CBS Sunday Morning featured Randy Rainbow

[Stinky The Clown]

Edit to add this YouTube of the CBS piece:

Rita Braver did the story from his NYC apartment. They cited his youth, where he once staged a production of Snow White starring himself and recorded by his mother. They showed clips of it. Show tunes were a big part of his youth, an enthusiasm he shared with his Mom.

Interspersed with clips of his early satirical work was the narration of his youth. He was overweight and socially awkward. He described himself as a target for bullying. He left Florida, where he grew up, to NYC soon after he graduated high school. In New York, he was too shy and insecure to audition for Broadway, a milieu in which he no doubt would have met with some degree of success.

Instead, he hit on the notion of satirical videos. That is now what he does. In a spare bedroom. Which they visited. Initially they were the ones where he cut real video with his own acting to appear as if he were talking with real people. That was followed by his wildly popular song parodies.

He claims not to be particularly political.

Right now there is increasingly serious talk of taking his show/shtick to Broadway.

For me, the big surprise is his name. That's his actual, real name! Randy Stewart Rainbow. Son of Gwen and Gerry Rainbow.

(sorry about this looooong link, but it works) https://www.google.com/search?q=Randy+Rainbow&biw=1318&bih=759&sxsrf=APq-WBsfl8aU6lGn2QhCZnPYqe88gRhPYg%3A1649602467351&ei=o-9SYtGIFZChptQPtcu02A0&ved=0ahUKEwiR5tiI4In3AhWQkIkEHbUlDdsQ4dUDCA0&uact=5&oq=Randy+Rainbow&gs_lcp=Cgdnd3Mtd2l6EAMyBAguECcyBAgjECcyBAguEEMyBQgAEJECMgQIABBDMgUIABCABDIECAAQAzIECAAQAzIFCAAQgAQyCwgAEIAEELEDEIMBOgYIABAHEB46BggAEAgQHjoGCAAQFhAeOgUIABCGAzoLCC4QgAQQsQMQgwFKBAhBGABKBAhGGABQAFjtImDwLWgAcAF4AIABVYgBuQKSAQE0mAEAoAEBwAEB&sclient=gws-wiz

[DFW]

1. Rita did that? Wow!

I know her and Rob. Maybe I can get her to do a piece on The Freedom Toast, although she’d have to set up her interviews in Atlanta, Düsseldorf, Spokane and Mexico, and CBS might not think it’s worth the trouble.

[dem4decades]

2. It was a great piece, when they showed his back yard show as a kid, all I could think of was if it

were present day Texas, his mother would have been arrested for letting him wear a skirt.

[Crunchy Frog]

9. I would get arrested because one of my sons was Tinkerbell for Halloween when he was 4.

[dem4decades]

12. You're just the type of criminal Texas is after, I hope you don't live there.

They'll probably come after you.

[Crunchy Frog]

14. I wouldn't go near Texas. We live in NYS.

[badhair77]

3. I saw that segment and also amazed about his name.

They did a great job. Very informative, enlightening and enjoyable. Brightened up my Sunday morning. Stinky, great job of summarizing.

[Stinky The Clown]

4. Kicking this for the addition of the video link

[Hekate]

5. Kicking now to watch later -- I am such a fan!

Thanks, Stinky

[11 Bravo]

6. What sometimes gets overlooked, perhaps on account of his amazing creativity ...

is his voice. That man can flat-out SING!

[Stinky The Clown]

7. Absolutely so. When one of my sons . . . . .

. . . . . first introduced us to his work during early Covid we both thought he was a working Broadway actor home after the theaters were closed for quarantine. Now we know better.

[Crunchy Frog]

10. I'm totally in love with his singing voice.

[Crunchy Frog]

8. Thanks for the vid. I have his book on pre-order.

Adorable footage of him playing Snow White.

[blogslug]

11. I love that he painted one of his walls green

It looks like he edits those videos himself, which I suspected. I know he has some co-creators but I just love that he does so much of the tech work, like a true theater kid.

The sunshine rainbow graphic at the end of the segment made my eyes leak.

[Crunchy Frog]

15. EVERYTHING that he did up to mid 2020 was done ENTIRELY on his own.

After that he began working with a vocal arranger and gradually moved towards using an orchestra instead of using karaoke music.

He literally did everything including writing the lyrics, arranging singing and performing, audio and video recording, editing, and producing.

Until 2018, he did all of this in a tiny studio apartment with a green sheet hung on one wall to serve as a green screen.

He is genuinely amazing.

[steventh]

13. J Lo's reaction at Randy's American Idol audition

is almost as hilarious as Randy's audition itself.