Dennis is joined via Zoom by four different guests, each of whom have products that are perfect for holiday give gifting. First up is Michael DeMartino from Pillow Top, a line of queer-centric pillows and accessories. Michael talks about why he went into pillows, the thrill of having his leather harness pillow featured on Netflix's How To Build a Sex Room and the sexy hunk bowling ball he designed himself. Next up is author Eddie Shapiro whose third book of Broadway interviews Here's To The Ladi...
Dec 07, 2023•1 hr 13 min
Dennis is joined via Zoom by Mark S. King for Part 2 of their conversation about Mark's new book My Fabulous Disease as well as his previous memoir A Place Like This . In Part 2, Mark talks about building massive box kites with his father, how his father encouraged risk-taking in life and how surviving the AIDS crisis prepared him to deal with his father's passing. Mark also talks about one of his most widely-read columns; about the popular 2004 bareback porn film Dawson's 20-Load Weekend and wh...
Nov 30, 2023•37 min
Dennis is joined via Zoom by filmmaker Billy Luther to discuss his film Frybread Face and Me , which comes out in select theaters and on Netflix on the day after Thanksgiving, November 24th. The film is a coming-of-age story set on the Navajo reservation in Northern Arizona and is based on Billy's own experience of going to stay with his grandmother on the reservation when he was about 11. Billy talks about the parts of himself that he put into his lead character of Benny, how he was able to ass...
Nov 22, 2023•42 min
Dennis 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...
Nov 16, 2023•58 min
In Part 2 of Dennis's interview with Dick DeBartolo, the writer talks about what it was like to juggle two dream jobs; writing for Mad Magazine and The Match Game TV show...at the same time! He also shares story after story of the good will he receives when a stranger finds out he's " Mad's maddest writer." He's gotten everything from airplane upgrades to house seats at a sold-out show. Dick also talks about his current work as a gadget expert on various TV shows as well as his own podcast The G...
Nov 09, 2023•53 min
Dennis is joined via Zoom by one of his heroes, comedy writer Dick DeBartolo who worked for both Mad Magazine and The Match Game TV show...at the same time! Dick talks about how he landed both jobs, how they actually complimented each other and what it was like to go back and forth between the two offices in Manhattan. Recalling Match Game , Dick describes how dry the questions were when he started and how it was his idea to make the questions silly, which basically saved the show. Dennis also h...
Nov 02, 2023•59 min
Dennis is joined via Zoom by Dion Labriola, the filmmaker and the subject of the documentary Dear Ike: Lost Letters to a Teen Idol , which is screening on World Animation Day on PBS SoCal and is also available for streaming on PBS.org. The movie documents Dion's teenage obsession with the child actor Ike Eisenmann from Escape to Witch Mountain and also a Doublemint gum commercial that was ubiquitous is the late 1970's. As a teen, Dion had a vision for an animated movie that he wanted to make and...
Oct 26, 2023•47 min
Dennis is joined via Zoom by actor-singer-writer-restaurantuer Mitchell Anderson to discuss his new autobiographical play Y ou Better Call Your Mother , which takes its title from something a producer said to him backstage after he came out publicly onstage at the 1996 GLAAD Media Awards. This was while he was playing a gay character on the hit TV series Party of Five and made Mitchell one of the first--if not the first--leading man types to come out as gay. It was a huge deal and Mitchell talks...
Oct 19, 2023•1 hr 21 min
Dennis is joined via Zoom by Ryan Raftery, the star and creator of Mother of the Year: The Kris Jenner Musical , the latest in his series of musicals about complicated celebrities. Ryan talks about what drew him to exploring Kris, the nine months he spent researching her, what surprised him in his research and the words of wisdom from Kris that he's taken to heart. Dennis and Ryan also discuss the Kardashians generally, with Dennis sharing his impressions of their appearances on Fashion Police w...
Oct 10, 2023•53 min
Dennis is joined via Zoom by cartoonist Carlo Quispe, one of the creators of Uranus Comics, who will be showing his work at the New York Queer Zine Fair on Saturday, October 7th. Carlo talks about when he first realized he could draw, winning a prestigious art contest as a kid with a little special help from mom and what it was like to move to the U.S. from Peru at 13. He also talks about his mentors and inspirations, the corner he often cuts in his drawing that comes back to bite him in the as ...
Oct 03, 2023•35 min
Dennis is joined via Zoom by singer and American Idol alum Jim Verraros on the day he releases his first new music in 12 years, a dance-pop single called "Take My Bow." Jim talks about what inspired him to step in front of the microphone again, how putting out music is different now than it was in the mid-2000s and why he loves a good double entendre. He also talks about his life post-Idol, being the first Idol finalist to come out, landing a record deal and and appearing in films like Eating Ou...
Sep 28, 2023•1 hr 10 min
Dennis is joined via Zoom by Leonard Hyman, the emcee and a story producer for the L.A. stage show Mortified. Mortified is a long running stage show where performers get on the mic and share things they created as kids or teens, like diary entries, poems, home videos, things that were never intended to be shared with a roomful of stranger. Leonard recalls how he first learned about the show then went on to perform on it multiple times. He also talks about how he's kept a diary for most of his li...
Sep 19, 2023•54 min
Dennis is joined via Zoom by filmmaker Sav Rodgers to discuss his documentary Chasing Chasing Amy , a coming-of-age story set again the backdrop of Kevin Smith's controversial 1993 film Chasing Amy, which is about a lesbian (Joey Lauren Adams) who falls in love with a straight guy (Ben Affleck). Sav recalls how the documentary sprung from a Ted Talk he gave called "The Rom-Com That Saved My Life," which was about how his adolescent viewings of Chasing Amy made him feel less alone at a time when ...
Sep 14, 2023•1 hr 18 min
Dennis is joined via Zoom by Tom Gustafson & Cory Krueckeberg, the men behind the new gay movie-musical, Glitter and Doom. Tom directs, Cory writes and edits and they produce together. The film is a loosely autobiographical love story between two young men, a broody down-on-his luck musician named Doom (Alan Cammish) and a sunny aspiring circus performer named Glitter (Alex Diaz) In the interview, Cory recalls how he wrote the script on his own and then presented it to Tom on their 20th anni...
Sep 05, 2023•1 hr 18 min
Dennis is joined via Zoom by author Manuel Betancourt to discuss his new book The Male Gazed: On Hunks, Heartthrobs, and What Pop Culture Taught Me About (Desiring) Men . In the book, which he describes as a memoir in essays about masculinity and desire, Manuel writes about such subjects as Ricky Martin's thirst traps on Instagram, Mario Lopez's wrestling singlets on Saved By The Bell , Antonio Banderas's tighty-whities in Law of Desire and why flamboyant Puerto Rican TV astrologer Walter Mercad...
Sep 01, 2023•1 hr 18 min
To promote this Saturday's Hot August Night Edition of The MisMatch Game, here are some clips from June's two Pride-themed shows. The panelists are Dante as Christopher Lloyd, Danny Casillas as Reba Areba, Richard Halpern as Austin Powers, Tom Lenk as M3GAN and Zooey Deschanel, Felix Pire as The Mad Hatter, Rebekah Kochan as Jennifer Coolidge, Jackie Clarke as Ginni Thomas, James Adomian as Elon Musk, Nadya Ginsburg as Cher, Lory Tatoulian as Queen Camilla & Marc Samuel as Morgan Freeman. Th...
Aug 22, 2023•1 hr 5 min
Dennis is joined via Zoom by actor-writer-director Craig Chester to discuss the upcoming 18th Anniversary screening of his gay rom-com Adam and Steve , which is happening on August 31st at the Mary Pickford Theater in Palm Springs. Craig shares memories of making the movie, including how he had to take over as director just a few weeks before filming, how he burst into tears after shooting the film's big, show-stopping western-themed dance number and what it was like to work with Malcolm Gets, P...
Aug 17, 2023•1 hr 21 min
Dennis 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, ...
Aug 10, 2023•59 min
Dennis is joined via Zoom by writer-performer Alex Alexander whose show Perception vs. Reality 101 returns to Los Angeles on August 12th. The show is about how sometimes the stories we tell ourselves about our lives and our pasts aren't actually true. Alex talks about getting inspiration for the show from her high school yearbooks, why she changed her name from Debra to Alex, getting caught up the Fatal Attraction backlash after changing her name to Alex and what her Southern Christian family th...
Aug 03, 2023•1 hr 7 min
Dennis is joined via Zoom by Andy & Danny Vallentine, the husband-and-husband team behind the new movie The Mattachine Family , which is about a gay male couple in L.A. and their multiple attempts to becoming fathers. Screenwriter Danny talks about getting inspiration for the script from his and Andy's real life journey. Andy talks about working with the stellar cast, which includes Nico Tortorella ( Younger ), Juan Pablo di Pace ( Fuller House ) and Emily Hampshire ( Schitt's Creek ). The p...
Jul 25, 2023•39 min
Dennis is joined via Zoom by Corey Sherman the writer-director of the film Big Boys , a delightful coming of age movie about a 14 year-old boy named Jamie who goes on a camping trip with his older female cousin and becomes infatuated with her hot bear of a boyfriend. Corey talks about where the idea for the story originated, exploring the theme of coming out to yourself long before you come out to anyone else and why unrequited crushes can be as formative and life-changing as full-blown relation...
Jul 18, 2023•37 min
Dennis is joined via Zoom by Marc Saltarelli, the director of the new documentary Studio One Forever, about the legendary Weho disco Studio One. Dennis is also joined by writer-performer Bruce Vilanch, who appears in the film and was a regular at the club back in the day. The pair discuss the colorful and sometimes controversial history of the club, the club's treacherous back stairs, and how Studio One is often thought of as a rip-off of Studio 54 but it's actually the other way around. They al...
Jul 14, 2023•32 min
Dennis is joined via Zoom by Rich Burns, the creator & star of the webseries The Disappointments , which is about three gay men in their late 50's who are dealing with the fact that their lives are not what they dreamed they would be, not even close. Rich talks about where the idea for the series first came from, the fun of writing Hollywood asshole characters, what fans can expect in Season 2 and how he came to act in the project after never having acting before in his life. Rich also talks...
Jul 11, 2023•1 hr 13 min
DNR STUDIOS hosts Romaine Patterson, Joselyn Contin, Derek Hartley, Ajay Sousa & Jonathan Valdez join host Dennis Hensley to play a special Summer Edition of You Don't Know My Life! Listen and laugh as the hosts serve up surprising and occasionally scandalous answers to the following questions: FIREWORKS STORY. GO. CONCERT STORY. GO and YOU FIND AN OLD PHOTO IN A DRAWER WITH THE WORDS "SUMMER LOVIN'" WRITTEN ON IT. WHAT'S THE PHOTO OF? The answers involve lesbian love, a male stripper coinci...
Jun 29, 2023•1 hr 2 min
Dennis connects via telephone with his longtime friend Jude Hopkins to discuss her new novel Babe In the Woods . Here’s the official blurb: After living in Los Angeles, Hadley Todd returns to her hometown in rural New York to write and be near her father. Hadley hopes to channel her recent L.A. heartbreak into a play about the last moment of a woman's innocence. But she seeks inspiration. Enter Trey Harding, a young, handsome reporter who is the perfect spark to fire up her imagination. In the i...
Jun 22, 2023•1 hr 27 min
Dennis is joined via Zoom from Mexico City by Saul Franco, the founder of Divercitours, an LGBT tour company based in Mexico City. Dennis took a one-on-one walking tour with Saul back in May of the city center and it was the highlight of his time in Mexico CIty. In the interview, Saul talks about how he came up with the idea of starting a tour company, learning things he never knew about his city during his research and his mission of leading his tours as if he were not just a knowledgable guide...
Jun 15, 2023•1 hr
Dennis shuts down Zoom for a change and ventures out into the world to meet playwright Eric Anderson in the lobby of his Burbank hotel. Eric and his husband flew in from Hawaii for the world premier of Eric’s play Back Porch . Back Porch is a gay twist on the American classic Picnic by the playwright William Inge, who was highly acclaimed and also very closeted. Eric talks about the real-life experience that inspired the play, which is that when he was 4 years-old, the film Picnic shot near his ...
Jun 08, 2023•34 min
Dennis is joined via Zoom by filmmaker Sam Irvin. Sam is the author of the memoir I Was a Teenage Monster Hunter , which is about his childhood obsession with horror movies and the interviews he conducted with horror personalities for his fanzine Bizarre . Sam talks about his Cinema Paradiso -esque childhood; working at his family-owned movie theater, having to change the marquee when he was afraid of heights, getting to take home the posters after a film’s run and cleaning up vomit after screen...
Jun 01, 2023•1 hr 19 min
Dennis is joined via Zoom from Puerta Vallarta, Mexico by writer-director-producer Robert Schrock to talk about Naked Boys Singing , the hit musical review he conceived, directed and co-wrote that is celebrating it’s 25th anniversary this year. Robert talks about how he got the original idea, what it was like to cast the show, how soon it would get the cast naked during the rehearsal process and why it was important to feature songs that dealt with serious topics like AIDS and romantic longing i...
May 25, 2023•52 min
Dennis is joined via Zoom by three of the talents behind the new play The Bottoming Process: playwright Nicholas Pilapil and actors George Salazar and Rick Cosnett. The play, which runs through June 12th at the Renberg Theater in Hollywood is a romantic comedy about two writers in different stages of their careers who fall in love and grapple with issues of race, sex and power. Nicholas talks about what inspired him to write the play, where the title comes from, how living all your life in LA ef...
May 18, 2023•44 min
