallest things he said or did sent the crowd into fits of laughter. During his time in beauty school, Van Ness said, he adopted three rules.
“One, don’t die. Two, don’t break her hair off with that aggressive highlight and three, you never have to borrow money from your parents again,” Van Ness said.
On screen, Van Ness’s job is to teach makeover nominees how to use grooming essentials. On stage, Van Ness filled in the audience on butthole exfoliant use. Many of the segments of his stand up involved a lot of physical movements, like acting out his shower routine for the audience where his products speak to him.
“Do I have the Thornberry disease where instead of animals, products speak to me?” Van Ness said of his struggle.
This show is not for the faint heart. Van Ness sometimes brought in subjects from his personal life, but in a tasteful way. He was never graphic with his descriptions, but he did share some explicit advice.
“When the going gets tough, suck some d–k,” he said.
The delivery of Van Ness’s jokes made the whole show, but so did his on-stage outfit change. His new ensemble featured a pink and white dress with a long slit up his right leg. To complete the look, he wore rainbow rhinestone booties.
Van Ness’s self-confidence shone through. It was enjoyable seeing someone so comfortable being themself. A lot of the show consisted of the audience interacting with Van Ness, which made the small sold-out environment feel very home-like. Van Ness had audience members stand up and show off their clothes or comment on their hair. He acknowledged almost every fan that shouted out at him and his constant interaction with the audience made the show engaging.
My favorite part of the show is when Van Ness provided a lecture about U.S. history as a rollerblading competition. He compared the twizzle, a dizzying figure skating move, to the current presidential election.
“I want to be the America that puts their twizzle at the end,” Van Ness said.
The show made me smile so wide my mouth hurt by 9:30 p.m. Van Ness’s standup did not disappoint, leaving the audience giggling as they filed out of the theater. It was a performance that would make anyone want to say, “Yaaas Queen.”
