If You’re Really Nice and Really Hot Reach Out to Comedian Leo Reich

As part of his stand-up comedy act, Leo Reich, the queer British comedian and writer, paints himself as "hot, young, cool, fresh, ripped, hilarious, groundbreaking, avant-garde."

He has also said he’s bisexual, “Which means I’m 90 percent gay and 10 percent absolutely committed to proving my year 7 bullies wrong.” Does he think this statement still applies?

“I mean, it's not it's not scientific,” he tells The Advocate. “I think that to reduce the complexity of human sexuality to percentages would be brutal and reductive. But yet, I like the joke!”

Reich skyrocketed to fame with his breakout production Literally Who Cares?! It received nods for Best Newcomer at the 2022 Dave Comedy Awards, earned recognition as the Most Outstanding Show at the 2023 Melbourne International Comedy Festival, and concluded with a successful Off-Broadway stint in New York and a sold-out performance at EartH. His television credits boast appearances on Friday Night Live (Channel 4), Late Night Mash (Dave), Comedy Central Live, and Jonathan Ross Comedy Club (ITV).

His inaugural HBO comedy special, which premieres on December 16, throws his self-proclaimed “significant youthful intellect” into the tumult of our times. Amidst pondering life's complexity, he poses pivotal questions, such as, "Does this matter?", "Am I attractive?", and "Seriously, what's the deal?"

In his life though, he had a role model that mattered and was a big deal for him.

“When I was a teenager, I looked up to Simon Amstell. He's a stand-up comedian, in the UK, and he's amazing. And I think also, what was amazing about him is that he was gay, and since I was gay, as well as shy, neurotic, and anxious, he always appealed to me. He made me laugh so much. And really, that was my first time watching someone do stand-up where I was like, this is incredible, so maybe I can do that?”

Reich walks a fine line between his crazy stand-up and what you might call a solemn performance since he talks so personally. His routine, as well as his HBO special, Leo Reich: Literally Who Cares? is at once stories, tunes, and tangents about shedding light on weighty social and political issues.

Reich has said that people leave his shows either feeling sorry for him or detesting him, and if that’s the case, which one does he prefer?

“That’s a good question,” he said. “I mean, but both are fine. I'm not here to sort of dictate how people should feel. I mean, that's really in response to the show, which has got such a spectrum of reactions from different people.”

To Reich, some people are terrified of him, while others think he’s cute. “So, I mean, which would I rather have? I guess pity. Pity is always nice. I've always loved being pitied. I’m very competent about getting sympathy.”

The trending comedian gets a lot of reaction laugh lines about him being queer as well as his less-than-complementary representation of a self-absorbed Gen Z’er.

“It's not like I'm mining either identity, specifically for laughs,” he explained. “They're just sort of holistically part of the act and part of the show. But yeah, I mean, gay audiences are great, not only because they understand the experiences I talk about, but also because you get a lot of very literate and cynical people in a gay crowd. And that is usually what I'm going for.”

And speaking of cynical, what did Reich who portends to be impossibly difficult, think of getting married someday? Is that in the cards for him? “Another great question,” he invoked. “I think about this all the time. I think that something nice about me is that I’d like a country wedding during the height of summer. I’d really like a lot of fresh cut flowers. That's all I've got so far. It'll be a conversation with my boyfriend who doesn't exist now.”

Well, if he did exist, what would he be like? “So nice and so hot. That's my two. That's my type. Really nice and really hot. So, if anyone's reading this get in touch if you feel like you meet the criteria."

Still looking forward, Reich said that in the next five years he's hoping to keep growing his audience.

“I’d love to not be too restrictive about what's possible," he said. "I think it’s a privilege to work in a creative field. But I don’t want to think that I’m only good at one thing. I'm going to try and fight against that impulse in myself and that paranoia and myself and try to do more, and as much as I can.”

Correction: A previous version of this article incorrectly described Reich as Australian. He's British. We regret the error.