Paul Iacono is gearing as much as make his return to the highlight after a five-year hiatus from the stage and display screen ― and sure, he’s OK for those who name it a comeback.
JHB caught a sneak peek on the actor and singer’s forthcoming live performance, titled “Paul Iacono, Unfiltered,” through the video beneath. In it, he sings a playful rendition of “It Was a Shit Present” from the CW sequence “Loopy Ex-Girlfriend.”
The efficiency is impressed by Iacono’s on-and-off romance with a British man he met on the homosexual courting app Grindr a decade in the past. In December of final yr, the pair reconnected and hit it off as soon as once more. The connection has taken quite a few “absurd and enlightening” detours since then, and whether or not their story ends on a contented word is open to interpretation.
“It’s a stupendous and hysterical love music a few disastrous relationship, and it actually hits house for me,” Iacono informed JHB. As for his present relationship standing, he added: “I’m single, however this individual remains to be in my life. We’ve form of discovered a contented medium. It’s difficult, however that’s the New York courting world, I believe.”
Watch Paul Iacono carry out “It Was a Shit Present”:
“It Was a Shit Present” is only one spotlight of the “Unfiltered” set, which additionally options an array of Broadway present tunes, jazz requirements and novelty songs. The live performance, which premieres Sept. 7 at The Inexperienced Room 42 in New York Metropolis, is billed as an “uplifting, hilarious and galvanizing” take a look at Iacono’s life as a homosexual Manhattanite and former little one performer who discovered himself at a private {and professional} crossroads after turning 30.
The New Jersey native rose to Hollywood fame in 2010 because the titular star of the MTV comedy sequence “The Exhausting Instances of RJ Berger.” Along with that present’s two-season run, he turned in well-received performances within the 2009 remake of “Fame” and the coming-of-age comedy “G.B.F.” (for “Homosexual Finest Good friend”) in 2013.
After his youthful success, Iacono began to transition into a brand new section of his profession 5 years in the past, when he started focusing extra on writing. At across the similar time, he mentioned his psychological well being started to take a flip for the more serious, and in 2020, he was identified as bipolar. The isolation introduced on by the COVID-19 pandemic that yr didn’t assist.
Brian Vander Brug through Getty Photos
“The present is about permitting your self to really feel impressed by the nice and the dangerous, and to return by way of all of it embracing your flaws, quirks and imperfect journeys,” Iacono, now 35, mentioned of “Unfiltered.”
“The one approach to hold going is to be taught to snicker at your self — I’ve discovered that these previous 5 years — and to embrace your individual distinctive messiness and be taught from it, develop from it.”
Iacono credit The Inexperienced Room 42, which underwent an intensive renovation earlier this yr, for giving him and director Eric Gilliland house to “be just a little outrageous, be just a little obscene and take a look at one thing new in a secure means.”
Along with “Unfiltered,” he mentioned he’s written 5 performs, three of that are at present being developed for manufacturing. Whereas this spate of latest tasks has helped him “really feel extra like myself once more than I’ve in a really very long time,” he’s fast to notice: “That’s to not say that I’ve solved all my issues. I positively haven’t.”
“I want I didn’t have a psychological breakdown. I want my love life wasn’t so disastrous,” he defined. “However the present is a means for me to course of and share the points of my life that, up till now, have made me horribly insecure and frightened. If my story may also help one individual, then I’ve accomplished my job.”
Need assistance with psychological well being points? Within the U.S., name 800-662-HELP (4357) for the SAMHSA Nationwide Helpline.