When funny-man Drew Carey was asked why he chose to perform during Aspen Gay Ski Week, he quipped: “Who doesn’t like gay skiing?!”

Carey is performing tonight at the Wheeler Opera House as a part of Aspen Gay Ski Week, which is celebrating its 36th anniversary this year. Proceeds from the event will go to a variety of nonprofits including the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network, the Trevor Project, which provides crisis intervention to at-risk youth, and the Western Colorado AIDS Project, among others.

Carey has had a successful career as a comedian since he began performing stand-up in the ’80s. In 1995 he landed his own sitcom called The Drew Carey Show, which ran for nine seasons, and in 2007 he replaced longtime game-show host Bob Barker on The Price is Right.

Hosting The Price is Right satisfies his soul more than anything else, he said via email.

“I love that people have a place to just feel unbridled joy,” he wrote.

The game show frequently features audience members in hysterics over the possibility of winning appliances and cash prizes with Carey at their side.

Carey also loves visiting Aspen, he said. This past summer while vacationing in the area, he went on a run and crossed paths with a bear, he said.

“That never happens in Cleveland,” Carey said of his native city.

He wished he had time during his short stay to visit the medical marijuana dispensaries, he added.

Carey doesn’t plan on changing his act, despite performing as part of gay ski week, he said.

“I don’t think it will matter at all so I’m not even thinking about it actually,” Carey said of performing in front a gay audience.

And for those who are curious, Carey himself is straight.

Tickets to the show are available through aspenshowtix.com and the Wheeler box office. General admission tickets cost $55 and VIP tickets go for $65.

dorothy@aspendailynews.com [1]