And I wanna get your take on that.

That's so funny.

I'm so glad you're pulling that line out.

I think of all the many, many lines in this 12-hour audiobook, I think about that one a lot, and because it's complicated, you know? And it's easier said than done, you know? And I...

That's a line that friends of mine, and I'm not talking about friends of mine who are in entertainment, who are performers.

You know, friends of mine from all different walks of life have actually talked about that line.

Um, so it's interesting that you're pulling that out.

[laughs]

Mm-hmm

...

it was foundational.

Um, and when I sat down to write the book, the publisher, all they told me is that, you know, I have a following from Billy on the Street and other things that I've done, um, as an actor, as a comedian, a performer.

They just wanted it to be personal.

They wanted it to have a memoir-like feeling, but they didn't specify what that had to mean, so I got to figure that out for myself.

And I, although I've had a therapist for years, we, we usually talk about my day-to-day.

Mm-hmm

Yeah.

It was like, you know, "Be gay, be happy, be who you are." You know? My mother's boss at work, Jim, was gay when I was in high school, and she would, maybe I said this already, she would come home and say, like, "Ugh, Jim said the funniest thing today," and, "Jim said the funniest thing about his boyfriend today." Now, we're in the, the background of this.

This is the late '80s and early '90s, so if you talked about gay men, the first thing that people thought of was AIDS, right? Especially in New York City where we were.

It was like ground zero for the AIDS crisis, along with San Francisco and America, right? So most people were scared to be in a room with a gay man, and at this time my mother would come home and brag about her gay boss and how much she loved him.

Right? Now, we didn't sit down and have this, like, touchy-feely conversation, you know, about what it means to be gay, and if you're gay it's okay.

But it was just simply by them being them.

And living our lives, and everything was taken in such a matter-of-fact way.

It all goes back to Barbra.

Yeah.

Yeah, well, it's tough because...

Even though I was 32 and my dad died, my career hadn't taken off and I was still very much struggling financially and still felt like I wasn't a fully formed, self-possessed person.

And certainly when my mother died, I wasn't because I was 20.

One of the sad things is that you can't have conversations with them as an adult.

I didn't ever really get to talk to my parents with an adult perspective.

And so...

Can you tell the story about your dad, Jay, that you were doing this, the storytelling contest in the fourth grade? Yeah.

[laughs]

And they would come to my shows, my early live shows in New York where I would show the early Billy on the Street videos, even before YouTube came along, and everyone would say, "Oh, you're funny, you're talented," but I wasn't conventional.

I didn't fit the mold in Hollywood-

[cheering] [upbeat music]

Hi, Ryan Reynolds here for Mint Mobile.

Are you looking for a beach read this summer? May I suggest your big wireless bill? It's got suspense, mystery, a slightly flat emotional arc, and a shocking twist where you realize you've been overpaying the entire time.

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[laughs]

"After the show, my parents took me to Carmine's, the old Italian restaurant in the Theater District, which served everything family-style and where I ate what can only be described as a historic amount of bread pudding, probably a serving designed for an entire family, and which made me physically ill.

Guys and Dolls, the Sex book, and nearly throwing up from eating too much bread pudding, just a typical night out for the Eichners.

Yet another non-traditional, my choice, a non-traditional choice my family made was brushing aside the traditional Mother's Day activities of buying flowers and going for a nice brunch to instead once again travel into Manhattan from Queens to see Madonna's documentary Truth or Dare.

We didn't wait until it came to Queens.

Nope.

I insisted my parents and I go into the city to see it right away the weekend it opened at a movie theater on 23rd Street in Chelsea.

... advice at a pivotal time 'cause you didn't know you were gonna make it always.

Let's read the excerpt about your dad, because I think we should talk more about him because he's such an important person in your life and in the book, of

course.

Yes.

So, you know, I had an older dad.

He was much older than my mom.

He's from the Bronx.

He was in the Korean War.

And how she gave you advice at a pivotal time because you didn't know you were going to make it always.

We'll be right back.

back.[upbeat music] Miss, for a dollar, would you have a threesome with me and Jon Hamm?

Mm-hmm.

And they would come to my shows, my early live shows in New York where I would show the early Billy on the Street videos, even before YouTube came along, and everyone would say, "Oh, you're funny.

You're talented," but I wasn't conventional.

I didn't fit the mold in Hollywood-

Right.

So I, I don't think that's radical.

A- and so, and s- again, so much of my parents, so much of my book, uh, is, is literally about this.

I was not the child, I don't think.

My parents both passed away, I should say that.

My father died 15 years ago right before Billy on the Street became a TV show.

My mother died when I was 20 years old when I was in college.

Yeah

In the book, you talk about the fact that your parents really kinda ha- were, and you referenced this earlier in this conversation, that your parents, like, aided and abetted this interest.

Oh, yeah, and so much of the book-- For me, the book is mainly a love letter to my parents, um, Jay and Debbie Eichner, who...

This was the '80s and '90s.

They knew, I'm pretty sure, that they had a, a gay kid.

Um, even before I came out, it was pretty obvious.

And remember, we-- I grew up in New York City, as did they.

My mom grew up in Brooklyn.

And, and w- honestly, we're all benefiting from it because I wouldn't have you in my feed making me smile all the time if you didn't have the confidence to, to do what you did with that first big break of yours.

[laughs]

2006.

That was good for 2006.

And it was me, and, uh, I was on the panel.

Right.

And Andy Cohen before he had his own show.

Yeah.

[laughs]

[laughs]

And they would come to my shows, my early live shows in New York where I would show the early Billy on the Street videos, even before YouTube came along, and everyone would say, "Oh, you're funny, you're talented." But I wasn't conventional.

I didn't fit the mold in Hollywood-

Ah.

Until you are the star, there's a long road to get there, and that's what my book is about.

And, uh, it's also about, uh, my parents ultimately.

Your, your late parents.

My parents, yeah, Jay and Debbie Eichner.

It really...

It started off as the Billy on the Street origin story.

We start off with the question, what kind of child could create such a crazy character and have the confidence to do it? But then what it becomes is a love letter to how supportive and loving my parents were, because you can trace all the success I've had back to how much they loved me.

And even though they're not around to see it-

Yeah.

Yeah, yeah.

Yeah.

Um, and I talk about in the book, sometimes...

And we would go with, 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, [laughs] was not meant for a child.

Um, everything, kind of everything and anything, big and small.

Basically, whatever I wanted to see, we saw, you know? Um, and I was just exposed to a lot a- as a little kid, and, and we bonded that way as a family.

And what I was gonna say is that I think sometimes, and this is a theme that I realize looking back on my childhood and teenage years, which, 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-

Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

And it, uh, it was very exciting.

Yeah.

And my dad was a huge sports fan.

Now, my dad, he was a little torn.

He grew up in the Bronx, so he was a Yankees fan when he was a kid, but then raised me in Queens, so then became a Mets fan.

Mm-hmm

... for a child, um, that really followed through, like, throughout my life, you know? And so much of the book is about me asking myself, like, well, how did I get this far? Like, what gave me the confidence? There were many, many years I couldn't get a job, you know? Um, but what gave me the, you know, the, the, uh, rel- you know, uh, the confidence, I guess, to do Billy on the Street and to, like, commit to it.

[laughs]

You know? So I was just happy about it, and then two years passed.

I went back to Madonna's party, uh, a couple of weeks ago, months ago, and Travis came right up to me.

And I was like, "I'm not gonna bother him again.

We had our moment.

It was very funny." And he came up to me, and he was like, "I have to apologize."

[laughs]

There were a lot of amazing ones.