Kyle Turner was one of those weird little kids whose tastes were more like those of a middle-aged gay man than those of his peers. He was raised on a steady movie diet of golden-age black-and-white comedies, and the resulting perspective that he gained set him apart from the other kids at his deeply conservative private school. He always believe...
2022-08-25 13:01:03 +0000 UTC View Post
Hello there! I'm still traveling, but here's another bonus video for you. This week we've got a strange mystery about an NBC executive who was supposedly killed
by a male hustler --a mystery that actually has a SOLUTION, unlike the generally wild speculation about Fran Drescher's connection to Seinfeld. Also: The unlikely connection betwee...
2022-08-21 13:01:02 +0000 UTC View PostMy guest this week was present for some of the earliest days of what we now recognize as reality TV — he helped produce Gay Riviera, a 2001 Bravo series about queer dating. Kevin Haddad never expected to find himself behind the scenes of a series that helped developed the rules of reality television — a few months earlier, he was a waiter at...
2022-08-18 16:00:07 +0000 UTC View Post
Hello there! I've got a whole bunch of fun stuff for you this week -- starting with a fabulous discovery about a Liberace biopic from the 1980s. You'll never GUESS who played his mother!!! Also I found some extremely fun interviews with Jonathan Harris, who played Dr. Smith on Lost in Space, and less notably Basil Bitterbottom on Un...
2022-08-14 16:01:02 +0000 UTC View PostMy guest this week is Chris Steadman, an author and professor and podcaster whose childhood obsession was very grown-up books about disasters. Even as a kid, he took a very serious view of the world, placing on himself the burden of understanding and — hopefully — findin...
2022-08-11 16:00:07 +0000 UTC View Post
Hello there! This week I've got a bit of a Seinfeld mystery, or a The Nanny mystery, or a little of each. At one point, Fran Drescher was hired to fill in for Estelle Harris, who played George's mother -- and although I'm very glad that she was the actress they went to, I can't for the life of me figure out how she wound up bei...
2022-08-07 16:01:02 +0000 UTC View PostMy guest this week — and apologies for the slightly late post, it’s been a busy week! — is Trung le Nguyen, author and illustrator of the award-winning book The Magic Fish, among many other graphic works. Trung’s family made their way to the US from a refugee camp, and he grew up obsessed with cozy picture books. A sensitive boy, Trung c...
2022-08-06 16:01:03 +0000 UTC View PostLast week I spoke with Bret Shuford, one half of the couple known as the Broadway Husbands. This week I’m talking to his husband, Stephen Hanna, about leaving home to pursue a ballet career and discovering just how physically grueling that world could be — not to menti...
2022-07-28 16:01:04 +0000 UTC View Post
Hello there! In this week's bonus video I've got some ~gossip~ about closeted public figures, and also EVEN MORE examples of gay Bruces -- including an interview where Stan Lee responds to the changing of Bruce Banner's name for the Hulk TV series in the 70s. Also! Thanks to folks who sent me examples of queerness in Hitchcock films, I've got a ...
2022-07-24 16:01:03 +0000 UTC View PostMy guest this week is Bret Shuford, one half of the couple that calls themselves the Broadway Husbands. Bret met his husband Steven while they were both working on Broadway, and they start...
2022-07-21 16:01:03 +0000 UTC View Post
Hello there! In this week's bonus video, I've got a few new clues about how "Bruce" became the name for all homosexual men. And also the story of the time that a group of lesbians got fed up with NBC airing a bunch of offensive stereotypes, and hatched a plan to infiltrate the network's headquarters and seize control of an office. It's like a sp...
2022-07-17 18:23:07 +0000 UTC View PostBefore we start this week, I want to thank you for your patience — as you might’ve seen, I’ve been recovering from a balance issue that left me in a state of constant dizziness. As a result I had to cut back on editing for a few weeks, since that involves staring at a screen full of objects constantly scrolling left and right. But the good...
2022-07-14 16:00:08 +0000 UTC View Post
Hello there! I had NO IDEA so many of you would be excited to talk about Charles Nelson Reilly after last week's video, but I'm so glad that you are. I've got a few more details about him for you this week -- I suppose I should put him on my list of possible future topics??? And I've also got some intriguing details about the episode of Sein...
2022-07-10 17:01:01 +0000 UTC View Post
Hello there! In this week's bonus video I have a real weird web of gay connections, from Ellen to The X-Files to The Simpsons and Seinfeld and Jack Benny shows of the 1940s. Also, another Seinfeld mystery to stack on top of last week's! And a super bizarre comedy-beauty show from the 1970s that I cannot for th...
2022-07-03 17:01:01 +0000 UTC View PostMaybe you’ve seen the new animated series on Netflix entitled Dead End: Paranormal Park, featuring a cast of queer characters working at an amusement park that might be a portal to hell. I spoke to the show’s creator, Hamish Steele, several years ago when his comic book Deadendia was in the early stages of being adapted int...
2022-07-01 16:01:04 +0000 UTC View Post
Hello there!
Well, we're wrapping up Pride month, or at least, the first Pride month of the year. Now it's time to get ready for Second Pride, which is July; and then Third Pride Month in August, Fourth Pride Month in September, etc etc etc.
I've got a bunch of fun stuff cooking for you in the next month -- it'll be a busy busy...
2022-06-30 17:55:15 +0000 UTC View Post
Hey folks! Hope you're holding up ok, it's been a tough couple of days.
This is Pride weekend in Seattle, and I've been wandering around through the noise & chaos & parties & protests -- all of which started, as I'm sure you know, as a furious riot at injustice, and continues to be an annual reminder that none of us is in any o...
2022-06-26 17:00:05 +0000 UTC View PostMy Sewers of Paris guest this week set himself a goal many years ago — to bring RuPaul’s Drag Race to Sweden, with an all-Swedish production, Swedish queens, and a Swedish host. Now it’s finally happening, thanks to my guest’s decade of work amidst international travel, seeking a country that felt like home, and meeting and fall...
2022-06-16 16:00:06 +0000 UTC View Post
Hello there!
Well this sure has been a weird week. If you haven't heard, I've been dealing with a bout of vertigo that's forced me to push back some projects, including this week's episode of The Sewers of Paris and a Modern Family video that I'd wanted to have out today. Apologies for having to delay those, and thanks fo...
2022-06-12 17:00:05 +0000 UTC View Post
Inquiring minds want to know: Is that big gay guy on Modern Family "swishy"? Is that okay to say? Better ask a heterosexual. A clip of her asking a very weird question (and also "what's it like to be homosexual?") await you in this week's bonus video! Also, the time Jesse Tyler Ferguson totally baffled an AP reporter by using the phrase...
2022-06-05 17:00:05 +0000 UTC View PostWelcome to June, Sewers of Paris listeners. Every year for Pride month, I like to revisit my conversation with a man whose tales of old queer New York are absolutely captivating. He earned the nickname Tree thanks to his six-foot-five stature, and he’s been a part of New York’s gay community going back to the fifties, when he didn...
2022-06-02 16:01:03 +0000 UTC View Post
Hi hello!
Welp, here we are, just one day away from Pride month, and you know what that means: Only 30 shopping days left until Wrath month. (Related: It's also time to start taking stock of which corporations switch their logos to rainbows just days after 2022-05-31 17:00:07 +0000 UTC View Post
Hello there! In this week's bonus video I've got a fun Popeye/Bluto romance (thanks to Trevor for sending that to me). Also a sneak peek at my upcoming video on Modern Family, including a very sweet speech from Jesse Tyler Ferguson, during which he gets so choked up that Debra Messing appears to give him a hug, which is one of her powers. Also, ...
2022-05-29 18:10:57 +0000 UTC View PostMy guest on this week's Sewers of Paris podcast is the fascinating Terrence Smith, also known as Joan Jett Blakk, a drag performer who ran for mayor of Chicago in the 90s, and after that, President. Terrence has some incredible stories about growing up in Detroit, seeing David Bowie and The Supremes perform live, sneaking onto the floor...
2022-05-26 16:00:08 +0000 UTC View Post
Hello there! For this week's bonus video I'm visiting a place I've long heard of, The Outside, with my friend Ollie (a dog). I've got stories for you about a ~forbidden~ commercial that the cast of Will & Grace recorded; an interview with the guy who cancelled Ellen (the first time); and an incredibly dirty joke that Debby Reynolds told when...
2022-05-22 17:01:01 +0000 UTC View PostThere’s a new book out this month about the history of The Women’s House of Detention, a women’s prison that was located just across the street from The Stonewall Inn, that played a role in the 1969 uprising, and that for better or worse shaped queer culture in New York’s iconic gayborhood.
The author, Hugh Ryan, was my guest on
We’re in the midst of Eurovision right now, the extravagant celebration of over-the-top music and outrageous costumes and, every now and then, taste. Eurovision is a great big ball of fun, and it was the subject of the very first episode of The Sewers of Paris. This week, we’re revisiting my 2015 interview with Jānis, who on this very show ...
2022-05-13 00:06:25 +0000 UTC View Post
Good afternoon or whatever! I'm chugging away on a video about Will & Grace and wanted to share some more fun discoveries with you, including the time the actor who played Will said that he wanted his character to date Brad Pitt, and instead wound up dating Max Goof. Also! I stumbled across a VERY unexpected animated opening for a f...
2022-05-08 17:00:04 +0000 UTC View PostMy guest on The Sewers of Paris podcast this week is Alejandro Varela, who was a mostly-closeted college student when he left the US for a semester in Spain. There he was able to start fresh, come out, and explore queer culture — with a little inspiration from filmm...
2022-05-06 16:01:05 +0000 UTC View Post
Well hello! In his week's Bonus Video we're looking at the reasons why all four lead actors on Will & Grace initially declined their roles and we nearly had an EXTREMELY different show. Also: How David Hyde Pierce, fresh off an Emmy win for playing Niles on Frasier managed to singlehandedly nominate Sean Hayes for an Emmy t...
2022-05-01 17:01:03 +0000 UTC View Post