INNOVATING THE FUNNY

In an exclusive one-on-one interview, PRESTIGE finds out that being funny is serious business for Loot star Joel Kim Booster.

- SERENE GOH

A breakthrough bubbles slowly until it boils over. So it has been for Joel Kim Booster, whose multidimensional star is for his role as Nicholas, the confidante and personal assistant to Maya Rudolph’s Molly on Loot (Season 2 started streaming in April on AppleTV+). The season reveals a poignancy to Nicholas’ character through his relationship with his adopted parents, akin to Joel’s reallife experience. That dimension alone is a welcome switch up from the campy zingers relegated to gay characters, who too often wind up playing some version of Rupert Everett in My Best Friend’s Wedding.

Then again, the 36-year-old has in fact been reshaping narratives about AsianAmericans for well over a decade. He cut his teeth performing stand up as an opening act for Chicago theatre plays, working as a copywriter by day. After moving to New York in 2014, he performed on Conan and Comedy Central Stand-Up Presents, and wrote for Billy on the Street, Big Mouth, and The Other Two, then unleashed his laugh-to-tears debut album ‘Model Minority’. His Netflix special Psychosexual, and numerous stand-up appearances on late-night TV, solidified his comedic heft.

But it was his breakthrough rom-com in 2022, Fire Island, which he wrote and starred in, that breaks new ground addressing race, sexuality, class, and colour. In 2023, the film received two Emmy nominations: for Outstanding Writing for a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie, as well as Outstanding Television Movie. It won the GLAAD Media Awards for Outstanding Film—Streaming or TV.