One of Jaboukie Young-White’s first stand-up bits revolved around passing as straight. “People don’t always read me as queer when they meet me,” he quipped during a 2017 spot on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon. “I can come across as masc, which is gay for ‘I’m not like other girls.’” Lately, though, he’s realized he’s become a different straight person to passing acquaintances. “Before people were, like, ‘Oh, this is a straight guy who codes,’” he says. “And now it's, ‘Oh, this is a straight guy who lifts.’”
Which is probably because he does. In between impersonating various arms of the U.S. government and advocating for Italian rights on Twitter, the comedian and Daily Show correspondent has been spending the past few months bulking up via weight training and MMA sessions with a trainer. It hasn’t exactly made him seem any more queer in public—in fact, he managed to scare a couple catcallers off a friend recently by posing as her boyfriend—but he says he’s just glad his body is looking a little more proportionate to his head.
Instagram contentThis content can also be viewed on the site it originates from.
The other thing helping him pack on the pounds? Finally being able to eat gluten after finding out he no longer had a wheat allergy. After overloading on croissants, he’s found some balance in a steady diet of veggies, meats, and lots and lots of fruit. Liberated from the tyranny of bulking by sweet potatoes only, he’s not concerned about following some macho food regime. “I'm here for fun,” he says. “And to be able to go up the stairs without running out of breath.”
Mostly, though, Young-White sees his new muscles as a chance to dig into some real character acting. That is, on top of an actual acting gig as the (straight) romantic lead in Dating & New York. Ahead of the movie’s Tribeca premiere, Young-White shared the secret to his rock-hard quads, his new goalless approach to working out, and some very strong opinions on mangoes.
For Real-Life Diet, GQ talks to high-performing people about their diet, exercise routines, and pursuit of wellness. Keep in mind that what works for them might not necessarily be healthy for you.
GQ: How are you exercising these days?
Jaboukie Young-White: I've been doing a lot of MMA training recently. I started around 2018 when I was starting to tour a lot more and I was, like, I should learn how to actually fight [laughs]. So I started taking self defense classes. I always wanted to do tae kwon do as a kid. My brothers and I watched a lot of Bruce Lee movies. But I never had a chance to do it. So I feel like I'm nurturing my inner child when I do it.
If it were up to me, I'd only do treadmill stuff. I need stakes when I exercise. I need a story, I need narrative, I need drama. I love MMA because it's visceral. If I don't duck I'll get hit. If I'm just going to the gym and lifting it's, like...why am I doing this? So I really need a good push, and once I have that I'm super into it.
When I was in L.A. I was doing classes, and then...I had a hernia surgery last year, so I needed to go at my own pace when I got back into it. I've mostly been doing one on one stuff at Five Points in Manhattan, and also with my good friend comedian Diego Lopez, who does MMA.
I also have been seeing a trainer for strength training because that's not my strong suit at all. She set up a little gym inside of a box truck. That's what I've been doing for the past couple months.
Is strength training totally new to you?
I'd been doing it before a little bit. I initially started for the stress release. It's not gonna cure any of your problems, but picking up and putting down really heavy things, it just does something to you [laughs].
One thing that I think was kind of an "aha" moment for me was after a while of doing strength training, I looked in the mirror and was, like, "Oh my god, this is the first time in my life that my head has ever looked proportional to my body." I normally look like a walking lollipop. And now I look like a well-proportioned person.
Is this routine sort of getting back on the horse after a year off?
It is kind of getting back on the horse, but with a different mentality. I feel so grateful to even be able to do anything with my body. We went through a period of having to be very concerned about our bodies, and it's given me a newfound appreciation for, like...being able to breathe even. Before I was very goal oriented, like, “I need to get to this point” or “lift this much.” Now I'm just here for the ride. I'll give it my best. It's definitely more rewarding.
Do you exercise outside of the training right now?
I try to bike every day, which is a recent development during the pandemic. I got a bike last April. The city was so empty, I was going down Broadway swerving lanes. I found biking after I got surgery was one thing I could get back to without too much complication.
My legs just got gigantic. My bike also has really small wheels because it’s foldable. I'm always working, like, ten times as hard as the other bikers.
So your legs get bigger than everyone with normally sized wheels.
Exactly, that's the secret. Comically small bike for good quads.
What are your eating habits like right now?
For the longest time I had a wheat allergy, which...I'm sorry, I know it's insufferable. I found out when I was 17. Recently I got another allergy panel because I was traveling and wanted to make sure I knew what I could and couldn't eat in a foreign country. I got tested and I found out that I was no longer allergic to wheat, and that really fucked me up.
Most Popular
Before I was so lean I actually had trouble bulking. It's hard to eat carbs if you can't eat pasta, bread, the delicious carbs. You have to just eat, like, whole boiled sweet potatoes. No shade on sweet potato, she's delicious, I love her, I just don't want her all the time.
So I now have more free rein. I ate so many croissants because it had been so long. I had my fill, so now it's mostly meats, veggies, fruits. I love fruits. I'm a fruit head. I would even go so far to say I'm a fruit. Mangoes are the best. Stone fruits? No other fruit family is touching stone fruits. Stone fruits have avocados, peaches...blackberries! Stone fruits. Just looked that up the other day.
When you know that it's the high-fructose [mango concentrate] instead of the mango pulp, it really sparks a rage inside of me. The red ones used to be my favorite, but I've been seeing a lot of Haitian mangoes in Brooklyn recently. They're the only ripe mangoes you can get in New York. I'm waiting for a mayoral candidate to address that.
In 2019 you spoke with GQ about your evolving relationship with masculinity. How does your body factor into that?
Especially if you're queer, you don't feel complete ownership over your femininity or your masculinity. It's kind of dictated to you. That can always be a strange experience. When I hit puberty I developed gynecomastia, which is man boobs, and that was like a physical manifestation of an insecurity with masculinity. Not that my insecurity gave me man boobs, but, you know. It's hard to assert a masculine identity when you're, like, Ow...my nipples! So I always kind of felt: Let me not try to be some idealized version of what a man is supposed to be, because it's not happening. I got titties, we gotta be real with ourselves now.
Even now, there's certain macho aspects of fitness that do not impress or excite me. The whole "exercising the weakness out of your body," or "pain is weakness leaving the body.” I'm here for fun and to be able to go up the stairs without running out of breath. Let's keep it in check.
Now that you're weight training do you encounter that particular brand of masculine energy more?
A lot of people will be, like, "Oh, you look like a man now. You're starting to look like a man." And it's, like...so what was I before? I was a child at 26? But it's cool. The other day I was in Williamsburg and this guy was catcalling a friend and I, like, bucked at him and he totally backed off. So now I know I'm getting pretty bulked. If the frat bros and the finance bros are starting to get scared, they don't wanna risk it? Now I know it's working.
Does that play into the way people often code you as straight when they first meet you?
Most PopularI've just become a different kind of straight person now. Before they were, like, "Oh, this is a straight guy who codes." And now it's "Oh, this is a straight guy who lifts." When people project it onto me, I love playing along. It’s like an acting exercise for me. If it's just a fleeting interaction like that, why not get some character acting in?
Do you keep any habits to take care of your mental health?
Mental health is such a precarious thing. You're always running a diagnostic of, what do I need to maintain or how do I level myself out? Good sleep hygiene has been a huge thing for me. Just trying to keep some sense of consistency, even when I'm on tour. It can be as simple as, I don't care how tired I am, I have to do my skin-care routine at night because that's my ritual way of signaling that we’re headed to bed.
Journaling really helps. When you get to a bad place, sometimes you turn around and you're, like, “Woah, I'm so depressed. Where did this come from?” With journaling you can trace it back and see, oh, this was really stressful, and then I reacted to it this way, and then this happened and then that. So it's easier to keep track. I also find that with exercise, I can exhaust myself to the point where I'm too tired to be anxious.
Read MoreThe Real-Life Diet of Anthony Anderson, Who's Getting Fit to Spite Will SmithThe actor and comedian took up Smith's 14-week fitness challenge just to prove he could do it without a trainer.
By Danielle Cohen
