By: By: Daniel P’Lopez
Jonny McGovern is an American stand-up comedian, actor, musician, songwriter and podcaster who has his own show called Hey Qween! Jonny says he was inspired by Queer performers legends of drag such as Ru Paul, and from the cast of Paris is Burning. Jonny claims he was fascinated by those queer stories and journeys and styles. Ru Paul was a big inspiration Jonny explains, he was watching her before supermodel of the world when he had to order Ru Paul stuff out of a paper catalog. “It’s very full circle to be part of the wow family,” says Jonny.
Jonny was born in 1976 in Brooklyn, New York and was there until the age of eight years old. His mother worked for Plan Parenthood and was sent overseas, so Jonny spent his teenaged years in Thailand and Egypt in international schools and got a real international perspective on the world. It was an exciting and cool way to grow up says Jonny, traveling all over the world. Then he moved back to the states and got into theater, Jonny always knew he wanted to perform and do shows.
Jonny went into acting school after he realized he was great at being funny and performing. He hit New York City and started doing that and spent many years in nightlife throwing parties. Performing in New York was how he got into the world of drag. Jonny met and worked with legends like RuPaul, and they really imprinted on Jonny, and became apart of his creative self.
Jonny was always doing auditions and doing other people’s plays and shows and says it wasn’t until he started performing and writing and producing his own shows when things started to take off for him. RuPaul was the very first guest on Hey Qween on WOW Presents Plus. Hey Qween is a companion piece to RuPaul’s drag race, and Jonny is getting every queen after they are getting eliminated from the work room to his’s room!
So many drag queens have come on the show of Hey Qween. This season they became an original show and they are spilling the tea directly after their elimination, it’s their first TV interview and looking at them now and hearing everything that they went through. These girls are under a spot light that is very intense. They want to know what that was like, what they were feeling and what they are going through. That is what is special about this season of Hey Qween.
Gay AF is a podcast, more of a Wendy Williams style Jonny and a guest having a quiet gossip session together, all the gayest things happening in pop culture, in only fans culture, in social media meltdowns, who’s is sexy, what straight guys are trying to gay bait up this week. These are the things they talk about with his homo homies and his gay best friends. That is what you are getting on Gay AF! It is very unfiltered and uncensored, Jonny says. On Hey Qween the spotlight is on the Qweens. In 2006 Jonny started podcasting with a show called Gay Pimping with Jonny McGovern and it ran for over ten years and was one of the first gay podcast to break the iTunes top 10.
Jonny explains that he was always a fan of music, and in 2003 he made a song for a music video called Soccer Practice which became a major hit in Europe and Asia even before YouTube. And he started touring as a pop star. All his music has been gay-eccentric, his other songs included, Dickmatized, and Man Areas. Man Areas became a viral TikTok sound from having about 300,000 listens in ten years to having twenty two million! So, Jonny recorded a new album of dirty gay hits songs that are meant for the gay strip club, that will be coming out this summer.
Jonny has been doing the game for over twenty years and the most important thing is to keep being creative. Continuing to be inspired and create new work and do it with the people he loves. Everyone has their own path and their own story says Jonny, the only way you can get there is staying true to your creativity. What happens happens, says Jonny as long as he can pay the bills, he’s good.
Jonny’s work has been centered around making people feel good especially the queer community. Jonny is single, and his work are his hobbies, his podcast and being a dad dog. Jonny says, as queer as it is, being good and great you should be yourself. Jonny has received letters and stories from legends of the queer community.
Hey Qween is on every on-wow Presents Plus Mondays at 3:30 PM.