This Week's Guest: Byron Lane
A well-told joke doesn't just have the effect of making an audience laugh -- it can also provide armor for the person telling it. My guest this week is actor and comedian Byron Lane, whose projects include the webseries Last Will and Testicle, and the stage show Tilda Swinton Answers an Ad on Craigslist. Through his work, he went from the kid who always wanted someone to protect him to a man who could protect himself through laughter.
Byron's show is coming to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, but first they're doing a couple of bon voyage/fundraiser shows in LA. Tickets are available: Fri 6/29 8pm & Sat 6/30 8pm at Casita del Campo.
We'll have that conversation in a minute -- but first, I want to let you know that I've just launched a new podcast along with some fantastically funny drag queens. It's called Queens of Adventure, and it's based on our live shows where drag queens play a real Dungeons & Dragons adventure. Queens of Adventure brings together larger-than-life drag shows and epic fantasy adventures, with the queens rolling the dice every other week to combat killer wigs, tame burly bears, investigate shady seamen, and misty step their way into your heart. Season One just launched -- head over to QueensOfAdventure.com to subscribe.
And if you're in Seattle, mark your calendars for June 21! We're doing our next live Dungeons & Drag Queens show at Kremwerk just in time for Pride. Tickets are now on sale at QueensOfAdventure.com.
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This Week's Recommendation: Last Will and Testicle
Thanks again to Byron for joining me. Head over to LastWillAndTesticle.com to check out his webseries, an autobiographical comedy about all the different stages of coping with a life-changing diagnosis. In bite-sized morsels, each little episode highlights the emotional impact that the news has on family and friends, and also the goofy ways that a cancer scare changes a person's life.
Over the course of two seasons, we see Bryon deal with denial, anger, bargaining, and the rest. He engages in dialogue with his balls. He processes his feelings with the help of a therapist, religious parents, and a boyfriend who is mostly just grossed out by the whole thing. And throughout it all, he seems mostly befuddled, since now matter how prepared you might be for a health crisis, it will always be larger than one person can handle on their own.
Look for cameos from Jonathan Van Ness, Drew Droege, Sam Pancake, and other usual-suspects. Although these familiar faces often pop up on various gay webserieses, in this context it's particularly comforting to recognize them. Health problems are scary, so it's nice to have family by your side -- whether it's biological family or a chosen gay family of the LA gay comedy scene.
Thanks again for listening.