FRANK MAYA, was born on this date (d: 8/7/1995); Maya was a comedian and performance artist who was one of the first out gay male comics to gain a foothold in mainstream stand-up comedy. Mr. Maya was a high-energy, hyperanimated performer who affected a sardonically hysterical tone on the stage. He was born in Queens and reared in Babylon, L.I.

After graduating from Hofstra University in 1972, he began his career as a singer, songwriter and poet, appearing extensively in clubs around Manhattan. He also appeared in John Jesurun’s avant-garde theater serial, “Chang in a Void Moon.”

By the 1980’s, he had redefined himself as a performance artist delivering musically inflected solo monologues that he called “rants.” Three shows — “Frank Maya Talks,” “Get Out of the House” and “Unauthorized Autobiography: An Outing for the Whole Family” — were presented in New York spaces that included LaMama, Performance Space 122, the Kitchen and Alice Tully Hall (as part of the Serious Fun series at Lincoln Center).

He performed pop parody songs, kvetched about the ever-impossible New York dating scene, and raged against celebrities like Liberace, who “could’ve helped so many people” by coming out. He wanted to be one of those people who helped — a visible gay person with a national platform, and in fact, he almost was.

In the early 90’s, Mr. Maya redefined himself again as an openly gay stand-up comedian, and he became the first such comedian to appear on MTV’s “Half-Hour Comedy Hour.” He also starred in his own half-hour special on the Comedy Central network.

If Maya lived big as an artist, he had even bigger plans for the kind of public figure he was set to become. If he had ever made it on Johnny Carson, Bassichis says, Maya’s plan was not to demure about his sexuality — as was the norm for his closeted contemporaries. “I have a boyfriend and his name is Neil Greenberg,” he planned to say.

It’s easy to take it for granted today, but at the time, the candor alone was transgressive. Case in point: at the climax of the show he related a joke about coming out to his father. “When I came out, my father said he’d do anything to cure it,” Maya would say. “Dad, I told him, the only cure for being gay is fame.”

He died of AIDS-related heart failure at his parents’ home in Manhattan. He was 45.