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 ...
Feb 06, 2025•1 hr 31 min
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 fo...
Jan 30, 2025•1 hr
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, q...
Jan 23, 2025•1 hr 21 min
Dennis is joined via Zoom by playwright and TV and film writer Steve Yockey to discuss Steve's latest play, Sleeping Giant , which is playing at the Road Theatre Company in Los Angeles. The play, which is about a group of people dealing with a mysterious lake monster, is Steve's way of exploring authoritarianism, a theme that is even more timely today than it was when he starting writing the play in 2018. Steve talks about his journey as a writer; from making the decision to abandon the business...
Jan 16, 2025•1 hr 12 min
For this special New Years episode, Dennis is joined via Zoom by his career and life coach friend Barbara Deutsch to do a podcast version of Barbara's famous year-end Completion / Creation Workshop. Barbara has been leading clients through this process for years--usually in groups-- and has graciously agreed to take Dennis through a version of the workshop on this podcast. The questions she has participants tackle are as follows: • What worked for me this year? • What didn’t work for me this yea...
Jan 03, 2025•55 min
In this special holiday crossover episode, Dennis Hensley pops in to the Derek and Romaine Show to talk about all things holiday-time; from gift giving to favorite traditions to decorating to Mariah. Happy Holidays! (Note from Dennis: I heard from a listener my audio is a little low in this ep. Sorry about that...it was mixed on their end and can't be fixed till after the holidays)
Dec 30, 2024•1 hr 4 min
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, E...
Dec 24, 2024•52 min
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 ...
Dec 12, 2024•1 hr 30 min
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 p...
Dec 05, 2024•1 hr 7 min
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 ...
Nov 27, 2024•1 hr 26 min
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 shap...
Nov 20, 2024•1 hr 18 min
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...
Nov 14, 2024•55 min
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,...
Nov 07, 2024•1 hr 1 min
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 que...
Oct 31, 2024•37 min
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 ta...
Oct 24, 2024•1 hr 11 min
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 ...
Oct 15, 2024•1 hr 29 min
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 sho...
Oct 10, 2024•1 hr 17 min
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 writi...
Oct 03, 2024•55 min
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 ...
Sep 26, 2024•56 min
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 s...
Sep 17, 2024•1 hr 3 min
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 Jes...
Sep 12, 2024•1 hr 7 min
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 Donn...
Sep 04, 2024•59 min
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 sco...
Aug 29, 2024•1 hr 7 min
Dennis is joined via Zoom by the filmmakers behind the new gay thriller Ganymede, Colby Holt & Sam Probst. The film is about a high school wrestling star from a strict Christian family who develops feelings for his openly gay classmate, which causes him to be haunted by a terrifying creature. The co-directors, who are also husbands, talk about where the original idea came from, what it was like to shoot the movie in Colby's hometown in rural Kentucky, how they came to cast the openly gay two...
Aug 22, 2024•57 min
Dennis connects via Zoom with musician Greg O'Connor to talk about his debut album The Place I've Never Been and what it's been like to venture out as a solo artist after decades of writing songs and scores for TV and movies. Greg talks about what inspired him to take such a big swing in his mid-50's, the artists that inspired him like Toto, The Beach Boys, Steely Dan and Bleu, finding collaborators on Facebook and Instagram and posing on a hillside with a piano and live bull for the album's str...
Aug 15, 2024•57 min
Dennis connects via Zoom with Jeffery Bowman who is the founder and co-host of Legendary Bingo, a West Hollywood staple since 1998. Jeffery talks about the event's humble beginnings, how he enlisted the queen Belle Aire early on as his first drag co-host and how the event has raised over $9 million to date for countless local charities. He dishes about all the celebrities that have appeared at Bingo over the years including Molly Shannon, Ed Asner, Paula Abdul, Richard Simmons, Seth Rogan, Lesle...
Aug 08, 2024•1 hr 16 min
Dennis is joined in person by author A. Ashley Hoff to discuss his new book With Love, Mommie Dearest, his follow-up to Match Game 101 , which he discussed on the podcast a few years back. Ashley talks about why he wanted to write this book, what surprised him while he was conducting interviews and doing research and why be believes that Faye Dunaway, who plays screen legend Joan Crawford in the film, is a "sorceress commanding the elements." He also recalls talking with Christina Crawford, who ...
Aug 01, 2024•1 hr 17 min
Dennis is joined via Zoom by L.A. theater director Bart DeLorenzo to talk about his newest production, Noel Coward's Design for Living at the Odyssey Theatre, as well as his career in general. Bart talks about why the 90 year-old play--about three young, struggling artists who can't seem to live without each other--seems so resonant in this moment. He also talks about his directing process, how he reads a play over and over and over again before he starts putting it on his feet and how he believ...
Jul 25, 2024•1 hr 17 min
Dennis is joined via Zoom by Zach Meiners and Elena Joy Thurston, two of the three conversion therapy survivors profiled in the new documentary Conversion , which was also directed by Meiners. (The third survivor profiled is Dustin Rayburn AKA Dusty Ray Bottoms from RuPaul's Drag Race). Zach talks about what inspired him to make the film, why he used detailed miniatures to tell the story visually and how when he was struggling with his sexuality, he always felt like "the worst person in every ro...
Jul 18, 2024•1 hr 13 min
Dennis is joined via Zoom by Argentine-born filmmaker Tomás Gómez Bustillo to talk about his delightful, three-time Indie Spirit Award-nominated film Chronicles of a Wandering Saint , which was first mentioned on this podcast earlier this year when Drew Droege raved about it during our year-end movie wrap-up. The movie is about an elderly woman in a small rural town in Argentina named Rita ( Wild Tales Monica Villas) who is so competitive with the other ladies from her church that she fakes a mi...
Jul 05, 2024•58 min
