Ira Madison III's New Book Is A Love Letter To Pop Culture And His Grandmother

LongbeforeIra Madison III shared his witty musings on his hit weekly podcast “ Keep It,”his grandma nurtured his love of all things entertainment. Whether it was through their shared affection for Angelina Jolie, “The Young and the Restless,” or eventually “Pose” (“I was home for the holidays and I discovered that she was really into “Pose”and I had never actually even told her to watch it,” Madison says), she helped his penchant for pop culture develop early.

And while the audience thirsting for his hilarious commentary has grown, he’s still the same old Ira with the same saucy takes.

In “Pure Innocent Fun,”Madison’s newly minted essay collection, the 38-year-old TV writer and cultural critic uses his signature wit to examine his childhood as a Black closeted gay boy in the Midwest. Through the lens of pop culture, he shares what it was like growing up fat (while watching Oprah’s obsessive yo-yo dieting), how the characters of “The OC”reminded him of the white boys from his Catholic high school, and how Steve Urkel and Carl Winslow’s relationship helped him process his own relationship with his absent father.

His grandmother’s influence reigns supreme in Madison’s life and throughout the book; she is, in fact, the reason he decided to write “Pure Innocent Fun.” Madison told HuffPost more about his grandmother’s influence, where his love for Whoopi Goldberg comes from, and how he felt about Carrie Underwood’s recent inauguration performance.

An entire chapter of your book is dedicated to your love of Whoopi Goldberg. There’s a generation that primarily knows her for her bad takes on “The View,” so can you talk a bit about the impact her acting career has had on you?

I dedicated the book to my grandmother, and I think a lot of my cultural touch points begin with her. It begins with what was in the living room when I was a kid, what VHSs were on display, which ones you’d pick and watch. And she loved Whoopi Goldberg. “Ghost”was a movie that my family rewatched all the time when there’d be holiday gatherings. I feel like “Ghost” was a movie that was either always on TV or someone was watching it, but I remember seeing that so many times. “Eddie” and “The Associate,” those were two big ones, too. So I associate her with that. 

And, you know — the takes. I was never really like a full, avid “The View” viewer, and so I would hear about the takes and I’d be like, “OK, Whoopi,” and move on. So I still have nice memories of the movies. 

You write about coming out to high school friends in the book but didn’t write about coming out to your family — so how was that? 

For me, largely, the “coming out” was coming out to myself, coming out to friends, you know, immediate people in my life. It took me a while to even really be comfortable with that. With my family, it was never more of a direct “I’m gay” conversation, you know? It was more like through my writing and through just living as a gay man in Chicago and then New York, that it really started to come out. 

I specifically remember I did a play at NYU that my family all came to see and watch and it was pretty obvious, but it was sort of like an unspoken thing with my family. But I never really sat and had one of those made-for-TV conversations about coming out with my family.

In writing about your own self-image and self-perception, you say that you experienced the specific pressures of attending school with “white boys who were very much the all-American.” Has writing this book helped you heal that?

I think so. I’ve never been a person who sort of even read my writing out loud. I had to do it in grad school, obviously in, like, class workshops. I’m not a person who would like to even be in the room when it’s being read or something. 

I’ve finally gotten used to reading a lot of my work out loud and being comfortable with stories I’ve been sharing and myself. And I actually think that one of the biggest things that helped me do it was recording the audiobook.

You wrote a lot in the book about your love of theater and wanting to perform — and you have a great stage presence. Is that something that you’re still looking to fulfill? 

Yes and no. I enjoy being on stage from time to time, but I don’t think that in any, you know, serious manner I see myself really trying to pursue acting.  

You did make a brief and rather authentic cameo in Netflix’s “You.” Were you a writer on it?

No, what happened was I had sold a television show like a year prior to Greg Berlanti, who was a producer on [my show]. And I remember specifically talking about how much I loved “You” and I met like the producer [of “You”], Sarah Gamble, and they actually made the cameo for me just because I was a fan of the show. 

You write a whole chapter about “American Idol” in the book. What are your thoughts on Carrie Underwood’s recent inauguration performance? 

Well, I mean, listen, Jesus took the notes, didn’t he? I think that whatever you have to say about Miss Carrie Underwood and her performance, somebody was looking out. A higher power was looking out for that performance because it was a mess. So the karma came back swiftly.

Another one: Do you want to do a spirit tunnel at Jennifer Hudson’s show?

And I love Miss Jennifer Hudson. I wrote a Christmas movie for her once and it never got made and I’m still sad about it. 

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.