Alan Cumming opens a bar intended only for kind people. | Dave Benett/Getty Images
Tony Award-winning vegan actor Alan Cumming won’t tolerate mean people at his bar – in his own words, “If there’s any unkindness, you’re out.”
The Scottish-born actor is the owner of Club Cumming, a nightclub located in NYC’s Lower East Side neighborhood, a pro-LGBTQ space that puts on drag shows, burlesque, and dance parties. Speaking to “Greater Boston” host Jim Braude, Cumming said, “I’m trying to create an atmosphere, I’m trying to create a place where people will have an experience.”
Braude describes Cumming as something of a modern-day Renaissance man: “Cumming is…an author, director, producer, a singer, an activist, and a businessman with his own NYC bar and bar of soap — named after him — plus he’s hosted a talk show, appeared in a Jay-Z video, advocated for Scottish independence, LGBT rights, Bernie Sanders in the 2016 presidential election — I’m running out of time.”
Cumming, who stars in the CBS drama “Instinct,” plays the first openly gay character on an hour-long American network series — a position he takes great pride in, as “Million and millions of people will have seen a same-sex couple for the first time … Just like them. And that’s how you change things.”
The actor ensured that there was vegan food on the set. “My immortal words: salad is not a vegan option,” he said last March. “Teamsters would come up from behind the truck and go, ’Alan, I just want to thank you for the vegan options.’ All of these secret vegans came out of the woodwork.”
The “Masterpiece Mystery!” host also uses his platform to highlight animal rights issues. His work includes collaborating with international animal rights organization PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) on the “Not a Dairy Queen” campaign to highlight the ethical issues behind dairy.
Cumming is also one of several celebrity investors in Outstanding Foods, makers of vegan “PigOut” bacon chips.
Club Cumming is open daily from 7pm-3am.
This post was last modified on August 24, 2021 4:46 pm