BWW Q&A: Jonah Wheeler and John Coons on DOUBLE INDUMBNITY at Hudson Local

Jonah Wheeler and John Coons – adult cabaret clowns and partners in life, music, and comedy – will bring their fiendishly clever queer theatrical cabaret, “Double Indumbnity,” to New York City, Palm Springs, Chicago, and St Paul this fall. The show at the Green Room 42’s new Hudson Local venue in New York, NY will be on Friday, October 23. Next month, they'll be at Toucans in Palm Springs, CA on Thursday, November 5, Amsterdam Bar & Hall in St. Paul, MN on Wednesday, November 18, The Newport Theater in Chicago, IL on Thursday, November 19.

“Double Indumbnity” – at turns hilarious, horny, and heartbreaking – is a double act in the frothy madness tradition of Kiki & Herb and Cole Escola. The show is a mix of original songs, comic insight, and unhinged mashups that has been described as “late night therapy after too many espresso martinis.” Jonah Wheeler, an adult performer and former Broadway pianist known for goofy and explicit educational videos, doesn’t settle for just pounding the keys; he also steps to the front with outrageous war stories from both the orchestra pit and the cruising grounds. John Coons, the sequined singer-songwriter known for powerhouse vocals and sizzling wit, sashays through realms of gender-expansive daddy issues and the virtues of committing to the bit. After delighting kinky queer audiences across North America and selling out performances from Boston to San Francisco, “Double Indumbnity” will add additional venues as the season continues.

Jonah Wheeler is many things. As an independent adult entertainer, he is known for his enthusiastic and educational approach to queer men’s sexuality with a focus on kink exploration and self-expression. He moonlights as a studio performer, most recently as a force of cruising in CockyBoys’ Gods and Heroes and as campfire accordionist on the retro cowboy series The Drifters. He comes to pornography after a decade in theater music direction and orchestration, including the immersive Sweeney Todd at Barrow Street, the cheerleader slasher We Are the Tigers, and the Broadway revival of Gigi. These threads all combine in a series of works with his creative-and-life partner John Coons – darkly comic “Bleak,” horny “Nocturnal Omissions,” and celebratory “Double Indumbnity.”

John Coons (they/he) is a queer songwriter and playwright based in New York City. Their clever and insightful personal work has taken them around North America, from San Francisco’s Oasis to Provincetown’s Art House. As an actor and singer, they’ve performed across the pop-to-classical spectrum with the Seattle Symphony, the 5th Avenue Theater, the Boston Pops, and songwriters Ben Folds and Amanda Palmer. “Double Indumbnity” is their third full-length work, following “Bleak” and “Nocturnal Omissions,” with an anchoring relationship to New York’s Green Room 42 for each in the series.

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Tell us a little about your upcoming show.

Jonah Wheeler: The proper answer is that it’s fast-paced adult comedy– the power of being as clever as we can manage and the freedom of being as goofy and horny as we can get away with. The sappy answer is that it’s full of love for the world around us– for the bits we create in the moment with our friends, for getting and receiving permission to be passionate about your life and your sex and your whimsy.

The concrete answer is that it’s two queers, original songs, unhinged mashups, and about 75 minutes.

What was the process of putting this show together like?

John Coons: This is our third show we’ve toured together and I wanted to experiment more with form– a film noir sketch, an informercial about turning trauma into kink, a sermon. I felt more comfortable this time around with ideas that might have felt like bigger swings earlier on. We’ve come to trust that the audience will go with us on a little adventure.

JW: We cleave pretty clear lines between us as writer (John) and arranger (Jonah)– I love cobbling the music together and polishing it to a manic shine, but John is really where the heart of the themes come from.

JC: There’s a theme we kept running into while touring our last show, Nocturnal Omissions. We wanted to highlight the tiny moments that make queer life unique and absurd, and treat them with the same seriousness as larger-scale Great Human Experiences. Generally our vehicle for that is bits. We both write our solo material (though I write our shared banter and sketches), and for the songs I hand a melody, lyric, and a harmonic sketch over to Jonah. He’ll Frankenstein that into a complete number and we finesse it from there together.

JW: An additional person in this creative process is Steven Tran, who’s made the audio tracks for us that I play live with. I used to work with a live band, but it’s impractical to travel with and limits us stylistically. Steven’s creations allow us to include musical genres that you rarely hear in this setting.

What was it like working together on this?

JOHN: Having been working together (and romantic partners) for eight years, we’ve got a pretty solid workflow going. That said, we’ve been bringing Jonah more toward the front with every show (in our first show, he never came out from behind the piano!), and it’s been a joy to watch his storytelling really come into its own. And now on tour- in addition to being total goofballs on stage together- we each get the chance to watch the audience fall in love with the other every night. And that’s really special.

Aside from getting ready for this show, what have you been filling your time with lately?

JC: Reading and therapy. Gotta heal all that childhood trauma in time for the fall of democracy! And Frieren. You go, autistic anime elf girl.

JW: I went to my high school reunion last week! I value New York City because it’s opinionated and messy and direct, which is in contrast to both my native DC and to suburbia in general. Going back was seeing people who made choices I actively steered away from (and they from mine)– the surprise was how easily we all went, “Actually, that seems really right for you, and it’s nice to see how well that’s working out!”

Who or what have you been listening to lately?

JC: Haute & Freddy, Wallsocket by underscores, Bloodhorse! by Grace Cummings, and DND live-play podcasts.

JW: Honestly, I keep coming back to the Mario Kart World soundtrack. It’s a huge feat of arranging– it’s so many live musicians, they adapted a beloved canon to a wide spread of styles, and the scoring responds dynamically to changes in the race using the same kind of safety vamps you would use for a musical. Also, I swear there’s a hard reference to a lesser-known Sergio Mendes tune and I’m so curious whose choice it was to do that.

Do you have any other upcoming projects or shows you'd like to tell us about?

JC: I’ve also been part of a recurring Tom Lehrer cabaret at The Green Room 42 lately - keep an eye out for our next one!

Is there anything else you'd like to add?

JC: If the mix of queer chaos and smartly-handled-dumb of Cole Escola or Kiki and Herb are your thing, I’m frankly a little embarrassed on your behalf if you haven’t come to one of our shows. Are you feeling okay?

Where can we find you online?

JC: Together we’re at @johnandjonah on Instagram. I’m @blutenote27 on IG and @johncoons on bluesky.

JW: And I’m @ShowOffJonah … wherever you need to find me.

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Photo Credit: Austin Ruffer