The Big Gay Sketch Show’s second season now on DVD

Televised sketch comedy has relied on recurring characters from the Coneheads on “Saturday Night Live” to Vicky Pollard on the BBC’s “Little Britain.”

The lone gay sketch show, aptly titled “The Big Gay Sketch Show,” is no different. The Logo series recently ended its second season with a cliffhanger, where one recurring character will be killed off during the show’s hiatus.

Will it be loudmouth Broadway legend Elaine Stritch (Nicole Paone); LaTayna (Erica Ash), the bossy Chicago-style yoga instructor; Svetlana (Stephen Guarino), the ex-KGB dancer who slays her competition; Fitzwilliam (Kate McKinnon), the little British boy who wants a “fagina” of his very own; or Waffles (Jonny McGovern), the overweight lover with a voice like Barry White with a chicken bone caught in his throat?

McGovern said the only way to find out is to go out and buy seasons one and two, now available on DVD.

The comedy series, which debuted on April 24, 2007, had a bit of a shaky first season with hit and miss sketches. But Rosie O’Donnell believed in the show enough to lend her name as executive producer, and appeared at the end of each of the second season episodes with Cher offspring Chastity Bono; the duo served up Statler and Waldorf-like insults ala “The Muppet Show.”

TV show parodies were highlights of season one, where the Logo series gave TV Land staples gay twists, like “The Facts of Life,” where a man in drag as Mrs. Garrett forces Blair and Jo to share a bed, allowing the two to explore their love-hate relationship. McGovern does a dead-on Archie Bunker in an “All in the Family” parody where the whole family is gay and Archie is prejudiced against the straights.

“It’s a really rushed study job,” McGovern said of tackling a character. He also does Severus Snape in a “Harry Potter” bit and Perez Hilton, who drinks a bucket of gravy through a straw as he blogs. Hilton was a gossip hound for McGovern’s podcast before he became infamous for his celebrity bashing.

“He dishes it out; he certainly can take it for once,” McGovern said. “He’s wiping his butt with money and flossing with diamonds, so he could care less what we do about him.”
Getting a sketch past a table read is tough, McGovern said, so coming up with a funny voice at the outset can help get a spot on the air. The actor and comedian, best known for his “Gay Pimp” persona, can be considered the Phil Hartman of the “Big Gay” show, as he is able to transform from a stuffy British father to a scary tranny hooker named Chocolate Pudding seamlessly from sketch to sketch.

“When I used to do Chocolate Pudding in my one-man show, I used to put on one high heel and a fake Chanel bag and smear some lipstick on with whatever else I was wearing,” he said. “I’m a very, very ugly woman.”

He shared the origin of the Waffles character, which has McGovern in a fatty suit and a bowl cut wig, providing that deep white Barry White-style sound.

“I was promoting an event where Jennifer Hudson was singing ……. The show was thrown together pretty quickly and there was this section where all these dancers came out with Jennifer. They were wearing these tiny bikinis and they were all pretty cute. It seemed like some had come pretty last minute and one was a very curvaceous, you could say, gentleman. He had a man boob thing going on. He was supposed to be in the back but he ended up doing a high kick line in this tiny silver bikini right next to Jennifer Hudson. You could hear a pin drop with all us fags going, ‘He is so big! What is he doing up there?’

We started talking about it on the podcast. ‘I look good. I’m a big boy. You love my titties.’ It all came from that.”

Aside from the uncensored versions of the “Big Gay Sketch Show” episodes, each DVD set features interviews with the cast and deleted and extended scenes. One of the funniest extras comes on the season two set, a fake episode, where the head of programming for Logo decides to increase viewership by changing it to the “Big Straight Sketch Show” with disastrous results.

“I’m gangry — gay plus angry,” McGovern says during the bit. He also shares his summer plans, which include doing another one man show: “Harriet Tubman: Run, Bitch, Run.”

You can e-mail Corey at frozo85@hotmail.com.