Actor-Writer-Producer Terry Ray: "I Was Secretary to a Dog and the Dog Fired Me""
DENNIS ANYONE? with Dennis Hensley
Release Date: 11/08/2017
Author Bruce Villanch ("It Seemed Like A Bad Idea At The Time"): "I Have A Nine Inch Tongue And I Can Breathe Through My Ears"
DENNIS ANYONE? with Dennis Hensley
Dennis is joined via Zoom and telephone by writer to talk about his new book It Seemed Like A Bad Idea At The Time: The Worst TV Shows In History And Other Things I Wrote. The book attempts to answer the question, "How did this project happen?" about such so-bad-it's-delicious shows like The Star Wars Holiday Special, The Brady Bunch Variety Hour, The Paul Lynde Halloween Special as well as the feature films Can't Stop The Music and Ice Pirates. Bruce shares stories about working with Florence Henderson and Robert Reed on The Brady Bunch Variety Hour and reveals the famous socialite...
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Playwright Audrey Cefaly & Actor Carolyn Messina (Alabaster): "I’m Very Serious About My Comedy"
DENNIS ANYONE? with Dennis Hensley
Dennis is joined via Zoom my playwright Audrey Cefaly & Actor Carolyn Messina from the play Alabaster, which is showing at the Fountain Theater in Los Angeles through March 30th. The play is a darkly Southern tale about a woman named June and her two goats who all survived an Alabama tornado and lived to tell the tale. June's sheltered world is rocked when a New York photographer named Alice comes to photograph her on her farm for an art project and a romance blooms. Oh, and one of the goats, Weezy (played by Carolyn) talks. In the interview, Audrey talks about how the play was...
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Author David Wichman (The Four Rooms): "I Think You're Great At Sex!"
DENNIS ANYONE? with Dennis Hensley
Dennis is joined via Zoom by author and sex worker David Wichman to talk about his new book The Four Rooms: An Inqueery On Sexual Freedom and Well-Being. David talks about why he wanted to write the book, the struggles he faced along the way to publishing it and how, once it was finished, he delighted in having AI read it to him in the plummy British voice of actor-director Richard Attenborough. David also talks about why he calls his book "a non-self help book," and how he tries in his writing and his sex work to create a place where gay men can take down their armor. Other topics...
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Excerpts from Dennis Hensley's The MisMatch Game: All Thorned Up Valentine's Edition
DENNIS ANYONE? with Dennis Hensley
This episode features excerpts from the February 8th performance of Dennis Hensley's The MisMatch Game at the Los Angeles LGBT Center's Renberg Theatre. The panelists are Danny Casillas as Reba Areba, Jackie Beat as Bea Arthur, Sherry Vine as Rue McClanahan, Melissa Peterman as Rena Z., Felix Pire as Antonio Banderas and Tom Lenk as Tilda Swinton. The questions cover everyone from Jonathan Bailey to Betty White to Benson Boone. The evening was a bizonkers blast and raised over $4,100 for the Center. After the MisMatch Game clips, there's a super-sized So This Happened...where Dennis talks...
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Margot Rose (Performer-Writer-Composer of the musical Unconditional): "I Had To Find a Purpose"
DENNIS ANYONE? with Dennis Hensley
Dennis is joined via Zoom by actor-writer-composer Margot Rose to discuss her new autobiographical musical Unconditional, which is playing at the Skylight Theatre in Los Angeles through March 9th. The play tells the story of how Margot became a mother of twins in her forties, got a divorce from her wife and then suffered an unfathomable loss in her sixties when her daughter Nora died suddenly in a car accident. The play asks the question: How do we, as human beings, go on after a devastating loss? Margot talks about feeling like her daughter Nora would have wanted her to create this play,...
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Actor-Writer Mitch Silpa (5 Game Shows & a Funeral): "For A Second, I Was Justin Bieber"
DENNIS ANYONE? with Dennis Hensley
Dennis is joined via Zoom by actor-writer Mitch Silpa to talk about his one-person show 5 Game Shows & a Funeral, which documents the five different times he appeared on TV game shows as well as how the appearances affected his family and the way he felt about himself at the time. The five shows he appeared on are well-known shows like Card Sharks, Scrabble and Shop Till You Drop and as more obscure shows like Grab Bag and Hollywood Showdown. He wins some, he loses some and he learns some. Dennis shares stories from various shows he appeared on--or attempted to--like Jumble,...
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Filmmaker Kyle Henry (Time Passages): Oh My God, Is My Mom Flirting With Me?
DENNIS ANYONE? with Dennis Hensley
Dennis is joined by documentarian Kyle Henry to talk about his film Time Passages, which he describes as "time traveling through his family's archive to try and understand my family and myself." Kyle himself appears on camera and so does his mother, who has dementia and is living in a nursing home when the film begins. Later in the film, COVID hits his mother's nursing home and Kyle worries that he'll never get to be in the same room with her again. Kyle talks about what the time was like and how he believes there is stull so much unresolved COVID trauma. Other topics include, gay boys and...
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THE YEAR IN MOVIES 2024 Part 2 w/ film critic Glenn Gaylord and actor-writer-film lover Drew Droege
DENNIS ANYONE? with Dennis Hensley
Once again, Dennis is joined via Zoom by Glenn Gaylord, Senior Film Critic at The Queer Review, and actor-writer-film enthusiast Drew Droege to talk about the movies of last year; their favorites, the moments that have stuck with them and the movies they just weren’t that into. The films discussed include A Real Pain, The First Omen, Conclave, Babygirl, Strange Darling, Maxxine, Late Night With the Devil, The Girl With the Needle, Flow, The People’s Joker, National Anthem, September 5, Saturday Night, Sing Sing, Green Border, Nickel Boys, No Other Land, Emelia Perez, I’m Still Here,...
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THE YEAR IN MOVIES 2024 Part 1 w/ film critic Glenn Gaylord and actor-writer-film lover Drew Droege
DENNIS ANYONE? with Dennis Hensley
Dennis is joined via Zoom by Glenn Gaylord, Senior Film Critic at The Queer Review, and actor-writer-film enthusiast Drew Droege to talk about the movies of last year; their favorites, the moments that have stuck with them and the movies they just weren’t that into. The films discussed include: Memoir of a Snail, Anora, Scrambled, Wicked, The Brutalist, The Fall Guy, The Substance, Challengers and Queer, which Drew plays a supporting role in. The trio also talks about what a great year it was for cinema generally and Drew shares memories of shooting Queer in Rome and explains that he...
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Filmmaker Luke Willis (Lady Like): "We Built An Ice Cave For A Hundred Bucks"
DENNIS ANYONE? with Dennis Hensley
Dennis is joined via Zoom by Luke Willis, the director, co-writer and co-producer of Lady Like, a new documentary about RuPaul's Drag Race Season 14 runner-up Lady Camden AKA Rex Wheeler. Luke recalls first meeting Rex through the San Francisco ballet scene where they both had danced professionally, then being knocked out the first time he saw Rex perform as Lady Camden, not knowing Rex had started pursuing drag. Luke talks about telling Rex soon after that first show, "Let’s make fun, campy, queer stuff together," and so they did. Their collaborations on short films eventually led to...
info_outlineDennis visits the Silver Lake apartment of actor-writer-producer Terry Ray to discuss his hotel room-set play "Electricity," which is currently playing to packed crowds in an actual hotel room at INNDulge in Palm Springs. Terry talks about what inspired him to write the play, how acting in an actual hotel room instead of a theater changed his performance, onstage nudity, aging four decades throughout the play and hanging out with his audience after around the hotel. Terry also talks about doing uncredited writing on TV movies and getting notes like "This is a comedy but it shouldn't be funny." He shares fun "Gilligan's Island" tidbits he learned from Dawn Wells while shooting the web series "She's Still On that Freakin' Island." He also talks about having "Too Close To Comfort" actor Jim J. Bullock as his real life wacky neighbor, manufacturing and selling toy Gaydar guns inspired by hie short film "Gaydar" and working with Loni Anderson, Charles Nelson Reilly, Ellen DeGeneres, Chris Rock. Other topics include: Terry's natural optimism, generating his own roles, outing himself on the game show "Scrabble," his lowest point professionally and the best thing he ever got for free; a trip of a lifetime to Africa. http://electricitytheplay.com/index.html
* Note from Dennis: I recorded this podcast with some new recording equipment that I mention in the interview...but I didn't get the settings right so the recording you're hearing is actually the backup recording I did on my phone... Working to sort out the bugs with the new equipment so I can make it sound as great as possible.