Author Carl Siciliano (Making Room) Part 1: "I Could See That They Were Beloved"
DENNIS ANYONE? with Dennis Hensley
Release Date: 05/23/2024
Instagram Creators Eric Seppala (@olivianewtonjohnisadoll) and Ruston Harker (@dolldecree): "Playing With Dolls In A New Way"
DENNIS ANYONE? with Dennis Hensley
Dennis is joined via Zoom by two of his friends from the Xana-crew; Eric Seppala and Ruston Harker who have something unique in common. They both created passion projects during the pandemic involving Barbies and Instagram, which continue to today. Ruston's account is @dolldecree and it features short animated vignettes involving Barbie and her friends, saying pithy things and looking fabulous. Eric's account is @olivianewtonjohnisadoll and it's exactly what it sounds like. Using Barbie dolls, Eric has painstakingly recreated looks from Olivia's career; from her breakout days in the 1970's to...
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Author Brian Sonia-Wallace (The Poetry of Strangers): "I’m Like An Uber Driver For Your Emotions"
DENNIS ANYONE? with Dennis Hensley
Dennis is joined via Zoom by author and poet Brian Sonia-Wallace to talk about his book The Poetry of Strangers, which documents his adventures traveling the country as a typewriter poet-for-hire. He recalls the stunt that led to him first getting into public typewriter poetry when he declared during an open mic type show that he was going to make his rent money doing nothing but poetry. It worked...and led to his career as what he calls a "rent poet," which is like a rentboy but for poems. He talks about some of the places this vocation has taken him; from paid residencies at the Mall of...
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Author and Collector Bill Morgan (Collector's Guide To TV Toys & Memorabilia): "I Live Like This. This Is Every Day."
DENNIS ANYONE? with Dennis Hensley
Dennis is joined by one of his pals from the Xana-crew, Bill Morgan, who is the co-author of a book called Collector's Guide To TV Toys & Memorabilia 1960s & 1970s. The book features every TV tie-in toy you remember from your childhood and a bunch that you never even knew existed. Bill talks about first getting obsessed with collecting when his ex was given a set of Three's Company trading cards as a kind of gift. Seeing the cards were numbered Bill wanted to collect them all and a new passion was born. Bill talks about shooting the photos for the book himself while his...
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Actor-Singer Hugh Panaro (Man Without a Mask): “Darling, There Are Six Moments When You Have To Be Thinking With Your C@#k”
DENNIS ANYONE? with Dennis Hensley
Dennis is joined via Zoom by Broadway veteran Hugh Panaro to talk about his album and cabaret show Man Without a Mask, which is playing in Los Angeles on December 5th at the Catalina Jazz Club. Hugh talks about making the leap to recording and doing his own cabaret show after years of appearing on Broadway and on the West End in shows like Les Miserables, Sweeney Todd and Phantom of the Opera, in which he logged over 2500 performances as the Phantom. In regards to that show, Hugh talks about the mask itself, what it's made of, how it's maintained and how he feels about it. He also talks about...
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Actor Marc Samuel (The Merry Gentlemen): "I Call It The 'Hold In A Fart' Look"
DENNIS ANYONE? with Dennis Hensley
Dennis is joined via Zoom by actor Marc Samuel to talk about his two new Netflix projects; the holiday film The Merry Gentlemen and the Ted Danson comedy series Man On the Inside. The Merry Gentleman is like a holiday twist on The Full Monty with Marc playing a reluctant male stripper who, along with his pals, puts on an exotic male review show to save their small town theater. Marc talks about performing the various dance numbers, working opposite male lead Chad Michael Murray, getting in shape for the role and what it's like to work for Netflix generally. He also talks about Man On the...
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Alexis Spraic & Prudence Fenton from the documentary The World According to Allee Willis: "If It's Not Blowing Your Dress Up, Go Get Ice Cream"
DENNIS ANYONE? with Dennis Hensley
Dennis is joined via Zoom by two women from the documentary The World According to Allee Willis; director Alexis Spraic and Executive Producer Prudence Fenton who was also Allee's life partner. Allee Willis, who passed away on Christmas Day in 2019, is primarily known as a a songwriter (Earth Wind & Fire's "September" and "Boogie Wonderland," the Friends theme song, The Color Purple musical) but she was also an accomplished visual artist, collector of kitsch, wild party thrower and internet entrepreneur. Alexis talks about what drew her to Allee as a film subject, sorting through...
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Author David Ciminello (The Queen of Steeplechase Park): "Deep Inside Me Beats the Heart of a Bodacious Burlesque Queen"
DENNIS ANYONE? with Dennis Hensley
Dennis is joined via Zoom by author David Ciminello to discuss his delicious debut novel The Queen of Steeplechase Park which is the story of an irrepressible Coney island burlesque queen and meatball entrepreneur named Belladonna Marie Donato. David talks about how the character is inspired by his larger-than-life great aunt Emily who was, in fact, a burlesque performer on Coney Island and actually won a trophy for Best Bust for her 38 DDDs. David also talks about how he got the book published, how he chose the mouth-watering recipes that appear throughout the book and the spontaneous reading...
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Excerpts from The MisMatch Game: 20th Anniversary Show
DENNIS ANYONE? with Dennis Hensley
This episode features excerpts from Dennis Hensley's THE MISMATCH GAME: 20th Anniversary Edition which happened on September 28th, 2024 at the LA LGBT Center's Renberg Theatre in Hollywood. The super-sized panel consisted of Jackie Beat as Bea Arthur, Danny Casillas as Reba Areba, Daniele Gaither as Oprah Winfrey, Tom Lenk as Zooey Deschanel and Heidi Klum, Sam Pancake as Lucille Ball, Felix Pire as Ricardo Montalban, Chris Pudlo as Pee-wee Herman and Lory Tatoulian as Melania Trump. And the questions, which were pulled from past shows, featured Mariah Carey, George Takei, Oprah, Melania and...
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Actor-Producer Emerson Collins (Buyer & Cellar): "You Have To Celebrate The Rung Of The Ladder That You're On"
DENNIS ANYONE? with Dennis Hensley
Dennis is joined via Zoom by actor Emerson Collins who is currently starring in the one-man play Buyer and Cellar by Jonathan Tolins at the Whitefire Theatre in Los Angeles. The play is a "What if?" story about an underemployed actor who gets a job working in the mall in Barbra Streisand's basement. Emerson talks about what drew him to the play, shares his favorite moment in the show and recalls his harrowing first audition, which happened days after he had emergency appendix surgery. He also talks about working as a producer for writer-director Del Shores (Sordid Lives), getting discovered by...
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Author Frank DeCaro (Disco): "It Was About Fabulousness. Are You Fabulous?
DENNIS ANYONE? with Dennis Hensley
Dennis is joined via Zoom by author Frank DeCaro to discuss his gorgeous and glittery new coffee table book Disco: Music, Movies and Mania Under the Mirror Ball. Frank talks about why he wanted to write about disco, what makes a song a disco song, the MAGA-esque Disco Demolition riot that helped kill disco fever in the U.S. and the long list of unlikely performers who jumped on the disco bandwagon like Bill Cosby, Frank Sinatra, Ethel Merman and the cast of the TV cop show Barnaby Jones. Frank and Dennis also discuss their affection for disco fashion, from polyester shirts to Angels...
info_outlineDennis is joined via Zoom by author Carl Siciliano to discuss his new book Making Room: Three Decades of Fighting for Beds, Belonging and a Safe Space for LGBT Youth, which documents his founding of the Ali Forney Center in New York City in 2002 as well his many years at the Times Square youth center Safe Space before that. It was at Safe Space in 1994 that Carl met Ali Forney, a non-binary black young person who had been living on the street since they were 12. The pair developed a unique bond and when Ali was senselessly murdered by a gun shot to the temple, one of the ways Carl dealt with his grief is to start a new youth center specifically for queer youth and to name it after Ali. Carl talks about the capacity for love and unshakeable faith in God that made Ali so unique and recalls how he used Ali's memorial to get more media attention to the plight of the citiy's homeless queer youth. Other topics include: the day Tyra Banks showed up to walk the runway with Ali, dealing with unsympathetic and bullying politicians like Mayor Bloomberg and Mayor Cuomo, a moment of grace he experienced on a train back from Coney Island with several of his kids, how he ended up with a parrot that says "Sit your butt down" and his complicated journey with Catholicism. He also shares a story about Bea Arthur from The Golden Girls that's guaranteed to make you love her more than you already do.
https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/720043/making-room-by-carl-siciliano/