The Sewers of Paris

My guest this week had his big screen debut alongside Adam Baldwin and Matt Dillon in 1980; made a career getting gays online with PlanetOut in the 90s; and today work for TED Talks, bringing together who are doing, as he describes it, some of the weirdest work in he world. Tom Rielly’s had a lot of jobs, and one of the constants has been figuring out new ways to bring audiences along for an unpre...

For this week’s Sewers of Paris , I’m chatting with four Oz superfans about their intense connections to films like The Wizard of Oz , books like Return to Oz , and adaptations like Wicked . These conversations are all part of my new video about Oz and queer culture that just went live on YouTube — check that out at YouTube.com/mattbaume . In this episode, you’ll hear from writer and artist Terry...

To mark the recent release of the second Wicked film, for this week’s episode we’re revisiting my 2020 interview with Dee Michel , author of the book Friends of Dorothy: Why Gay Boys and Gay Men Love the Wizard of Oz . Dee’s book is an in-depth examination of queer Oz fandom, which for him has its roots in happy memories of watching the movie with his dad. Dee grew up in the 1950s with the threat...

I am delighted to welcome back a friend of the Sewers , film critic and holiday aficionado, Linoleum Knife ’s Alonso Duralde . His book, Have Yourself a Movie Little Christmas , is now out in a revised and updated edition, gathering even more expert recommendations for holiday films to enjoy this season and year-round. We chatted about how Christmas movies have changed since he wrote the first edi...

The second of the Wicked films comes out later this month, and so for this week’s episode we’re jumping into the Sewers archives to hear my 2017 chat with Tony winner Stephen Oremus, who was the music director for Wicked on Broadway and conducted the orchestras for the two Wicked films. He was also music director for the Academy Awards, taught Idina Menzel how to sing “Let it Go,” and worked on ev...

My guest this week is Trung Le Nguyen , author of the new graphic novel Angelica and the Bear Prince . Trung’s books emerge from his lifelong love of fairy tales, some of them quite dark, and also his fascination with people figuring out how to take care of each other.  We’ll have that conversation in just a minute. First, a quick heads up that I have a new YouTube video out about Frankenstei...

My guest this week has been giving a lot of thought lately to what he was born to do. Wellington Love is one of the producers of the new documentary I Was Born This Way , which tells the story of Archbishop Carl Bean. That might not be a household name, but you’re certainly familiar with his work and the people he’s influenced — from his pioneering activism around HIV/AIDS, and also his musical ca...

My guest this week is Jim Farmer , festival director of Atlanta’s Out on Film fest. Jim’s a longtime arts reporter in Atlanta, though he got his start in journalism doing just-the-facts newsgathering — a beat that bored him to tears, until he decided to take the reins and create his own career doing what he loved. We’ll have that conversation in just a minute. First, a reminder that for the entire...

Now that we’re in October already, it’s a fine time to reflect on the uncanny grasp that horror has in the hearts of so many queer people. So for this week’s episode, we’re heading into the Sewers archives for a chat with director Jeffrey Schwarz, for whom horror is just one small slice of the story. Jeffrey’s made a lifelong study of film, starting with an early job editing the documentary The Ce...

My guest this week is writer Mark Waddell. His novel, Colin Gets Promoted and Dooms the World , comes out next week on October 7 — a queer story about an office worker whose career advancement involves world-ending consequences. There’s an autobiographical edge to the story, since in his real life Mark had a dream job going back to childhood… and it was only after he achieved it that he realized j...

As you may have seen, I have a new video premiering this weekend about the 1985 film Kiss of the Spider Woman , which features an iconic performance from a then-obscure actor named Raul Julia. Thanks to my research into Raul’s career, I’ve had another of his iconic roles on my mind lately — that of Gomez Addams in the Addams Family films.  So for this week’s Sewers of Paris , we’re diving int...

My guest this week is David Secter. As a student in the 1960s, David bluffed his way into getting equipment, money, and crew to make a groundbreaking queer film called Winter Kept us Warm . And despite the fact that he went in with zero filmmaking experience, the movie wound up becoming the first English-language Canadian film to screen at Cannes … and went on to inspire the work of many other fil...

I’m chatting this week with two guests: TV producer David Moor and historian Dr. Lee Arnott of the delightful podcast The Problematic Gaze — that’s “gaze” as in an intent stare, though they’re the other kind of gays as well. David and Lee both grew up in small towns where it felt like life would never begin, but the lure of London called them to greater, gayer things…as did their passionate fandom...

My guest this week is the Reverend Joseph Peters-Mathews, the vicar of St. Hilda St. Patrick Episcopal Church in Lynnwood Washington. Joseph’s path to the clergy took him from the small-town South to New York City, along the way developing a love for musical theater that he puts to work in his sermons … and that inspired him and his husband to propose to each other. We’ll have that conversation in...

I have two guests on this week’s Sewers of Paris , both of them connected to a secret society of mutants. JP Karliak is the voice of Morph on X-Men ‘97 , among many other roles; and Anthony Oliveira is a writer of many Marvel comics, among many other books. I spoke to them both about why the X-Men hold particular importance for them — part of my research for a new video about the 2000 X-Men films....

My guest this week is David Duffield, who simultaneously lives in the past, the present, and the future. David’s work as a historian excavates queer histories that had previously been withheld from public view. It’s a project that gives those of us alive today a connection to the lives of people who came before us. And it’s inspired, in part, by David’s connection to values he picked up from his l...

My guest this week is Jon Kinnally , author of the new memoir I'm Prancing As Fast As I Can: My Journey From a Self-Loathing Closet Case to a Successful TV Writer With Some Self-Esteem . Jon knew from an early age that he wanted to entertain people, and he got his shot in the ‘90s when, barely making ends meet as a cater-waiter, he landed a dream job writing for a new show called Will & Grace...

My guest this week is from the future. Sean’s the host of the TrekCulture podcast , an expert on all things Star Trek, and his name is even the inspiration for a Star Trek character in one of the novelizations. That’s fitting, because it was a novel that helped point Sean in the right direction with his life — not a Star Trek novel, but the story of a gay teen in Ireland in the mid 90s. I was rece...

You are almost certainly acquainted with my guest on this week’s episode — through the episodes he wrote of Will & Grace , Roseanne , Frasier , and the show he helped create, The Chris Isaak Show . Bill was a theater guy who get his foot in the door of TV thanks to a few lucky breaks and some colleagues who recognized how funny he was, and he went on to play an important role in shaping TV com...

For this week’s episode of The Sewers of Paris, we’re trying something new — I’ll interview my guest, Christian Garcia, about the movies that changed his life. And then he’ll interview me about the media that shaped mine, for his podcast. Christian’s the host of That Ol’ Gay Classic Cinema , which focuses on the golden age of Hollywood. And as you’ll hear… after years of thinking that he could onl...

On last week’s episode, I talked with comedian Tim Murray , co-star of the new show Wish You Were Queer , alongside Michael Henry and Trixie Mattel. This week, we’re going behind the scenes to chat with the show’s producer, Frank Spadafora . Frank’s a former theater kid who realized that his real talent lay in wrangling his weird queer friends into making zany projects — sort of like Kermit the Fr...

My guest this week is comedian Tim Murray , co-star of the new show Wish You Were Queer , alongside Michael Henry and Trixie Mattel. The show follows two friends on a real road trip around the country, each week exploring a new city where they have just a few days to create a new stand-up show for each local audience. The entire series is streaming now on OUTtv. Tim’s entry into entertainment came...

My guest this week is Professor Luis Alvarez-Hernandez , whose book See Me! tells the stories of gay and trans men in South Texas. Luis was inspired, in part, by Puerto Rican performers on Drag Race to explore his own place in the queer community — and to study the ways in which drag queens sometimes step into the role of unofficial social workers for folks who have few other places to turn. We’ll...

This week, I’m welcoming author Christopher Rice back to The Sewers of Paris to talk about his new book, Party of Three — a steamy romance about a gay couple who finds room for a third. On past episodes, I’ve chatted with Christopher about finding inspiration, for example from soapy shows of the 70s and 80s. This time, we’ll go deep on his writing process and the process of psychoanalyzing himself...

My guest this week is drag legend Courtney Act , who you may know from Drag Race , Australian Idol , and from her countless live shows and music videos and albums. Now Courtney has a new podcast called RnR with Courtney Act where she goes deep with friends, celebrities, and celebrity friends. In part, it’s a way for her to recapture that intimate, close-knit relationships she had with other queer...