Jon Kinnally celebrates the publication of his memoir I’m Prancing As Fast As I Can: My Journey from a Self-Loathing Closet Case to a Successful TV Writer with Some Self-Esteem.
Host Blair Fell will lead a conversation with Jon Kinnally with some selected readings from Jon.
WARNING: Those who don’t remember my past are doomed to repeat it.
I’m Prancing As Fast As I Can is a coming of Gay story that takes us from a scared, self-hating kid who spends most of his time under his desk staring at the hunky man on the Doan’s Pills box, to becoming a writer on Will & Grace, helping to make it a little easier for other scared, self-hating kids who might also be hiding and staring at their secret desire. It’s a journey through Olympic mustaches and when Chér’s name had an accent and losing your virginity to a trucker and chasing Gay bashers in six-inch heels dressed as a drag bunny and a terrible virus and memorials and memorials and memorials and ACTing UP and using the word “lover” and having a fan who’s also a serial killer and Gay penguins and spreading your boyfriends’ ashes with your new boyfriend and Prop 8 and getting to write lines for divas on Ugly Betty and Gay marriage and more stuff like that and in the end ketamine therapy to help it all make sense.
This event is co-sponsored by The Other Side of Silence:
"As NYC’s oldest and longest-producing LGBTQ+ theater company, The Other Side of Silence (TOSOS) is dedicated to an honest and open exploration of the life experience and cultural sensibility of the LGBTQ+ community and to preserving and promoting our literary past in a determined effort to keep our theatrical heritage alive."
https://www.tososnyc.org/
To reserve a copy of I'm Prancing as Fast as I Can (Permuted Press, August 12, 2025, paperback, $18.99), please write to us at
Y29udGFjdCB8IGJnc3FkICEgY29t with “please reserve I'm Prancing for September 17 event” in the subject line.
Thank you for supporting the Bureau by purchasing books from us!
You can also purchase I'm Prancing as Fast as I Can on our online shop at bookshop.com/shop/bgsqd:
https://bookshop.org/a/14040/9798888459508
This event will take place in person at the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division, on the second floor (room 210) of The LGBT Community Center, 208 W. 13th St., NYC, 10011.
Registration is not required. Seating is first come, first served.
Also live-streaming on the Bureau’s YouTube channel:
youtube.com/@bgsqd
The Bureau will solicit donations at the beginning of the event—we especially encourage donations from those who do not plan to purchase any books.
All are welcome to attend, with or without a donation.
We will pass a bag for donations at the start of the event, but we can also take credit card donations at the register or on Venmo @BGSQD
Even better: sign up to make a monthly tax-deductible donation to the Bureau!
https://fundraising.fracturedatlas.org/bgsqd
Thank you for committing to sustaining this vital project!
Jon Kinnally was born in Syracuse, New York, and went to college at Oswego State, before moving to a then-affordable Manhattan, where he pursued acting and performed with his writing partner, Tracy Poust, in their comedy group Loud Blouse.
After relocating to Los Angeles, they got a job on a new show called Will & Grace and stayed with it for it’s entire eight seasons, eventually running it and returning for the reboot. Over the years, there were many Emmy nominations as well as a Writers Guild Award for Outstanding Writing in Episodic Comedy in 2018.
He has also worked on several other shows with Tracy, including Ugly Betty—Emmy and NAACP award nominations—and The Crazy Ones which they ran, and had the privilege to write for the great Robin Williams.
He currently lives in Spain with his husband, Chris, and their cats, Howard Bannister and Elliott.
Blair Fell writes and lives in New York City. Blair’s television work includes Queer as Folk, and the Emmy Award–winning California Connected. He’s written dozens of plays including the award-winning plays Naked Will, The Tragic and Horrible Life of the Singing Nun, and the downtown cult miniseries Burning Habits. His personal essays have appeared in HuffPost, Out, Daily News (New York), and more. He’s a two-time winner of the prestigious Doris Lippman Prize in Creative Writing from the City College of New York, including for his early unfinished draft of The Sign for Home. Concurrently with being a writer, Blair has been an ASL interpreter for the Deaf since 1993, and has also worked as an actor, producer, and director.
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