Climbing a Mountain Every Day (Ep 395 - Stephen/Ballet)

July 28, 2022 Matthew Baume

Last 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 mention surprisingly hostile to sensitive young guys like him. The work took a heavy toll, and for a time Stephen found himself going down a dark path … until he found a way to change course and find the life he’d been looking for.

First, a quick reminder that I’ve got a weekly-ish newsletter that you can subscribe to at mattbaume.com. I’ll be sharing details there about my upcoming book about the history of gay characters on sitcoms. And I’ve got a YouTube channel where I post videos about film and TV history — I’ve got one this coming Sunday about Seinfeld’s “not that there’s anything wrong with that” episode — that’s at youtube.com/mattbaume.

Also, big thanks to everyone who supports The Sewers of Paris on Patreon! Patrons get hours of exclusive videos about super queer pop culture history, stickers and stuff in the mail, and shoutouts in the credits of YouTube videos.

Musical Theater on the Subway (Ep 394 - Brett/Broadway)

July 21, 2022 Matthew Baume

My 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 started a blog about their lives together before embarking on their latest adventure — raising a kid. I’ll be talking to Bret this week about his childhood in Texas, his viral video career, and a problem that he steadfastly ignored until it threatened to destroy everything — and next week I’ll have his husband Steven on to share his story.

First, a quick reminder that I’ve got a weekly-ish newsletter that you can subscribe to at mattbaume.com. I’ll be sharing details there about my upcoming book about the history of gay characters on sitcoms. And I’ve got a YouTube channel where I post videos about film and TV history — I’ve got one coming up about Seinfeld’s “not that there’s anything wrong with that” episode — that’s at youtube.com/mattbaume.

Becoming Real (Ep 393 - Wyatt/Velveteen Rabbit)

July 14, 2022 Matthew Baume

Before 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 news is that I’m getting better and will be back to my usual Sewers schedule soon. Thanks again for bearing with me while I get back on my feet and back to making podcasts.

You may recognize actor Wyatt Fenner from Gotham, Veronica Mars, Bones, or the movie Make the Yuletide Gay. He has a new film screening this week in Outfest called Chrissy Judy, which is all about what happens when you have to break up with a friend. It plays this Friday, July 15 at 7pm at the DGA in Los Angeles — tickets are available at Outfest.org.

This week we’re revisiting my 2018 interview with Wyatt, who as an actor is an expert at inhabiting personas and hiding behind someone else. But an accidental outing and a violent attack that could have killed him helped Wyatt realize who it really was that he was hiding.

We’ll have that conversation in a minute. First, a reminder that I’ve got a weekly-ish newsletter that you can subscribe to at mattbaume.com. And a YouTube channel where I post videos about film and TV history — I’ve got one coming up about Seinfeld’s “not that there’s anything wrong with that” episode.

About The Sewers of Paris

About Defining Marriage

About Matt's So-Cast Pod

Listen & Subscribe