Jordan Gray has been enjoying a meteoric rise these past few months, with a critically-acclaimed show at the Edinburgh Fringe, playing the London Palladium and, of course, her show-stopping appearance on Friday Night Live back in October.
At the climax of her song Better Than You, the comedian memorably stripped off and although it raised some eyebrows, she told HELLO! that everything had been planned, noting: "I didn't just randomly do that. I don't know how tall I am, let's say I'm 5'11 you could see how little muscles I've got. There's no way I could have ripped a suit off my body without a lot of planning."
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Jordan sat down with HELLO! ahead of bringing her show, Is It a Bird, which has been enjoyed by the likes of Sir Ian McKellan, to SoHo Theatre for three days.
Explaining the show, which combines Jordan's comedic and musical talents, the star said: "I am transgender, and that's going to come up. It's mostly a really silly stupid show. I'm so surprised and grateful how well, it's done for being a show about boobs and Batman, dogs and babies. It's about silly relatable stuff, punctuated with songs throughout."
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Despite being on a steady rise for the past decade, her Friday Night Live appearance catapulted her into the spotlight, with her performance generating a lot of online discourse. reflecting on the moment four months on, Jordan shared how "grateful" she was to Channel 4 and the audience in the room.
"It made my job really easy," she smiled. "Like everyone was just feeling it, I was just enjoying watching the show. And then I forgot I'd go on and do my bit."
Jordan's shows incorporate her musical talents. CREDIT: Dylan Woodley
Even though there was a negative response in some quarters, Jordan revealed how it hadn't drowned out the masses of support she has received. "If you only lived on Twitter, you think it'd ruined my life, but actually, it just made everything incredible," she quipped.
The most touching aspect for the funnywoman was the messages from young transgender children and their parents thanking her for promoting visibility, ultimately having a positive impact on their lives.
She emotionally said: "The warmest feeling is when a parent writes, and they say 'I didn't know how to talk to my transgender kid, I didn't know what to do' or 'Our kid was really sad and now they're not.' The worst thing as a parent, not having kids myself, is seeing your kids sad; that's what my parents used to say to me, and for parents, to say my kid's not sad anymore, because they have a sense of who they are. I can take a million insults for that moment.
Jordan also addressed living in the UK as a transgender woman, where the political climate has put trans rights right to the forefront of discussion.
The comedian spoke emotionally about supportive messages she recieved. CREDIT: Dylan Woodley
And despite the negative rhetoric she assured fans: "I promise you it's not going as mad as it looks like it is on TV or on Twitter, because it's all very distracting. It's all very conveniently distracting that suddenly, there's a big argument about us."
She added: "Half of the argument is manufactured and the other half is people thinking there's an argument and therefore going along with it. It's really easy to get sucked into that conversation about who people are allowed and supposed to be, especially when the economy's bad, because we can't admit to ourselves that our freedoms have been taken away, so instead, we have to say how it's their fault."
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Outside of comedy, Jordan is an accomplished musician and singer having appeared on the fifth series of The Voice, where she made the semi-finals as part of Paloma Faiths' team after JJ Soulx dropped out.
Jordan even appeared in Paloma's music video for Warrior, while recently getting messages from fellow show mentors Boy George and Ricky Wilson and a surprise Christmas reunion with Deano Boroczky when he was busking alongside Embankment.
Jordan is returning to SoHo. CREDIT: Dylan Woodley
Speaking about how the show shaped her, Jordan explained: "It taught me that the story behind the story is really important. Nobody turned around for me at my audition and then a few months later, I got a call to say you're back because somebody dropped out, which is basically a Cinderella story. You go from nothing, then you get disappointed, and they get called back. That's a story, when you watch you go, 'Oh, yeah, I understand that story is the Cinderella they go all the way to the final and that could be anyone that could be me, that could be anyone else'."
February is an important month for the LGBTQ+ community as it marks LGBT History Month, dedicated to celebrating queer history, as well as attempts to combat discrimination.
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Highlighting its importance, Jordan shared: "Apart from that Marsha P Johnson, I didn't have enough knowledge about other trans icons. It's not just to educate everybody else, it's for us as well to remind us and teach us how we got to where we are. It's really humbling for somebody that's on a career trajectory like me where I keep getting given loads of stuff, it's really important to be humbled occasionally."
Jordan has promised a busy 2023 with a comedy tour that will take her to Australia and across Europe to also television shows, a potential return to her musical roots and another appearance on Friday Night Live where she will accept the 2023 Breakthrough Comedy Act. She will take to the stage again on the show, but joked: "I won't end it the same way as the novelty might wear off."
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