Joel Kim Booster’s stand-up sets are peppered with charmingly raunchy stories that involve everything from navigating microaggressions while trading nudes on dating apps to that time he had a “rom-com moment” during an orgy in Amsterdam. The comedian brings the same cutting sense of humor to his new Hulu movie Fire Island, a Pride and Prejudice update set on the beachy gay mecca. He both wrote and stars in the film, which maps Jane Austen’s classic archetypes onto a pair of Asian-American friends partying with their chosen family. It centers on Booster’s Noah and his best friend Howie (played by SNL star Bowen Yang), who head out to the sunny vacation spot in an effort to get Howie laid. Fire Island has lots of pratfalls and breezy romance, but Booster’s script also takes time to weave in critiques of the elite, largely white gay destination, where even a muscled himbo like Noah can feel out of place.
The movie’s soundtrack is also closely in tune with the eclectic music that flows through contemporary queer spaces, from Charli XCX to Perfume Genius to Donna Summer. In one of the best scenes, Howie leads the group in a joyous karaoke performance of Britney Spears’ 1999 hit “Sometimes,” a moment that slyly draws out the movie’s central love stories while nodding to a pop icon. Booster even tapped one of his favorite current bands, the queer pop trio MUNA, to record a glittering, Robyn-esque cover of that Britney classic for the film.
Booster’s musical taste was formed while growing up in a strictly Evangelical family in Plainfield, Illinois, where he was immersed in contemporary Christian music with the occasional secular exception. “The mythology of the Mamas & the Papas was really big in our house,” he recalls over Zoom. By the time he was in high school listening to what he calls “shitty pop,” Booster eventually discovered Death Cab for Cutie’s indie rock opus Transatlanticism. “It really blew my world wide open musically,” he says. “I just was like, Oh, I didn’t know that music could do this.”
Today Booster listens to fewer “crunchy white guys,” opting instead for female pop and R&B acts. “I have to have music playing while I write,” he explains. “I just need things happening to occupy the busy part of my brain so that I can focus.” With Fire Island out now, and his excellent Netflix special Psychosexual due June 21, Booster shared some songs that have been on heavy rotation lately.
MUNA: “Home by Now” (2022)
Joel Kim Booster: MUNA is a top five for me right now. Their song “Loudspeaker” got me through my first big, bad breakup, so I’ll always have a special place in my heart for them. I’m so excited for their next album.
They really love and appreciate comedy, especially queer comedy. They’ve come and seen my shows, and I’ve met them after. When thinking about who we wanted to cover “Sometimes,” and who would get it, my mind immediately went to MUNA. I’m friendly with the band on Twitter, so I DM’d them and I was like, “Hey, would you like to cover ‘Sometimes’ for my movie?” They knocked it out of the park. It’s a real testament to shooting your shots in the DMs.
Lorde: Melodrama (2017)
Melodrama is one of the best pop albums of the last decade. I remember when it first came out in the summertime and listening to it on Fire Island. That year we were literally 16 people in a four-bedroom house, just shoved in there because it was the only way we could afford to go. On the soundsystem, anytime I had control over the playlist, it was always Melodrama. So when writing the movie and trying to bring myself back to that place, this album was what I would return to. I wrote so much of Fire Island to it. I would just put “The Louvre” on a loop in the background.
SZA: Ctrl (2017)
This is my sex album, which is probably what I listen to more than anything else. I really love “Drew Barrymore.” I wish there was a more recent SZA album for me to listen to, but this is still one of the greatest. She delivers. And really, it’s such a good sex playlist if you’re ever in need.
