“Telling stories about growing up might be a little embarrassing at times, but as long as it makes other people giggle, I’ll keep doing it.”
Ever since starting his podcast Everything Iconic, author Danny Pellegrino has found joy in sharing his passion for pop culture with the masses. But he also found the ability to turn inward and begin sharing stories from his own life, bookended by the pieces of pop culture that have defined him. His first essay collection How Do I Un-Remember This? appeared in 2022, and with the holiday season almost upon us, Pellegrino’s second literary effort has arrived just in time, The Jolliest Bunch: Unhinged Holiday Stories.
“I gravitated towards a lot of the pop culture touchstones that young women my age were into,” he told me about his youth in the Midwestern United States in the ‘90s and ‘00s. “I found myself taping over my brothers’ Terminator VHS with things like The First Wives Club. My mom loved all female singers, always listening to Mariah and Gloria Estefan and Toni Braxton, so I got my fix.”
Pellegrino didn’t find the overall cultural attitude towards effeminate young boys to be intolerant growing up in his hometown, but rather just unknowing. “Looking back, at least within my immediate family and direct circle, I don’t think anyone was intolerant as much as they didn’t quite understand what being gay meant because there weren’t a ton of people in Northeast Ohio in the late 90s/early 2000s who were out.” His first pop culture obsession? Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. “I still love them, but preschool/kindergarten Danny was on another level,” he said. “There was also a Fozzie Bear plush that was released at McDonalds in support of the Muppet Family Christmas special. He had a green and red winter scarf around his neck, but I carried him everywhere and all throughout the year, even after our dog bit off his nose.”
The author and podcaster ultimately began building his social media following surrounding his enthusiasm for American daytime talk shows of the late 20th century, specifically The Rosie O’Donnell Show, who he had on Everything Iconic in 2021. “I love watching talk shows, probably because of the comfort and predictability,” he explained. “There’s still room for surprise, but you know what you’re going to get. As a young boy, I also loved hearing stories from celebrities because it was the only way to really hear from people who lived in other places. I was starved to hear non-tragic stories about people living, laughing, and loving outside of Ohio, and talk shows gave me that.”
Pellegrino broke into writing books as a ghostwriter for celebrities like Ariana Madix, Tom Sandoval, and Bob Harper. He has aspirations to expand into other avenues of storytelling like screenwriting but has been vocal about the rampant difficulties to get people in Hollywood to pay attention to new material. “I have a lot of scripted stuff in development, but between changing media landscapes, the pandemic, and industry strikes, it’s been challenging to get anything actually made,” he said. But he remains very hopeful for 2024. “I’m also excited about a children’s book idea and continuing to write essay collections.”
Where his first essay collection featured uniquely stories and anecdotes from a queer millennial perspective, Pellegrino’s second book centers specifically on the theme of the holidays. He first started committing these holiday stories to paper while writing How Do I Un-Remember This? and ultimately realized he had enough material for an entire separate collection. “I decided to keep writing in hopes that my publisher would allow me to write this seasonal book,” he chuckled. “I grew up rereading Holidays on Ice by David Sedaris every November or December, so my fantasy is that The Jolliest Bunch is something people will pick up every year when they want to get in the festive spirit or want to escape into some laughs.”
For a writer, podcaster, and author whose brand revolves around millennial nostalgia and specifically that of female-centric daytime talk shows that numerous baby gays grew up consuming, it can only be seen as a dream come true for someone like Pellegrino to go on to appear on current talk shows like The Drew Barrymore Show or The View, hosted by women he grew up idolizing. “When I was a kid, I would hit the pillow at night and pretend I was on a talk show, being interviewed by Rosie or Regis or Barbara Walters or Kathie Lee Gifford,” he said. “It blows my mind that I’ve had the chance to be on daytime talk shows! Younger Danny would be absolutely blown away, but I can’t say it’s not something I visualized almost every night of my youth.”
In addition to getting stories from his life onto the pages of books, Pellegrino has also explored stand-up comedy, and regular listeners of his podcast are privy to certain personal flashbacks. When I asked him if telling stories from his past is cathartic, a way of rewriting history and taking the sting out of memories that might’ve once cemented themselves as embarrassing, he says that if he’s making people giggle, then it’s all worth it. “I ultimately just want to do everything I can to make life a little easier for people, laugh a little, maybe shed one of the good kind of tears, and escape for a few moments, whether that’s because they’re reading one of my books, seeing me live, or otherwise.”
Pellegrino is currently on tour and selling out venues in promotion of The Jolliest Bunch throughout the U.S., as well as book signings with Barnes & Noble stores. Naturally, his primary goal is that enough people buy his books so that he can have the privilege of writing more of them. And in an age where there’s never a shortage of bad news or social/economic/political unrest, some giggle-worthy holiday anecdotes is exactly what every reader needs this year.
This interview has been slightly edited for length and clarity. Follow Danny Pellegrino on Twitter and Instagram, and buy his latest essay collection The Jolliest Bunch: Unhinged Holiday Stories wherever books are sold.
Jeffrey Reads 