Pride Month: Bruce Vilanch

For Pride Month, I’ll be sharing pop culture works like literature, film, television, and music to celebrate queer culture.

I can’t remember when I first saw Bruce Vilanch or became aware of him. He’s such a distinct and unique figure in pop culture, particularly queer pop culture, that he seems pretty ubiquitous. Funny, gregarious, and very smart, Bruce Vilanch is the brains behind award shows, concerts, and talk shows. Talents like Billy Crystal, Whoopi Goldberg, Robin Williams, and especially Bette Midler owe a huge debt to the wonderful Vilanch who’s a great comedy scribe.

Part of Vilanch’s legend is his look. He strikes quite a figure. The glasses. The mop of blond hair. The t-shirts. I love the t-shirts. My favourite t-shirts that Vilanch wore include such pithy bon mots like “Abs are great, but have you tried donuts?” or “Available for weekends” and I’ll always chuckle when I remember “I’m lost, please take me home with you.” The t-shirts were an integral part of the joke because they reflected the quippy nature of Vilanch’s comedy. It’s not only witty and sharp, but topical and of the moment. But because he’s been popular for so long and continues to charm us, little of his stuff dates.

To get the best of Bruce Vilanch, viewers need to watch the hilarious – and surprisingly touching – 1999 documentary, Get Bruce, directed by Andrew J. Kuehn. The film tells of Vilanch’s invaluable place in Hollywood as a comedy bard for seeming every funny man or funny girl. It follows the writer as he torpedoes throughout Tinseltown, making people like Paul Reiser or Raquel Welch funnier. It’s a warm and affectionate look at the guy, not only for his comedy but for his AIDS activist. The other thing to recommend is his collection of essays, Bruce!: My Adventures in the Skin Trade and Other Essays.

Contemporary audiences – young’uns – will remember Vilanch as the hilariously beary guest judge on RuPaul’s Drag Race three times most notably on sixth season, when he and darling comedienne Jaime Pressly judged a stand-up show. He’s hilarious on the show.

The other great thing about the guy is he’s a veritable encyclopaedia of 20th century Amerian culture. Because he’s worked on every show imaginable – he jokes that he’s worked with everyone from “ABBA to Zadora” – he has met and collaborated with some luminaries and has been part of enduring bits of queer Americana. The disco-fied cheesy variety show of the 1970s was blessed with the likes of Bruce Vilanch who wrote lines for Donny and Marie Osmond and the Brady Bunch. He penned the camp classic Paul Lynde Halloween Special as well as the deliciously atrocious Star Wars Holiday Special. In the 1980s, he goosed up scripts for Dolly Parton’s variety show and helped Bette Midler expand on her Divine Miss M character which she birthed at the Continental Baths (how appropriate). Arguably, his biggest, most high-profile gigs was writing for the Oscars, joining Billy Crystal and Whoopi Goldberg to create memorable water cooler moments.

Bruce Vilanch is a true original.