Comedian Zach Zimmerman Spills It All in Debut Book

When it comes to pushing boundaries, queer NYC stand-up comedian Zach Zimmerman holds no punches during his sets.

Growing up in a conservative, Baptist household in small-town Virginia, it is safe to assume that Zimmerman has a lifetime’s worth of material to pull from. However, he saved some of his best and funniest stories for his debut book, a collection of essays titled Is It Hot in Here (Or Am I Suffering for All Eternity for the Sins I Committed on Earth)?, which was published earlier this month.

The collection includes 15 essays and 15 humor pieces that documents Zimmerman’s journey from a Southern, conservative, Christian upbringing to becoming a queer, vegetarian atheist in New York City.

Zimmerman took some time to talk more about this candid and insightful yet hilarious book with OFM, as well as his comedy career and what we can expect from him next.

Let me begin by asking, how excited are you that your debut book, Is It Hot in Here? (Or Am I Suffering for All Eternity for the Sins I Committed on Earth)?, has finally released?

I’m so excited! I feel like a lot of people use birth metaphors related to books, and I think it’s very apt. I’ve been working on this for literally three years, which is longer than the birth of a child, so maybe it’s harder, but it’s finally out now, and it’s officially a separate thing from me. I texted a friend, and they were like, “I’m reading your book now!” I was like, “Oh, sorry to interrupt” (laughs). It has taken on its own life now.

What inspired you to write this book of essays?

I wanted to capture some of the things that I’ve explored in my stand-up on paper. Then when the pandemic hit and took away stand-up as a creative outlet for myself, I had a lot of time to sit with my demons. So, I started putting them on the page and started putting together this collection.

What do you ultimately hope readers take away from it?

I talk about a lot of different experiences, so I hope people laugh, think, and maybe cry a little bit too. For queer readers, I hope they feel seen. For anyone with a tough relationship with their parents, I hope they feel seen as well, but ultimately, I do hope people laugh, and they get to peek a little bit into the craziness that is my life.

Is there a part that you’re most excited for us to read?

Oh, good question! I got dumped on a plane once, and yes, that was a very unfortunate experience I went through, but I was excited to shame my ex. There is a part that I’m very proud of, and it’s just about clothing. It’s three different scenes where I’m in a dressing room, getting dressed with mom, and she’s embarrassing me. Then it jumps to my freshman year of college where I come home and tell my mom I need Ralph Lauren polos to fit in, and she buys some cheap ones online that end up being fake. Then it finally jumps to me today trying to shop for clothes by myself and wishing my mom was there to help me.

You also touch on stories like growing up with Christian, conservative parents and finding yourself. Is there a part that was the most cathartic to write?

There’s an essay called “Testimony,” which is about my father. He was a pastor and raised me to sort of believe that I needed salvation in order to not go to Hell. Since God never answered my prayer, I thought I was going to Hell for the first 18 years of my life. In that essay, I present my experience of those things and then the insights I learned from being in therapy and the tension I now have with my dad, where I’m trying to do reverse secondhand therapy on his childhood to understand why he is the way he is.

I’m trying to understand myself, and I still want an apology. I’m not going to get an apology, so capturing some of those demons in what was once a 50-page essay, and is now down to seven pages, luckily for the reader, was pretty cathartic.

What is something you learned about yourself throughout the writing process?

I almost definitely had undiagnosed ADD through the writing process. Separating myself from my phone and any other sort of dopamine creating distraction was the only way to get words on the page. I started developing a trick where I would make an asterisk in the document every time I felt the urge to turn or look away. That way, I had some way to add variety to it and honor, oh, my brain wants to focus on something else right now. Maybe I should be medicated. I’ll look into that.

Now, you live in New York City and are a self-proclaimed “Southern, queer atheist.” How did you fall into the world of comedy? Is this something you always wanted to pursue?

I was a class clown in school, and I got sucked into theater and drawn to the stage in high school, but it wasn’t really until college when I saw improv and sketch comedy happening. That’s when I got very intrigued by comedy. Then it wasn’t until I moved to New York, where I got into stand-up as a form of self-expression. I liked the idea of mining my life and experiences, sometimes using the audience as a focus group for whatever I went through, wild or normal.

I knew I always wanted to express myself creatively, and I overshare by nature. So, whether it was writing plays in high school or a novel about my life where my character is named Dimitri, which has luckily been lost to time, I’ve always been drawn to expressing myself. It’s just been a long journey to get to a place where you’re able to package enough insights together to create a book-length thing that people can hopefully enjoy.

What can one always expect from a Zach Zimmerman stand-up performance?

What is the Zach Zimmerman experience you’re asking? It will be interactive, unexpected, hopefully funny, and very in-the-moment. I think a lot of stand-ups have their jokes and sort of know exactly what’s going to happen, and I sometimes feel more like a DJ of my own set. If something fascinating in the room happens, we’re going to spend some time processing it all together. We’ll get to the jokes, and we’ll eventually get to the material, but you’re probably going to get called on, and you’re probably going to learn a little bit about yourself. You’ll definitely learn way too much about me (laughs).

I love that there is a lot of crowd interaction at your shows. Do you find making that connection with audience members to help your routines?

I think so. I’m fascinated by people, and I get that from my mom. She’s a lifelong server and can talk to anybody, and I genuinely love other people. I think people are so funny. Sure, I’m funny by trade, but people are so strange, weird, and unique. I think shining a little light on how an audience member might answer a random question just celebrates that we’re all odd, unique, and weird in our own little special ways.

Is there a fellow comedian you would love to collaborate with someday?

Oh my God, there’s so many! We’ve been on shows together before, but Jo Firestone makes me laugh so much. We’ve never worked together in a super professional setting, but she’s someone who’s so joyful and brings such a levity to interactions. I can be a little melancholy or devastating sometimes, so I am drawn to people who seem like perpetual balls of light, joy. and mischief. I’d love the chance to spend more time with Jo in a professional way.

Do you think we can expect another book from you in the future?

If readers sell this one out, I would love to keep writing prose! I’ve already written a very bad first draft of what’s next, but yeah, I would love to write more. I would love to write five books in this life. I’ll write more or less in the next life, but I’d love to write five books.

What are some other future goals you hope to accomplish with your career?

I say, I’d love five books, a couple stand-up specials, and to run a few TV show rooms. However, I’m also of the mind that there’s no way to predict the ebbs and flows of a career and life, and that’s what makes it fun. We’ll see what I’ll get to do. There might be some sort of technology that doesn’t exist for five to 10 years, and that changes everything. There might be another worldwide pandemic, which means that live stand-up isn’t possible anymore. So, I’m along for the ride of life. I’m just going to seize every opportunity and try to have as much fun with my fans, current and future, as I can.

Before we wrap up, are there any other upcoming projects or anything else you would like to mention or plug?

I’ll have a Don’t Tell Comedy set coming out in May. I taped a 10-minute set with them in San Diego, so that’ll be on my Instagram and their YouTube in May. I’m very excited about that.

Stay up-to-date with Zimmerman by following him on Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok @zzdoublezz, or visit his official website, zach-zimmerman.com. Is It Hot in Here? (Or Am I Suffering for All Eternity for the Sins I Committed on Earth)? is available to purchase at all major book retailers.

Photos courtesy of Mindy Tucker and Zach Zimmerman