DENNIS ANYONE? with Dennis Hensley

Dennis visits this Los Feliz home of documentarian Jeffrey Schwarz whose films include "I Am Devine," "Spinetingler! The William Castle Story," "Vito" and "Wrangler: Anatomy of an Icon." Jeffrey talks about his brand new film "Tab Hunter Confidential," which is having its world premier this month at the South by Southwest Film Festival in Austin. Topics include the thrift shop purchase that first...

From Dennis: For this special episode, I'm skipping my usual interview format and presenting and audio performance of my recently completed pilot script of "Misadventures in the 213," based on my novel of the same name.  The script recently landed me a spot in the WGA West's Writers Access Program, which showcases writers from diverse backgrounds--I ticked the gay box--and touts their work to show...

Dennis joins actor and writer Steven Fales on the stage of the Zephyr Theater in Hollywood where he had just performed his hit one-man show Confessions of a Mormon Boy. They discuss their shared Mormon background, what they loved about it and how Steven keeps his show fresh after logging 1,000 performances all over the world.  Steven also talks about his family's reaction to the show, performing t...

Dennis sits down with writer and actress Nora Burns, one-third of the sketch comedy group Unitard. She talks about their new show, "Unitard: House of Tards," the Madonna scandal she caused with her previous comedy group, The Nellie Ollesons and skewering people who live their lives on Facebook in the new show. She also talks about living in Maui and hating it, zipping around Manhattan on a Citibik...

Dennis visits the Weho apartment of stand-up comic and writer Guy Branum a few days before Guy heads to NYC to write for "Billy on the Street." Guy talks about graduating from law school but choosing comedy over law, his teenage crush on Mario Lopez, and what would most delight the small town farm kid he used to be about his life today.  He also opens up about working on Chelsea Lately, why he lef...

Dennis visits the West Hollywood home of costume designer Daniel Orlandi who is currently nominated for a Costume Designers Guild Award for his work on the HBO movie "The Normal Heart." He talks about the emotional experience of working on the project, putting Matt Bomer and Mark Ruffalo in the old Levis he'd been storing in his garage since the 80's. He also talks about all the huge stars he's co...

Dennis visits actress Maile Flanagan in the San Fernando Valley home she shares with her wife Leesa to discuss Maile's appearance in the February revival of Justin Tanner's stage smash "Voice Lessons" with Laurie Metcalf and French Stewart.  Other topics include growing up in Hawaii, Thailand and Germany, the fact that her father was a spy, her one-woman version of The Sound of Music, having tea w...

Dennis visits the San Fernando Valley apartment of the very funny stand-up comic, actor, musician and writer Julie Goldman, who's doing a show February 7 called "Take a Walk on the Softer Side" at the LAGLC's Renberg Theater.  Julie talks about her favorite sketches on "The Big Gay Sketch Show," appearing on Bravo's "The People's Couch" and her recent guest spot on "The Mindy Project."  She also t...

In this special Friday episode, Dennis visits the Los Feliz home of Daniel and Ben Barnz, the married couple behind the new movie "Cake."  Daniel (center in the photo) directed, Ben (left) produced.  They talk about how they met, how they work together without going crazy and how they used Scrabble tiles to create the name Barnz out of their original last names.  Daniel also discusses the elaborat...

Dennis sits down with actor Mark Indelicato who is best know for playing Justin Suarez on the ABC comedy "Ugly Betty" and recently appeared alongside Shailene Woodley in Gregg Araki's "White Bird in Blizzard." Mark talks about the coming out as Justin and in real life, adjusting to life after "Ugly Betty," and the cool stuff he took from the set on his way out the door.  He also discusses his expe...

Dennis visits the Los Feliz apartment of the hilarious Drew Droege, who is perhaps best known for his name-droppy viral videos as Chloe Sevigny.  Drew talks about the first time he performed on stage, doing drag with his dad in high school and working in the fish department of a grocery store. Also on the docket: working with Amy Poehler in a recent Old Navy commercial, meeting Chloe Sevigny after...

For his first show of 2015, Dennis sits down with comedy writer and stand-up comic Eliza Skinner who has written for Funny Or Die, Fashion Police and Totally Biased.  She talks about how moving to L.A. helped her career, the tweet that got folks all-riled up, the yogurt commerical audition she purposely blew and what it was like to get retweeted by President Obama. Also on the agenda, her fascinat...

Dennis brings 2014 to a close with a round-up of check-ins with past podcast guests Jackie Clarke, Patrick Tobin, Jack Kenny, Miss Coco Peru, Jack Plotnick, Glenn Gaylord and Danny Casillas.  Also included is a Dickie Goodman-style flashback from Dennis's childhood having to do with Star Wars and Farrah Fawcett...and Dennis's cover of the Sam Harris song "The Rescue," discussed in the Sam Harris p...

Name a kick-ass, quality TV show and Jeremy Podeswa's probably directed at least one episode: Game of Thrones, Boardwalk Empire, Walking Dead, The Newsroom, American Horror Story, True Blood, The L Word, Queer as Folk...and the list goes on and on.  He's also made his own films: Fugitive Pieces, Eclipse and The Five Senses, which won the Genie Award in his native Canada.  Jeremy recalls the show t...

After seeing a screening of the new Jennifer Aniston movie "Cake," Dennis tracks down its screenwriter Patrick Tobin to talk about the film and his whirlwind journey from unknown, unrepresented screenwriting contest enterer to produced screenwriter with a movie in the Oscar race.  It all turns into a bit of a therapy session for Dennis and is sure to inspire the writers out there tapping away in c...

Dennis visits the one and only Miss Coco Peru in her lovely San Fernando Valley home for an emotional rollercoaster of an interview.  Dennis shares the touching coincidence he experienced at Coco's February show "She's Got Balls."  He then pulls himself together to discuss other topics like Coco's origin story, her Terms of Endearment catharsis and the power of vulnerability. Her hilarious "Grand...

This week, Dennis welcomes film critic Alonso Duralde to the booth o' truth to discuss Alonso's oh-so-timely book "Have Yourself a Movie Little Christmas," a book all about Christmas movies; some great, some awful, classics and some you've probably never heard of.  Alonso talks about reviewing movies for The Wrap and What the Flick?, what it's like to co-host a movie review podcast with your husba...

Dennis visits Emmy-winning actor Leslie Jordan in his L.A. apartment on the eve of his one-man show "Fruit Fly" returning to the L.A. Gay and Lesbian Center's Renberg Theater from December 4th to the 21st.  The show's origins and the theme of a gay man and his mother are but one of the many topics on the agenda.  Leslie also tells wonderful and outrageous stories about his Emmy night nightmare, ho...

Dennis welcomes singer-songwriter and YouTube sensation Tom Goss to the breakfast nook just two weeks into Tom's relocation to L.A. from Washington D.C.  They discuss what it's like to be an independent musician in today's music business; what the day-to-day is like, what's great about it, what sucks and how you make money at it.  Tom shares inside scoop about his viral music video "Bears," his Tw...

Dennis joins actress-singer Kate Flannery in her gorgeous L.A. apartment that's straight out of a Barbara Stanwyck movie to discuss her lounge-singing alter ego Cassie Chew from the duo The Lampshades, who are currently gigging in LA.  Kate also talks about waiting tables at Kate Mantalini until getting her big break playing the boozy and floosy Meredith on the hit sitcom "The Office."  Other topi...

Dennis visits the Runyon Canyon home and office of filmmaker Randal Kleiser on the eve of his stage directing debut with The Penis Chronicles at the Coast Playhouse in LA.  Also on hand is the show's producer Greg O'Connor. Topics include the difference between directing for stage vs. film, finding the right group of Penis people, and whether or not the title character will actually appear in the...

For this pre-Halloween epsiode, Dennis heads to the Dunny-filled West Hollywood apartment of actor Danny Casillas to talk with Danny and his cohort in comedy Oscar Quintero about their show "Sketchy Queens 3-D", which opens Wednesday, October 29th at the Cavern Club Theater in Silver Lake.  They share the origin stories of their drag alter egos, Reba Areba (Danny) and Kay Sedia (Oscar) and discuss...

Dennis visits recording artist Matt Zarley in the backyard of his San Fernando Valley home to talk about Matt's new project, the upcoming musical short film "Hopeful Romantic", which co-stars George Takei and features the just-dropped single "Constantly." They also discuss Matt's childhood obsession with Captain & Tennille, performing on Broadway is shows like "Cats," "A Chorus Line" and "The Who'...

Dennis joins actress and writer Crista Flanagan in her Silver Lake apartment to discuss "The Garden Apartments", the new webseries she created and stars in about a desperate woman involved with a serial killer who's just been released from prison.  Also on the docket: Crista's last ditch attempt to make it as an actress that led to her 5 year-stint on "Mad TV," her unforgetable tractor-riding turn...

Dennis visits the Hollywood home of Del Shores, the playright behind such hits as "Sordid Lives," "Daddy's Dyin'...Who's Got the Will?", "Southern Baptist Sissies", "Yellow", and "The Trials and Tribulations of a Trailer Trash Housewife." They discuss Del's just-announced "Sordid Lives" movie project, memorable Olivia Newton-John encounters, writing on "Queer as Folk," how coming out affected his...