Betrayed by Books (Ep 385 - Fantasy novels/Oliver Darkshire)

April 28, 2022 Matthew Baume

My guest this week is Oliver Darkshire. As a young adult, he found himself drifting away from his friends, due in part to what turned out to be an undiagnosed illness that made it hard for him to participate in day-to-day activities. It was a fantasy novel that turned things around for him — a book that took an approach to sex that had never occurred to Oliver to seek out.

We’ll have that conversation in a minute. First, a reminder to head over to mattbaume.com to subscribe to my newsletter. And take a look at my YouTube channel for videos about film and TV history — I just posted a video about the show Dynasty. And head over to my Patreon to support The Sewers of Paris and watch hours of bonus videos about super queer pop culture — lately I’ve been posting behind-the-scenes looks at the making of Will & Grace.

Learning to be Myself More (Ep 384 - Live drag soap opera/Harold Slazer)

April 21, 2022 Matthew Baume

My guest this week is Harold Slazer, an actor-writer-director whose life was changed in an instant after a car crash and ensuing memory problems that left him unable to remember people, places, and his own work. He rebuilt his life and created a popular live show in New York called The Honeysuckles — a comedic hybrid of live soap opera and comedy cabaret — which nearly made its may into millions of American homes when it was adapted into a TV show at Fox. But there were a lot of obstacles to getting such a daring project on the air, which is why one of Harold’s memories from those days was hiding in a closet in full drag so Rupert Murdoch wouldn’t find him.

Watch The Honeysuckles pilot here: https://youtu.be/zTGq-4tn1BI

Oracular Garbage Pile (Ep 383 - James Bond/Andrew Wheeler)

April 14, 2022 Matthew Baume

This week sees the release of Love and War, a new comic book set in the competitive world of varsity tug-of-war and featuring a lovely upbeat queer romance. The author, Andrew Wheeler, was my guest on The Sewers of Paris back in 2018, and for this week’s interview we’re diving into the Sewers archives to revisit our conversation about awakening untapped courage with defiantly gay comic characters. Though his stories are swashbuckling, Andrew tends to live a more quiet and domestic life than his globetrotting heroes. But it was through his books that he was able to explore beyond the town where he grew up -- in literature and eventually in real life.

A Crew of Proto-Queer Boys (Ep 382 - Spice Girls/Little Miss Hot Mess)

April 7, 2022 Matthew Baume

My guest this week is the performer, author, and academic known as Lil Miss Hot Mess, who was fortunate enough to grow up with a proto-queer friend group that paved the way for a professional drag career. Over the years, what began as a hobby for Lil Miss Hot Mess gradually morphed into a method for grabbing attention at protests, a full-time job that included an SNL performance with Katy Perry, and then a PhD and academic study into the very nature of drag itself — and now most recently a picture book for kids.

We’ll have that conversation in a minute. First, a reminder to head over to mattbaume.com to subscribe to my newsletter. And take a look at my YouTube channel for videos about film and TV history — I’ve got a video coming this weekend about the show Dynasty. And head over to my Patreon to support The Sewers of Paris and watch hours of bonus videos.

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