Ross Mathews wants you to ‘remember fun’ during his Lexington Q&A, comedy & game show
For someone who spends the bulk of his professional time on TV making sure everyone is having a good time, comedian and television personality Ross Mathews also takes the time to look at the screen himself. What he often sees isn’t anything that would make anyone smile.
“Remember fun?” Mathews asks rhetorically, with a hint that he’s not really joking. “Maybe we forgot what fun is. There is so much fighting. It’s so tough out there.”
Mathews, who can currently be seen as co-host of “The Drew Barrymore Show” and as a frequent presence on the popular reality competition “RuPaul’s Drag Race,” is taking some time from the small screen to get some face time with a live audience on his current “I Gotchu, Gurl!” tour, which comes to the Lexington Opera House this Friday, June 23.
From Ross the Intern on Jay Leno to Chelsea Lately
Long before Matthews was touring the country talking to fans of his affable, over-the-top personality, he was using that same personality to engage with strangers and celebrities as an intern in the 2000s on “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.” That unpaid position would be the springboard for a successful career that a lot of people could not have predicted… except for Mathews himself.
“I remember driving to the interview for the unpaid internship and remember thinking, this is how it’s going to happen,” he said. “I was the only one who saw it coming.”
Many opportunities and television appearances followed but the one that helped him to comically command an audience was his time as a panelist on E!’s late-night talk show “Chelsea Lately” with Chelsea Handler. Sharing the stage with some of the funniest comedians in the country every week helped Mathews know how to consistently get laughs himself outside of his energy and enthusiasm.
“I really learned during ‘Chelsea (Lately)’ how to craft a joke…and be spontaneous and improvise,” he said. “It was honestly flexing this muscle that got so strong to this day.”
Mathews has toured and performed stand-up previously to promote two books he wrote: 2013’s “Man Up! Tales of my Delusional Self-Confidence” and 2020’s “Name Drop: The Really Good Celebrity Stories I Usually Only Tell at Happy Hour.” This time, his tour is different, both in its format and its overall purpose.
Ross tour a mix of comedy, audience participation
The “I Gotchu, Gurl!” tour will feature stand-up comedy paired with crowd work and audience participation segments in the form of games with prizes and an ask-me-seriously-anything-style Q&A in the hopes of delivering a unique experiences at each stop.
“I get to be on TV all the time but there is nothing like going out and being in a room full of people because you can actually change the energy,” he said. “I feel like it would be totally inauthentic for me to not create something special in every city I go to.”
Mathews realizes he is fortunate to garner a following that spans multiple demographics. People respond to and appreciate him because he is either just like them or NOTHING like them. He thinks after what this country has been through with the COVID-19 pandemic and what it is currently going through with divisiveness on so many fronts, he wants to do his part to help people forget about what bothers them and remember what they have in common while laughing together in the process.
“My job, really more than a job, my purpose here is to make people feel good, because they do the same for me,” he said. “I know we’re all a little broken and we need to come together more than ever. I think we need to have each other’s back more than ever. Whatever I can do, this is just my piece of the cure.”
Ross Mathews “I Gotchu, Gurl!” Tour
When: 7: 30 p.m. Friday, June 23
Where: Lexington Opera House, 401 W. Short St.
Tickets: $25-$99.50; 859-233-4567 or lexingtonoperahouse.com
This story was originally published June 22, 2023 at 6:00 AM.