Matt Baume

For this week’s episode of The Sewers of Paris, we have two guests: Andrew Klaus-Vineyard and Daniel Talbott are the directors of a new documentary short called Welcome to Tool Shed, which opens to the door to an iconic leather bar in Palm Springs. They’re just back from showing the film at Cannes,

My guest this week on The Sewers of Paris is Caleb Roehrig, author of young adult mysteries and the occasional romance. Caleb had always wanted to be an author, but life intervened and he found himself living in LA, working as a producer on reality TV shows. He didn’t realize it at the time, but tha

This week, I’m welcoming back Randy West, who was my guest in the Sewers of Paris way back in 2017. Randy is a TV industry veteran whose voice you might recognize from announcing on shows like The Price is Right, Supermarket Sweep, Big Brother, and countless others. From his decades behind a microph

My guest on this week's Sewers of Paris podcast is director Corey Sherman, whose latest film is Big Boys — a story of a teenager who isn’t even out to himself when he goes on a camping trip and starts to develop feelings for his cousin’s boyfriend. Corey’s work has often had an autobiographical elem

Hello there! This week Ollie and I have QUITE a bonus video for you: This is the story of Joani Hannon, a queer woman whose name isn't widely known today, though it absolutely should be. Joani and her brother David were gay siblings who ran a queer bar in Los Angeles in the 1950s, at a time when it

My guest on this week's Sewers of Paris podcast is John Griffiths, the founder and executive director of GALECA — that’s The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics. From an early age, John loved spending time with TV families, and as an adult he turned that passion into a career, spending time hob-n

My guest this week is documentary filmmaker David Weissman, who was in exactly the right place at the right time to have a front-row seat to one of the most revolutionary periods in American culture. In fact, he wasn’t just an observer of the Venice Beach LSD scene in the 60s, or of San Francisco’s

Before we start this week, I want to thank you for your patience — as you might’ve seen, I’ve been recovering from a balance issue that left me in a state of constant dizziness. As a result I had to cut back on editing for a few weeks, since that involves staring at a screen full of objects constant

My guest this week on The Sewers of Paris is New York Times bestselling author Christopher Rice, whose new book Sapphire Sunset is a passionate, steamy gay romance. Christopher didn’t think he’d grow up to be a writer, despite coming from a literary family — both his parents are authors, his mother

Fifty-eight years ago this weekend, the musical Hello Dolly opened on Broadway — and this week we’re diving into the Sewers archive for a chat with Guy Branum about why, for him, the show encapsulates all the greatest joyful aspects of being gay.

My guest this week is David Pevsner, writer, actor, and erotic blogger. His book Damn Shame, a memoir of desire, defiance, and show tunes comes out in January (it’s available for pre-order now) and catalogs his adventures on Broadway and on TV, as an escort, and as a naked Tumblr star. It all starts

My guest on this week's Sewers of Paris podcast has some catching up to do. David is a writer who grew up in a religious family, and until his early 30s was closeted and struggled through ex-gay treatments until he finally came out. Helping him to make the adjustment: Star Trek, where he came to rea

My guest on The Sewers of Paris podcast this week is Jeffrey Masters, host of the podcast LGBTQ&A. He moved to LA with a plan to make it big as an actor, which doesn’t always work out for the best — and for a time, it looked like things were going south as he found that his Shakespearean training le

This week I’m chatting with José, host of the delightful YouTube series Ketchup with Max and José, and the partner of past Sewers of Paris Guest Max Miller (host of Tasting History). As a kid, José was a shy gay nerd before growing up to be … also a shy gay nerd, but one who helped launch Disney Plu

My guest on The Sewers of Paris podcast this week is Scott, host of the podcast The Movies that Made us Gay. His first glimpse at gay life was the same-sex couple on the show Six Feet Under, which inspired him to formulate an escape plan from his small Montana home, his sights set on Hollywood. The

My guest this week is James Sie, whose voice you may recognize from Kung Fu Panda, Curious George, King of the Hill, and as an unlucky cabbage merchant on Avatar. He’s also the author of Still Life Las Vegas, and a new queer young adult novel called All Kinds of Other, which will have a launch celeb

My guest this week is Amos Mac, one of the founders of the magazine Original Plumbing a decade ago, and more recently one of the writers on the reboot of the show Gossip Girl. Amos was working in queer nightlife when he started the magazine as a fun sexy side project, but it was a runaway hit and to

My guest this week is Trystan Reece, who starred as Yitzhak in the original LA production of Hedwig and the Angry Inch. From an early age, Trystan was laser focused on going to Broadway and becoming a famous actor. But the experience of being an actor, it turns out, helped him learn about passions h

How have you discovered your hidden talents? My guest this week is a former shy kid who, after trying to hide from the spotlight for years, was shocked to discover that he’s actually really good at acting, journalism, and go-go dancing. Growing up in a rougher environment, Mike learned the hard ay t

My guest this week has a lot of stories to share, both in his role as a filmmaker and as person who’s lived a lot of lives. Dan Steadman’s upbringing in a sheltered religious community found him placed in a lot of unusual circumstances, surreptitiously consuming forbidden entertainment and rebooting

My guest this week had to figure out a lot on his own. After dropping out of high school and moving across the country at the age of 15, Gus Lanza had no idea how to finish school, how to find a career, or what he was meant to do in life. Figuring that stuff out involved a lot of listening to himsel

My guest this week grew up surrounded by mysteries and clues, but of course he carried a few secrets of his own. Not just that he was gay, but also that his tastes didn’t quite match those of his friends. It took a long time for Jorge to accept that it’s OK to love the things you love, and in fact d

Where do you find the nerve to stand up for yourself? My guest this week is Brian Moreno, who discovered a big wide world of gay culture in his conservative town. By day he was a shy nerd, by night a nightlife photographer documenting wild queer parties — at one point helping to throw a gathering th

Human interaction is challenging even under the best of circumstances, and for years this week’s guest was resigned to just always having difficulty understanding other people. Comedian Christopher Smith Bryant picked up techniques for socializing from interactive entertainment like video games, and

My guest this week is musician-turned-novelist Orlando Ortega Medina. Growing up in the music scene in and around Los Angeles, he was never really in the closet — or at least, he didn’t think of himself as closeted, until he realized that his own parents didn’t fully understand that he was married t

My guest this week has spent the last 25 years tapping into inner heroes — first on screen, and then in real life. David Yost played Billy, the Blue Ranger on Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers, portraying a teenager with attitude who saved the world every week. But in his private life, he struggled to a

This week's guest in Noam Ash, a theater actor and youtube-gay who co-created the web series My Gay Roommate, which features a gay man and a straight man living together as platonic friends. That might not sound like the sort of thing that would be inspired by Harry Potter, but ever since he was a k

This week's guest is John Russo, a celebrity photographer who’s on a first name basis with subjects like Catherine Zeta Jones and Leonardo DiCaprio. John always projects a persona of complete and total confidence, a vibe that he also calls forth from his subjects. It’s a technique that's worked well

How do you share your story when your story defies belief? My guest this week is Henry Goldring, whose upcoming memoir is entitled Unbelievable and recounts tales of audaciously bluffing his way into getting hired as Joan Rivers' opening act, despite never having performed before; and also getting c

We're going back into the Sewers of Paris archives this week, for an interview with ex-boybander Kevin Yee. Kevin's new comedy special recently premiered Hulu, as part of the Comedy InvAsian series. He's been a performer for almost all his life, with his career taking a wild twist in his teens when

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

How do you muster the nerve to keep going when it seems like the odds are stacked against you? My guest this week picked up some life advice from improv comedy -- in particular, the lesson to say yes and then heighten whatever's happened so far. Though you may know Michael Henry from his YouTube com

You've seen this week's guest on RuPaul's Drag Race, and you've seen his choreography in Footloose, on the Emmys, and videos and stage shows for Jennifer Lopez, Madonna, and the Spice Girls -- despite having never taken a dance class. Jamal Sims' dream began when he saw The Wiz and knew he needed to

My guest this week is Drew Mackie. You might know him from the podcasts Gayest Episode Ever, or Singing Mountain, or We Are Not Young Anymore. The point is that he does a lot of podcasts, generally about the art & entertainment that makes the world a more joyful place. It's a long way from where he

This Week's Guest: Alberto Davalos What would you do if your life's work turned out to be killing you? My guest this week is Alberto Davalos, a horse boy. His whole life he expected to work with horses. And fresh out of college, he was on a farm in Kentucky, wearing gloves up to his shoulders and he

It's a Hollywood cliche -- the pretty young face that moves to LA with no plan other than to get into the motion pictures. And yet it happened to this week's guest, Justin Root. He was a shy Ohio kid who feared the spotlight until he discovered how good it made him feel to be in it. A few weeks afte

What's it like to go from a fan to a friend? This week's guest is Tony Moore, who hosts celebrity interviews on his show Loungin' with Tony. For years, he looked up to actors and entertainers as role models. And he found that the more he worked alongside them, the more they opened up to him -- not j

We usually talk on this show about the entertainment that's changed the lives of gay men, but this week we're also talking about how gay men have changed entertainment. My guest is television writer Drew Greenberg, who's written romantic scenes between Willow and Tara on Buffy, helped introduce quee

Last week's guest was Jeffery Self, a relatively young actor and writer who's broken into the entertainment industry often on his own terms. This week, I'm speaking with Randy West, an industry veteran whose experience was vastly different. From sweet-talking his way onto sets to chasing big breaks

To what lengths are you willing to go to prove yourself? My guest this week is Caleb Nelson, who's had a lifelong fascination with game shows as a way to prove mastery and skill. As he got older, he discovered that despite always working hard to prove himself to others, he faced a far greater challe

When it comes to costumes, some of us have a greater-than-average appreciation for layering. My guest this week is writer Steven Rowley, whose debut novel Lily and the Octopus is touching and familiar and funny. It is also one of the gayest stories he's ever told, after a career spent in what was a

For many of us, going home to the place where you grew up can be, at best, stressful. But what if you could recreate just the good parts of your childhood home -- the TV shows that kept you company and helped you shut out the rest of the world? My guest this week is Sam Pancake, who you may know fro

My guest this week is Jason Merrell, who was desperate to leave his repressive religious community. Finally, he thought he'd found a way -- it just required that he make a deal with his parents. That seemed easy enough. But it was a deal that wound up nearly costing him his life. Watch clips of stuf

One of the most generous gifts you can give someone is listening to them. It's a habit that some people just never picked up. But others have refined it to an art form. My guest this week is Dennis Hensley, who you might know from My Life on the D-List, from Girls Will be Girls, or from countless ce

What is it about strong women that gay men find so irresistible? Whether it's a golden girl or Bayonetta or, as is the case for this week's guest, Madonna, there's something extra inspiring to us about the women who run the world. So it's no wonder that David Russell's dedicated his career to suppor

Before Pride, before gay marriage, before disco, before most of what we recognize today as gay culture, there was Greenwich Village. It's the gay enclave that invented gay enclaves, a place where you went to reject mainstream after the mainstream had rejected you. My guest today is playwright Robert