Author Mark S. King (My Fabulous Disease): "I Grew Into My Top-hood"
DENNIS ANYONE? with Dennis Hensley
Release Date: 11/16/2023
XanaCrew Six-Pack: "We Feel Like Our Whole Lives Have Been Leading to This Moment"
DENNIS ANYONE? with Dennis Hensley
On the eve of Xanadu's 45th Anniversary, Dennis is joined by six of his fellow Xanadu superfans--the XanaCrew--to preview the events they have organized for this coming weekend in Los Angeles. The events include a sold out screening on Saturday, August 9th featuring a Q & A with Michael Beck and multiple muses...bookended by a tribute concert on Friday, the 8th and a picnic on Sunday, August 10 from noon to 3 at Pan Pacific Park. The six XanaCrew members who appear on the pod do so in pairs: singers Lisa Donahey and Eric Seppala sneak preview their ONJ/Xanadu tribute concert on Friday;...
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Happy & Gay Bonus Episode: I Am Here To Make Friends
DENNIS ANYONE? with Dennis Hensley
In this episode, Dennis describes reuniting with his former cruise ship dancing colleague Monica who he hasn't seen in 35 years, sings the praises of the HBO Max movie Mountaintop, the classic rom-com Pretty Woman and DTLA's Summer Dance Nights. He also talks about the importance of friendship in his own life and shares insights from the famous Harvard Study on longevity and well-being and touts the new crowdfunding pre-order campaign for his new party game Search Party.
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The Crazy Kids Behind XANADU: THE MUSICAL at The Wisteria Theater play You Don't Know My Life!
DENNIS ANYONE? with Dennis Hensley
There's a new theater company that opened about a mile from Dennis's home in North Hollywood called The Wisteria Theater and it's a magical place. The show that's currently running there is Xanadu: The Musical, based on the iconic Olivia Newton-John movie musical that Dennis has been obsessed with since 1980. In this episode, Dennis welcomes the team behind the show to play a couple rounds of his game You Don't Know My Life! The five guests are Renée Wylder (Producer and Wisteria Theater co-founder), acress Lexi Collins (Kira, Wisteria Theater company co-founder), actors Connor...
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Ellen Geer (Co-Director of Strife):"You Can Make Cities Out Of Mud"
DENNIS ANYONE? with Dennis Hensley
Dennis is joined via Zoom by actor-director-producer Ellen Geer who is the Producing Artistic Director of one of Dennis's favorite spots in Los Angeles, The Will Geer Theatricum Botanicum in Topange Canyon. Dennis has been going to see plays at the outdoor amphitheater since the early 90's and has seen Ellen perform in scores of shows there as well as seeing just as many that she directed and produced. This season, she co-directed the play Strife by Nobel Prize-winning writer John Galsworthy. The show, about a labor strike in rural Pennsylvania, was written in the early 1900's but feels like...
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Queer Authors Panel at Pride Live Hollywood
DENNIS ANYONE? with Dennis Hensley
A few weeks back, Dennis was invited to moderate a Queer Authors Panel at the first-ever Pride Live Hollywood festival. The panel was so fun, interesting and, in a few instances, downright dishy, that Dennis thought it would make a great podcast. The authors featured are Nancy Beverly (Shelby’s Vacation), Curtis Chin, (Everything I Learned, I Learned in a Chinese Restaurant), Jim Colucci (Golden Girls Forever), Frank DeCaro (Disco: Music, Movies, and Mania Under the Mirror Ball), Alonso Duralde, (Hollywood Pride), Rasheed Newson, (My Government Means to Kill Me), Mark B. Perry (And...
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Filmmaker-Performer Juan Pablo Di Pace (Before We Forget): "It's A Russian Doll Kind of Movie"
DENNIS ANYONE? with Dennis Hensley
Dennis is joined via Zoom from Los Angeles by Juan Pablo Di Pace, the writer, co-director and star of the new film Before We Forget. The film is about an Argentinian film director in his 40s named Matias (played by Di Pace) who's struggling to finish a movie he's making based on his first love, 25 years ago, when he was a student at an international boarding school in Northern Italy. The movie is inspired by Juan Pablo's own experience at the same school where they shot the film, the United World College in Duino, Italy. Juan Pablo talks about the challenges he faced getting the film made,...
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Writer-Director-Actor Leah McKendrick (Scrambled): "If Nothing Is Real, You Have To Be The Real Thing"
DENNIS ANYONE? with Dennis Hensley
Dennis is joined via Zoom by his dance class friend and rising star, writer-director-actor Leah McKendrick to talk about her breakout comedy from last year Scrambled as well as this month's reboot of I Know What You Did Last Summer, which she has a story credit on. Leah talks about how Scrambled was inspired by her own journey of freezing her eggs as single woman in her 30's, how she was able to get the film made, the challenge of wearing so many hats on the project and how audiences would often want to hold and comfort her after seeing the movie. She also talks about her realization that if...
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Filmmaker Fernando Andrès & Actor-Producer Jacob Roberts (Rent Free): "Film Is My Religion"
DENNIS ANYONE? with Dennis Hensley
Dennis is joined via Zoom by two of the men behind his favorite indie of the year so far Rent Free, co-writer and director Fernando Andrès and actor-producer Jacob Roberts. The film is about two queer, down-on-their-luck best friends Ben (Roberts) and Jordan (played by David Trevino) who hatch a plan to live rent free for a year in Austin, Texas--on friends' sofas or whatever they can fanagle--while they save up to move to New York City to pursue their dreams. Fernando talks about his goal of making a buddy comedy set in a bleak contemporary economic landscape focusing on a kind of queer...
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Author & Photographer Frankie Frankeny (Love: The Heroic Stories of Marriage Equality): "We Need To Go From Fear To Fierce"
DENNIS ANYONE? with Dennis Hensley
Just as we're hitting the 10th Anniversary of Federal Marriage Equality in the US, Dennis is joined via Zoom by Frankie Frankeny, the driving creative force behind the gorgeous and comprehensive new coffee table book Love: The Heroic Stories of Marriage Equality. Frankie recalls how she first became passionate about the cause of marriage equality decades ago, doing entensive research for the book and discovering stories she never knew before and her hope that the book will be available in schools so queer kids can learn their history in a way that her generation never did. She also talks...
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Documentary subject Kellie Maloney (Knockout Blonde): "I’ve Mixed The Good Of Frank With The Good Of Kellie And Became A Much Better Person"
DENNIS ANYONE? with Dennis Hensley
Dennis is joined via Zoom from Portugal by former U.K. boxing manager Kellie Maloney to discuss the new documentary about Kellie's life and transition Knockout Blonde: The Kellie Maloney Story. The film, which is now available on VOD, documents her previous life as successful boxing promoter Frank Maloney through her transition to Kellie in 2014 and its aftermath. Kellie talks about falling in love with boxing as a child, taking Lennox Lewis all the way to the Heavyweight Champion, how the physicality of boxing allowed her to vent the stress she was feeling inside and that time Frank...
info_outlineDennis is joined via Zoom from Atlanta by author Mark S. King to talk about his new book My Fabulous Disease: Chronicles of a Gay Survivor, which he describes as his "greatest hits" from years writing columns for outlets like Poz, Frontiers and Windy City Times. In the interview, Mark expounds on some of the experiences he shares in the book, like the time he won a car on The Price is Right at 18 while his 26-year old boyfriend cheered from the audience and his audacious, loud-and-proud coming out as a senior in high school in Bossier City, Louisiana. He also recalls the time when he was working at a gala event for the Shanti organization and his AIDS-stricken former boss, Daniel P. Warner, showed up with Miss America Leanza Cornett as his date, causing jaws to drop and tears to flow. Mark also talks about converting to Mormonism as a young man, largely so he could star in the musical Saturday's Warrior, how his jock brother David kept him from getting beat up at school and what it was like when protease inhibitors came out and changed everything. Other topics include: Mark's getting sober and finding out he's actually a nice guy, getting called out for his shallowness by his therapist, his column "Your Mother Liked It Bareback," which caused something of a furor and playing Trivial Pursuit with Rock Hudson before sleeping with him...and yes, there was a Doris Day question.
www.marksking.com