Feast Of Fun : Gay Talk Show

The early 90s was an exciting but difficult time to be a queer person in the United States. The AIDS crisis was still claiming so many lives and after 8 years of President Regan not even mentioning the word AIDS and 4 years of President Bush’s inaction, LGBTQ folks felt invisible, and our visibility was a matter of life and death.In the spirit of making a political statement, and shocking the squares, Joan Jett Blakk, backed by Queer Nation, launched her bid to become President of United States with the catchy slogan “Lick Bush in ’92.”This bold political performance art would had been just a delightful footnote in the history of queer activism until this year when Broadway director Tina Landau and Moonlight Oscar winner Tarell Alvin McCraney presented their new play, “Ms Blakk for President,” now playing at the Steppenwolf Theater.Today Terence Alan Smith, the artist behind the drag personage of Joan Jett Blakk joins us to talk about that amazing time when a black drag queen ran for President of the United S

Some names are just begging to be adopted by drag queens, kings and other colorful shape shifters: Robin Banks, Poo Ping, Ima Hogg, Peter Gozinya or Izzy Hung.So what happens when two drag queens in the same city come up with the same name at the same time? Who gets to keep the exclusive rights to the name?Today San Francisco drag queen Nicki J!zz, that’s Jazz with I, joins us to tell us how a queen came for her drag name while performing in one of Peaches Christ’s shows and how black drag queens and their allies are organizing to put pressure on gay bars to fight racism and undo years of harmful people and policies.NICKI J!ZZ: https://www.instagram.com/nicki_jizz/Plus--➤ Is Lady Gaga trying to kill us all?➤ Trans television and film pioneer Jen Richards gets cast as a detective in the new CBS series Clarice, based on Silence of the Lambs.THANKS TO OUR SPONSORS: ➤ Uniform Teethhttps://www.uniformteeth.comBook your free consultation, get $150 off with code FEAST150➤ SpanxSpanx is offering Feast of Fun listene

What they didn’t tell us in grade school about George Washington Carver is that he came across as unapologetically queer-Carver spoke to the flowers every morning, he shared a bed with his male lover and he rubbed out the sore muscles of college athletes with his therapeutic hot peanut oil massage.Today comedian Matt Brown joins us to look at the scientist and mystic, George Washington Carver- his pen pal friendships with married women, his romance with Tuskegee scientist Austin Curtis Jr and working as a nutritional advisor to Gandhi.Plus-➤ BLM, Stacy Abrams and Jared Kushner all get nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.➤ A team of social media influencers get arrested for turning the Hollywood sign into Hollyboob to raise awareness for breast cancer and themselves.➤ Dolly Parton turned down the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Trump twice.

For many folks Valentine’s Day is a special time to celebrate the ones they love, but the origins of this romantic holiday are anything but a box of chocolates.While it may seem like just another cash grab by candy manufacturers, Valentine’s Day began in Greco-Roman times as a sadomasochistic fertility ritual and nowadays it is responsible for a lot of horrific clickbait relationship advice articles on the Internet.Today Brian Sweeney joins us to take a look at the dark and gruesome origins of Valentine’s Day and all the outrageous romantic advice blogs post to coincide with the holiday.{Best of Feast of Fun, originally posted as FOF #2706 - The Horrific Origins of Valentine's Day - 02.14.19}

When life knocks you down, it’s hard to get back up, especially when you live in an oppressive place, your family rejects you for being gay and you’ve broken both your legs.For real estate entrepreneur Harma Hartouni, things weren’t always in the pink. Although he was born in the US, Harma was taken to live in Iran at a young age, and as a ethnic Armenian and a gay kid he felt he was at odds with the world around him.Thankfully after serving in the Iranian military, Harma got back to LA and started to feel his oats, or in his case feeling his tabbouleh.HARMA HARTOUNI: https://www.harmahartouni.comToday, Harma Hartouni joins us to talk about his new memoir, Getting Back Up: A Story of Resilience, Self-Acceptance and Success, which details his life growing up as a gay Armenian in Iran, moving back to LA to come out as gay and marrying his Disney Prince.Listen as Harma regales us about his adventures in being gay in LA and his early hilarious and endearing misunderstandings of gay culture.FEATURED BOOK:

With both Valentine’s Day and Groundhog Day, February has to be the sexiest month of the year, but also the most frustrating, after all, with the Covid pandemic raging, how are we going to get Cupid’s arrow to strike us in our little burrows as we self-isolate?Before Covid, many LBGTQ folks enjoyed a decade of fun thanks to PrEP, the daily pill regimen that effectively blocks HIV infections. But now the anxiety over HIV is being replaced by anxiety over Covid.It’s like we are all PrEPped up with nowhere to blow!Today healthcare advocate Michael Chancely, who recently took over running the PrEP Facts: Rethinking HIV Prevention and Sex group on Facebook, joins us to take a look at Valentine’s Day in the age of PrEP and Covid.Listen as we chat with Michael about the challenges we face confronting shame, how much sex is too much and how to get everyone onboard with the Covid vaccine.Plus --➤ Get those cookies Gaga, we take a look at Lady Gaga’s pink and green Oreo cookies.➤ Getting plowed in the snow.➤ Doja Cat’s

As the Covid pandemic enters its second year, we’re reminded about how vital our relationships with each other are and how much we miss human physical contact.Reach out and touch somebody's hand, but don’t breathe on them if you can!Today comedian Rachel Hall, host of the Hood Novel Book Club podcast joins us to take a look at the struggle people are going through not having hugs during the Covid Pandemic, and all the new TV shows folks are watching, including the Netflix series Bridgerton and what to make of the just announced Harry Potter series.RACHEL HALL: https://www.facebook.com/LikeRachelHallisFunnyUpdate: Fixed audio syncing issues. Plus--➤ Is Jane Krakowski biting the MyPillow?➤ Remembering talk radio legend Larry King and the art of the interview.➤ Lourdes Leon is reading folks to filth!➤ Feast of Fun celebrates our 17th season of podcasting with a new experimental episode: Feast of Fun Live!FOLLOW US ON STEREO: https://stereo.com/feastoffun

Patti Jenkins’ highly anticipated sequel to Wonder Woman promised that WW84 would be a tribute to the campy 1970s TV series, but instead we got a movie like the year 2020, full of confusion, chaos and general contempt for humanity.Wonder Woman 84 catches up with Princess Di 70 years after her boyfriend Steve sacrificed himself. She’s now working at the Smithsonian with Geologist, Gemologist, Lithologist and Part time Crypto-zoologist single white female Barbra Miverva who discovers a magic brown crystal that grants your heart’s desires.Wonder Woman smokes that crystal to wish her dead lover Steve Trevor back to life and Barbra wishes for the ability to walk around in purrrfect high heel shoes.And there's a Donald Trump/Tony Robbins villain who wishes to dominate the world.In press interviews, Patti Jenkins says she was paid 7 times less than other directors for the same type of move and that the film suffered because she wasn’t given enough time to make it.Today comedian and curmudgeon Brian Sweeney joins us

With so many talented people losing their jobs this past year, it’s hard not to think about the song “Music and the Mirror” from the musical “A Chorus Line” where Cassie begs to be given just a chance to work. All I ever needed is the music, and the mirror, and the chance to dance for you.The pioneering musical was created in New York City in the early 70s during an economic downturn when a lot of actors and dancers were out of work. When the performers showed up, many of them didn’t know that it would be a workshop where they’d be asked to bare their souls and turn their personal stories into what would become A Chorus Line.JOHN MARSHALL JR: https://www.facebook.com/john.marshall.9828Today actor, singer, dancer, model John Marshall Jr. joins us to take a look at the songs from A Chorus Line through his own experience in being in the legendary show and his career as a musical theater performer.Are the dancers really expected to learn all those moves in seconds? Is everyone beautiful at the ballet? What happen

People usually think that folks who are obsessed with the income of the guys they date are tacky, dismissing them as gold-diggers.But one of the most common reasons couples break up is because of financial hardship.Mo’ money brings mo’ problems, but being broke ain't one of them.Joining us today, is the Human Ken Doll-- Justin Jedlica, who despite his humble origins, personally financed all his plastic surgery and recently married a very wealthy man.Also joining us Jeremy Forse, who as J Citi-Fresh works as a male entertainer extraordinaire and model in Pittsburgh.{Best of Feast of Fun, originally posted as FOF #1926 - How to Marry a Rich Man - 01.29.14}

Flower power! Although they never identified as gay or straight, pioneering scientists Alexander Von Humbolt and George Washington Carver both wrote about their love of flowers and men. Also in the image collage is an awesome photo of anthropologist Margaret Mead with a parrot.It’s no secret that LGBT folks have had a profound influence on the arts but they’ve also had a tremendous effect on scientific discovery even though they often had to hide who they were.Today, we are joined by science journalist Vincent Gabrielle to explore the lives of extraordinary LGBT scientists who changed the world.It's a whole new generation! Science historian and lover of trees Vince Gabrielle directs pedestrians during an Americorps environmental restoration project. Photo: Tiffany Wong{Best of Feast of Fun, originally posted as FOF #2390 - Queer Science - 09.13.16}Listen as we take a look at: • Why so many places are named after explorer Alexander Von Humboldt. • George Washington Carver’s flower power. • How Leonardo Da Vinc

Comedian Pam Ann’s demented flight attendant persona harkens back to the groovy days of the airline industry when flight attendants wore sexy outfits and served up lavish meals to well dressed passengers.Since the pandemic, things have been tough for an entertainer like Pam Ann who gets a lot of energy from interacting with the live audiences who serve as her passengers on her wild plane ride.It’s hard to keep our favorite twisted flight attendant down, so Pam Ann is back performing her one stewardess show PAMDEMIC in Florida at Hunters NightClub, but instead of the normal 200 seat audience, each show is limited to just 56 people all wearing masks.Today Pam Ann, our sister of the friendly skies, joins us to take a look at how flying has changed during the pandemic, and the delicious irony of Republican seditionists who stormed the Capitol being put on the No Fly Lists.All the sex workers in Miami Beach are very glamorous and come with their own entourage.Plus--➤ Pam Ann’s early years in Australia performing w

It was the night the lights almost went out in Georgia, and the whole country for that matter, when on January 5, voters cast their ballots for who would control the Senate. Thankfully, the good people of Georgia broke with tradition and voted Democratic thereby rescuing us from certain facism.The next day, however, following the urging of President Trump, thousands of Republican with the help of local police, Republican congressmen and the FBI, stormed the Capitol building with one goal: to overthrow the Federal government.The whole reason why we’re not telling a different story now is because of Stacy Abrahms and thousands of people who volunteered to get Georgia to vote.Today therapist and relationship expert Damon L Jacobs joins us to talk about his adventures in getting folks to vote in the Georgia Senate runoff election that helped bring the country back from the brink of facism.DAMON L JACOBS: http://damonljacobs.comPlus--➤ Oscar the Grouch and Fran Leibowitz, why it’s so important to love the curmudge

Today we salute one of the leaders of the Civil Rights movement, a fabulous gay black man named Bayard Rustin- the chief organizer of the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.Sadly, Rustin is largely ignored in the history of equality in this country because of his sexuality, so today we also remember the importance of his influence on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and his desire for non-violent protest.{Best of Feast of Fun, Originally posted as FOF #1313 - Thank You Bayard Rustin - 01.18.11}

We were all hoping that 2021 wouldn’t be as terribly twisted as 2020, but in the first week of the new year we got rumors that Kanye West is dating Jeffree Star, Azealia Banks boils her cat, Armie Hammer is into cannibalism, the Gays over Covid scandal, Trump’s second impeachment and Republicans invade the Capitol building to overthrow Democracy.Did you just say Armie Hammer is into cannibalism? And you thought the intimate scene with a peach in “Call Me By Your Name” was too outrageous.Today we’re back with a vengeance to take a look at the truly twisted, outrageous news that happened over the winter break.Plus➤ Wonder Woman’s WTF1984.➤ America falls in love all over again with lesbian curmudgeon Fran Leibowitz.➤ Sex and the City gets a reboot minus Kim Katrall.➤ Happy Birthday to the last surviving Golden Girl Betty White turns 99.➤ Farewell to Joanne Rogers, the wife of Mister Roger joined her husband in the land of make believe she was 92.THANKS TO OUR SPONSORS: ➤ Uniform Teethhttps://www.uniformteeth.com

One of the most outrageous movie characters of all time is Faye Dunaway’s portrayal of Joan Crawford in “Mommie Dearest,” a movie based on the best selling tell-all book by Crawford's adopted daughter Christina.In the film, Joan Crawford is presented as a selfish, drunk, ego-maniac who terrorizes her children and fights with everyone in Hollywood all the while presenting herself as a cool, sophisticated movie star to the public.The film single handedly cemented Joan Crawford as camp icon for drag queens to emulate but is it a an accurate portrayal of the real Crawford?Today, we take a look at the person behind Hollywood legend Joan Crawford- did she actually say “Don’t’ fuck with me fellas!,” “I’m mad at the dirt!,” or “No wire hangers!?” Did she really write that letter complaining about Bette Davis’ gag worthy smell?Joining us is historian Bryan Johnson, who was inspired by Joan Crawford’s film “Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?” to create "The Concluding Chapter of Crawford," a website museum dedicated to th

Happy Birthday to writer and performer Dolores Deluce, who used to live with Divine, the drag queen from John Water's films and performed often with the San Francisco Cockettes. {Best of Feast of Fun, originally posted as FOF #1875 - Confessions of a Counter Culture Diva - 10.08.13}In the 1960s, Dolores Deluce was rejected by her family for giving birth to a biracial child, only to be embraced by a different kind of family.Her new family included Divine, the Cockettes, assorted Venice Beach bad boys, and her many loving gay “husbands.” Along the way she met many freaky celebrities like John Waters, Edith Massey, Rip Taylor and Joan Rivers, and was even crowned “Miss Alternative L.A.”Our guest today, Delores Deluce, was one of the few women to perform with the Cockettes, the highly influential theater group of hippie drag queens in San Francisco of the early 70s.A five-foot diva in six-inch heels, Dolores slept with many a gay man in the Bay Area during the free love era, mostly because they were all really, r

Happy Glitter Day Everyone! Here's our annual tradition of posting the original podcast episode that started the new LGBTQ centric winter holiday. Enjoy! Or don't. It's Glitter Day and you can do whatever your heart desires.{Best of Feast of Fun, originally posted as FOF #1292 - Glitter Day - 11.19.10}There are a lot of holidays during the winter months, with many annoying and bizarre celebrations taking up all our time. With Thanksgiving, to Three Kings Day, New Years Eve, New Years Day, Korean and Chinese New Years, Pagan Solstice, Groundhogs Day, Ramadan, Hanukkah, Boxing Day, Tet, International Sweater Festival, Festivus and yes even Kwanzaa, almost everyone has a special day to celebrate.Except LGBT folks. Sure we have National Coming Out day in October, Pride Month in June, Celebrate Bisexuality Day in September, International Drag Day in July and Fat Tuesday for the Bears, but if you take a close look at the winter months, we have nothing, and we receive it in abundance!So today we’re creating Glitter

No holiday puts it all out there like Christmas! When people from all kinds of cultures and traditions come together, the food, music and celebrations regardless of who you are can be marvelous.Today we wrap up our sixteenth season of podcasting with our holiday celebration: “Incredibly Strange Christmas Music, Vol.11”- wonderfully weird songs we think deserve a spot on your playlist this year.Listen as we dive into Pete Rodriguez, the godfather of Latin Boogaloo music, a fusion of soul, rhythm & blues and Caribbean music that captivated Harlem dance halls in the 60s and 70s and changed the musical landscape forever.Plus--➤ All new drag queen Christmas songs from Lady Bunny, Jinkx Monsoon and BenDelaCreme.➤ How Richard O’Brien wrote the Rocky Horror Show over Christmas and the release of of the 45 “Merry Christmas Baby” with the flip side song “Eddy’s Teddy” that he recorded with his then-wife Kimi, who also played one of the Transylvanians in the Rocky Horror Picture Show.➤ Bea Arthur’s “Life Day” song s

The last podcast we made in 2019, titled “A Christmas Apocalypse,” looked back on the terrible things that happened in the past decade that we didn’t want to see ever again.In 2020, we entered into a deeper level of hell where every day became an eternity-wildfires and hurricanes, systemic racism, a President endorsing facism and a global pandemic so grossly mismanaged it’s killed over 300,000 Americans so far.Boy were we naive!Today comedian Brian Sweeney, our very own Oscar the Grouch, joins us to look at 2020, the real year of hell, and this time, we really mean it.BRIAN SWEENEY: https://www.facebook.com/BriansDongListen as we look back on a nation divided, how fighting the Covid pandemic has been politicized and how the goodness in the heart of humanity will allow us to transcend even the most horrible disasters.Plus--➤ Celebrities in crisis: why did RuPaul, Ellen and Madonna shut down or delete their social media this year?➤ Australia is trying to kill you.➤ How early humans hibernated to survive.THANKS