Matt Baume

My guest on this week's Sewers of Paris podcast is queer artist and illustrator Cheyne Gallarde, whose style blends drag icons with classic comic book covers. Cheyne first discovered drag in queer bars of Hawaii, and after a memorable night getting pulled up onstage, he started translating the magic

My guest on The Sewers of Paris this week is Ben Graetz, also known as Miss Ellaneous — an Australian drag performer whose work is infused with influences that range from a life-changing Tina Turner concert to his family’s First Nations heritage. Ben knew he wanted to perform from an early age, and

Starting this week, I’m doing something special for Pride. Throughout the month of June, I’m going to bring you the very best of the last nine years of Sewers of Paris interviews — excerpts from some of my very favorite conversations. We’re starting this week with a roundup of some of the fabulous D

My guest on this week's Sewers of Paris podcast spent eight years auditioning for Drag Race before he was accepted and his life completely changed. Alexis Michelle, aka Alex Michaels, was a theater performer when he discovered a love of drag, and gradually figured out how to turn his hobby into his

My guest this week on The Sewers of Paris is the performer, author, and academic known as Lil Miss Hot Mess, who was fortunate enough to grow up with a proto-queer friend group that paved the way for a professional drag career. Over the years, what began as a hobby for Lil Miss Hot Mess gradually mo

You might’ve seen that I just released a new video over on YouTube about the queer secrets of the show Bewitched, and how this bizarre sitcom from the 60s managed to be about homosexuality without ever saying so. For this week’s episode, we’re jumping into the Sewers archives for another conversatio

You may have seen the very exciting news this week that BenDeLaCreme and Jinkx Monsoon will release a holiday special this year — an adaptation of their wonderful live holiday show. I helped out with the shooting of the special and without giving away too much, I can tell you that it is going to be

My guest this week has had a lot of families — some good, some bad. Shawntae Arnette dreamed of being a performer all their life, after seeing a documentary about the famous dancer Josephine Baker. But there were roadblocks to that dream, from unsupportive biological family, to a period of homelessn

We've got a special two for one deal on this episode: Drag Race star Alaska, and her friend and collaborator Jeremy. With a friendship dating back to their weird college days, Alaska and Jeremy recently released an album of songs called Amethyst Journey that is surprisingly sweet and folksy. We talk

No matter how thoroughly you've planned, life has a way of taking you by surprise -- and when it does, it's often family that gets you through the tough times. Alexis was born to a woman unprepared for motherhood, and so grandparents stepped in to raise her. As she grew older, Houston's drag scene p

For most of us, it's fun to speculate about the drag character we have hidden within. But what do you do if you've got multiple characters kicking around inside you -- and you suspect they might not get along with each other? This week's guest is Pollo Del Mar, who is both a drag queen and a profess

Welcome to a special bonus episode of The Sewers of Paris! A few days ago, some amazingly talented drag queens and I got on stage for a live show called Dungeons and Drag Queens. We played a custom-made Dungeons and Dragons adventure in front of a live audience, and I’m really excited to share it wi

What's the future you want to see? My guest this week is drag queen Gilda Wabbit, who experienced a strange moment of internet fame thanks to a photo of her riding the subway in full drag next to a Muslim woman. What that photo didn't capture was Gilda's background searching for her voice -- literal

My guest this week is Joshua Grannell, but you may know him as Peaches Christ -- the host of San Francisco's wild midnight mass shows and creator of outlandish drag exploitation films. Even as a kid, Joshua orchestrated elaborate halloween shows that his whole family got in on. And as an adult, he's

This year's Thanksgiving seems like a particularly important time to reflect back on the good things in our lives, the positive advances we've made, and the people we love and trust -- in fact, times given what they are, our very sanity may depend on it. Life's a balance of good and bad, and there's

If you're like me, right now you're searching for something -- anything -- to lend you comfort. We've just ended a horrifying election season, and are about to embark on four years that will likely be even worse. How do we even start to recover from this, how do we get out of bed for the next four y

My guest this week is Austin Bull, also known as the performance artist The Bearded Femme. His stage persona is eye-catching and weird, from vibrant green beards to dressing up as sexualized religious figures. Creating creatures onstage is his way of making sense of a darkness that once threatened t

What happens to fussy little boys who love musical theater and have lots of feelings? If they're lucky, they grow up to be fearless women. My guest this week is the fabulous Miss Coco Peru, who you've seen in movies like Girls Will be Girls, To Wong Foo, Trick, and as a guest star in the greatest co

Why do villains get to have all the fun? Surely you've noticed that Darth Vader has a better time than Luke Skywalker, that the Joker relishes his misdeeds, and that Skeletor lives in a party house. One of my favorite movie lines ever is when Magneto tells Rogue "we love what you've done with your h

How far would you go to find your chosen family? Some of us are lucky enough to find our tribe in the town where we grew up. Others had to travel to the nearest big city. And my guest this week moved across an ocean. By Day, Taylor's a mind-mannered english teacher from Eugene, but at night, he beco