DENNIS ANYONE? with Dennis Hensley

Dennis is joined via Zoom by the filmmakers behind the new gay thriller  Ganymede,   Colby Holt & Sam Probst. The film is about a high school wrestling star from a strict Christian family who develops feelings for his openly gay classmate, which causes him to be haunted by a terrifying creature. The co-directors, who are also husbands, talk about where the original idea  came from, what it was lik...

Dennis connects via Zoom with musician Greg O'Connor to talk about his debut album The Place I've Never Been and what it's been like to venture out as a solo artist after decades of writing songs and scores for TV and movies. Greg talks about what inspired him to take such a big swing in his mid-50's, the artists that inspired him like Toto, The Beach Boys, Steely Dan and Bleu, finding collaborato...

Dennis connects via Zoom with Jeffery Bowman who is the founder and co-host of Legendary Bingo, a West Hollywood staple since 1998. Jeffery talks about the event's humble beginnings, how he enlisted the queen Belle Aire early on as his first drag co-host and how the event has raised over $9 million to date for countless local charities. He dishes about all the celebrities that have appeared at Bin...

Dennis is joined in person by author A. Ashley Hoff to discuss his new book  With Love, Mommie Dearest, his follow-up to Match Game 101 , which he discussed on the podcast a few years back. Ashley talks about why he wanted to write this book, what surprised him while he was conducting interviews and doing research and why be believes that Faye Dunaway, who plays screen legend Joan Crawford in the...

Dennis is joined via Zoom by L.A. theater director Bart DeLorenzo to talk about his newest production, Noel Coward's Design for Living at the Odyssey Theatre, as well as his career in general. Bart talks about why the 90 year-old play--about three young, struggling artists who can't seem to live without each other--seems so resonant in this moment. He also talks about his directing process, how he...

Dennis is joined via Zoom by Zach Meiners and Elena Joy Thurston, two of the three conversion therapy survivors profiled in the new documentary  Conversion , which was also directed by Meiners. (The third survivor profiled is Dustin Rayburn AKA Dusty Ray Bottoms from RuPaul's Drag Race). Zach talks about what inspired him to make the film, why he used detailed miniatures to tell the story visually...

Dennis is joined via Zoom by Argentine-born filmmaker Tomás Gómez Bustillo to talk about his delightful, three-time Indie Spirit Award-nominated film  Chronicles of a Wandering Saint , which was first mentioned on this podcast earlier this year when Drew Droege raved about it during our year-end movie wrap-up. The movie is about an elderly woman in a small rural town in Argentina named Rita ( Wild...

Dennis connects via Zoom with two of the people behind the play The Sandwich Ministry ; playwright Miranda Rose Hall and Armando Huipe, who is the Executive Director of the Skylight Theatre Company in Los Angeles where the show is running through July 7, 2024. The play is one of the best things Dennis has seen on stage in years. The story concerns three women, two of whom are queer, who gather in...

Dennis is joined via Zoom by film critic Alonso Duralde to discuss his new coffee table book  Hollywood Pride: A Celebration of LGBTQ+ Representation and Perseverance In Film. It's a beautifully written and designed book about at the history of queer people in the movies, both in front of the camera and behind the scenes. Alonso talks about the artists and films that weren't on his radar before he...

Dennis is joined via Zoom by actor Bryan Terrell Clark who plays a gay teacher "Mr. Tea" on the BET+ mystery-comedy series  Diarra From Detroit. Bryan talks about how he knew the show's creator and star Diarra Kilpatrick for years before working with her and how thrilled he was to learn she was writing the role of Mr. Tea with him in mind. He also talks about how he sees Mr. Tea as the Bea Arthur-...

Dennis is joined via Zoom by Christian McLaughin, author of the novels  Glamourpuss and Sex Toys of the Gods, to talk about his newest project; the play Trumpery, which is having its world premier at the LA Fringe Festival through June 28th. Here's the shows not-so-implausible premise: Ex-President Trump (Austin Walker) is running from the law on a yacht with his wife Melania (Lauren Howard Hayes)...

Dennis is joined via Zoom from London by K Anderson, host of the podcast Lost Spaces. O n its surface, the show is about lost queer spaces like bars and bookstores, but on a deeper level it about queer people discovering who they really are, often on a dance floor. K talks about how he first got the idea for the podcast, how doing it has changed his life, the workload of doing a podcast and why so...

Dennis is joined by author Carl Siciliano for Part 2 of their conversation about Carl's new book Marking Room and his decades-long career, fighting to protect the lives of LGBTQ youth in New York City. Carl talks about the most difficult part of writing the book; reliving the murder of his young friend Ali Forney. He also talks about the big themes he wrestles with in Making Room , specifically hu...

Dennis is joined via Zoom by author Carl Siciliano to discuss his new book Making Room: Three Decades of Fighting for Beds, Belonging and a Safe Space for LGBT Youth, which documents his founding of the Ali Forney Center in New York City in 2002 as well his many years at the Times Square youth center Safe Space before that. It was at Safe Space in 1994 that Carl met Ali Forney, a non-binary black...

Dennis is joined via Zoom by Capella Fahoome, a film producer who also works as what she calls a "Production Whisperer," which is a consultant who helps sets run more smoothly. Capella talks about how she first got into film, the rookie mistakes she made when she was first starting out and the difference between being a Set Whisperer and a Set Wolf . Dennis also talks to Capella about a Masters Pr...

Dennis is joined via Zoom by photographer and director Mike Ruiz to discuss his latest project, Vanessa Williams new music video "Legs," his long friendship with Williams and how he relates to the song's theme of being fabulous at any age. Meanwhile, Dennis recalls how he once asked Vanessa Williams to dance at a Halloween party in 1986 and she said no, she was taking a break. Mike also talks abou...

Dennis is joined via Zoom by Kevin Daniels and Logan Arditty, who co-star in the play Monsters of the American Cinema , which is produced by the Rogue Machine theater company and showing at the Matrix Theatre in Hollywood through May 19th. Dennis caught the play and was struck at the connection between the intergenerational pair who are the only actors in the cast. Here's the play's synopsis: "Whe...

For the 10th Anniversary of Dennis Anyone , Dennis flips the script and gets interviewed by one of his past guests, filmmaker and longtime Dennis Anyone listener Robert Chandler. This is Part 2 of their interview, in which Dennis recalls some of his most memorable interviews with folks like Leslie Jordan, Kate Flannery, Mitchell Anderson and Dick DeBartolo from Match Game and Mad Magazine fame. Th...

For the 10th Anniversary of  Dennis Anyone , Dennis flips the script and gets interviewed by one of his past guests, filmmaker and longtime Dennis Anyone listener Robert Chandler. Dennis recalls the beginning of Dennis Anyone , his first guests, why he does it and how it feels to have done 410 episodes. He also talks about why he likes interviewing people, how he sees interviewing as an art form a...

Dennis is joined via Zoom by filmmaker Brian Sloan whose 1997 gay rom-com I Think I Do is coming to streaming this month in a newly restored version. It's also being celebrated at a Newfest screening and cast reunion on April 15th at the BAM Rose Cinemas in New York City. Brian talks about what originally inspired him to write the movie, the thrill of arriving at set on Day 1 and seeing all those...

Dennis is joined via Zoom by filmmakers Monica Villamizar and Jordan Bryon to talk about their new documentary Transition, which Jordan is also the main subject of. Here's the film's synopsis:  Australian journalist Jordan Bryon gains incredible access to a Taliban unit during the fall of Afghanistan. The country ʼ s transition coincides with his own physical transformation as a trans man. While h...

This is a special crossover episode with the film podcast Linoleum Knife Presents More Linoleum Knife hosting by husbands and film critics Dave White and Alonso Duralde who Dennis has been friends with since the 1990s. They invited Dennis on to talk about one of his favorite movies ever, Xanadu starring Olivia Newton-John, Gene Kelly and Michael Beck. Dennis shares a slew of memories related to th...

Part 2 of Dennis's conversation with author Abdi Nazemian focuses on his latest book  Only This Beautiful Moment, which recently won the Stonewall Award from Young Adult Literature. Abdi talks about drawing inspiration for the multigenerational story from his own family, how he was able to write scenes set in Iran despite having left there when he was a child and the longing he feels for the count...

Dennis is joined via Zoom by author Abdi Nazemian ( Only This Beautiful Moment ) to discuss his previous book Like A Love Story , which is about three high schoolers in the late 1980's who are obsessed with Madonna. Dennis first met Abdi at a queer writers mixer and commented on Abdi's Madonna T-shirt. They discovered they were both big fans of Madge so it made sense to talk for the podcast after...

In this special episode of Dennis Anyone, Dennis is joined by five friends he's known since 1986 when he moved from Arizona to Los Angeles to take part in a 12-week long performing workshop put on by American Center for Musical Theater at held at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in downtown Los Angeles. This reunion meal happened in 2017 and was held at the Moorpark, CA home of Kristin Dahl and her h...