Feast of Fun: Gay Talk Show

Over the course of the almost 3,000 shows we’ve done at Feast of Fun, one of the entertainers whose life and career we’ve talked about a lot is someone who has struggled to free themselves from their oppressive family. Who is that? It’s Britney bitch! Now that Britney is free, what’s next for the Princess of Pop - will she seek damages against her parents? Will she have a big comeback or will she...

For as gay as the musicals on the Great White Way are, Broadway characters and their relationships are disturbingly straight. So when we get a character that openly queer, we celebrate it, even if it's Hitler. Of course we are talking about Roger Elizabeth DeBris, the over the top musical theater director who winds up performing the gay Hitler in the musical within the musical “Springtime for Hitl...

In the 80s, music was vital in bringing young people together in a spirit of rebellion and counterculture. Punk and post-punk was huge and Chicago had its fair share of awesome rockers, some of whom have been forgotten until now. Our story today begins with our neighbor and dear friend, Eric Clements, who discovered a giant box of cassette tapes at a thrift store. Among the massive collection of p...

Even though Lady Bunny is legendary for her outrageous song parodies and DJ music sets, those who follow her on social media have certainly gotten a taste of her passion for talking about politics and social movements. In fact, once you get Bunny started, just like eating, it’s hard to get her to stop. Bun-Bun can’t help herself when talking about: • Bernie Sanders, • Democrats, • Republicans, • B...

When Steve Burns unexpectedly left the children’s TV show Blue’s Clues it opened up some wild speculation among fans. Was it drugs? An illicit affair? Was he gay? How could he just leave us like this? For millennials, the show was a big part of their childhood, and like the passing of Fred Rogers from Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood or the death of Will Lee who played Mister Hooper on Sesame Street, S...

One of the strangest shows ever broadcast on TV is the Paul Lynde Halloween Special. The musical variety show featuring a campy highway pile-up of the top stars of the day with Margaret Hamilton reprising her Wicked Witch from the Izard of Oz aired only once on ABC in 1976. Today comedy writer Bruce Vilanch, best known for writing for the Oscars and for his appearance on Hollywood Squares joins us...

You’ve probably already heard about the controversy or even weighed in on Dave Chappelle’s final comedy special for Netflix, The Closer, where the comedy legend spends most of the hour taking an irreverent and critical look at the collective struggle of LGBTQ folks. Despite being a comedy special everyone loves to hate, Chappelle does bring up some wonderful sex positive material like wondering wh...

As LGBTQ people, we’re connected now more than ever before. We live together, we fight together and we ride together- that’s what inspired comedy writer Gabe Liedman to create Q-Force, Netflix’s new animated comedy series that takes us on an adventure with a team of queer super spies and their allies as they team up to fight evil, save the world in West Hollywood, all before Brunch. Starring queer...

The early days of the internet gave LGBTQ folks the unprecendted ability to take matters into their own hands, by creating blogs, podcasts, videos and music that spoke directly to audiences about their unique experience. We were no longer held back by narrow minded gatekeeper’s that kept the queer experience hidden from the world. Now it seems like everyone is a little bit gay and pop music is ver...

A recent survey in over 27 countries reveals that 1 out of 5 young people identify as LGBTQ+. Another survey from last year found that almost half of all youth in the UK dont identify as exclusively heterosexual. Watch out Daffyd! There’s more than one gay in the village. The new movie musical “Everybody’s Talking About Jamie” tells the true story of Jamie Campbell, a 16-year-old teenager who over...

Talk about your bombshells on bombsells! In her new memoir, Cassandra Peterson, better known as Elvira, the Mistress Of The Dark herself, opens up about her 19-year-long relationship with a woman. The new book "Yours Cruelly, Elvira" is now available everywhere, or through our link here: https://amzn.to/2XEsUNO Please enjoy this encore presentation of our interview with Cassandra Peterson, best kn...

The summer of 1969 was an extraordinary time- the Stonewall riots ignited the modern LGBTQ rights movement, astronauts landed on the moon, Woodstock shaped the anti-war movement and for Black folks in Harlem, it was the Summer of Soul. The Harlem Cultural Festival was a five week musical event featuring the top Black musicians of the time and was sponsored by the City of New York to quell social u...

The new biopic “The Eyes of Tammy Faye” is coming out this week. Based on the documentary of the same name, the new film revisits the rise and fall of televangelist Tammy Faye Bakker and her reinvention as a gay icon. At the time the scandals that surrounded Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker led to the collapse of their conservative million dollar tv media empire, so why were gay folks so eager to embrace...

One of the most brilliant comedians we’ve had the pleasure of working with in the past 16 years of doing Feast of Fun is Amanda Cohen. We met Amanda through a Craigslist Ad we placed for our live musical variety shows looking for a woman with a big personality and bosom to match. Often mistaken for someone else at her comedy shows, Amanda was known to our audience as Amanda Steinstein, a character...

After 40 years, ABBA, the Swedish pop group that dominated the charts in the 70s is back with a new album “Voyage” that’s already broken pre-sale records in the UK. The group also announced a tour featuring digital avatars of the band members that kicks off next year. The first two preview tracks from the album feel like a strange clone of ABBA, and the avatars of the disco supergroup are complete...

Comedian Martha Chaves once thought she’d become a nun so she could be around women and not have to deal with a family that expected her to like men. But when she became a refugee in Canada, after her native Nicaragua had a revolution, she was able to live her full lesbian fantasy in the nightclubs of Montreal. Ooh la la labia! Today comedian Martha Chaves joins us to take a look at all the things...

That didn’t take too long! After announcing last week that Only Fans.com would delete all the adult content on their site in order to comply with pressure from Mastercard and investors, the crowdsourcing platform reversed course and announced they will be allowing adult content after all and please don't go to other websites like y’all did with Tumblr, ok? Today we’re taking a look at the world’s...

For the first time in modern history we have huge numbers of out and proud folks who are looking forward to getting the most out of life. As the old saying goes, you’re not getting any younger. And that my friends is a marvelous thing. Today family therapist and PrEP enthusiast Damon L Jacobs joins us to celebrate as Feast of Fun approaches its 3000th episode and talk about what it's like to get o...

As we celebrate 16 years and 3,000 episodes of Feast of Fun, we’ve asked one of our all time favorite drag queen guests, Miss Understood, to join us to look back at the early years of drag on TV and film. In the 90s, Miss Understood was a regular on the daytime TV talk show circuit. When Sally Jesse Rafael or Geraldo Rivera wanted to showcase eccentric kooks from the New York City nightlife scene,...

We’re just crazy about Tommy Walton, who Chef Gordon Ramsay said was one of the most memorable people on his reality TV cooking competition MasterChef. But besides being a fierce queen in the kitchen, chef Tommy Walton also cuts it up in the sewing room as a teacher to the future Alexander McQueens of the world in the Fashion Department of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Today we chat...

With more and more young people identify as non binary and LGBTQ+, Hollywood is trying to tap into that youth market by going queer all of a sudden. The Muppets long relied on switching wigs and elements of drag, but now they are diving into the deep end of the pool with Gonzo comes out as non binary while wearing a dress, and Miss Piggy being a judge on Drag Race. Even Kermit is cross dressing as...

Comedian Robin Williams was so impressed with Marga Gomez that he called her the lesbian Lenny Bruce. It wasn’t long after that Hollywood cast her alongside Queen Latifah as a pair of scientists who dive deep - into the ocean to discover a buried alien spaceship in the film Sphere. The movie was released a year after comedian Ellen DeGeneres came out as gay and at the time it seemed Hollywood was...

It’s been a while since people crowded into a music festival, so you can imagine how folks in Chicago felt when they held their breath hoping Lollapalooza wouldn’t turn into Covid-palooza. Now Lolla couldn’t can’t cancel daCovid but it did cancel DaBaby for controversial comments he made about gay men and AIDS. Now he’s apologized and even come out with a music video, which is leaving cynics wonde...

Scientists can get a little freaky when the lab coats come off and the real hard work of gathering empirical evidence regarding sex and sexuality begins. Who knew science could be so sexy? Today Brian Sweeney joins us to take a look at some of the most memorable, wildest and hilarious scientific studies that we’ve reported on our show. Listen as we take a look at why guys care about their teammate...

At the height of the AIDS crisis of the late 80s, LGBTQ folks turned to creating art, performance and music to act-up, fight back and fight AIDS. One of the most powerful voices during the AIDS crisis was David Wojnarowicz, an artist and activist who combined punk music, graffiti, performance, painting and photography into a body of work that celebrated the outsider while speaking out against a ha...