My mom had a heart attack, and it came out of nowhere - she was 54. My dad had leukemia for about 3 months. He was 80 when he passed. My dad had me later in life, and so he had leukemia and was alive for about 3 months between diagnosis and passing away.
Billy Eichner
I am Jewish, but I love Christmas, as most Jews with any taste do, because Hanukkah is lame.
Amy Poehler and I once ambushed people and made them sing Christmas carols with us.
We have a whole art department on 'Billy on the Street.' We give away dioramas that we've made.
I have a vivid memory of loving Keith Hernandez, the first baseman for the '86 Mets. I grew up in Queens, so when the Mets won the World Series that year, it was a big deal.
It's one thing to hear that someone likes your show; it's a completely different thing to have them come take their time and film something with you on a sidewalk.
I like being in my New York bubble. It's the best bubble!
I did a live late-night talk show called 'Creation Nation' with friends of mine. I had a sidekick and a band, and I wrote the whole thing. And it had the form of a late-night talk show, but we did it on stage because no one was giving me a TV show at the time.
'Billy on the Street' is a very exhausting show to do, as you can imagine, but it's worth it.
When I came out to my parents, I knew that they knew. My father was like, 'Are you sure?' I literally said, 'You took me to see Barbra Streisand at Madison Square Garden.'
'Billy On The Street' has no doubt always been about the people we talk to. That being said, it thrills me that the show really has a dedicated following in the comedy world.
I do take for granted, probably, the fact that I grew up in New York City, one of the most liberal places on earth, with bleeding-heart, liberal parents who took me to see 'Rent' and Terrence McNally plays from a very young age.
Society would be a lot better if people watched Hulu's original programming and not just 'Mozart in the Jungle,' which everyone is watching, apparently.
I was like a fat, sweaty kid growing up in Queens who just was plopped down in front of 'Entertainment Tonight' by my parents.
I grew up in Queens, which is the most diverse borough: the rich and the poor and homeless and people of every sexual orientation and gender and age group. Everyone is saying we live in this bubble, and there's some truth to that. But I do not think it is healthy to all of a sudden invalidate the way we live in New York.
There are people who have huge YouTube followings - whose every post gets hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of hits. But I don't think that's having the same impact as someone who has a regular presence on television, or both.
Things pop out of people's mouths that you wouldn't expect them to say, so I've stopped trying to guess ahead of time who might be interesting to talk to.
I would not have a career without Facebook and Twitter. That's the truth.
It's been a very strange trajectory because I struggled for so many years. I mean, I was doing these videos, I was doing these live shows, I had a lot of fans in New York, the press would write about me, but I couldn't get a paying job, and so my father and I were really like a team.
I've never even been invited to the GLAAD awards, to sit in the audience. I don't necessarily care, and I'm sure they will one day, and it will be fine, but I've never been invited to anything like that.
We need to take a breath and find big ways and small ways to get active.
I just worship Madonna. As, like, a young gay kid growing up in the '80s and '90s... I was at the Blond Ambition tour with my parents vogue-ing up in the mezzanine at the Nassau Coliseum.
Our new vice president, Mike Pence, is one of the most blatantly anti-LGBT politicians in the country, and most, if not all, of Trump's cabinet is anti LGBT equality as well.
I learned early on that 'Billy on the Street' is a great lesson in 'Don't judge a book by its cover.'
I would never be a contestant on my own show. I would never speak to me, and I'd never sign the release.
Everyone's life experience is different.
I grew up watching 'Saturday Night Live.'
I do not like not having Wi-Fi in general, but certainly not on a plane. I fall apart.
Saying gay people shouldn't be the punchline is basically saying don't make people the punch line, which I think is ridiculous. The whole point of comedy is, on some level, to make fun of ourselves and put everything into an absurdist context.
I don't want to do something that's watered down. I don't want to take what I'm known for and dilute it.
Probably the most common question I get is, 'Who's your dream guest?' That's kind of annoying because there isn't one.
I always want to lead with comedy but hopefully be able to sneak my message through at the same time.
If you really think you have something good, you can't take no for an answer. You've got to get in there and ignore the people who say no.
All I wanted to do as a kid was go to the post-Oscar parties I was seeing on 'Entertainment Tonight.'
You have to have a sense of humor about all of it - the Emmys and politics and everything.
I grew up in New York, so I had a lot of access to all kinds of movies, and I would handwrite reviews of them on loose-leaf paper.
I just love Stephen Colbert. He's a genius.
I loved all awards shows growing up, but of course, the Oscars was the biggest one.
I did see one Tyler Perry movie in the theater. My friends and I went to see, I believe it was, 'Why Did I Get Married?'
All that social media hyperbole is just so fake.
I thought I was going to be like Kevin Spacey in college.
It's not enough for Hollywood to make a bunch of gay movies. That's obviously a big part of the equation, but then gay people have to show up for those movies.
If you're faking it, people will know, and it's going to turn a lot of people off.
I'm on all the apps: Tinder, Grindr, Bumble, Scruff. I have no shame about that.
I came back to New York after college like any number of struggling performers, and you just find that niche where you can have some sort of impact. And for me that turned out to be comedy.
I haven't done many commercials, and I'm very picky about it because it comes down to creative control.
Anytime you're the creative force behind something and in front of the camera - we're not complaining, but it is an avalanche of work.
I would watch the Oscars and every award show with my parents. I would make lists of who was going to win. I'd be doing Oscar predictions months ahead of time, and not only for the Oscars, for the Grammys. This is just what excited me as a kid.
Award shows are fun but completely arbitrary and absurd. And yet, I will watch every single one of them.
I can be a bit of a nervous flyer.
