I'm from the Bronx. My family's mostly Irish. So we're like weird, grim people who laugh at tragedy all the time I like the show 'Louie'. I think he captures the grim kind of funny really well. And 'Showgirls'. I really like 'Showgirls'.

I went through a five-year period where I auditioned for these absurdly caricatured versions of the 'gay best friend'. And I thought if this is all I'm going to be allowed to do in this industry, then I have to go create my own work.

Sometimes I've been asked if I think my characters are stereotypes. But I think we've swung to the reverse of that. Matt is a comic book geek gay who is heartbroken and not taking an opportunity to get it on with all these boys who are throwing themselves at him. That felt like something different for me that I haven't seen in gay cinema lately.

[on 'Gaybe'] We had discussions about changing the title, but I thought no, we should definitely leave the gay in the title to ward off anybody who that might be a problem for. Because there's a lot of humor that a gay audience is obviously going to get more than a straight audience. That doesn't preclude straight audiences from enjoying it in a very similar way, though. But we definitely have some bonus features for my community.

[on his movie inspiration] The comedies of the late '30s and the early '40s, where people speak really fast, and they're really funny, and they never dumb themselves down for the audience.