The Fab Five from Queer Eye are the TV stars of 2018 but is being ordinary the secret of their extraordinary success? The RTÉ Guide's Donal O’Donoghue meets them.
Before we meet the Queer Eye guys, we are issued a ‘warning’ by the publicist. "They will want to hug you, shake your hand and know where you come from but just say hello, otherwise your allocated time will run out." So I steel myself (silently intoning "just my name, just my name") but you might as well try and catch the wind.
I hear them before I see them, a chorus of laughter and chatter in the hallway of a London hotel. When they arrive, it is, as predicted, hugs, kisses and handshakes all round. "Hi I’m Tan, pleased to meet you!" "Karamo, what’s going on?" "Hey, it’s Bobby!" "Hello, I’m Antoni."
As if we didn’t know.
The Fab 5 (today it’s the Fantastic 4 as they are minus Jonathan Van Ness) are the TV phenomenon of 2018. When Queer Eye debuted on Netflix in February, it was lauded by many as one of the must-see shows of the year, a stylish reboot of the 2003 reality series Queer Eye for the Straight Guy, in which five gay men made over a (usually) heterosexual guy.
In advance of season two of the 2018 vintage, a special music video was filmed featuring Australian singer Betty Who, and the Fab Five were on the cover of Entertainment Weekly’s summer TV special.
"Three months ago," says Bobby, "nobody knew who we were." The five first met during auditions for Queer Eye and instantly clicked."
"A lot of guys in that audition were treating it like the Hunger Games," says Bobby. "But the five of us were just coming out of the audition room and saying this or that happened and you should do this or that. I think that casting showed that we were already working as a team even though we had just met."
Five guys who get along famously is what Karamo sees as the secret of the show’s success. "A lot of people are wondering ‘How is it that you don’t have arguments?’ but that’s because we are not competing with each other," says Karamo. " The thing is if you succeed, I succeed, so we went for it as a group."
How long before they saw themselves as the Fab Five? "In the first five minutes, Tan, Karamo and I were right next to each other," says Bobby. "Karamo was already covered up in Tan’s jacket because he is always cold. By the end of the day, Antoni and Jonathan had joined us. So in that single day we had already created a group text called the Fab Five!"
When Tan suggests that he wasn’t sure that they’d make the cut, Karamo interjects. "I’m sorry but I knew, I knew, I knew! You couldn’t mistake Jonathan’s great comedic timing; you couldn’t mistake this beautiful Brit [Tan] over here with his amazing past; you couldn’t mistake the gorgeous good looks of Antoni and Bobby was just so talented. So by the end of that rst day I was thinking ‘ This could be the group!’"
Now they are the hottest thing on Planet TV, with each of the ve having an area of expertise: Tan France is fashion, Kamaro Brown is culture, Jonathan Van Ness is grooming, Bobby Berk is interior design and Antoni Porowski is food and wine. But in truth this is all about the group,five friends who call each other brother and see themselves as a sort of family (Karamo is the daddy, Bobby the mother, Jonathan the baby).
Their enthusiasm is so infectious and irresistible that even when they seem to be singing their own praises, it doesn’t sound like it. "I think what Netflix did well with this show was to cast five people who are incredibly outspoken, opinionated and vocal," says Tan, and the others nod in agreement, looking and sounding like a middle-aged boy band in all their chirpy cheerfulness.
In the world of the Queer Eye, love is all you need. "Any negative experiences we have we always combat it with love," says Karamo. " That is the key thing, especially when you are working with young people and the subject of bullying. Focusing on the negative is not going to make the bully go away. It’s only going to make them think that they have more power over you and egg them on. So if we ever felt any negativity on the show we always met it with compassion, being clear about our feelings and supporting each other."
Sounds cheesy but in Queer Eye they somehow manage to make it seem real, just some ordinary guys doing their bit to make the world a better place.
"What I learned early on in the show was that when I tried to be cool or to be a certain way it made for the least effective scenes," says Antoni (formerly a chef). "The most effective moments were when the person was really open, asking questions, and I was able to answer them in a really honest way. The more I shared of myself, the safer it was for them to share too. The more you give of yourself the more you get in return."
One commentator opined that the central message of Queer Eye is ‘Screw the world and just be yourself’ – would they agree? The guys shake their heads as one: in fact, they do a lot of things in tandem.
"I would disagree," says Kamaro. "Our whole thing is connecting with the world so I would put it as ‘Connecting with the world while staying yourself’ Would you agree with that?" (He turns to the others, who nod. "I would change it further," says Tan. "It’s not screw the world, it’s ‘Hello world, we’re just ourselves.’ We’re not trying to piss anybody off."
Since the show debuted in February, nothing would be the same again. "It has been insane," says Bobby, who before Queer Eye ran Bobby Berk Interiors + Design. "We went from being able to run around Atlanta for almost a year filming a show and nobody knowing who we were, to where we can’t even go to Starbucks without being snapped for selfies."
Karamo (a former social worker) calls himself the "veteran" of the gang. "I love reality TV but many shows have a negative undertone. Queer Eye allows the world to see that glimmer of hope and get the message that we are more alike than we are different."
The show has changed them as well. Tan France, who will publish his memoir next year, says that it has made him a lot more open about his life (he is an openly gay Muslim). "I was an incredibly private person," he says, "but I know that we need to be more open, that the world needs it. So now I’m a lot more comfortable telling people who I am and what I represent. A year ago this was not my life, being on camera, being on TV, so everything has changed massively."
Tan is also planning to have children. Kamaro reckons this is a good idea. "I asked Tan yesterday if we could have babies at the same time," he says. "I already have two children so I’d like one more." This, as happens often during this interview, sets off a rat-a-tat dialogue.
Tan: "I’d like to have six but I’d settle for a minimum of four."
Karamo: "That’s spoken like a man who has no children. Once you get one child you realise that one is more than enough."
Bobby: "I moved to LA over two years ago to be close to my godson. When my partner and I moved to LA we planned on having two.
Such banter peppers the interview, a whirlwind of banter and bonhomie bookended by handshakes and hugs. For those 20 minutes, the world is a place full of potential, optimism and trendy facial hair.
"We have one common goal on the show and that is working out how to make this one person’s life better," says Antoni. "Then we leave and are out of their lives so we have to make the best use of that time as possible."
For this and other reasons, Queer Eye is the show of the moment and the Fab Five are on the ride of their lives. How long it will last nobody knows. But for now, they are making hay and spreading sunshine.
