Comedian Joel Kim Booster wants us all to know he's a "rude little pig" (complimentary)

Here & Queer is a Canadian Screen Award-winning talk series hosted by Peter Knegt that celebrates and amplifies the work of LGBTQ artists through unfiltered conversations.

Joel Kim Booster's exceptional charms have been on public display since he started doing standup in New York in the mid-2010s, though he's put them into overdrive these last few years. In 2022, he wrote and starred in the heartfelt Jane Austen–queering Fire Island (which also stars Yang and Rogers). Since then, he's released the electric special Psychosexual and successfully gone toe-to-toe with the great Maya Rudolph in the series Loot, which is heading into its third season. And now? He's traveling the world as a self-proclaimed "rude little pig."

"Rude Little Pig" is the title of Booster's new standup tour is essentially about the relationships he has with the two most important men in his life, a tribute to a description Booster has often used for himself in the context of his relationship with his partner.

Booster has now been doing standup for 14 years, and it's only since he met his partner (who is now his fiancé) that he's felt any need to hold things back in his stage work.

"In the first 10 years of my career, I could talk about whatever I wanted," he says. "Because I was just this singular entity. I wasn't really dating. My [current] partner is my first adult relationship. And so it's been a real adjustment. He works in an office and there are parts about our life I don't think he necessarily wants me to broadcast. And that is fair. And he's come to shows and afterwards given me notes about, you know, things that he would like me to adjust … for the sake of keeping things anonymous because, you know, I don't want my career to ruin his chances at being in the C-Suite someday." 

However Booster decides to navigate his relationship, there's one person offering him advice that he should absolutely be listening to.

"I had just started dating my partner when we were shooting Season 1 [of Loot]," he says, "and I just remember standing around and getting dating advice from Maya Rudolph, like in between setups. It was so strange, but she's so warm and truly one of the most normal, approachable, wonderful people. I've said this so many times in the press, but she is someone who cares very deeply about her family. And it's not a five-nanny situation at the Maya Rudolph household. She's still driving her kids to dance class and going to the competitions at the Hyatt by the airport and all of that. And it's wonderful to work on a show where the No. 1 person on the call sheet loves their family, because it means we all get to go home at a reasonable time. Because I've worked with plenty of people who don't care if their families live or die, and you're there for a lot longer. I'll say that."

You can listen to everything Booster has to say by catching him on tour. Rude Little Pig runs through January 22nd.