Author JD Doyle (1981): "I Wanted to See Gay America"
DENNIS ANYONE? with Dennis Hensley
Release Date: 08/10/2023
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...
info_outline 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...
info_outline 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_outline Author Stan Zimmerman ("The Girls: From Golden To Gilmore") Part 2: "The Friggin’ White Board Scared The Hell Out Of Me"DENNIS ANYONE? with Dennis Hensley
Dennis continues his conversation with TV writer Stan Zimmerman, author of the memoir The Girls: From Golden to Gilmore. In Part 2, Stan talks about working on the Gilmore Girls and learning to write dialogue in the show's unique, fast-paced style. He also talks about the humiliating T-shirt gift he got from Roseanne and Tom Arnold while working on Roseanne, taking random meetings with icons like Diana Ross, Goldie Hawn, Joan Collins and Pia Zadora, being a judge/mentor on the Bravo reality show Situation: Comedy, getting into playwriting and directing theater later in his career and...
info_outline TV Writer & Author Stan Zimmerman (The Girls: From Golden To Gilmore) Part 1: "I Wanted To Be An Ernie Flatt Dancer On The Carol Burnett Show"DENNIS ANYONE? with Dennis Hensley
Dennis is joined via Zoom by television writer Stan Zimmerman to talk about his memoir The Girls: From Golden to Gilmore, which documents his career working on such iconic shows as Roseanne, The Golden Girls and Gilmore Girls as well as The Brady Bunch Movie and A Very Brady Sequel. In this first part of a two-part interview, Stan talks about his midwest upbringing and how his mother bought him the ballet shoes he wanted behind his father's back. He also talks about meeting his longtime writing partner Jim Berg, why they work wll together and how they landed a gig on the first season...
info_outline Actors Michael Sturgis & Sean Luc Rogers (Clarkston): "A Genuine Dinner at the Costco Food Court"DENNIS ANYONE? with Dennis Hensley
Dennis is joined via Zoom by actors Michael Sturgis & Sean Luc Rogers from the Echo Theater Company's production of Samuel D. Hunter's play Clarkston, which is playing at the Atwater Village Theatre in LA through October 21. Here's the synopsis: "Welcome to Clarkston, Washington, where Jake (Michael) and Chris (Sean) meet working the night shift at Costco. Jake, a middle-class, educated new hire who’s a distant relative of explorer William Clark, has fled his privileged life in Connecticut after being diagnosed with a serious illness. Chris, a would-be writer with a meth-addicted mom, is...
info_outline Actor-Singer-Influencer Garrett Clayton: "I Just Want To Be The Boy Version Of Thoroughly Modern Millie"DENNIS ANYONE? with Dennis Hensley
Dennis is joined via Zoom by actor-singer-dancer-influencer Garrett Clayton to discuss his new cabaret show Hero To Villain, which hits LA on September 19 and Palm Springs on September 21st. Garrett talks about the journey of the show, which takes the audience from Garrett's good guy role in Disney's Teen Beach Movie to his more recent stage work, playing villains in shows like It: The Musical and Excorcistic. He also talks about ditching his wholesome Disney image to play real life gay porn star Brent Corrigan in the 2016 film King Cobra opposite Christian Slater, James Franco and Alicia...
info_outline Happy Clothes filmmaker Michael Selditch: "With Pat, Nothin's Ever Too Much"DENNIS ANYONE? with Dennis Hensley
Dennis is joined via Zoom by filmmaker Michael Selditch to talk about his new documentary Happy Clothes: A Film About Patricia Field, which is all about the iconic stylist behind the clothes on Sex and the City, Emily in Paris, Run the World and The Devil Wears Prada. Michael talks about what inspired him to want to make the movie, how he got Patricia to agree to being documented and what makes her work so singular and fabulous. He also talks about interviewing such Field devotees as Sarah Jessica Parker, Kim Catrall, Vanessa Williams and Michael Urie. Other topics include: Field's long love...
info_outline Actor-Singer David Burnham ("Burnham Sings Buble"): "My Pants Were So Tight I Almost Passed Out"DENNIS ANYONE? with Dennis Hensley
Dennis is joined by singer-actor David Burnham to talk about his new cabaret show Burnham Sings Buble, in which he interprets the music of Michael Buble, singing hits like "Home" and "Everything" along with more obscure Buble gems. David also talks about his previous touring show, a tribute Tom Jones, which, in true Tom Jones fashion, featured pants so tight David almost passed out. David also talks about his career in musical theater, from being plucked from nowhere at 19 to take over for Donny Osmond in the national tour of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, to appearing in...
info_outline Still Working 9 to 5 Filmmakers Gary & Larry Lane: "Just Cuz You're Twins, Don’t Think You're Special"DENNIS ANYONE? with Dennis Hensley
Dennis is joined by two of the filmmakers of the new documentary Still Working 9 to 5, which is about the classic film comedy from 1980 and the ongoing movement for equality for women that the film depicted. Gary co-directed the film and Larry executive produced it. The twin brothers talk about how they first got the idea to make the documentary, the challenges of landing and scheduling interviews with stars Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin, Dolly Parton and Dabney Coleman, and how they were able to score a haunting new Kelly Clarkson-Dolly Parton duet version of the title song for their end credits....
info_outlineDennis is joined via Zoom by historian JD Doyle to discuss his new book, "1981: My Gay American Road Trip, A Slice Of Our Pre-AIDS Culture." The book is comprised mostly of diary entries JD kept during a road trip he took in 1981 that spanned 24 states,180 gay bars and lots of hot hookups. In the interview, JD discusses how his father encouraged him to take the trip after he got laid off of his chemical engineering job, the '77 Skylark he took the journey in by himself with no air conditioning, using his background in gay media to network and how the entire experience changed him. He also talks about the matter-of-fact way gay men would hook up back then, his attraction to clones and how you could send a message that you were DTF by unbuttoning the bottom button of your Levis 501s. He also talks about his work as a historian and the founder of the Queer Music Heritage radio show, which is how Dennis first met JD in 2000. Other topics include: how the specter of AIDS hangs over the book, staying at the Coral Sands hotel in LA, encountering icons like Vito Russo, Armistead Maupin, Liza Minelli and Sylvester while on his journey, falling in love with and in Houston, Texas and his obsession with sassy T-shirts.
www.jddoylearchives.org