Feast of Fun: Gay Talk Show

In the comedy world, not everything is a laughing matter, especially when it comes to allegations of racism and sexual misconduct at one of the world’s most prestigious comedy institutions- Chicago’s Second City. Nineteen Second City black alumni including “Saturday Night Live” writer and performer Chris Redd, “Veep” actor Sam Richardson, “Late Night with Seth Meyers” writer Amber Ruffin and forme...

All types of men go to bathhouses for all types of reasons but mainly they go for sex. Ironically, for a closeted person, even though everyone is practically running around naked, a gay bathhouse becomes a very private sanctuary. Today, writer Terrill Aaron Closs puts everyone on blast as he takes us into the belly of the beast and shares with us his stories of working in a gay bathhouse in Atlant...

Make no mistake about it: Stonewall was a riot. Windows were broken, protesters were beaten and the neighborhood was trashed all to let the police and the mob controlled bars know that queer folks weren’t going to take it anymore. The following June, which is 50 years ago this month, those legendary riots were commemorated with LGBT marches that are now known as the Pride Parade. Here in Chicago,...

One of the most heartwarming reality TV shows on Netflix right now is the competitive floral design series, The Big Flower Fight, where 10 teams of plant enthusiasts are challenged to create larger-than-life plant and flower installations to win the top prize- Best in Bloom. On this reality TV show you’ll see massive beasts made of fruits and nuts, humans modeling flowery haute couture, and intera...

Drag: for some girls it’s not just a job, it’s an adventure. A revolution in drag is exploping thanks to the success of RuPaul’s Drag Race. Today we’re talking to three of the fabulous queens from the reality TV competition who all scored high in charisma, uniqueness, nerve and talent, and if you take the first letter of that list, these ladies give it in abundance! Join us as Mimi Imfurst and Ind...

Part 2 of 2. Can I get an Amen around here? Today is Part Two of our special with the fabulous queens from RuPaul’s Drag Race. One of the most controversial moments on the 3rd season of the reality TV show was the development of the factions created by the self-proclaimed “pretty” queens who called themselves “Heathers” and called the other contestants, who were not up to their standards as- “Boog...

The early 90s was an exciting but difficult time to be a queer person in the United States. The AIDS crisis was still claiming so many lives and after 8 years of President Regan not even mentioning the word AIDS and 4 years of President Bush’s inaction, LGBTQ folks felt invisible, and our visibility was a matter of life and death. In the spirit of making a political statement, and shocking the squ...

A Warhol inspired look of Marc Felion, Matt Brown and Fausto Fernós. Photo: Fausto Fernós. Comedian Matt Brown says it’s hard to be in an interracial relationship, with himself. He recently posted that “the black man and white woman that live in my head have been arguing this week” and it’s stressing him out. Part of him wants to visit the beauty salon and the other half wants to see the world bur...

A perfect friendship: Francois Clemmons and Fred Rogers’ friendship helped change the course of children’s television. (From left to right: Daniel Tiger, Francois Clemmons, Fred Rogers, Lady Elaine Fairchilde. Photos courtesy of Fred Rogers Center and Francois Scarborough Clemmons. One of the unexpected surprises from “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?” the documentary film on Mr. Rogers, was just how fie...

We've got a special show for you today, blues musician Gaye Adegbalola plays her greatest hits in our studio. She's wrapping up her farewell tour with her band Saffire and getting ready to work on a new solo album. Today Gaye is here to talk about her work in the civil rights movement of the 1960s, what drives her passion in music and why fighting shame is so critical for gay liberation. We first...

After auditioning for nine seasons of RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nina West was ready to throw in the make up smeared towel when she finally got that life changing phone call. We all could see it in her eyes on every episode of Drag Race “I can’t believe I’m finally here.” Nina went on to win people’s hearts and became Miss Congeniality. As one of the most generous drag queens on Drag Race, Nina West has...

Considering how important it is to give blood, every donor should be greeted with a pizza party when they give a pint of blood to a complete stranger. Instead, some blood donors still get turned away if they answer yes to being men who have sex with other men. Because the FDA already has a good handle on testing blood for HIV, you’re more likely to win the lottery than catch anything from a pint o...

With all the Rona Pandemic doom and gloom, Lady Bunny’s latest comedy special could place her in the category of essential worker for her fans even if others are asking, “haven’t we suffered enough?” With all the gloom and doom surrounding the Rona, Lady Bunny’s twisted humor makes her an essential worker. But then again, haven’t we suffered enough? Today, the deranged and demented Lady Bunny give...

Matt Alber’s music career exploded in 2009 after the video for his song “End of the World” got well over half a million hits. Since then, he’s gone the independent route, touring the country as a solo artist and sometimes as the featured singer with gay choirs. Today we are happy to present a live music session with with Grammy Award winner Matt Alber– playing music from his latest album Constant...

Mike Ruiz is a world renowned celebrity and fashion photographer who's worked with the world’s top brands and entertainers, but we’ll always know him best as the director of one of our favorite cult films, Starrbooty. A few years before Drag Race became a hit, Rupaul wrote and starred in Starrbooty, a sequel to the low-budget videos she made with her friends in the mid 80s that were sold out of sh...

Tick tock, you’ve been clocked… by a shark! If you thought Drag Race All-Stars was a treacherous tornado, wait until you catch Alaska Thunderfuck in The Last Sharknado: It’s About Time. Sharknado is the only sci fi film that dares to ask: what if killer sharks could fly around in a tornado? In the latest and quite possibly final installment of the series, The Last Sharknado: It’s About Time, one o...

One of our favorite tv shows from the late 70s was NBC’s Real People, a celebration of everyday people doing extraordinary things like a guy who ate soil, a one-legged man who ran across Canada and a couple who owned a roadside store that offered a million dollar pencil for sale. And a couple who tried to sell at their roadside store a million dollar pencil. Real People was by an ensemble that inc...

Comedy has an amazing power to heal, and Jackie Beat and Sherry Vine’s brilliant video series is getting us through the worst of the quarantine by bringing back to life some of our favorite sitcoms and campy film stars. From Joan Crawford chastising Christina via video Facetime, to Stephen King’s Carrie getting berated by her twisted Trump loving mother, Jackie Beat along with her pals Sherry Vine...

We recently saw Coco Peru’s sold out performance here in Chicago at Hamburger Mary’s and we can’t stop talking about how wonderful it is, but, unlike one exuberant fan who got tossed out of the audience, we waited until the show was over to express our feelings. Coco Peru’s new one drag queen show touches on some intense issues- living with regret, isolation, social media and aging. Amazingly, she...

Since the beginning of Hollywood, crossdressers have had their place in film as either a comedic foil or as a threatening monster. In mainstream movies like Mrs. Doubtfire and Tootsie, the straight men dress up in drag to win hearts or get a fabulous job but rarely do they show the boys dressing as girls just for the fun of it. Today, Miss Understood, one of the drag queens from the film Too Wong...

After Hattie McDaniel won an Academy Award in 1940 for her role in Gone with the Wind, it would be another 50 years before another African American woman, Whoopie Golberg in Ghost, would snatch an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress. And then it wouldn’t be until 2001 that a black woman, Halle Berry in Monster’s Ball, would win Best Actress. But what if you could go back in time and rewrite Hollywoo...

"Fashion experts may have told her What Not to Wear, but in the end Amanda Cohen was years ahead of her time." One of the biggest changes in the age of the Rona is our fashion. Folks are still trying to express themselves in their video teleconferences and sometimes the results are hilarious. As Heidi Klum says, “In fashion, one day you’re in and the next you’re out” but right now we aren’t even w...

During the times of ‘Rona we’ve been satisfying our craving for something frightening by watching Donut’s Scary Movie Night- a fabulous streaming and screaming web show where drag queen Donut McQueen gets high and comments on horror films. Donut recently streamed Cursed, horror film legend Wes Craven’s tribute to werewolves starring Christina Ricci, her forehead and a pantheon of mid 2000s celebri...

By special request, my friend Donut McQueen loves horror films with a gay twist, so we’re sharing this Best of Fun epsisode today! (Originally posted on 10.02.08) Peaches Christ at the Movies! Look out behind you! Do not go in there! Watch out! You always see it coming, but somehow, the victim in many horror films is always ridiculously unaware that they are about to be bludgeoned to death. Why is...

Pride may be postponed this year, but rainbows aren’t going anywhere. Besides being a symbol for celebrating sexual and gender diversity, rainbows are all about hope, and right now we sure could use it. One of the most timeless songs about rainbows is the Rainbow Connection, originally written for the Muppet Movie by Paul Williams and Kenneth Ascher, which over the years became a huge cover song b...