You may need to bring your ID. Matt Yee's outrageously funny act is definitely not considered acceptable during "family hour." The self-described "gaysian" entertainer has been known to whoop his audiences up into a frenzy of naughty laughter.
Once upon a time, Yee said, he was a suit working in a law firm.
"Law practice was about fixing other people's problems," he recalled of his former profession. "I don't even like having problems of my own, so fixing other people's problems wasn't my cup of tea. I'd much rather make people happy by what I do now, creating that environment where people laugh, sing, and just be themselves with everyone else."
The corporate life, Yee tells us, was more his parents' thing.
"I went to very expensive schools back east and needed to figure out the 'gaysian' thing," the Honolulu native said. "My parents didn't get it at all. They wanted me to be a lawyer and marry Chinese and make Chinese babies."
Mom and Dad urged the younger Yee to marry his own kind.
"So I did," said Yee. "I married a man!"
Yee cites his twelve-inch penis as one of the driving forces in his desire to perform.
"Performing makes me incredibly attractive as a jumbo Gaysian man to twinkies," he explained. "It's been an unexpected bonus. I love seeing that special joy on their faces. I also love to sing and play the piano and tell really bad jokes."
Yee describes his musical style as being "all over the place."
"I like many different styles," he said. "But my home is Pop. I always loved Carole King, Elton John, Billy Joel, and their progeny like Taylor Swift. Plus a little Broadway never hurt."
But don't call Yee a comedian.
"Though people do laugh a lot during my show," he assured. "They also gag once in a while. I play the crowd. Just know that we don't care if you don't know how to sing. We don't care if you suck. We don't care if you don't know the words. All we care is that you sing loud. And please bring your sense of humor. Leave your political correctness at home when you drop the kids off at the pool. This is an adult show!"
In Hawaii, Matt Yee's rainbow-happy.
It appears to be working. Yee has attracted quite a fan base, which includes Broadway legends Chita Rivera and Idina Menzel, both of whom have sung with him.
"I'm constantly amazed to see celebrities like Megan Hilty and Cheyenne Jackson in the audience," Yee said. "When Patti LuPone said onstage to a full house, 'Let's get this over with; I wanna go see Matt Yee,' I just peed in my pants."
Yee is enjoying the ride.
"I love being me," he said. "I love being Matt Yee. It's taken some time for me to get to this place, to not be what someone else or what society wants you to be. But I am not a reaction to the religious right or anyone else. I am who I am, 12-inch penis and all. I love making people happy. I love breaking down boundaries so we end up just having a great time without worrying how we look, how much we weigh, or what our backgrounds happen to be. I just sort of do it in a really politically inappropriate way."
Sing Along with Matt Yee on Friday & Saturday, November 6 & 7 at 8pm at Oasis. 298 11th St. $17 in advance, $22 at the door. www.sfoasis.com