Ian Harvie came out to his family three times in Maine, as gay at 19, as transgender at 22, and as a stand-up comedian at 33. Now a trans man in his 40s, Harvie produced one of the best stand-up specials of 2016, Seeso’s May the Best Cock Win. In between, he met Margaret Cho thanks to MySpace, eventually becoming her opening act across North America, taking his own solo shows to the Melbourne comedy festival and San Francisco Sketchfest, starting his own comedy festival back home in Maine, and appearing onscreen in Amazon’s award-winning series, Transparent, and ABC’s soapy drama, Mistresses. He shares his relentlessly positive outlook with me and lessons he has learned along the way.

So let’s get to it!