Filmmaker Peter McDowell ("Jimmy In Saigon"): "I'm a Big Tracker-Downer"
DENNIS ANYONE? with Dennis Hensley
Release Date: 06/16/2022
Boots Writer & Producer Greg Cope White: "Believe In The Story You Want To Tell"
DENNIS ANYONE? with Dennis Hensley
Dennis is joined via Zoom by Greg Cope White to talk about the Netflix series Boots, which is based on Greg's memoir about joining the marines as a young gay man The Pink Marine. Greg talks about the long journey of getting the show on the air, working with his mentor Norman Lear on the project, the thrill of finally having it out in the world and the amazing reactions he's gotten from viewers all over the world. He also talks about working in Hollywood at 65, how wonderful it is to have out gay actors playing the gay characters on Boots, what the show has to say about modern masculinity...
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Author Brian Schaefer (Town & Country): "I’m Very Excited That It’s A Physical Thing Now That’s On My Own Bookshelf"
DENNIS ANYONE? with Dennis Hensley
Dennis is joined via Zoom from Manhattan by Brian Schaefer to talk about his wonderful debut novel Town & Country. The book is about a congressional election in a small rural town called Griffin between Chip Riley, a conservative bar owner who's lived in Griffin for decades, and Paul Sands, a young ambitious liberal gay man who bought a house in Griffin with his rich husband about a year earlier. Brian talks about taking inspiration from the Hudson Valley town where he and his husband have had a second home for 12 years, the long road to getting the book published and how it feels to...
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Actor and Interior Designer Francisco Chacin (Matlock): "Oh, I Have To Go Be Mean To Kathy Bates"
DENNIS ANYONE? with Dennis Hensley
Dennis is joined via Zoom by actor and interior designer Francisco Chacin who plays Beau Bridge's fastidious assistant Stuart on the hit CBS drama Matlock. Francisco talks about the thrill of booking the gig, getting paid to be mean to Kathy Bates, basing Stuart on certain "clipboard gays" he's observed in the real world and his dream that maybe Stuart can coach pageant contestants as a side business. He also talks about growing up in Venezuela then moving to Canada with his parents, at 20, when the political situation in Venezuela got too dangerous. He recalls his bold decision to leave a...
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Filmmaker Yen Tan (All That We Love): "Just Be Grateful That You’re Still Doing It"
DENNIS ANYONE? with Dennis Hensley
Dennis is joined by filmmaker Yen Tan whose latest movie All That We Love starring Margaret Cho and Jessie Tyler Ferguson is opening Outfest Next this week and hitting cinemas and streaming soon after. The film is about a woman in midlife who loses her dog and how she carries on after that loss and how she manages the relationships in her life, including her grown daughter, gay best friend and estranged ex-husband. Yen talks about the real life experiences that inspired the film, shooting in Los Angeles after making most of his previous projects like Ciao, 1985 and Pit Stop in Texas. Other...
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Writer Dennis Osborne & Author Barry Joseph (Matching Minds With Sondheim): "He Had The Youngest Energy Of Anyone In The Room"
DENNIS ANYONE? with Dennis Hensley
For the second part of Dennis's conversation with Matching Minds With Sondheim author Barry Joseph, Dennis invites his old friend Dennis Osborne to join the Zoom. Dennis was a good friend of Stephen Sondheim's for the last 35 years of his life and spent a lot of time playing games with him. In this conversation, Dennis and Barry talk about Sondheim's obsession with computer games like OXYD and Myst, that time Sondheim was on Password and crushed it, Sondheim's feelings about the escape room craze and they both delight each other with show-and-tell moments. Other topics include: Stephen...
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Author Barry Joseph (Matching Minds With Sondheim): "This Whole Book Was a Puzzle For Me To Solve"
DENNIS ANYONE? with Dennis Hensley
Dennis is joined via Zoom by Barry Joseph, author of the new book Matching Minds with Sondheim, which is all about the legendary Broadway composer and lyricist's love of puzzles and games. Barry talks about being inspired to write the book in 2022, a few months after Sondheim's passing, and how writing the book became like a puzzle for him to solve. He also talks about his love of Sondheim's musicals, from listening to the West Side Story cast recording as a kid to going to see Passion on Broadway during its first previous (and not appreciating it much at the time.) He goes into detail about...
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Candied Camera Live! Creator & Star Nora Burns: "I Don't Let People Go"
DENNIS ANYONE? with Dennis Hensley
Dennis is joined by his queer sketch comedy queen friend Nora Burns to talk about her new stage show Candied Camera Live!, which is based on a real public access TV show she produced and hosted back in the 1990s. Nora talks about the material on the show that would definitely get her cancelled today, using a sex club with a camera in it as a studio and thinking for decades that the Candied Camera tapes been lost forever only to find they had been donated to a NY library and she could access them Nora also shares her excitement about returning to LA for the first time since before the...
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Poet Steven Reigns (Outliving Michael): "I'm Comforted Every Time I Remember Him"
DENNIS ANYONE? with Dennis Hensley
Dennis is joined by his friend Steven Reigns to talk about his new collection of poetry, Outliving Michael, which is about a friend of Steven's named Michael Church who died of AIDS in 2000. Steven talks about meeting Michael first as his drag persona Blanche before getting to know him out of drag and becoming close friends. Steven reads several poems and talks about what made Michael so unique, from his withering wit to his love of gay nightlife (Michael was a bottle boy at Studio 54 for a summer) to his support of Steven as a writer. Steven also talks about what it was like to be a caretaker...
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My Buffet-Style Birthday Bonanza
DENNIS ANYONE? with Dennis Hensley
In this special Birthday Crossover Episode of Dennis Anyone and Dennis Hensley's Happy & Gay, Dennis breaks down his five days of birthday activities, which included two films (Almost Famous & Magnolia), one museum excursion (the Queer Lens exhibit at the Getty Center), one game day at Lawless Brewery and one marvelous outdoor play; Wine in the Wilderness by Alice Childress at the Will Geer Theatricum Botanicum. Dennis also sings the praises of the returning TV shows The Morning Show and English Teacher as well as his friend David Kittredge’s wonderful new feature film documentary...
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A Jaded Gay Podcast Host Rob Loveless: "I Hope It's Creating a Conversation"
DENNIS ANYONE? with Dennis Hensley
Dennis is joined via Zoom by Rob Loveless, host of the A Jaded Gay podcast and one of Dennis's fellow nominees for Best LGBTQ Podcast at this Sunday's Podcast Awards. Rob talks about what inspired him to start the podcast, why he loves doing it and how he balances it with going to grad school and working full time in the corporate world. He also talks about deciding how open to be when it comes to sharing details about his life. Other topics include: crying on the pod, having killer seats to Kylie Minogue, the difference between a Demon Twink and a Chaotic Twink, why he starts every episode by...
info_outlineDennis connects via Zoom with filmmaker Peter McDowell whose documentary Jimmy In Saigon is showing at the Frameline Film Festival in San Francisco on Sunday, June 19th at 1:15 PM at the historic Castro Theater and will be available to stream nationwide through Frameline.org from June 24th to 30th. The Frameline program describes the film this way: "When his golden-haired, blue-eyed brother Jimmy mysteriously died in Vietnam in 1975, gay filmmaker Peter McDowell was just a kid, growing up within his family’s veil of silence. As an adult, armed with a video camera, Peter embarks on a quest to uncover the possibly queer brother he never knew." He talks about the 12-year odyssey he embarked on to make the movie, the use of animation in the fim, what his family thinks of the finished movie and Jimmy's quest to "explore hedonistic pleasures like never before." Other topics include: taking Uber motorcyles in Saigon, the regular Zoom meetings he has with groups of documentarians that keep him motivated, why the movies All That Jazz and Hair rocked his world, feeling connected to Harvey Milk, his ex-boyfriend-turned-Executive Producer Dan Savage, coming out in the mid-80's, his tips for tracking down people in other countries who haven't been heard from in decades and the beauty of brutal honesty.