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The Hollywood Reporter identifies Murray Hill as a “nightlife legend” and “queer icon,” and rightly so. The New York Times calls the breakout player of HBO’s Somebody Somewhere and Hulu’s Life & Beth and Drag Me to Dinner an “almost famous drag king” and an “ascendant character actor”—correct on both counts.
Yet there’s a far easier way to size up the relentlessly upbeat comic and dapper New Yorker who calls himself “Mr. Showbiz” and “the hardest-working middle-aged man in show business.” Simply put, Murray Hill is Vegas, from his pencil mustache to his snazzy suits. He claims such old-school Vegas legends as Don Rickles, Shecky Greene and Totie Fields as influences—“all those old-school comics that started off in the lounge with bands and orchestras behind them, and then went to the headlining rooms,” he says.
What that means is that when Hill performs at the Plaza on February 24, it’ll feel like Vegas is reclaiming him. And at the same time, it’ll feel like he’s claiming Vegas right back. He’ll perform a few songs with Jordan Katz & The Stiff Gimlets, welcome a guest appearance from his friend Melody Sweets, and he’ll Vegas up the place real good.
I can’t wait to catch your act. And at the Plaza, where Miss Behave’s Mavericks do their thing, no less. A real, old-school Vegas showroom.
That’s right! I’ve done a million appearances in Vegas over probably the last 15 years or so—hosted game shows, did the Viva Las Vegas Burlesque Showcase, did NoMad with Brian Newman and Angie [Pontani], did shows with Dita [Von Teese] and Melody Sweets. This is the first time I’m going to do my full comedy show, with a band, at the Plaza—which is a throwback, too. It’s a real throwback show, but it’s not an impersonation.
An homage, more like?
It’s an homage, but it’s also in my bones. I must have been a Vegas lounge comedian in a previous life, because I don’t know why anybody would do this. … You know, this is camp. This is humor that nobody does anymore, but I do it.
Not since Don Rickles left us.
I got to meet him! I got to see him live. I would say Don Rickles and Joan Rivers are the people that I’ve seen live the most that I’ve literally studied—the format, the audience, the banter, all that stuff. They had a very simple structure to their show, and they never, never felt scripted. That’s what I love about Don and Shecky. They basically did the same act their entire career, but it always felt new and fresh and had a kinetic energy, because you never knew what the hell they were gonna say or what was gonna happen.
And like those giants, you’ve now done a good amount of TV. How does that change things for you?
As a comedian, you always want this thing called “the TV bump.” The old greats like Johnny Carson used to talk about this. Sometimes, because we’ve been on TV, there’s some validation in people’s minds, right? Now that I’ve been in a bunch of shows and movies and stuff, I don’t necessarily have to start the first 15 minutes of the show trying to convince people we’re going to have a good time and that I’m funny and everything’s fine. I’ll come in blazing, and then the audience is blazing, too.
You’ve said, “If you don’t see yourself represented, then go out and represent yourself.” What’s your advice for doing that as boldly as you have, in an era where even the idea of representation is under attack?
I am going to continue to be out there to take up space and to be a positive light, even to the haters. People are being fed fear and hatred, and they have no idea what’s what. The real issue is, because they don’t know trans people. They don’t sit with them. They’re not in their families. They’re so removed from an actual person that has a heart, has feelings, is somebody’s kid, somebody’s neighbor, somebody’s parent. I’m going to continue, through my act and my persona, to show the humanity of not just trans people but of queer people, of all people. That’s something that my show, and even [the characters] I play on TV have; they’re about heart and humanity and laughter. If you have those things happening, it’s really hard to hate at the same time.
That’s why I’m going on the road. That’s why I’m in these mainstream shows. That’s why I wear that suit and I go into spaces that have no idea what I’m doing, who I am, that discriminate against me. I’m just like, “I’m gonna come here and I’m gonna be me, and you’re gonna see that there’s nothing to be afraid of.”
MAVERICKS PRESENTS: MURRAY HILL AS HIMSELF February 24, 8 p.m., $45-$75. Plaza Showroom, feverup.com.
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English (US) ·