The first annual Columbus Comedy Festival will take place on August 14th to August 18th and will feature a ton of queer comics as part of the five-day, 150 comic lineup.
Right there in the middle of that lineup is the hilarious River Butcher, who has spent the past few years shattering barriers for trans male comedians.
Butcher might currently be a Los Angeles-based standup comic, actor and writer, but let’s be clear: he is an Ohioan through and through, hailing from the heart of Akron.
His first special, “A Different Kind of Dude,” debuted on Comedy Central’s YouTube channel and was called “a masterclass in culture war commentary” by Esquire. He’s written for a ton of incredible shows and has performed stand-up all over the globe.
The Buckeye Flame spoke with Butcher about where he finds the funny, his Akron roots and what it was like being featured in Outstanding, a new Netflix documentary on the history of queer comics. To listen, click play directly below or read our (edited) conversation beneath the audio link.
Let’s start up on the treetops. Where does River Butcher find the funny?
River Butcher: Oh, wow, where do I find the funny? I mean, anywhere I can take it these days. I feel like my comedy mostly comes from just my life and my experience of it. Like classic sort of observational comedy, specifically what it’s like to be a gender-nonconforming person in a very gender-conforming place and time.
And what’s interesting these days is that I’m not quite so gender-nonconforming from the outside. I’m actually pretty gender-conforming because I am a trans man and I’ve transitioned physically and medically. I’m going through the world in a way that I have always wanted to, so that’s a whole new experience of being ignored on a whole new level. [laughs]
Let’s do a little word association. I’m only going to say one word and you just go off on it.
Let’s do it.
Akron.
Luigi’s. That’s probably my first thing.
Akron is this city that feels like it is consistently and continuously living in its own shadow and always trying to get out of it. There has always been small businesses and artists and creative people there. But there’s also the shadow of the industry that Akron was just so built around: the rubber industry. Now that that industry is not there anymore, how do we find ourselves within and without that?
My gender experience is such a similar thing. The boundaries of gender of being a woman or being a man are strictly enforced there. You’re told your whole life as a child, “You can be anything you want.” And then I’m like, “I would like to be a boy.” And they’re like, “Well, not that though. That’s one thing you can’t be.” That sort of persistence and creativity, despite the sort of crumbling infrastructure, that’s what is needed there.
The other day I watched Outstanding, the incredible documentary on Netflix about the history of queer comics. I don’t know if you know this, but you, River Butcher, are in that documentary!
I am!
Talk to me about that experience.
It was really wild. The [comedy show featured in the documentary] was booked in 2019. I’m pals with Page Hurwitz, who is one of the producers with Wanda Sykes. They’re both incredibly lovely people, creative producers and talents of their own.
Page saw me do standup at a show back in probably 2014 and put me in an audition for Last Comic Standing, which is how I got on that show. It’s her vision in the documentary that you’re seeing.
So she booked that night of standup. And then [because of the pandemic] it didn’t happen until 2022. We shot it at Greek Theater, which is probably the largest venue that I’ve played so far. I think it’s over 3,000 seats. And it was sold out. I was on this lineup with incredible queer comedians like Trixie Mattel, Bob the Drag Queen, Billy Eichner, Sandra Bernhard, Lily Tomlin, Rosie O’Donnell, Eddie Izzard and I could keep going.
Netflix decided they were to split up the stand-up special and the documentary. That created a two-year gap between when it was shot and when it came out.
And so I didn’t see it until about two weeks ago. It was difficult for me to watch because I’m only two years into my physical and medical transition and my voice [doesn’t sound like it does now]. But I think it’s important for trans people and also cis people to understand that it’s not like, “Hey, I did this thing and now everything’s great.” It doesn’t mean I’m ashamed and I don’t want to see it. It’s just hard. I literally put my shirt over my face. People are really enjoying the documentary and I know that I will. Gender dysphoria is a powerful thing.
But that aside, it was incredible. There was so much that I didn’t know. And it’s on purpose. Queer people don’t have our full history because it has been erased by other powers. It’s such a powerful piece of film for people to see.
And we have to shout out one more Ohio connection in that film: Karen Williams, a groundbreaking comedian right here in Cleveland. It was so great to hear her name.
Totally.
I have such visceral memories of watching comics like Judy Gold on Stand-Up Spotlight on VH1 growing up.
Ken, you’re speaking my language. I always talk about Stand-Up Spotlight. When I started in comedy in like 2011, there was the movement of, “Hey, women are being treated poorly in comedy.” That was a thing for the first five years that I was doing stand-up. I saw it and experienced it.
But it also was so weird to me because I grew up on Stand-Up Spotlight, which was mostly women. So to me, stand-up comedians were women: Brett Butler and Ellen DeGeneres and Rosie O’Donnell and Judy Gold and Judy Tenuta. It was just mostly women, you know?
Is it a different experience for you doing comedy in Ohio?
I always love to come back to Ohio. It’s been a minute since I’ve been back, so I’m really glad to be coming back and I really love Columbus.
I actually just met a friend’s mom for the first time and she was born and raised in Columbus. My friend was like, [River’s] from Akron.” And her face lit up! I meet so many people from Ohio out here in California, and it just really is such a connection. We understand each other.
We always try to end on a piece of advice for those LGBTQ+ Ohioans who are looking to find a bigger audience. What’s that patented River Butcher advice that you would give to those who want to find their funny and project it out there to the world?
Find your truth. Go where it’s warm. Be with the people who like, love and support you. And the people who don’t, you don’t have to stick around. And you also never know what’s going to happen. 🔥
IGNITE ACTION
- The first annual Columbus Comedy Festival will take place on August 14th to August 18th and has a huge LGBTQ+ lineup. For tickets, click here.
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