Legendary American television writer and producer Jon Kinnally changed TV as the head writer of the trailblazing sitcom Will & Grace. Now, with his signature humour, Kinnally chronicles his life and showbiz journey in his new memoir I’m Prancing as Fast as I Can: My Journey From a Self-Loathing Closet Case to a Successful TV Writer With Some Self-Esteem.
Born in Syracuse, New York, Kinnally went to college at Oswego State before moving to the Big Apple, where he pursued acting and performed with his writing partner, Tracy Poust, in their comedy group Loud Blouse.
After relocating to Los Angeles, they got jobs on a new show called Will & Grace and stayed for the classic sitcom’s entire eight seasons, eventually running it and returning for the reboot. Over the years, there were many Emmy nominations as well as a Writers Guild Award for Outstanding Writing in Episodic Comedy in 2018. Kinnally also worked on several other shows with Poust – including Ugly Betty – and wrote for comedy icon Robin Williams.
Semi-retired, Kinnally currently lives in Spain with his husband Chris and their cats, Howard Bannister and Elliott. We recently sat down for a candid Q&A.
Do you miss LA and living in America?
Jon Kinnally: Not at all. Though I do miss my friends, and I miss being in a good writers’ room for a television show because you laugh a lot. It’s just like sitting around the table making each other laugh and coming up with funny, good stuff.
Why did you write your memoir?
Jon Kinnally: I started writing stories for reading series in LA. Then I wanted to be creative over a time period that wasn’t, so I wrote a few more stories and thought, “Maybe I’m writing a book.” Then I came up with this kind of loose theme about how some young gays don’t quite remember the times before they had a lot of rights.
I love the footnotes in your memoir, especially the one about Mark Spitz: “Mark Spitz was a multi–gold medal–winning Olympic swimmer. When he stepped up to the platform in his Speedo and mustache, America got a boner. Then we were edged for decades, until Ricky Martin danced and sang ‘La Copa de la Vida’ at the World Cup Final in 1998 and we finally shot our collective wad.” How did these hugely entertaining footnotes originate and evolve?
Jon Kinnally: As I was writing some stories, I realized I was dropping many references but didn’t want to write this book just for 60-year-old gay men. With the footnotes I was hoping to give more information but also more comedy.
In your memoir, you basically say Millennials and Gen Z don’t know the gay men who came before them. Do you feel forgotten or invisible?
Jon Kinnally: Well, in West Hollywood, yes. And here in Sitges I do not. Which is part of the reason we moved here. There are older gays here. I remember a few years ago, Chris and I were sitting at a café on Santa Monica Boulevard in West Hollywood with our dog Daisy. She’s on a leash and these two twinks walk by, spot Daisy and kneel down. They’re petting her, say how cute she is, then leave without even making eye contact with us or saying hello. They literally didn’t see us. That made us laugh, but it also made me think.
Do you think of yourself as an “eldergay”?
Jon Kinnally: I do now.
How would you characterize your coming-out journey?
Jon Kinnally: It was very difficult. Journey is the word I would emphasize because I was raised Catholic. I didn’t have the word for gay or homosexual, I didn’t know those words applied to me. But I felt different as fuck, and I knew that it was a bad different, not a good different. I thought, “I’ll go to confession a lot, and when I get older, I’ll go to a therapist.” As I got older I thought, “Maybe I’m bisexual like Elton John and David Bowie.” But it became clear I wasn’t attracted to girls sexually. In college I started to become more of who I am, but it was when I graduated that the switch was flipped. I moved to New York and found a tribe of people like myself with ACT UP at the height of AIDS activism. That’s where I found my people and became who I am.
How scary was AIDS for you?
Jon Kinnally: Really scary because there was so much misinformation and not enough studies being done. Activists had to be their own advocates. I was very good about condom use. But even then I would think, “If I have a date, do I brush my teeth? How long can I brush my teeth before my date?”
I remember asking the same question.
Jon Kinnally: Things were so unclear. Now we have PrEP. Young guys today no longer think about brushing their teeth. This is the first time I’ve thought about that in a long time. It’s so emblematic of how careful you had to be.
You formed the comedy group Loud Blouse with your future writing partner Tracy Poust at the iconic Pyramid Club. How perfect is that!
Jon Kinnally: I had a LOT of fun at the Pyramid! And Tracy became my longtime writing partner.
Jon Kinnally: I’m a gay writer because I can’t see writing things from a straight perspective.
I always tell people after my name the most important thing about my identity is my being gay.
Jon Kinnally: Maybe that’s different with this generation or coming generations. Gay was a thing we worked so hard to have recognized. So it’s hard for me to let it take a back seat, put it behind other things. I’m still an activist at heart, and being gay – especially these days – needs to be front and centre.
In the final chapter of your memoir you write how you were able to incorporate your activism in Will & Grace, notably the episode “Will Works Out” about Will getting embarrassed by how “gay” Jack was. Can you talk about using the word fag in that episode?
Jon Kinnally: I think I prefer queen now. Then I would know exactly what Will was afraid of. That was us trying to put a little agenda and do some nuanced television, writing about inner homophobia on a 22-minute sitcom. I know now that it didn’t really work, and I’m not sure if that was even the right show or the right time. So God bless (executive producers) Max Mutchnick and David Kohan for supporting us. I think they negotiated how many times we could use (the word fag), and imagine the studio decided five is fine! But sponsors did not like it. That episode did not rerun for a long time.
Was the Will & Grace writing team collaborative or competitive?
Jon Kinnally: Max and Dave, to their credit, ran an egalitarian writers’ room. They treated everyone equally, and everyone could talk and pitch and have an opinion. So we pitched. Some ideas didn’t make people laugh, but other ideas got traction. It was mostly collaborative.
Former Will & Grace executive producer Alex Herschlag was born in the Bronx, but he moved to Montreal to attend McGill University and began performing stand-up comedy in Montreal.
Jon Kinnally: Alex is one of the funniest people I’ve ever met, and one of the nicest people. He’s the whole package. I wanted to marry him but he’s straight!
Do you believe we should only cast queer actors in queer roles?
Jon Kinnally: I don’t subscribe to that view because Eric McCormack was great as Will. I would hate to lose all those amazing performances. I get it when it comes to race, when it comes to trans characters now, but I don’t get it when it comes to sexual orientation necessarily. Back in the day if actors were gay, they didn’t necessarily tell you, so you didn’t know. If you were casting the show now, I would consider (out actors) but would ultimately go with who is funniest.
Do sitcoms have a future?
Jon Kinnally: That’s a question I’m asked often. Multi-cam shows will always be made because they’re cheap to make – as long as there are networks. They’ve tried to make them on streaming platforms with limited success. I really like Mid-Century Modern (also created by Max Mutchnick and David Kohan) but I haven’t heard whether it’s been picked up for another season.
Is moving back to LA in your future?
Jon Kinnally: I retired when I moved to Spain. But I still felt like I wanted to be creative, which is partly why I wrote my memoir. I’d love to be in a writers’ room but I see myself going back to LA only if there is a job.
Your contributions to queer culture have been a positive influence in the lives of so many people around the world.
Jon Kinnally: Thank you. People still come up to me to say how much they loved Will & Grace and Ugly Betty. I’m very proud of those shows.
INFOS | I’m Prancing as Fast as I Can: My Journey From a Self-Loathing Closet Case to a Successful TV Writer With Some Self-Esteem by Jon Kinnally is published by Permuted Press / Simon & Schuster.
Visit https://www.jonkinnally.com/
