BILLY EICHNER Planned Family Trips Around Madonna

Summary

Family Trips with the Meyers Brothers

Episode: Billy Eichner Planned Family Trips Around Madonna

Released: May 19, 2026
Hosts: Seth Meyers & Josh Meyers
Guest: Billy Eichner

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Main Theme & Purpose

In this episode, Seth and Josh Meyers invite actor, comedian, and writer Billy Eichner to reminisce about his childhood, his family's approach to “trips”—whether to Broadway shows or cross-country vacations—and the unforgettable ways his parents supported his passions. The conversation explores the power of supportive parenting, cultural obsessions (especially with Madonna and Broadway), and the creation of formative family memories, mixing laugh-out-loud moments with heartfelt reflections—true to Billy’s singular energy and the show's warm, comedic tone.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Billy’s Childhood & Parental Support

• Billy acknowledges a “happy, loving, non-traumatic childhood” — a rarity in showbiz memoirs.
• He describes both parents as extraordinarily supportive, especially of his creative and cultural interests.
• Billy’s father: A Bronx native, older parent, deeply proud despite (or because of) his son’s flamboyant stage persona.
  • [24:40] Billy: “He would walk around the audience with my baby picture and say, ‘That’s Billy. I’m the father.’... Most parents would have run in the other direction.”
• Family outings revolved around Billy’s interests—trips structured around theater, movies, and later, whatever obsession was top of mind (see: Madonna).

2. Growing Up in NYC: Trips to Broadway

• Broadway was “magical” for young Billy: “It completely changed my life.” ([34:49])
• First show: Starlight Express—Billy orchestrated an elaborate “surprise,” demanding his parents follow explicit directions so he could feel the thrill authentically.
  • [36:19] — Billy: “I left my parents explicit instructions on how and when to surprise me with tickets... And they did.”
• Going to shows was the family’s main “trip” experience: Money was tight, so discount tickets and pizza at Sbarro were standard, while entertainment was prioritized over fancy meals.

3. A Singular “Big” Family Vacation—and Madonna’s Orbit

• Annual real “trip”: Flying to Miami to visit grandparents, then Disney World.
• One expanded vacation: Miami → LA → San Francisco → Vegas—all orchestrated to line up with Billy’s pop culture obsessions.
• Madonna at the 1992 or 1993 MTV VMAs: Upon learning their San Francisco hotel had no MTV, Billy melted down—and his parents rented a by-the-hour, red-light district motel room so he wouldn’t miss Madonna’s performance.
  • [51:52] Billy: “They found a motel… mainly used by sex workers… but they had MTV. And they rented us this motel room… so that I could watch Madonna open the VMAs.”
  • “Most parents would say, ‘Shut the fuck up, you’re a spoiled brat…’ But that's not what Jay and Debbie Eichner did.”

4. Creative Childhood—Formative Experiences

• Headshots and ambitions: His much-older half-brother, a photographer, supported his early dreams of acting, regularly updating his headshots as a tween.
• Organizing life as performance/art: Same detail-oriented, passionate energy as an adult (Billy on the Street, bar mitzvah planning) was present in childhood.

5. Disney World and Hugging Goofy

• Family Disney trips: Centerpiece of the Miami visits; Billy obsessed over hugging Goofy (“Goofy-forward”).
  • [60:25] Billy: “My plan was to hug Goofy... Goofy seemed gay. I can’t articulate it, but I could see Goofy at a leather bar.”
• Family routines: Grandparent visits involved mall outings and the local tourist brochure attractions (Parrot Jungle, Monkey Jungle, mini golf).

6. The Meaning of Family Experiences

• The conversation explores how trips, whether across town or across the country, build family bonds and lasting memories—sometimes regardless of what actually happens at the destination.
  • [39:28] Billy: “The act of going… what happens on your way there, sitting with the playbill during intermission—that’s more meaningful sometimes than the show.”
• Both Seth and Billy reflect on being “because of their parents” successful—crediting their upbringing, not despite it.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

On Parental Support:

"There are really hilarious, heartwarming stories in the book about them not even knowing how to support me, but really wanting to."
— Billy Eichner [28:40]

On Orchestrating Trips for Maximum Surprise:

“I left my parents explicit instructions on how and when to surprise me with tickets to Starlight Express… I wanted to orchestrate every element of the surprise.”
— Billy Eichner [36:19]

On the Madonna/VMAs Motel Saga:

“My mother yelled at me, ‘Sit on the bed, but don’t touch the sheets!’ … But they had MTV. We watched Madonna, then went back to the Aston Pickwick.”
— Billy Eichner [52:20]

On Being a “Goofy-Forward” Disney Kid:

“Goofy seemed gay… I could see Goofy at a leather bar! He’s so tall, kind of awkward—I could feel Goofy could be in the drama club.”
— Billy Eichner [61:31]

On His Parents’ Method:

“Their default mode was always to try to make me feel happy and satisfied, you know, so that’s nice.”
— Billy Eichner [54:55]

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Important Segment Timestamps

• (14:27) — Billy joins, immediate banter about Northwestern/writing his memoir
• (17:12) — Discussing writing about his childhood: “this business will drive you insane. Childhood was great.”
• (19:24) — On writing memoir without living parents as fact checkers—reflecting “on your own”
• (20:19) — Early days of Billy on the Street, father’s support
• (34:49) — First Broadway show / Starlight Express experience
• (43:05) — Recurring adventures: pizza at Sbarro, parking in “dangerous” Hell’s Kitchen
• (47:50) — Only big trip: Miami → LA → SF–Trip planned around Madonna and the VMAs motel story
• (59:05) — Miami and Disney— plans to hug Goofy
• (63:02) — Grandparents’ house—Parrot Jungle, Aventura mall, mini golf
• (67:42) — Speed round: dream vacations, means of transportation, “Would never go to the Grand Canyon—‘No, and I refuse.’” ([70:47])

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Speed Round Highlight

• Ideal vacation: “Adventurous, probably.”
• Favorite transportation: “A boat. For fun, not to get somewhere.” [67:59]
• Fictional family for a trip: “Golden Girls.” [68:13]
• Dream destination: “Japan.” [69:11]
• Queens pitch: “One of the most diverse places on earth… a perfect place to grow up, exposed to so much.” [69:39]
• Grand Canyon: “No. And I refuse.” [70:47]

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Tone & Atmosphere

The episode is warm, funny, and affectionate, blending Billy’s earnestness about his family with his signature sharp wit and pop culture obsession. The Meyers brothers deftly balance nostalgia with genuine curiosity, constructing an episode that feels like a love letter to “because of” families everywhere.

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Essential Takeaways

• Billy Eichner’s creative life was deeply shaped by the acceptance and advocacy of his supportive, theater-and-pop-obsessed parents.
• Trips—whether to the city to see a show, across the country, or navigating through a sex motel just to see Madonna on TV—were less about the destination, more about being seen, understood, and cared for as an expressive kid.
• Family rituals, even seemingly ordinary ones, become transformative in hindsight, building the foundation for Billy’s career and happiness.
• Parenting insight: Sometimes, the right move is to rent a sketchy motel room so your kid doesn’t miss the VMAs.

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For listeners seeking a blend of heart and hilarity—and for anyone who’s ever orchestrated their own “surprise”—this episode is quintessential Family Trips: witty, revealing, and bite-your-lip sweet.

Transcript

[Billy Eichner]

All new drinks are now at McDonald's

[Seth]

with refreshers like the Strawberry Watermelon Refresher and the Mango Pineapple Refresher with popping Boba. To crafted sodas like the Sprite Berry Blast with berry flavors and cold foam.

[Billy Eichner]

Who knew ice cold drinks could be so fire? Try them all now at McDonald's. Refreshers contain caffeine. Copyright 2026, the Coca Cola Company. Sprite is a registered trademark of the

[Seth]

Coca Cola Company East Coast Poshe.

[Posh]

It's coming.

[Seth]

It's coming. There's a real buzz. There's a real bus over here in the eastern time zone. We're very excited about it. I'm gonna see you. I can't wait to see you. But I will not see you as much as our other friends because you're coming out here for something that does not interest me. It's a golf weekend.

[Posh]

There's gonna be more than just golf. But it is gonna be golf.

[Seth]

That's. I'm sorry, I take it back. Take that back, because you. The word you threw out to the group of friends is like, this is a golf weekend.

[Posh]

Yeah. But at some point, the sun goes down.

[Seth]

Sure.

[Posh]

And then you stop golfing.

[Seth]

But it was every but so. All right. So for those listening, every minute the sun's up, they'll be golfing.

[Posh]

Maybe. We'll see.

[Billy Eichner]

Yeah.

[Seth]

I mean, you guys, the group that's going. Although not. I mean, there's some surprises amongst our group of friends who are going. But the. The plan. Do you think there'll be days? What's the most holes you think you'll play on a given day?

[Posh]

I don't know if we'll get it done with this group, but I have played with these guys before where they will play 50 holes in a day.

[Seth]

Yeah.

[Posh]

Which is not even a number of holes that make sense if you're playing rounds of golf. I have played from the earliest you can possibly tee off until you can't see anymore.

[Seth]

Yeah. Yeah. So I have a question. It's a trivia question about me. Do you think I'd rather play 50 holes of golf or just have one hole in my head?

[Posh]

That's fair. Yeah.

[Seth]

Yeah. But it's. Man, it's a good group.

[Posh]

Yeah, it is a good group.

[Seth]

It's a. It's a good. It's a good, good, good group of homies.

[Posh]

Yeah.

[Seth]

There's a couple.

[Posh]

A couple that have some work conflicts that have had to be late, cancels. Which is. Which is a bummer. But I get it.

[Seth]

Yeah.

[Posh]

We do so many of these trips that if sometimes your life gets in the way. I understand.

[Seth]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. But it's a good group. I'm very excited. Yeah. I. I think I'm hopefully gonna see you Friday night.

[Posh]

Oh, great.

[Seth]

Perfect.

[Posh]

Yeah.

[Seth]

And just really looking forward to it. I was on the road this past weekend. Oh, that's right.

[Posh]

You were in Denver and Albuquerque.

[Seth]

Denver and Albuquerque. And I had an interesting revelation that struck me as I drove into New Mexico, which I'd like to like to speak about. First went to Denver, me and Brooks Whelan, two really fun shows in Denver. If any trippers are listening, who are there. Thank you so much. Absolute blast. Brooks and I made the decision. Hour and a half flight from Denver to Albuquerque. Or we just rent a car, we drive six hours through what we assumed and we're correct was a beautiful drive. Sure. So that's what we did. And, you know, stayed out of the airport. Great American roads. And then, you know, I. My wife's from Albuquerque. I go to Albuquerque a lot. And when I go to Albuquerque, you know, it's not my hometown. It's her hometown. And she loves it very much, Very proud of it. There's a lot to love about it. There's a lot to be proud about, but it doesn't belong to me. Until Poshi, she wasn't there.

[Posh]

Yeah. Then you get to go.

[Seth]

Now I'm. Now I'm coming in with Brooks and I'm like, dude, you're going to love it. We're going to go. And so all of a sudden, I turned into Alexi. I'm like, we're going to go to the shed. It's like the best enchiladas you've ever had. Oh, see that mountain over there? That's called the Sandia Mountain. That's doesn't mean watermelon. Yeah.

[Posh]

You can take a tram up there.

[Seth]

Yeah. And so it was very nice to feel an amount of. I don't know, it felt like home, which was a very sweet feeling. It was nice to. And also, you know, our in laws, my in laws met me for lunch and that was great because Tom, my father in law, immediately started telling stories and Brooks was like, oh, man, you're exactly like Seth described.

[Posh]

Yeah, no, of course.

[Seth]

Yeah. We did a show. So we did a casino in Albuquerque, and it was lovely. Now, the thing about casinos, they're like big rooms built a little bit more for music than comedy. Okay. They're perfectly fine rooms for comedy. But I went for a sound check because I Very much. I think it's very important to, like, see a room before you do the room. You know, microphone check, it, bring the monitors down. I take it all very seriously. They appreciate that I'm there early. You know, just helps them put out any fires ahead of time. Everything goes super smooth with the sound check. Then I walk out on stage, and there is a Mr. On the side of the stage, like, shooting out mist behind me. That, I guess, is a lighting effect that the light is going through the mist.

[Posh]

Yeah.

[Seth]

And this much like.

[Posh]

But it's more smoke than it is, like, watery mist. It's not.

[Seth]

To cool you off. Okay, yes, but. Right, correct. But it. This is the noise it's making. Now, Pashi, you know me. And the same way I feel like you would feel. I am so mad at the sound of this mistress. I am so mad.

[Posh]

But I bet you masked it pretty well.

[Seth]

Well, I have to, right? Because the audience can't see that I'm mad. So I actually genuinely am masking it as well as I can, while at the same time, internally, I cannot believe I'm masking it. I'm so mad that even though I'm trying, I'm like, they all know I'm mad. I don't know what I'm gonna do. But also. And I was right. Cause I asked people afterwards, I'm like, they can't hear the Mister. Only I can hear the Mister. Right. Like, the sound at this place. And that was very true.

[Posh]

They couldn't hear it.

[Seth]

They couldn't hear the Mister. But it was so distracting. And so I'm like, this is so. I'm also. I'm doing comedy, you know, and fortunately, you know, look, you know, part of doing standup is, you know, the act. But it goes better if you're, like, actually present in the act. But I feel like for the first 10 minutes, I'm doing, like, autopilot right on my act. While I'm having this conversation in my head, I'm like, they can't hear the Mister. Just get over it. Try to work through the Mister. And then I'm like, I can't work through the Mister. All I'm doing is thinking about the Mister. Because literally, I would tell a joke, everybody would laugh, and then I'd. And, like, before I'm ready to start doing my next line, I'd hear, all right,

[Billy Eichner]

so.

[Seth]

So at 10 minutes in, and again, I'm like, say it like you're. Say it like it's fun. Say it like it's fun. So 10 minutes in, I'm like, I'm so sorry. There's something on over here. Can we turn that off? And, like, it was one of the most amazing things. Cause they went off like this. It was like. I couldn't believe it. I thought somebody was going to have to come out, unplug it, you know? And instead it was like, whoever heard it, they're like, oh, I'll just hit the myster button. And it was, like, immediately off.

[Posh]

Yeah.

[Seth]

And it was. And I think everybody was like, oh, yeah. No, it was great. It was. I. We didn't hear it. And then it was. It seemed fine. And so I was so relieved. Brooks did say. And Brooks, by the way, is a giant exaggerator. But he said that when the show was over, a lady rolled the mister by him and said, first guy who ever complained. I don't think that happened.

[Posh]

I would have thought you would have taken your microphone over to the mister and mic'd the mister for a moment to be like, just so you know,

[Seth]

this is what I'm hearing 100% better than the way I did it. Yeah. Because I will say, when they turned it off, I then explained to the audience that There was a Mr. And I. Cause they could see when it. Cause when they turned it off, they watched the mist dissipate.

[Posh]

Right.

[Seth]

So I think they at least understood, oh, that must have been making noise. And I did say I was worried that because you guys saw mistake, there would be an expectation that I was going to do some magic. And then. You don't have any magic. I. Then I was a little snarky, though, posh, because I was like, you know, when you do one of these shows, you come out and you do a sound check, because that way you don't surprise anybody with the way your show sounds. But I guess the venue wanted to do a sound surprise.

[Posh]

And then did your lights then just go off?

[Seth]

Yeah, then they turned off the lights and all the sound. I have one more part of my adventure, which is, again, this is like Alexi Superpower and full display. I had an inlay. I got dental work last week. They put in a temporary inlay between my back two teeth. I went back in today. We're recording this on a Tuesday to get the final.

[Posh]

Is that, like, to have, like, a diamond put in a tooth? Like.

[Seth]

Yeah, it's like a cool little diamond. It's got the Family Trips logo. I thought we were both getting this. So I'm, like, doing. And then, like, you're floss. You're supposed to you know, floss with one of you. You can't do normal flossing when you have temporary lay in. But like, I'm doing my little, you know, for cuz, like three days after you find out you have a cavity, you're like, I'm going to be a floss guy now. So who's in that window? And I pop the inlay. Pops out. Oh, boy. Now I'm in Denver. I've got a six hour drive to Albuquerque. And like, it doesn't hurt unless you, like, breathe in air, in which case you have to take a knee with pain. And so like, I'm breathing through my nose or like drinking, like, gentle side breaths. And I'm like, I can manage this, but, like, what am I going to do when I have to, like, do stand up? Like, I don't. You know, this is before I even knew about the Mr. Part of how bad my night was going to be. So I call Lexi Saturday morning before I drive to Albuquerque. And I'm like, yes, inlay popped out. And I called my dentist. My dentist, like, can you put it back in? I'm like, no, I tried. And then he's like, maybe I'll see if I can find you a dentist. New Mexico. So I call Alexi and she's like, avery, Remember Avery? Yeah. So this is her cousin. Alexi's cousin's son married a dentist's daughter.

[Posh]

Amazing.

[Seth]

Who I've met. I met this wonderful guy, Dr. Sanchez, and I'd met him at like, a, you know, holiday party the year before. And so I get his number and I call him on the drive and I explain the situation. He's like, all right, give me your eta. I'll just unlock my dental office. And so it was the smoothest, like, dental solution any of you have ever had. Unless you're like, married to a dentist. I pulled in, got out of my car. He let me in. He, like, squirted a little cleaner in it, popped it in, and I was on. It was like five minutes. Wow. And it was like on the way to the venue. I couldn't believe it. Yeah. And again, it's Alex. Alexi always knows someone. Yeah.

[Posh]

I would have thought, sort of on your own schedule in Albuquerque, you would maybe take that opportunity to go to places that Alexi doesn't go to. Because we have just like in our hometown, we have the places we go. But other families, I'm sure, go to other restaurants. They do different things. But you didn't want to expand.

[Seth]

I don't. I never. I Never think that we're not going to. And also because I was showing it off to Brooks but the. The shed in. Yeah. Is it would be if you had one lunch there. And we kind of knew as well that based on when our show was it was going to be our one chance to have really good new Mexican food.

[Posh]

Yeah.

[Seth]

That's fair. We. I then had just a. Just a cool dude travel day where I Woke up at 4am in New Mexico to go back to. Yeah, that was. That was not a lot of fun.

[Posh]

No. That doesn't sound.

[Seth]

I'm so excited to see you. So the next time. The next time we do one of these intros we will have. We will have seen each other.

[Posh]

Yeah. And we'll tell you all about it.

[Seth]

Posh. Poshy told me he's like just. I'll be free for like two minutes between the seventh and eighth hole. If you want to stop by. I'll wave and say hi. Billy Eichner. Billy Eichner.

[Posh]

Northwestern grad. He's got a book.

[Seth]

Go Cats.

[Posh]

He's Billy on the street.

[Seth]

He's the best.

[Posh]

Bros was his movie. Bros Hughes.

[Seth]

He's a good man.

[Posh]

Success. Funny movie. Also my. I had some real tech issues.

[Seth]

Oh, you did? I forgot about.

[Posh]

Not here at the beginning of this.

[Billy Eichner]

But it was.

[Posh]

Yeah, it was a full. Full nightmare on my end that MacKenzie helped get me through. I eventually got up on her computer.

[Seth]

You were feeling about yourself the way I was feeling about the Mr. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Posh]

And tried to come on and be cool and you can be a judge on whether or not I. I am.

[Seth]

Patti LaBelle was playing the casino I played the week after. And Emily Spivey, great writer at snl, collaborated a lot with Maya Rudolph. I wrote Spivey and said all I can think is what will happen if the Mr. Was on for Patti LaBelle and she didn't want it on. And I would like you to write that sketch. And she immediately, like as fast as you could send. As I sent. It was like she was dictating it back. It was like she literally wrote 86 the Mist. Mr. Mr. Who does the mist? The mist. Wait, what was it? The mist must. The mist must not persist. It was amazing. Subsist the mist. I was like, jesus, you're the best writer I know. All right. Enjoy, Billy.

[Posh]

I'll see you soon. Toof.

[Seth]

Love you. Buch heap Family chips with my brothers. Family chips with the man. Here we go. Hello, Billy. How are you?

[Billy Eichner]

Hi. I'm good. How are you?

[Seth]

Good. Josh is Having some technical issues, so hopefully he's gonna join us soon. But, you know, one Northwestern grad goes out, another one jumps in.

[Billy Eichner]

Exactly. There's more than enough on this podcast.

[Seth]

Zoom. You were two years behind Josh.

[Billy Eichner]

Yeah, I just saw Josh at Robin Shore's wedding.

[Seth]

Oh, I heard it was a very good wedding.

[Billy Eichner]

It was really fun and Josh was hilarious. He was like the mc.

[Seth]

Yeah. Josh gets drafted into a lot of emcee work recently. He was. He was lamenting that he hasn't been to, like a party, a birthday party, or a wedding for a long time without having to do some sort of performance.

[Billy Eichner]

That is annoying. But he was very funny at it. And it was a very fun wedding. It was very Northwestern heavy.

[Seth]

That's good.

[Billy Eichner]

That. What did you ask me?

[Seth]

I was just saying that we're. Oh, how far behind Josh, were you at school?

[Billy Eichner]

Oh, Yeah, I think two years. I graduated 2000.

[Seth]

Yes.

[Billy Eichner]

So two years he was with Robin and. Right. 1998.

[Seth]

There you go.

[Billy Eichner]

And then when were you.

[Seth]

I was 96. So we didn't overlap, you and I?

[Billy Eichner]

Oh, no, I started right after you. Yeah.

[Seth]

You filled a very important gap and you did a wonderful job. Everybody's still talking.

[Billy Eichner]

I did. That's what I hear. I took over all your roles in the musical theater program.

[Seth]

How are you? How's life been?

[Billy Eichner]

Life is good. I'm busy.

[Seth]

You wrote a book. You're doing book press. How long did it take you to write your memoir?

[Billy Eichner]

Years.

[Seth]

Yeah.

[Billy Eichner]

On and off, though, you know, it wasn't like five years every day. We started it like in the early days of COVID Y, which is kind of why it started to begin with, because I was just looking for something to do.

[Seth]

Yeah.

[Billy Eichner]

And, you know, there would be a year when I worked on it a little bit less because I was off doing other things once Covid lifted. And then in the past year, year and a half, I, you know, I wanted to get it done, so I really focused on it and it did become, you know, a full time job, but it's a very long process.

[Seth]

It's. Yeah, I'm in the middle of it myself. We've talked about a little bit and yeah, it's. So you think it's going to be hard and then it's so much harder than you thought it was going to be.

[Billy Eichner]

Yeah, it's just a lot of work and a memoir and I'm writing about my childhood and. Which is actually great. I mean, that's kind of what the book is, is that a lot of people write Books about their very dark childhood, especially in entertainment. But I didn't have that.

[Seth]

Same here. I mean, Josh and I talk about it all the time. We're very lucky.

[Billy Eichner]

Yeah, lovely. You know, we're so lucky. So it's a lot of really funny stories that. But I don't often look back. I'm not someone who sits around. Like, even my therapist and I, we don't talk about my childhood. We talk about show business, obviously.

[Seth]

Right.

[Billy Eichner]

And so, you know, my childhood was great. It's this business that will drive you insane. Well, yeah.

[Seth]

I'm wondering, you know. So both of your parents have passed away. Like, what? What? How about that part? And you don't have siblings, Right? You have a half sibling.

[Billy Eichner]

I have a half brother, Steve, who actually just recently sent me. I tried to be a child actor in New York growing up, because I grew up in New York City, and I was exactly who I always have been. At five years old, I knew what track I was on, and I was in New York, and so my parents would take me to Broadway shows, and I said, well, once in a while, there'd be a kid in them or there'd be a kid singing on TV or something. And I wanted to be one of those kids. And so my half brother, who was older than me, you know, I was 10, and he was already 22. And he was, like, a cool, young, single guy, like, living in the East Village. And I was, like, this fat gay kid living with his parents in Queens. You know, not the coolest kid, but he was very sweet. And he's a photographer. He was, and he still is, and he's been very successful. And I would go to his studio in the East Village, like, between the ages of, like, 10 and 15. I was trying to be a child actor. And, you know, at that age, your look is changing every year.

[Seth]

Right. You need new headshots.

[Billy Eichner]

He takes my headshots every year. And he just sent me, like, because the book is coming out, he knows I talk about this part of my life. He just sent me, like, eight years worth of my childhood headshots, which are shocking.

[Seth]

Are you heartbroken that they're too late to be in the book?

[Billy Eichner]

Well, there's no book. There's only an audiobook, so.

[Seth]

Interesting. All right.

[Billy Eichner]

Yeah. So there are no photos anyway, but they'll probably pop up online.

[Seth]

Yeah, that's good. That's a very helpful class.

[Billy Eichner]

But. But what were you asking me about?

[Seth]

I was just. Well, so you're writing about. You mentioned talking about your childhood, and, like, you don't. You know, it's really just your memory, right? Your parents aren't around and your brother, your half brother, had a very different childhood than yours. So what was that, what was that process like of kind of having to remember on your own?

[Billy Eichner]

There were really beautiful parts of that. Like I said, I don't look back a lot. I know I had a great childhood. I know I had amazing parents, but they've both been. My mom died when I was at Northwestern when I was 20. My dad, I had an older dad who was much older than my mom, but then strangely ended up living a lot longer than her. Cause she died young, so my dad died at 80. But that was in 2011. Right. So my dad died a month before we sold Billy on the street as a TV show and my career took off. So kind of a sad, bittersweet bit of timing. Like in that same year, my dad died in the beginning of the year and then by the end of the year I was on TV and had a career which I didn't have when the year started. It was crazy.

[Seth]

Did he. Was he. What was his engagement with like the early Billy on the street videos? Before that it was a television show when it was just my dad.

[Billy Eichner]

Dad was the most insanely, wildly devoted parent of like a young gay person and also a struggling actor, comedian, writer. He would come to. The Billy on the street videos started as one segment in my live show that I did in New York between 2003 and 2008. And with the first Billy on the street video, which we didn't even call it that. We just said, you know, I was developing this Persona on stage that would get, as the show went on, increasingly angry about pop culture.

[Seth]

Right.

[Billy Eichner]

And the audience loved it. It was a very sophisticated New York audience who, it was like they were theater goers. So they were smart and they could handle how gay and outside the box I was. Which was kind of unusual in the Comedy World in 2003. Right. We're going way back. Things have gotten a lot gayer, but they weren't then. But the New York audience was a theater going audience who could handle it. But at the same time, they still were obsessed with culture too, and Hollywood and pop culture, even though they might not admit it. And so I was playing this character on stage. I would do these like 12 minute long movie reviews of movies that had just come out or Broadway shows that had just opened. And I would spiral over the course of the review and get just increasingly worked up and agitated about how much I Hated whatever I had just seen, Right? And then that was really working for the audience. And so I said to my friend Jamie, who also went to Northwestern with me, who was directing the show, because we were theater kids, we didn't have any. We didn't know anything about a camera. This was way before iPhones. YouTube does not exist yet.

[Seth]

Yes, of course.

[Billy Eichner]

But I said, what if we went out on the street? And I stopped people, New Yorkers, who are so busy and everyone's walking around with blinders on. And I'm. I kind of do what I'm doing on stage, but I force someone to deal with it, right? And I force someone to talk to me about, you know, Meryl Streep or some underappreciated actor or some pop culture topic. So we just went out and started shooting it, and we edited the video together on a desktop. You know, again, there's no YouTube. We did this to project onto a small screen in this cabaret space that we were performing in. And the first time we showed what would become a billion the street video was September of 2004.

[Seth]

Yeah.

[Billy Eichner]

And so my dad and I would do this live show monthly. And the first time, from the first time we showed the Billy on the street video, the audience was falling out of their seats. And I thought, oh, I'm gonna have to do this a lot.

[Seth]

Yeah, Right.

[Billy Eichner]

But it was working. And obviously, and I didn't even know at the time how much it would work. This was just, oh, it's working for these 40 people sitting here. You know, it was in the basement of a synagogue on the Upper west side, this one. We did a one off show, and it happened to be where the first Billy on the street video was ever played. And then we moved to other theaters around New York. But my father would come to every single show every month. He would take the subway in from Queens. He was retired at this point. He's in his 70s. And the shows would start late at night, and they would be over at like, midnight, 1am he'd come out to drinks with me and my friends after, you know, and I talk about all of this in the book. And it was so sweet, and he was so proud. Now on stage, I am ranting and raving like a madman. And not only about pop culture. I am like. There were, like, rants about how much I loved anal sex. Yeah. I mean, I was like, real. Especially for 2004, 2005. Like, I am really. Because my goal was to shock a New York audience, right. Which meant I needed to really Push the boundaries a little bit. And my 75 year old father from the Bronx, right, is sitting there and he loved it, just loved it to the point where before this show where I would, like, rant about actresses and sex and gay things, he would walk around the audience with my baby picture and he would go up to everyone in the audience and he would say, you see this? That's Billy. I'm the father. I'm the father. He sounded like Alan Arkin, my dad, he was this Bronx guy and he was so proud of me. But when you saw what I was doing on stage, I mean, most parents would have run in the other direction.

[Seth]

Do you think? I mean, one, it must. I think any parent would love it if their kid is killing, right? So even if it's not for him, I would imagine he's so proud. He's like, oh my God, look at this. Billy's crushing. If there was nobody there, do you think he would have watched it and been like, God, this is the best. Like, you know what I mean?

[Billy Eichner]

Like, oh, that's an interesting question. I think you're right. I think he. My dad was really hip. And although my dad was. My dad was a commercial rent tax auditor for the city of New York. Like he worked for the city. He was a numbers guy. He was an accountant by trade. However, he loved show business.

[Seth]

Yeah.

[Billy Eichner]

And we would sit and read from the time I was a kid, we would read Page Six and the gossip columns together in the New York Post. Right? And he loved Broadway. And, oh, here's Josh.

[Posh]

These tech problems, trust me, I've been real cool about it this morning.

[Seth]

I have it. I believe it.

[Posh]

Swearing at the top of my lungs in this house, scaring my dogs and making my wife less impressed with me.

[Billy Eichner]

Well, happy you're here, if you.

[Seth]

All right.

[Posh]

Happy to be here.

[Seth]

So sorry. Keep going.

[Billy Eichner]

So my dad was obsessed with show business. You know, he was kind of this old school guy. Remember, he's in his 60s and 70s when I'm growing up. So to him, Broadway was pop music. You know, when I was, when I was blasting Barbra Streisand's the Broadway Album when I was seven years old in our apartment in 1985 and becoming obsessed with Broadway and show business. And my dad, I'm sure there was a part of him, I know for a fact, I'm sure him and my mom, when I finally came out of the closet when I was at Northwestern, I said to them, I was like, guys, you knew, Come on, like, you had to know. I I said to them, all the Broadway, the Madonna concerts. You took me to Barbra Streisand, Bette Midler, like, come on. And my dad looked at me and said, we discussed the possibility. And I said, I bet you have. But, however, it never. My interests, which were the interests of a. Of a gay son. Not to stereotype, but they were. They didn't scare him off because he. He was. He was born in a time when Broadway was what they played on the radio. So even if a part of him maybe thought, huh, this is an interesting interest for my young son to have at such a young age, he also had the same interests. Like, he loved Barbra Streisand. Like, you know, like, for him, that was pop music. And it's weird. You would think having an older dad and being like, a young gay kid, that that might actually make it worse, but weirdly, it made it easier because I say in the book, from. From the time I was 10 years old or even younger, I had the cultural tastes of an elderly woman.

[Seth]

Yeah, right.

[Billy Eichner]

It's like, I love Broadway and magazines and the Tony Awards. And so did my dad, you know, because he was a little older. So it strangely worked to my advantage. And he. He stayed, like, the most wildly devoted fan. I do think you're right. I think what he loved was that the audience was laughing so much.

[Seth]

Right.

[Billy Eichner]

You know, I'm sure some things went over his head.

[Seth]

He.

[Billy Eichner]

He would have been very blunt if, you know, if no one was coming to my shows. The show took off pretty quickly, at least kind of in local comedy circles. Right.

[Posh]

Yeah.

[Billy Eichner]

So there was always an audience, and it was kind of a hot show for a minute. And Rachel Dratch came to be on the show, and Ana Gasteyer, and, like, a lot of SNL people started to come on.

[Seth]

Tony nominated as of today, which is

[Billy Eichner]

to both of them. Both of them, yes. Which is awesome. And so, yes, I think he liked the fact that it was going well, but he was just so proud. And the book really is a tribute to my parents. And I say in the book, I think you can separate people between people who were successful because of their parents and people who were successful in spite of their parents. And I am definitely successful because of my parents. And there are a lot of really hilarious, heartwarming stories in the book about them kind of not even knowing how to support me, but really wanting to.

[Seth]

We're very much a. Because of our parents situation as well. Hey, we're gonna take a quick break and hear from some of our sponsors. Support comes from Yahoo. Mail. Now with Planner. Hey, Baji.

[Posh]

Hey Sufi.

[Seth]

Oh, man, I need to get my life organized. You know, you host a podcast, or in my case, two podcasts, or in your case, two podcasts, and it's easy to get them all mixed up.

[Posh]

Yeah, well, Planner brings your tasks, reminders and events into one simple view so you don't have to jump between apps or piece your day together.

[Seth]

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[Posh]

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[Seth]

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[Posh]

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[Seth]

Mail. Support comes from Whisker.

[Posh]

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[Seth]

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[Posh]

That's true.

[Seth]

Yeah. And you know, we were lucky because we did have a house trained dog in that Frisbee. Frisbee did her business on a pad, which is like a dog's version of a litter box. And I will tell you, when we had kids, young kids, it was nice to not have to worry about Frisbee. And I'm assuming if you have a cat, you don't want to worry about the state of the litter box. The Whisker litter robot automatically cycles after every use, so you're not handling waste or scooping daily, which is especially important during pregnancy. Not the cats.

[Billy Eichner]

Yours.

[Posh]

Yeah.

[Seth]

No.

[Posh]

I mean, we, Mackenzie grew up with cats and I feel like if we moved to another house, there's probably a cat in our future. And I think the thing that makes me most hesitant about it is that changing the litter box and these Whisker litter robots, they. They handle all that. They take care of all that for you.

[Seth]

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[Seth]

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[Posh]

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[Seth]

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[Posh]

Oh well, I thought that with my

[Seth]

knowledge that we wouldn't hear maybe you

[Posh]

hadn't touched on it.

[Seth]

So I want to start. Cause you talked about going to see Broadway. Was that like when you went to see a Broadway show based on where you lived in the city, did that feel like a big trip?

[Billy Eichner]

Oh my God. Magical.

[Seth]

Okay. And how often would you go so

[Billy Eichner]

we were middle class people, we were not rich people. But I was for all intents and purposes, an only child. You know, my half brother Steve was already an adult and living by himself and he had mainly grown up with his mom. And so I was an only child. And so even though my parents didn't have a ton of resources and, you know, they were kind of a typical family, they, they put everything on credit cards. They had massive credit card debt and in order for me to go to Northwestern, they had to take out a bunch of loans and all that sort of thing. But they made it work like they made it happen. And I got whatever they had right because I was an only child and we were in New York in Queens, half hour outside of midtown Manhattan, so we did have access to things. So in terms of Broadway shows, the first Broadway show I went to, I begged them to take me to see Angel Lloyd Weber's Starlight Express.

[Posh]

Yes, this Starlight has come up on this podcast so many times.

[Seth]

Yeah, so many times.

[Billy Eichner]

That's amazing. Yeah, Starlight Express was my first Broadway show. I would, if you, if you grew up in New York city in the 80s and 90s especially, there would be a ton of commercials for Broadway shows on local TV all the time. Yeah, they would play on a loop and I became. That's how I found out about shows. And I was also this culture obsessed kid who was already reading like the Arts and Leisure section of the Sunday Times and the Village Voice. And, you know, I was one of those kids. And so I begged them to take me to see Starlight Express, which they did. And that completely. It's the most on the nose story, but it completely changed my life. The funny thing about Starlight Express is that. And this gives you a little look into my brain. As a child, a friend of mine who lived down the block, his parents had surprised him with tickets to a Broadway show. And I got really jealous and I said, well, I want to go to a Broadway show and I want to be surprised. Like, that sounded very exciting to me. However, I wanted to orchestrate every element of the surprise. Right. I tell this whole story in the book. And so I left my parents explicit instructions on how and when to surprise me with tickets to Starlight Express, because I always had a vision for how I wanted it to go, you know, and so. And they did. And they, quote, unquote, surprised me with tickets and Starlight Express. They were all on roller skates.

[Seth]

Yes, we've seen it.

[Billy Eichner]

Yeah. And so at the during, we were up in the mezzanine and I think they had gotten what we would often do, unless it was a special occasion like a birthday or anniversary, then they would get full price tickets and we would sit in the orchestra. That was like a once or twice a year thing. But then we joined tdf, where you. The Theater Development Fund, where you could get discounted tickets for shows and sit up in the balcony or the mezzanine, or you could go to the TKTS booth in Times Square, get half price tickets. So that's what we did Most of the time. And so for Starlight Express, we were up in the mezzanine. They had gotten. I think they had gotten tickets at tkts, and during the bows, the ensemble, all on roller skates, would. They had built it so that they could roller skate up to the front of the mezzanine during the bow. And this one dancer, and I don't know who he is, he was in the ensemble. He wasn't a star, but I think about this dancer all the time.

[Seth]

And.

[Billy Eichner]

And, yes, I do sing the title song from Starlight Express in my audiobook, just so you're warned. Um, and so he skated right up to me during the bows, and he must have seen that I was just mesmerized. Right?

[Seth]

Yeah.

[Billy Eichner]

Um. And I'm sure I wasn't the only, like, chubby, gay, Jewish, closeted kid that had been at Starlight Express at that point. So he roller skated right up to me, and he kind of bent over and waved in my face, but not just like a generic wave where he didn't see who he was really waving at. Like, he looked in my eyes, and that moment, that was it. Yeah, I was sold. This was the greatest thing I had ever seen. And from then on, I just wanted to see more and more Broadway shows. But, you know, they're expensive, and so I had to beg and we had to get discount tickets. But luckily, again, my parents loved the theater.

[Seth]

Right. It wasn't just that they were biting the bullet.

[Billy Eichner]

It was a great way for us to bond.

[Seth]

Yeah.

[Billy Eichner]

And I talk about in the book sometimes, and we would go. We would go to the movies every Saturday night. Big mainstream movies, little weird indie movies. They took me to see a lot of queer gay stuff that, like, was not meant for a child. Everything kind of everything. And anything big and small, basically, whatever I wanted to see, we saw, you know, And I was just exposed to a lot of. As a little kid, and we bonded that way as a family. And what I was going to say is that I think sometimes, and this is a theme that I realized looking back on my childhood and teenage years, which were the only years I had with both of my parents, like, the act of going to the play, of going to the movie together, what happens when you're on your way there, sitting there with the playbill during intermission, coming home from it, that's actually more meaningful sometimes than the show itself.

[Seth]

Yes.

[Billy Eichner]

Or than the movie itself. It's like the act of going together. And that was a big part of what we did as a family. And a way that they got to

[Seth]

know me and it's like memory building. You know, I just took my son to a baseball game and like the actual game, like he was excited about going to the game and he was excited that he had gone to a game at the game itself. Like he got distracted kind of right away. But the whole like the pomp and circumstance of like a thing is so cool with kids. And like they, they know you've been to one before, so they have all these questions for it. I should know. My in laws just took Ash, my 10 year old, to the new Cats, the Jellicle ball.

[Billy Eichner]

Oh, it's amazing.

[Seth]

But it's so funny. Cause they, they definitely thought it was cats. Cats.

[Billy Eichner]

Oh, that's so funny.

[Seth]

And so they, they came home and they're like so. And they're super hip, cool people. But they, they in a very sweet way were like, hey, we maybe took Ash to a drag show.

[Billy Eichner]

They definitely did. Yeah. So good.

[Seth]

But the best is, you know, again, he's a 10 year old who lives in New York City. He's not like, he wasn't clutching his invisible pearls. He's like, yeah, it was fun. It was their cats.

[Billy Eichner]

Yeah, totally. No, I'm sure he wasn't phased at all. Well, that's also being a New York City kid, which, which you guys weren't. But your, your, your children are going. Shocking. You know, that's a very unique thing too. You know, I think it's great, I think, to grow up and be on the subway and, and just see people from all walks of life and, and just be thrown together. You know, you're, you're so not isolated and so many kids grow up isolated. And I think even with Billy on the street, you know, people always say, how do you do that? Like, aren't you scared you're going to get punched? That's always the question. Right? But I, and I do think I'm like, well, how do I do? Like, why did I think I could do that? Like, and I think it's because I was just used to being in New York. Nothing about New York City scares me. You know, like, I have faith in New York.

[Seth]

I also feel like you are a, for, as, as manic and, I don't know, unhinged as you seem. I also feel having that, you know, we, we did one. You were kind enough to do one when I hosted the Emmys.

[Billy Eichner]

Oh, yeah.

[Seth]

Like, you are in control. Like, you present as someone who is native to these streets. So strangely, I even feel like People, you know, every now and then, obviously, you surprise them because they're, like, wearing headphones or stuff, but when they see you, they're like, oh, he's from here. Like. Like, this is what is happening here is supposed to happen here, Which I think is an incredible magic trick that you've pulled off.

[Billy Eichner]

I agree. I don't think people are. You know, again, they're New Yorkers, and that's sort of the kind of thing you expect to happen in New York. Like.

[Seth]

Yes.

[Billy Eichner]

You know, whether or not you want me to shine your face is another thing. But you're not going to be, like, horribly put off by it. And you might even think it's fun to engage, as a lot of people do.

[Seth]

Yeah.

[Posh]

Would you guys take the train? If you were going into the city, would you drive?

[Billy Eichner]

It would depend. My father would prefer to take the subway so that he didn't have to park the car. Yeah, sure, drive. But I thought it was much more glamorous to drive over the 59th Street Bridge. And I wanted to see the skyline, and I didn't want to be stuck on the subway. And so that was always a conversation. But I would. I would fight to take the car, and nor. And usually I would win that battle.

[Posh]

Okay, and then did you have a regular dinner spot that you would go to? Was there?

[Billy Eichner]

Yes. So we would go almost every single time. We would go to Sparrow for pizza, which used to be in Times Square. Gotcha. Because, again, we had to watch the money. It was like the money was for the. To go see the play, but that's it. There were my parents. We never. We chose what to spend their resources on. And it was never food. We didn't go to, like, fancy restaurants. You know, it was always about, like, entertainment. It was like, concerts and plays and movies and things like that. So we would. We would go to the Broadway show, but we would eat pizza on the way there. And my father refused to, like, pay for parking in any of those expensive parking lots in Midtown. So we would park far away in Hell's Kitchen, which at the time. Now it's like, a lot of people live there, but at the time was very dangerous, and it was all, like, sex workers and, you know, it was kind of a dangerous part of town. But that's where he would insist on parking, because he could park on the street, and it was free.

[Posh]

Yeah, Gotcha. And my last question on this Starlight Express. Did you act surprised when your parents followed through and surprised you with tickets to Starlight Express? How was your Performance in that moment,

[Billy Eichner]

I think it was pretty legit, you know, like, I wanted to feel the magic of being surprised. And so I was, you know, and I kind of. I was always orchestrating everything. You know, I talk in the book about how I orchestrated Billy on the street with, like, the same intensity that I brought to that behind the scenes. I brought to art directing my bar mitzvah in 1991. You know, it's just. I thought I was putting together the Met Gala when I put together that bar mitzvah, you know, like, this is just how I was. I don't know. And so. But yeah, and I think part of it was allowing myself to feel surprised, even though I wasn't, if that makes any sense.

[Seth]

Yeah, I like that you were not doing that. Your performance of surprise was not to make your parents feel good about it. It was that you wanted to feel. It was. You performed surprise to give yourself the sensation of being surprised.

[Billy Eichner]

That's right.

[Seth]

Yeah.

[Billy Eichner]

I think some of it was from my parents, like.

[Seth]

Yeah.

[Billy Eichner]

You know, but. But. But I think. I think you're right. It's like I. It's like it was a scene out of a play to me. Right. And then when it happened, you know, we had the rehearsal, I thought about it in my mind, and then my parents blessed them. They followed through on making that, essentially producing that scene for me, making that come to life. And then I did my job, which was to feel and act surprised that we were going into the city to see Starlight Express.

[Seth]

Right? Yeah. Yeah. Did you guys. You know, obviously, you know, we were very money conscious. Did you travel? Did you ever get on an airplane and go anywhere?

[Billy Eichner]

The only. Only. Okay, so the only trip we would take once a year, that involved a plane every single year, except one time, which I'll tell you about, we went to see my grandparents, who, of course, you know, lived in Miami, North Miami beach in Florida. That's where my father's parents lived at this point. What's crazy is, though, like. And again, I had an older dad. My dad fought in the Korean War. You know, if he was alive now, he'd be in his mid-90s. But even he was born and raised in the Bronx. But even his parents, they were not immigrants. They were born and raised in New York City. Like, that's how far back. I mean, we are like, real New Yorkers. And so. But at this point, they had retired to Florida, like proper New York City Jews. And so we would go see them over my Christmas break every year, and we'd Go to Disney a lot. So the only place I ever went as a kid was Disney World, but I went there a lot. But it's the only place that we went, except one year at this point, I'm like 14 years old and I was like, guys, we've never gone anywhere. And of course I was obsessed with Hollywood and I would only see LA on tv, watching Entertainment Tonight or the red carpet shows or anything Hollywood oriented. And so I convinced them to take a bigger trip one time, which still had to start with us, even though it makes no sense going to Miami to see my grandparents first and then going to LA for the first time. And then they added on a few nights in San Francisco and a night in Las Vegas. Right.

[Seth]

Wow.

[Billy Eichner]

Yeah. This was our one big trip. What's interesting about that trip is that I don't. LA was kind of underwhelming to me because of course, if you've been to la, it's not the Hollywood that you see on TV and it's much grittier. And the romantic version of LA that I had in my head was not what I was met with when we went out there, you know, So I remember a little bit of that. But what I do remember is when we went up to San Francisco because. And there's a funnier version of this in the book, but I'll tell it to you quickly. I was, this will not come as a shock, completely obsessed with Madonna as a kid.

[Seth]

Yeah.

[Billy Eichner]

Because my coming of age overlapped with Madonna becoming a superstar. I mean, you know, 1985, Like a Virgin comes out. I'm seven years old, right. I'm becoming obsessed with MTV. My parents took me to see the Blonde Ambition tour where she's in the comb bra and the garter belt. And we all sat there together at the Nassau Coliseum on Long island, watching her on stage, you know, surrounded by gay men, you know, like, I mean,

[Seth]

that is good prep. That is good prep for your dad seeing you do comedy later. Like, it's nice that you brought him to that.

[Billy Eichner]

Yeah, exactly. And so, you know, so they were very aware of my Madonna obsession. We had an almost life size spray painted portrait of Madonna at my bar mitzvah. And so we get to San Francisco and it was the night of the MTV Video Music Awards, which back in the day was like the peak of cool, peak zeitgeist, you know. And they had announced Madonna was opening the show. And it was an interesting moment in Madonna's career. Erotica had come out. It was not a commercial success. It was kind of her first moment where things kind of went off the rails. She was getting a lot of bad press. But I, as a devoted fan, I was so dedicated to her, right? And her success. And so I had to see her open the VMAs. I mean, this was not even a question. Sure, right. This was a must. This is back in 1992, 1993. There's no DVR, obviously. They're not putting the show or the clips on YouTube as they're happening. You don't watch it.

[Seth]

There's no promise even of, like, when will they rerun it?

[Billy Eichner]

That's right. They might rerun it six months later, right. On Christmas Day or something. But that was it. The best you were going to do is maybe see photos of it or a clip of it on Entertainment Tonight the next. And so I had to see this. So we get to the hotel and it was like a fine hotel, nothing too fancy. It was called the Aston Pickwick. It was kind of old. My dad probably got some deal on it. And we get to the Aston Pickwick the night of the VMAs. And I had just always assumed, well, they'll have cable TV, it's a decent hotel, and we'll watch the VMAs from our hotel room. They did not have MTV. And I fell apart. I had like almost a nervous breakdown as a 13 year old child because how was I gonna watch Madonna? The thought of missing Madonna perform on the VMAs was incomprehensible. It's not something that happened in our house, you know, like, it's just not something that could have happened. And my parents didn't know what to do. And they could see how upset I was. And most parents would have said, shut the fuck up. You're a spoiled brat. We are on vacation for the first time. You'll see Madonna later. Like, shut up. Get a hold of yourself. Right? But that's not what Jay and Debbie Eichner did. They somehow at the last minute, searched for a motel room that had mtv.

[Seth]

Wow.

[Billy Eichner]

And they found a motel room that was mainly used by sex workers in San Francisco that was extremely cheap, that you could literally rent by the hour. But they had mtv. And they rented us this motel room for the night so that I could watch Madonna Open the VMAs. And we walk into this motel room. It was tiny, it was all run down. My mother, they didn't want to say, like, I knew exactly what this motel was meant for, right? And my mother, my mother yelled at me. She said, sit on the bed, but don't touch the sheets. She didn't want me to touch the sheets. There was practically nowhere to sit. There was literally a red light bulb in the lamp. I'm not kidding, right? And my dad was like, six foot four. He, like, folded himself into this one, like, beaten down, like, lazy boy kind of chair they had in the corner. And my mom and I sat on the bed and we watched MTV and we watched Madonna open the show. And then we went back to the Aston Pickwick, you know, and. And I don't remember anything about the Hollywood part of that trip, which is why I wanted to go on this trip. But I remember that.

[Seth]

And so, I mean, this is. I mean, God love them both. Do you, looking back, be honest, like, what percentage is, oh, my God, we love him. We have to do this for him. And what percentage is, like, this is going to be such a thing if Billy can't see? Like, Billy would be impossible.

[Billy Eichner]

Yeah, I think it was both. I mean, yeah, it was a thing, right? But they could feel how much this meant to me. Yeah, right. I think a little bit of, oh, yes, you're right. And you're a parent, so, you know, and a little bit of it was about, like, we've got to just get him to shut up. Like, you know, Otherwise, tonight's.

[Seth]

I will say, as a parent, the part where you have to kind of fix it is if they also had been, you know, under the assumption that this was gonna be fine at the Aston Pickwick. I'm sure, like, they knew that night was gonna be about watching this. And so they probably felt, as a parent, I would feel like, oh, my God, I can't believe if it never occurred to me, this wouldn't have mtv. We have to fix it.

[Billy Eichner]

Yeah, exactly. And by that point, I'm several years into my love for Madonna. Right.

[Seth]

You're not faking it.

[Billy Eichner]

They know. Like, they know how much this means to them. It was like, you know, Michael Phelps, his parents waking up at 4am to take him to the swim practice. Like, that's how it felt. So, yeah, they could feel. Or at least they could feel that. That's the importance it had to me. It wasn't just, oh, I'm fangirling out over, like, the pop diva I love. It wasn't that. It was a little deeper than that. And I could already feel like, this is this. I think they could feel this is this kid's life. Like, performance and entertainment. Like, this is his Little League. Like, and we have to support that. And I'M very lucky because a lot of parents obviously would not in that moment especially, but that's just not how they were. And their default mode was always to try to make me feel happy and satisfied, you know, so that's nice.

[Seth]

Yeah.

[Billy Eichner]

Yeah.

[Posh]

Hey, we're going to take a quick break and hear from some of our sponsors.

[Seth]

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[Posh]

Hey Zoovie.

[Seth]

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[Posh]

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[Seth]

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[Posh]

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[Seth]

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[Posh]

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[Seth]

Support comes from Mint Mobile. You know, I just did a Special Strike Force 5 episode with all of the late night hosts. We all went over there for Stephen Colbert's second last week and yeah, Mint Mobile, let me just say they sponsored that. We're very happy to have them sponsoring us. These are good people and they're really good. Wireless company because unlike the traditional big wireless carriers who always seem to keep your money, Mint Mobile is here to rescue you with premium wireless plans starting at $15 a month. All plans come with high speed data, unlimited talk and text delivered on the nation's largest five. They also during the writers strike, they gave free Mint Mobile to all of our staffs. Oh, that's nice. To help them during. During lean times.

[Posh]

Yeah, I, I always worry like I want to bring my phone. Mint Mobile, they make that easy. You can bring your own phone and number. You can activate with an EIM in minutes and start saving immediately. No long term contracts, no hassle.

[Seth]

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[Posh]

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[Seth]

Every good burger needs a layer of

[Posh]

perfectly melty cheese and thick rich ketchup. We all know it's not a cookout without Heinz and Kraft.

[Billy Eichner]

When you finally find your thing, you want the whole world to know about that thing. So you use a thing called Canva to make it an even bigger and better thing. Whether you want to create flyers for that thing, make presentations for that thing, or design merch for that thing, you can do anything so people can see your thing, feel your thing, love your thing. The next thing you know, it's a thing. Canva, the thing that makes anything a thing.

[Seth]

Here we go. Did you look forward to those trips to see your grandparents in North Miami Beach?

[Josh]

Yeah, kinda.

[Seth]

Well, they must have been, you know, our, our dad's parents were very old. Like they had him late. And so it is that thing of like having old grandparents makes it a little bit hard to look forward to spending time with them.

[Billy Eichner]

They were a little crotchety, you know, by that point, I mean, it was nice to see them. And my grandmother was lovely to me, of course. You know, I was a really young kid at that point, so I was looking forward to. Forward to Disney World. Yeah, right. Which was the second half of the trip. And of course I still love Disney. I'm like a totally shameless Disney adult. Not like I have a season round pass and I go all the time, but when I go, I fucking love it. And I loved it as a kid. My mother, I wasn't a very physically affectionate kid, probably because my mother was so affectionate that of course I kind of rebelled against that. But when I saw Goofy for the first time, I hugged this. This man's legs, you know, so hard. My mother said I've never seen him hug anyone the way he hugged Goofy. Why doesn't he hug me the way he hugs Goofy?

[Seth]

Did you, like, going into the day? Were you a kid who were like, I'll tell you who I'm going to hug is Goofy, or was Goofy just kind of the first one you saw?

[Billy Eichner]

No, my plan was to hug Goofy.

[Seth]

Goofy. All right. So you went in as a Goofy guy.

[Billy Eichner]

Yeah, I went in as a Goofy guy. Yeah. I was Goofy forward, and I was searching for him in the park. You know, Mickey Mouse was like. He was the lead. It was too on the nose to like Mickey Mouse, you know, I wanted to, like, kind of the quirky, more interesting side character, you know?

[Seth]

Yeah, no, it's a deep cut. He's a deep cut, but, like, also not, like, he's also not so weird, as if, like, you're trying too hard. You know what I mean?

[Billy Eichner]

Yeah, exactly. It's not like Tweedledum and Tweedledee.

[Josh]

It's like, you know, calm down.

[Billy Eichner]

You know, you're probably not even gonna see them in the park.

[Josh]

Yeah.

[Posh]

Did you. Did you get the hat with the ears? Like, were you that.

[Billy Eichner]

I sure did. I sure did. I had that Goofy hat with the ears. That is a brilliant piece of marketing. Let me tell. I'm not even joking. I saw that. They still sell that at Disney, like, 40 years later.

[Seth]

Yeah.

[Posh]

I mean, you think that the Mickey Mouse ears and Minnie Mouse, you can't beat that. But there's something about the Goofy hat that, like, makes you. You really makes you look like Goofy.

[Seth]

Yeah, yeah.

[Billy Eichner]

And there was something about Goofy that seemed gay. I can't articulate it. Interesting.

[Seth]

I would never. If you just said, who does Billy think seems gay amongst the pantheon of Disney characters? I don't know.

[Billy Eichner]

In recent years, there might be more obvious choices, but I'm talking about the classics. Back in the 80s, like, looking around at the options, I was like, I could see Goofy at a leather bar. You know what I mean? Like, you can see Goofy in a harness. He's so tall, but, like, kind of awkward.

[Seth]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Billy Eichner]

Goofy, Goofy. I could feel Goofy could be in the drama club. He was like the really tall, effeminate one in the. In the chorus.

[Seth]

See, I always think of Goofy as overalls, which is. I mean, you know, maybe I'm not as dialed in. That would. That would kind of eliminate him as an option.

[Billy Eichner]

No, guys, like, overalls yeah, yeah.

[Seth]

But he could also be, like, in the.

[Posh]

In the chorus, in. In west side Story or something.

[Seth]

He's like, something.

[Billy Eichner]

Or Oklahoma, you know?

[Seth]

Yeah. Oh, yeah.

[Posh]

And that week in. In Miami, before you got to go to Disney, like, what would you do with your grandparents? Was it just sort of hanging out?

[Billy Eichner]

And my grandmother was a great cook, and she would make, like, very delicious treats and, like, rug off rug and like, all this, like, Jewish pastry. And then they would find things for me to do. We would go to Parrot Jungle. I don't know if that's still there, but it was like this makeshift jungle space that kids could go to to, like, see birds and stuff.

[Seth]

Parrot Jungle. When you said it, I pictured the, like, brochure at the rental car place.

[Billy Eichner]

That's right.

[Seth]

Yeah.

[Posh]

Yeah.

[Billy Eichner]

Anything that they. That's exactly right. What? Anything they had a brochure for. For families at the rental car place. That's where we went. We went to. They also had monkey jungle, I think mini golf, you know. But I also was a kid who just loved the mall, and it was the 80s, so we would go to, like, Aventura Mall and, you know, walk around. And Aventura Mall was pretty glamorous.

[Seth]

It is amazing to think back to, like, what. How much of our time growing up was just going to a mall and that. That was.

[Billy Eichner]

Yeah. Do kids still do that? I really don't know.

[Seth]

I don't bet they do. I don't know.

[Posh]

I had to go to a mall recently, and it was.

[Seth]

It was very strange.

[Posh]

I got very stressed out. But they was packe. So people are there.

[Seth]

That's good. I'm glad to hear it. Yeah. Which. Which mall did you go to? Posh. And what for?

[Posh]

I was in the Glendale Galleria.

[Seth]

Wow. Yeah.

[Billy Eichner]

I do like those outdoor malls in la. Sure.

[Seth]

Yeah.

[Billy Eichner]

Those are pretty. Those are lovely. And at Northwestern, I was obsessed with Old Orchard. Are you kidding?

[Seth]

Yeah.

[Posh]

The Mangiano's out there in the movie theater.

[Billy Eichner]

The Maggiano's, the Cheesecake Factory. That movie theater.

[Seth]

Yeah. Yeah. It is funny that they like, that was. You needed to have a friend with a car to go to the Old Orchard Mall.

[Billy Eichner]

Yeah. And, yeah, it really had a car.

[Seth]

Just, like, opened up.

[Billy Eichner]

Your whole world love that Old Orchard.

[Seth]

I. You know, talking about hugging Goofy, I just. When I went to the baseball game, my son Ash. The Red Sox have this mascot, Wally the Green Monster. And, you know, he's. We wanted it. I'm like, ash, let's get a picture with Wally. And, you know, so Ash Really, I mean, don't think he cared that much. But he's 10, so it's a little bit past the point where he's. But it's really like, like I was excited to get this picture and then like when it was over, Wally was like, hey man, I like your show. It is that funny thing of like even I as like a 52 year old man, we're like, ah, right. Yeah, there's a person in there. But it was really.

[Posh]

Yeah, that's interesting. Like, I met Woolly the mammoth from Mammoth Mountain and he will not talk. I was at a Northwestern football game recently and was hanging out with Willie the wildcat. Will not talk.

[Seth]

And. Yeah.

[Billy Eichner]

So I appreciate that devotion.

[Posh]

Me too.

[Billy Eichner]

Yeah, that character work.

[Seth]

Yeah, exactly. Deep. Deep it is. Congrats on your book, Billy. How did, did you enjoy recording it?

[Billy Eichner]

The recording process was more intense than I thought it would be, honestly. You know, you kind of worry about the writing of it, but especially for me because it's only an audiobook. It really came down to that recording and it is a performance in a way. I mean, it's all real and it's my life, but there is a performance element to it, but it's not on camera, so you really have to put it across vocally, you know, but it, but it was fun. Ultimately it was very emotional. You know, I'm talking about my parents and the book really forced me for the first time in a long time. Again, I don't sit around and think about my parents all the time. I mean, I love them and they were amazing. I'm just not that person. But this forced me to do that and to revisit all these really wonderful, funny, heartwarming stories. And I'm really grateful that I had a reason to. And so it was emotional. I also like the book is fun because it's audio. We have clips from my career throughout the book. So there's Billy on the street clips, the audio of them strewn throughout the book, peppered throughout the book. And I also do impressions of my dad and other people in my life. So that was really fun. I enjoyed that part. But it was pretty taxing, the recording of it.

[Seth]

Well, I'm very glad that Jay and Debbie are getting their stories told. They sound like special people. But before we let you go, Josh is going to ask you our speed round questions.

[Billy Eichner]

Let's do it.

[Posh]

Before we get into these. Also, Billy, I know we talked about this at Robin and Sam's wedding, but you gave the convocation address for the Northwestern School of communications a couple years ago. I'm doing it this year. I just watched yours yesterday. It's so good. I'm sure that those graduating students really appreciated it, and you've inspired me, so bravo to that.

[Seth]

Set a Higher bar. I love it.

[Posh]

Yeah, you really did.

[Billy Eichner]

Well, good luck. I'm excited to see yours.

[Seth]

Yeah.

[Posh]

All right, here we go. You can only pick one of these. Is your ideal vacation relaxing, adventurous, or educational?

[Billy Eichner]

Adventurous, probably.

[Posh]

What is your favorite means of transportation?

[Billy Eichner]

Oh, my favorite? Me. A boat.

[Seth]

Okay.

[Billy Eichner]

Like, for fun, not to, like, get somewhere.

[Seth]

No, no, no.

[Posh]

If you could take a vacation with any family, alive or dead, real or fictional, other than your own family, what family would you like to take a vacation with?

[Billy Eichner]

Fictional family? Oh, my God. This is such a good question.

[Posh]

They could be real as well. They don't have to be fictional.

[Billy Eichner]

Can I say the Golden Girls?

[Seth]

Yes.

[Billy Eichner]

That's great. I mean, that would be fun. Oh, my gosh.

[Posh]

They're such good jokes. If you had to be stranded on a desert island with one member of your family, who would it be, Alive or dead?

[Seth]

Any dead can bring him back.

[Billy Eichner]

Well, I guess my parents. Be weird not to bring them back to life if given the opportunity.

[Seth]

And then they're like a desert island. But you have to pick one.

[Billy Eichner]

I haven't seen you in 40 years. But you know what?

[Josh]

I'm go.

[Billy Eichner]

I'm going with cousin Eleanor.

[Posh]

What is your dream destination for a family vacation?

[Billy Eichner]

Well, there are different types of family. Do you mean my chosen family? I'm just kidding.

[Seth]

Sure.

[Billy Eichner]

What? Well, I'll tell you where I've never been, I'm embarrassed to say. Which is number one on my list because I know everyone loves it, is Japan.

[Seth]

Yeah, that's mine, too.

[Billy Eichner]

Oh, wow.

[Seth]

There you go. I've never, never been. Dying to go.

[Billy Eichner]

Wow, that surprises me.

[Seth]

I know. Dying to go.

[Posh]

I've been. It's great. And Queens. You're from Queens, correct?

[Billy Eichner]

That's right.

[Posh]

If you had to get more families to come visit Queens, how would you pitch that borough?

[Billy Eichner]

Queens is underappreciated. It's. It's one of the most diverse places on earth, the borough of Queens. And it was a really perfect place to grow up because I didn't grow up in the thick of it in Manhattan, which maybe would have been fun, but my parents could have never afforded that. But I. It was really easy for me to get to Manhattan, but I still had a somewhat suburban, like, childhood in Forest Hills in Queens. I could walk to elementary school. I could walk to my junior High school, it felt like, you know, a neighborhood. It was very warm, and we still had movie theaters and bookstores and things. And then in 20 minutes, I could be in the center of the universe, Right? And so it was. It's a perfect place to grow up. And I always think it's weird when people. People find out I grew up in New York City. I went. I did go to high school in Manhattan, and people say, oh, that's so weird. That must have been crazy. I think it's the greatest thing ever, because you're exposed to so much as a kid that other kids don't get exposed to in a good way.

[Seth]

Oh, fantastic.

[Posh]

And then Seth has our final questions.

[Seth]

Billy, have you ever been to the Grand Canyon?

[Billy Eichner]

No. And I refuse.

[Seth]

I love it. Thank you, buddy. Thank you. I was so hopeful that that would be your answer. Thank you so much. There's nothing. No showbiz has ever happened at the Grand Canyon and never will. Billy Eichner is not interested in how little you've added to culture.

[Billy Eichner]

That's right. You know what? Do an award show in there and maybe I'll show up. All right. Maybe when YouTube gets the Oscars, they'll take place in the Grand.

[Seth]

Yeah, exactly. The Kanyes. Thanks, buddy. We love you. Thank you, Billy.

[Billy Eichner]

Love you guys. Thank you for having me.

[Seth]

Family trips with the. My brother. Family trips with.

[Josh]

And you want to see Starlight, but you also want a surprise. Then here's what you gotta do. Just tell your parents that maybe you would like to see the show, but that they should surprise you when the tickets are revealed. Then you perform for them with all the feels. When he went to San Fran after a so so trip to la, Billy was psyched to see Madonna start things up at the VMAs. But his hotel didn't have MTV. And let's just say he wasn't handling it well. His parents stepped up to the and booked a room in a seedy motel. A sex worker motel. Not an affectionate kid. But that all changed at Disney World. Because he was a fanboy sought out and found his dog Goofy hugged him hard around the knee. Surprise yourself with Broadway tickets a 6 motel for VMAs. And when he went to Disney and thought, who's here like me, Gay, tall and funny. Well, hello, it's Goofy. Surprise yourself with Broadway tickets A sex motel. Okay. And when he went to Disney and thought, who's here? Like me? Gave and funny. Well, hello, it's Goofy.