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I Smell Pop Culture: Queer Eye · I Am All In with Scott Patterson

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: I am all in again.
• 0:06
  Speaker 2: Oh that's just you.
• 0:17
  Speaker 3: I Smell pop Culture with Easton Allen and iHeart Radio podcast.
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: Hey everybody, Hey, it's Easton. My name's Easton Allen. You
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: just heard Scott Patterson say my name, and now I
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: am saying it. This is the I Smell Pop Culture Podcast.
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: That is what we do here. We take a big
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: whiff of the pop culture references in Gilmore Girls and
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: we talk to the people behind them, the dreamers, the
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: visionaries that bring them to life. What makes a pop
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  Speaker 1: culture icon? How do you become a reference in a
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: show like Gilmore Girls. We are going to figure out
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: all the answers to those questions. So you've probably seen
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: on Netflix a show called Queer Eye. It is an
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  Speaker 1: incredible program. You can't get through an episode without sobbing.
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  Speaker 1: It's just such a heartfelt show. And you may or
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  Speaker 1: may not know this, but it is actually a reboot
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  Speaker 1: of a show called Queer Eye for the Straight Guy,
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  Speaker 1: which premiered in two thousand and three on Bravo in
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  Speaker 1: the early days of Bravo, and Queery has been referenced
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  Speaker 1: a number of times in Gilmore Girls. We're going to
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  Speaker 1: highlight a specific reference this is from season six, episode eight,
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: and it's in the cold open there Laura's picking up
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  Speaker 1: paint colors. This hit home for me personally when I
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: was rewatching this episode. We are going through the paint
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  Speaker 1: color debate at my house. There's nothing but swatches, nothing
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  Speaker 1: but samples. We are deep in it. So watching this
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  Speaker 1: was really really traumatic for me. But I continued on.
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  Speaker 1: Laura I's picking up paint colors with Luke and she's
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  Speaker 1: asking paul Anka for advice because Luke has no input,
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  Speaker 1: of course, and Paul is like tapping the samples with
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  Speaker 1: his paw and constantly picking out, you know, a magenta
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  Speaker 1: for dark magenta for the baseboards, for the ceiling. He's
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  Speaker 1: picking dark magenta for everything. And at one point Lori Lesisabalanka,
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  Speaker 1: You've got the queer eye, my friend and Queerie for
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  Speaker 1: The Straight Guy, an Emmy Award winning show ran for
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  Speaker 1: five seasons on Bravo, and it would involve these guys
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  Speaker 1: that we call him the Fab five. They're gonna take
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  Speaker 1: a clueless straight man and give him a makeover, teach
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  Speaker 1: him how to dress, teach him how to cook, and
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  Speaker 1: open their eyes to a more colorful world. And we
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  Speaker 1: are going to talk to one of the original Fab five,
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  Speaker 1: the culture expert Jay Rodriguez. He is so cool. This
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  Speaker 1: guy is awesome. If you watched the show in its
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  Speaker 1: original run, he would like help the guys with like
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  Speaker 1: finding cool stuff to do, night life, Broadway shows, things
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  Speaker 1: like that. Who was like a pop culture expert. And
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  Speaker 1: if you watch the new one, he Caromo kind of
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  Speaker 1: picked up his mantle there. But we're going to talk
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  Speaker 1: to Jay Rodriguez. We're gonna find out if a dog
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  Speaker 1: can actually help you pick up paint colors. We are
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  Speaker 1: going to talk about it all with Jay Rodriguez, and
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  Speaker 1: he is here in the waiting room. I'm so excited
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  Speaker 1: to talk to you. This is gonna be so much fun.
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  Speaker 1: How's it going, man, Easton.
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  Speaker 4: I'm having a great day. It's a beautiful weather here
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  Speaker 4: in California. I'm wearing a tank top. I mean it
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  Speaker 4: is you listen, it's a it's a it's.
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  Speaker 2: A great day.
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  Speaker 1: If I may comment, his delts are looking great. He's
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  Speaker 1: really pulling off that tank top. I'm so jealous. So
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  Speaker 1: we're chatting. Just before we started here, a couple of
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  Speaker 1: different references to queer eye for the straight guy in
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  Speaker 1: Gilmore Girls there is one in particular in season six
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  Speaker 1: I wanted to bring up to you where Lorelei and
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  Speaker 1: Luke are like repainting her house and she, Laura is
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  Speaker 1: asking her dog paul Inca, for help picking out a
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  Speaker 1: color and he's constantly picking dark burgundy or something for
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  Speaker 1: the baseboards, for the ceiling, and then she says, you've
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  Speaker 1: got the queer eye, my friend. Brilliant queer Eye for
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  Speaker 1: the Straight Guy just celebrated twenty two years ago, premiered
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  Speaker 1: such a cultural icon. And how does it feel to
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  Speaker 1: be involved with something that is synonymous with having great.
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  Speaker 4: Well, it's a push pull because at the time you're
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  Speaker 4: you know, one of the differences between the original Queeri
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  Speaker 4: twenty two years ago and the new version is we
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  Speaker 4: shot consistently for three years.
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  Speaker 2: When you're moving that fast, there's no social media.
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  Speaker 4: If you want to watch something, you watch it in
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  Speaker 4: real time or you DVR or back then you t
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  Speaker 4: vote it. That was the brand of DVR, and you
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  Speaker 4: don't you miss a lot. And so when you're doing
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  Speaker 4: something iconic, you generally don't know it's iconic.
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  Speaker 2: It wasn't really I think the.
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  Speaker 4: Moment that had dawned on us was probably The first
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  Speaker 4: time we set out loud to us by someone we
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  Speaker 4: admired and respected was when we did a reunion ten
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  Speaker 4: years after and it was moderated by Andy Cohen, shot
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  Speaker 4: in New York City on a set and Key listed
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  Speaker 4: the accolades that Queeri had accomplished.
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  Speaker 2: And just two or.
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  Speaker 4: Three years ago, I did watch What Happens Live and
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  Speaker 4: we're coming back from a commercial was the bartender. I
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  Speaker 4: was promoting a cabaret show at fifty four below that
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  Speaker 4: I was starring in, and Andy choking because it still
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  Speaker 4: takes my broth away. He said, Jay Rodrie, you know
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  Speaker 4: you guys built this house, meaning Bravo.
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  Speaker 2: No one had said that.
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  Speaker 4: Certainly we were not getting paid what folks get paid
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  Speaker 4: now on things like Housewives.
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  Speaker 2: We didn't know what Evander Pump was, you know what
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  Speaker 2: I mean, Like, yeah, it was a different era.
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  Speaker 4: So I mean, I don't think you recognize the impact.
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  Speaker 2: I do know.
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  Speaker 4: I was parodied twice on SNL. Elijah Wood was the
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  Speaker 4: big star. Actually it was once a SNL once on
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  Speaker 4: had TV. Elijah was the guest star and he played
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  Speaker 4: me and I was.
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  Speaker 2: Like, listen, let an honor, listen, you know you made it.
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  Speaker 4: When but I think because at the time we didn't
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  Speaker 4: have social media. I think what we were left with
• 5:51
  Speaker 4: was people stopping us at airports or whatever. So when
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  Speaker 4: you were forever linked to fashion, you have moments like
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  Speaker 4: you're going to even though.
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  Speaker 2: I was not the fashion guy.
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  Speaker 4: When I go to a clothing store or any any
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  Speaker 4: place where people are purchasing items that revolve around any
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  Speaker 4: of the categories any I'll have someone come out to
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  Speaker 4: be like, which one do you do you think of this?
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  Speaker 2: And I was like, oh, I don't work here.
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  Speaker 4: They're like, I know, but you're from that show, so
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  Speaker 4: do you think this is? And it's it's really funny.
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  Speaker 4: And you know. There's a comedian that was opening for
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  Speaker 4: Margaret show at Carnegie Hall. His name is Bruce Daniels,
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  Speaker 4: and I went to go see Margaret. Did not know Bruce,
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  Speaker 4: and I sat in the audience at Carnegie Hall and
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  Speaker 4: he opened for her, and he's like, I freaking, hey, queer.
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  Speaker 4: I now my straight friends think I could do all
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  Speaker 4: the things at the Fab five and the whole like
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  Speaker 4: the audience around me like turned and it's funny.
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  Speaker 2: When I moved.
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  Speaker 4: He he was one of the first friends I made.
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  Speaker 4: I was like, you may not remember I was in
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  Speaker 4: the audience blah blah blah.
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  Speaker 1: But yeah, I watched the show as it aired and
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  Speaker 1: I loved it. And I'm a heterosexual man. I took
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  Speaker 1: a lot of tips from that show.
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  Speaker 2: But also same I learned, well, listen, I was young.
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  Speaker 4: I was twenty three, so I learned while the straight
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  Speaker 4: guy was learning so many of the things that were
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  Speaker 4: not taught. And by the way, we had, like Martha
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  Speaker 4: Stewart's producers, you know, we had really good research teams
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  Speaker 4: that could we could give an idea and the producers
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  Speaker 4: would expand on it, return it to us, and then
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  Speaker 4: we would craft that idea back to a place that
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  Speaker 4: would make sense coming out of us and via our
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  Speaker 4: world review, which is each of us had a different one,
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  Speaker 4: you know.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, that's awesome. I'd like that. It is a
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  Speaker 1: collaborative process like that. And so you join after like
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  Speaker 1: the second or third episode, is that right?
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  Speaker 4: So how it happened was they had a cast of
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  Speaker 4: five guys. The chemistry was off for whatever reason. I
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  Speaker 4: don't know if anyone really ever pinpointed what was off
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  Speaker 4: about it.
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  Speaker 2: But so no one's seen the show. It's just in production.
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  Speaker 4: They've shot two episodes, they decided to do an emergency
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  Speaker 4: recast on the DL. I had been with my agency
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  Speaker 4: since I was eighteen. I was in Rent. I'd taken
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  Speaker 4: a six months leave of the Broadway musical Rent to
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  Speaker 4: do an off Broadway show. And when you do Broadway financially, you're.
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  Speaker 2: Kind of okay.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah.
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  Speaker 4: You go to off Broadway and you're making four hundred
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  Speaker 4: and like ninety dollars a week in New York City,
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  Speaker 4: You're like, how am I? So I told my agent
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  Speaker 4: my acting and I said, listen, can you look for
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  Speaker 4: any other sideline things? And I was doing a cabaret
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  Speaker 4: show at night like imagine gay justin Timberlake with a
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  Speaker 4: live cover band.
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  Speaker 2: It was.
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  Speaker 4: It was the height of probably when Gilmore Gore started.
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  Speaker 4: I was gigging at a nightclub called Excel Live Band.
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  Speaker 4: They would not let boys sing there. Drag queens and
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  Speaker 4: females only were allowed to perform, and I beg I said,
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  Speaker 4: I'm playing a drag queen on Broadway and they said, okay,
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  Speaker 4: we'll give you one night. It became a huge hit,
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  Speaker 4: and I think it was like New York mag Someone
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  Speaker 4: reviewed me as the gay.
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  Speaker 2: Justin Timberlake of New York and that really brought the
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  Speaker 2: crowds in.
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  Speaker 4: And you know, if it was on the radio, we
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  Speaker 4: were doing it live band, background singers, sometimes dancers.
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  Speaker 2: When Dirty came out, I performed it with dancers and
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  Speaker 2: like Chaps, the whole thing so awesome.
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  Speaker 4: I was in the night life New York ether but
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  Speaker 4: also doing an off Broadway show that had billboards everywhere,
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  Speaker 4: and so this show is happening, this TV show. No
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  Speaker 4: one's heard of it. It's not like something I would
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  Speaker 4: even have heard about. So I get an audition. I
• 9:12
  Speaker 4: want to say, like a Wednesday for a Thursday. And
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  Speaker 4: all I was told, which might sound strange to our
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  Speaker 4: listeners here and our viewers, they're looking for a night
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  Speaker 4: life expert who will will join a team of dynamic
• 9:31
  Speaker 4: hosts think Charlie's Angels meets Trading Spaces meets the view
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  Speaker 4: Like there was no reference. So so I remember thinking, well,
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  Speaker 4: it's probably going to help financially fill you know, the
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  Speaker 4: void and pay that I have in my life at
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  Speaker 4: the moment. And so I had a night life gig.
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  Speaker 4: I was like, I could be a night I know
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  Speaker 4: New York like the back of my hand. Every time
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  Speaker 4: a tours comes to see your Broadway show. What are
• 9:57
  Speaker 4: they asking you for your recommendations? So on Thursday I
• 10:00
  Speaker 4: went in. I sat across from what would be our
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  Speaker 4: product placement woman would formally come from casting, and she's
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  Speaker 4: talking to me and she says, I want you to
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  Speaker 4: take me on a date. As a divorced dad living
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  Speaker 4: on Long Island. Take me on a romantic New York
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  Speaker 4: City date. Easy for me because again, with so many
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  Speaker 4: tourists coming in and out in New York, you have
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  Speaker 4: your finger on the pulse because you're directing them on
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  Speaker 4: things to do that they've not heard of. So she
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  Speaker 4: was like, I love that. How old are you and
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  Speaker 4: I said twenty three? She said you're twenty seven. She
• 10:28
  Speaker 4: said okay, and she goes, where'd you go to college?
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  Speaker 4: I said, well, I started to go to Wagner, but
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  Speaker 4: then I got rint. She only went for like, you know,
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  Speaker 4: a month and a half. She goes, you graduated. I'm
• 10:36
  Speaker 4: going to give you a call back tomorrow.
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  Speaker 2: So I go in.
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  Speaker 4: I'm sitting in a waiting room with I felt like
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  Speaker 4: a room full of like gay people of color and
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  Speaker 4: I so I was like, okay, they're looking for this
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  Speaker 4: role to be someone of color gay. Well, I knew
• 10:53
  Speaker 4: you had to be openly gay, which, by the way,
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  Speaker 4: in two thousand and three was a huge, possibly career
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  Speaker 4: end decision.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, and this is again, you're not playing a role.
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  Speaker 4: This is a docuseries that's documenting the work of these
• 11:08
  Speaker 4: five men who have expertise in these categories. So I'm thinking,
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  Speaker 4: I mean, whatever, it's on Bravo. Nobody watches Bravo. This
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  Speaker 4: is literally what I'm thinking. No one's gonna see it.
• 11:20
  Speaker 4: And by the way, I wasn't alone on that. So
• 11:22
  Speaker 4: I go into the room. There's three chairs that's Fate
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  Speaker 4: that are facing a boardroom. There are NBC on one side,
• 11:29
  Speaker 4: Bravo on the other, so that means Andy Cohen's in
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  Speaker 4: the room. The head of NBC blah blah, the creator
• 11:33
  Speaker 4: and director of the show are at the head of
• 11:35
  Speaker 4: the table furthest from me and these three chairs.
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  Speaker 2: And so I sit in the empty seat and there's.
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  Speaker 4: A brightly dressed blonde guy to my right and sort
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  Speaker 4: of a gay buddy, Holly to my left. There's Carson
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  Speaker 4: Carson from Drag Race and Everything, and Ted Allen from Chopped. Now,
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  Speaker 4: mind you, they hadn't been on those shows yet. No
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  Speaker 4: one knew who they were visually, so I sat down.
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  Speaker 4: The board would proceed to ask me a question, and
• 11:57
  Speaker 4: these two guys kept jumping in. They were upstaging me.
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  Speaker 4: They were kind of ribbing me in sort of this
• 12:04
  Speaker 4: kind of hazing fraternity style queer jabs reading me, and
• 12:10
  Speaker 4: I was like, I'm not going to get to answer
• 12:12
  Speaker 4: these questions and I'm not going to get this job.
• 12:15
  Speaker 4: But what I will do is be funny, quick, quitted,
• 12:17
  Speaker 4: quippy and memorable.
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  Speaker 2: So NBC thinks about me for a sitcom in the future.
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  Speaker 2: That was my mindset. So I threw it.
• 12:25
  Speaker 4: Right back to them the boardroom, everyone's laughing. Mind you,
• 12:27
  Speaker 4: my off proabably show. My character had platinum white hair.
• 12:31
  Speaker 4: This is someone made a poppet of my character and
• 12:34
  Speaker 4: it's literally this is what I look like. This is
• 12:37
  Speaker 4: the costume from the show. I had white air. I
• 12:39
  Speaker 4: had this lightning bolt sparkly T shirt with riped jeans
• 12:43
  Speaker 4: with sequence all over them, and that was my character
• 12:45
  Speaker 4: and that was the billboard at So I'm walking in
• 12:47
  Speaker 4: with like looking like mister j from Top Model. Okay,
• 12:50
  Speaker 4: so I leave. I have to tell you Easton, I
• 12:53
  Speaker 4: was so just I was like viscerally disturbed. It was
• 12:57
  Speaker 4: a Friday. This is my callback. I into the theater
• 13:00
  Speaker 4: to try to do the glitter on get ready for
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  Speaker 4: the show, and I'm like. I call my agent, who
• 13:06
  Speaker 4: was a different agent agency had never met him before.
• 13:08
  Speaker 2: He was a hosting agent. I said, listen, man, you
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  Speaker 2: don't know me.
• 13:10
  Speaker 4: I don't know you, But what I do know is
• 13:13
  Speaker 4: I just made a fool out of myself. I was
• 13:15
  Speaker 4: so utterly humiliated. These two guys must want the job
• 13:19
  Speaker 4: better than me, or they want it more. And I
• 13:23
  Speaker 4: don't ever want to go out for anything like that
• 13:24
  Speaker 4: ever again, he said, noted nice medium.
• 13:27
  Speaker 2: An hour later he calls back. He goes, I guess
• 13:29
  Speaker 2: you didn't do that bad.
• 13:30
  Speaker 4: You start Monday who And all of a sudden, then
• 13:33
  Speaker 4: the producers called me to congratulate me.
• 13:35
  Speaker 2: They came to see the musical I was in over
• 13:37
  Speaker 2: the weekend.
• 13:38
  Speaker 4: The boys came to my Monday night twist and cabaret
• 13:42
  Speaker 4: show at this club on Monday night. I went to
• 13:45
  Speaker 4: their meetings and I started shooting that Tuesday. So I
• 13:50
  Speaker 4: would work from six am sometimes till seven point thirty.
• 13:53
  Speaker 4: And the rule that the theater had given was as
• 13:56
  Speaker 4: long as you could make it to the theater by
• 13:58
  Speaker 4: eight or five. Well, hold curtain for you, because I
• 14:01
  Speaker 4: was like the I was the name, you know, I
• 14:03
  Speaker 4: was like a bit of a name in New York.
• 14:04
  Speaker 4: So and this is before career. I so I'm doing
• 14:07
  Speaker 4: both at the same time, and I knew I was
• 14:09
  Speaker 4: a replacement. So I shot episode three sequentially, but when
• 14:14
  Speaker 4: it aired to the viewer, that was episode one, and
• 14:18
  Speaker 4: then they aired the ones that they had shot first
• 14:21
  Speaker 4: and second as episodes two and three and labeled the
• 14:25
  Speaker 4: guy who originated the role as a guest culture expert.
• 14:28
  Speaker 2: Gotcha, Yeah, so that's how that all went down.
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: Something about your role on the show. I mean, like
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: with the other guys, it's like fashion, cooking, uh, the
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: like home decord, those are all like tangible. Yeah, these
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: are all like tangible things. They exist in three dimensional space.
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: But like you as the like culture expert, I mean,
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: what was this down for you?
• 15:00
  Speaker 4: Okay, great, So this is a really good question. I
• 15:01
  Speaker 4: think Caramo and I have my successor on the Netflix version.
• 15:05
  Speaker 4: I have talked about this in great detail, but you know,
• 15:07
  Speaker 4: imagine how it works is you show up to the
• 15:10
  Speaker 4: meetings on Monday, who we are going to be discussing
• 15:13
  Speaker 4: are generally two guys who the guy is next week
• 15:17
  Speaker 4: and or rather this week.
• 15:20
  Speaker 2: Coming, and the guy who's the week after.
• 15:23
  Speaker 4: So you're doing final touches on the person you're going
• 15:25
  Speaker 4: to be working with tomorrow, and then you're going to
• 15:28
  Speaker 4: be forward producing what is going to be happening a
• 15:31
  Speaker 4: week from now. So we get a dossier, and in
• 15:34
  Speaker 4: that dossier, producers have interviewed this guy. If relevant, there's
• 15:38
  Speaker 4: photos of his home, of his kitchen, of his hair,
• 15:42
  Speaker 4: of his closet. So now all the other categories have
• 15:45
  Speaker 4: a visual example of deficit of need. And for culture,
• 15:53
  Speaker 4: the producer has to assess, after meeting them, spending some
• 15:57
  Speaker 4: time with them and their family, where they might be
• 16:00
  Speaker 4: lacking in non tangible ways and how I could be
• 16:06
  Speaker 4: an asset to them. And that is a really tricky
• 16:08
  Speaker 4: thing because they present me with a blurb a paragraph,
• 16:11
  Speaker 4: and then I am supposed to interpret, without having met
• 16:15
  Speaker 4: this person, what that paragraph might mean via someone else's
• 16:19
  Speaker 4: lens of them, and then come up with a physical
• 16:22
  Speaker 4: tangible thing to give them and a physical thing for
• 16:26
  Speaker 4: them to do the thing with me. And Karama is
• 16:29
  Speaker 4: Karamo really fought because of his social work or background
• 16:32
  Speaker 4: to have a conversation be just the segment and having
• 16:36
  Speaker 4: that shift be inward and maybe not for a camera.
• 16:39
  Speaker 4: Not at the time, maybe see Bravo was like, absolutely not, Jane.
• 16:42
  Speaker 2: Needs to physically.
• 16:43
  Speaker 4: That's why so many times you'd seen me giving him
• 16:46
  Speaker 4: a book or theater tickets in addition to what everything else.
• 16:49
  Speaker 2: I didn't want to do that, but I had to.
• 16:51
  Speaker 4: I also had to wear a blazer, even if I
• 16:53
  Speaker 4: wore a T shirt in the middle of summer, because
• 16:56
  Speaker 4: it would age me up because I was a decade younger.
• 16:59
  Speaker 4: So I had these on me that the other guys
• 17:02
  Speaker 4: didn't have, and so it was really kind of interesting.
• 17:05
  Speaker 4: But yeah, it was the category that should have been
• 17:07
  Speaker 4: labeled something else, but needed and I wish now at
• 17:11
  Speaker 4: forty six, I would have had the moxie or the
• 17:16
  Speaker 4: confidence to advocate for myself and give pushback. I didn't
• 17:20
  Speaker 4: do that season one. I started to season two and through.
• 17:22
  Speaker 4: Once we got a little sparkle, once we got you know,
• 17:25
  Speaker 4: the Emmy and everything, I was like, Okay, I need
• 17:30
  Speaker 4: to start speaking up for myself. And especially because we
• 17:33
  Speaker 4: had cycling in of different directors all the time who
• 17:36
  Speaker 4: did not know us and had seen the show, and
• 17:39
  Speaker 4: you know you're shooting for a week and that's edited
• 17:41
  Speaker 4: to forty two forty three minutes. They don't know me,
• 17:44
  Speaker 4: you know, so they don't know what I'm capable of.
• 17:46
  Speaker 4: So I had to really advocate. But the category culture
• 17:49
  Speaker 4: is such a broad one. I did not want to
• 17:51
  Speaker 4: be remembered as just like the Puerto Rican Emily post.
• 17:55
  Speaker 4: You know, that was not the goal, and so I
• 17:57
  Speaker 4: think for me, I found unique and different ways to
• 18:01
  Speaker 4: lean into my strengths. And I also bonded with a
• 18:04
  Speaker 4: straight guy because there were so many times after he'd
• 18:06
  Speaker 4: been comedically beat up by the other guys that I
• 18:09
  Speaker 4: was like, I know, I get it, I get it
• 18:11
  Speaker 4: from when I are the same body. But we're going
• 18:12
  Speaker 4: to figure this out together. And so in many ways,
• 18:14
  Speaker 4: I says Wingman. And I was also sort of what
• 18:17
  Speaker 4: I labeled the concierge of cool, which is, if life
• 18:21
  Speaker 4: is your hotel, I'm going to direct you in the
• 18:23
  Speaker 4: right avenue of something you didn't know existed but have
• 18:27
  Speaker 4: always secretly wanted, all along with something to remedy your life,
• 18:30
  Speaker 4: make your life easier, or expand your life and make
• 18:33
  Speaker 4: it bigger in a way that I think would benefit you.
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: I love it. I love it so much. And you
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: know I used to watch the show and be and
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: like part of it would be like, oh, of course,
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: like straight guys, it's up to gay men to help
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: a straight guy be like better, Like why is it
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: your responsibility to like make straight people like palatable to
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: the world?
• 18:54
  Speaker 3: You know?
• 18:54
  Speaker 4: Yeah, well, you know It's funny about that is women
• 18:56
  Speaker 4: have been saying to their husband's partners, whoever for you
• 19:00
  Speaker 4: years before we showed up, the same thing we say
• 19:03
  Speaker 4: at once, and they're like okay. And I think the
• 19:06
  Speaker 4: role reversal of the locker room hazing that many of
• 19:09
  Speaker 4: us got or whatever from gay from straight guys, reversing
• 19:14
  Speaker 4: and flipping that switch and empowering us, highlighting that many
• 19:18
  Speaker 4: of us, in a comedic cliche way, have expertise in
• 19:22
  Speaker 4: this era, not all, not all, And I think that
• 19:27
  Speaker 4: kind of comedically gave us a platform. And by the way,
• 19:31
  Speaker 4: we're now off the wings of queer's folk l word
• 19:34
  Speaker 4: will and grace. And so there's this that we did
• 19:38
  Speaker 4: shot this cover of Vanity Fair and they mixed up
• 19:41
  Speaker 4: all the casts of the current shows that had queer
• 19:43
  Speaker 4: content in the early odds, and it was like what's
• 19:46
  Speaker 4: next for gay TV?
• 19:47
  Speaker 2: And yeah, we were a gay show.
• 19:49
  Speaker 4: I mean we didn't fully have all the colors of
• 19:51
  Speaker 4: the rainbow, but we did, you know, even makeover. I
• 19:54
  Speaker 4: think one of the first trends men to get a
• 19:57
  Speaker 4: makeover on television was on Queer Eye in two thousand
• 20:00
  Speaker 4: and like four or five. So we were progressive. And
• 20:03
  Speaker 4: I think at that time the reason why so many
• 20:08
  Speaker 4: straight folks watched was because A was in the title
• 20:11
  Speaker 4: for that. But I found throughout the years so many
• 20:16
  Speaker 4: teenagers and closeted folks in their twenties and such would
• 20:20
  Speaker 4: say I used to sneak upstairs and watch Queer Eye,
• 20:23
  Speaker 4: and I was like.
• 20:23
  Speaker 2: You didn't have to.
• 20:25
  Speaker 4: It was prescribed for your straightness, even though you weren't straight.
• 20:29
  Speaker 2: You know, they didn't want to be guilty by association.
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: So something that really stuck with me over the years
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: is like, at the end of the episode, sometimes you
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: do these like quick little tips and hip tips, hip tips,
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: hip tips. The one that I will never forget it
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: his I can't remember lost time I open to CD case,
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: but I will.
• 20:50
  Speaker 4: Do.
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: Do you know I'm talking about that?
• 20:51
  Speaker 2: I know because Virgin Megastore I would see them do it. Yeah,
• 20:55
  Speaker 2: And I was like huh.
• 20:57
  Speaker 4: And you know you have to have like a very
• 21:00
  Speaker 4: blunt granite or something like marble, and you could just
• 21:03
  Speaker 4: slide the wrapping off the CD case and it would
• 21:08
  Speaker 4: break open because it was always so hard to get
• 21:10
  Speaker 4: the CD out of the case if you didn't have
• 21:11
  Speaker 4: like a key or nine or something.
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: Yes, yes, and frameone. What we're talking about. The shrink
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: wrap on like a CD jewel case used to be
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: a herculean effort to get it off. And my friends
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: in Fab five, my friends, they taught me to you
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: rub it against the edge of like a table, and
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: I ruined a couple of countertops doing this.
• 21:28
  Speaker 2: Yeah, we didn't give a caveat them. You're gonna ruin
• 21:30
  Speaker 2: things you're going to get to hear your music?
• 21:32
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: Do you have a favorite hip tip that sticks out
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: to you?
• 21:35
  Speaker 2: One?
• 21:36
  Speaker 4: There's so many that are not my category that get
• 21:39
  Speaker 4: parroted back to me. And one is in terms of fragrance,
• 21:43
  Speaker 4: spray delay and do you know the end of that spray.
• 21:46
  Speaker 2: Delay walk into it? Yep? I remember that spray.
• 21:49
  Speaker 4: Delay walk away. People say that to me all the time.
• 21:52
  Speaker 4: And how about shaving? Do you remember anything about how
• 21:56
  Speaker 4: to shave what direction?
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: Oh, against the green? No, with the grain.
• 22:02
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I know, well we're gonna have to that's a fine.
• 22:05
  Speaker 4: I'll send you the episode turn it out. But those
• 22:08
  Speaker 4: are the two things peop were like. Shaving with the grain,
• 22:10
  Speaker 4: I learned how to shave. I mean I still go
• 22:12
  Speaker 4: a little, you know, trying to get a close shaver
• 22:14
  Speaker 4: or something. But but yeah, there was a lot of things,
• 22:16
  Speaker 4: a lot of really cool things, especially and specifically about
• 22:20
  Speaker 4: like fit of things. I never in my early twenties
• 22:23
  Speaker 4: would have considered taking things that were slightly ill fitting
• 22:27
  Speaker 4: to a tailor and how you don't need to buy
• 22:30
  Speaker 4: expensive clothing. You just you're going to look better if
• 22:34
  Speaker 4: the garment you've selected for yourself that you love fits
• 22:38
  Speaker 4: your body and you can get it to fit your
• 22:40
  Speaker 4: body by taking it to a tailor to make some
• 22:43
  Speaker 4: slight adjustments. Never would have thought of that, and that
• 22:47
  Speaker 4: was something that I've taken away I think from the
• 22:50
  Speaker 4: show with me. I think there was a lot of things,
• 22:52
  Speaker 4: like especially like remembering someone's name, you know, if we
• 22:55
  Speaker 4: meet you know you, like like Easton, J Nice to
• 22:57
  Speaker 4: meet meet you, Easton, you know, like repeating someone's name back.
• 23:01
  Speaker 2: That was mono minded. I still do that.
• 23:03
  Speaker 4: That's helpful to use it throughout the conversation and early conversations.
• 23:08
  Speaker 2: That was a good tip.
• 23:09
  Speaker 4: I feel there were some funny ones, some lighthearted ones.
• 23:13
  Speaker 2: I mean, you know, we would.
• 23:15
  Speaker 4: Pitch our sort of producing team on different things, and
• 23:19
  Speaker 4: then we would get copy and if we liked.
• 23:21
  Speaker 2: It, we would use it, and if we didn't, you know,
• 23:23
  Speaker 2: we wouldn't.
• 23:25
  Speaker 4: But yeah, it was really really kind of fun in
• 23:26
  Speaker 4: that era because I think people really like that. It's
• 23:30
  Speaker 4: a great little tag to a show. I wonder I'm
• 23:33
  Speaker 4: sure the new version still does that. They might not
• 23:36
  Speaker 4: label it the same way, but I believe from the
• 23:38
  Speaker 4: episodes I've seen they still do it.
• 23:39
  Speaker 2: It's a good tradition.
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's great and I love it, and it stands
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: the test of time.
• 23:44
  Speaker 2: It's life acts.
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: Yeah, life acts, baby Wearing it out with Jay Rodriguez.
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: This is the I Smell Pop Culture Podcast. We're gonna
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: play some commercials right here, so please listen to them.
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: I need this job. It's I Smell pop Culture. I
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: Smell pop culture and you smell it too. I'm hanging
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: out with Jay Rodriguez, one of the Fab five from
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: Queer Eye so you dropped for the Street Guy. Uh, yeah,
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: the season one. Yeah, and it's it's funny because it
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: in my head, I'm always like, I want to call
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: it that because I just thought it was kind of fun.
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: But Queer Eye is easier to say.
• 24:22
  Speaker 4: Even the producers who were insistent on it being dropped
• 24:29
  Speaker 4: after season one because we wanted to be able. We
• 24:31
  Speaker 4: were making over everybody you know in the house, and
• 24:33
  Speaker 4: and certainly we didn't make over only straight up.
• 24:36
  Speaker 2: The majority of them were straight guys. But they wanted
• 24:38
  Speaker 2: to drop it, and so they did.
• 24:40
  Speaker 4: But now when we do any cross press like we were,
• 24:46
  Speaker 4: Vice President Harris invited us to the White House last June.
• 24:49
  Speaker 4: It was me, Carson Caromo, JVN, and the creators and
• 24:53
  Speaker 4: executive producers of Queer Eye, and they were referencing our
• 24:56
  Speaker 4: version as for the Straight Guy. But I'm like, you
• 24:59
  Speaker 4: guys were so insistent that after the first season it
• 25:02
  Speaker 4: was just fear and even even the logos, everything was just.
• 25:06
  Speaker 2: Clear, right. But everyone says for the strike, I don't
• 25:09
  Speaker 2: I don't mind, but I know that we made over women.
• 25:12
  Speaker 4: You know, we made over trends, men, we made over
• 25:15
  Speaker 4: you know, it wasn't just straight we made over.
• 25:17
  Speaker 2: Some gay guys on the show.
• 25:19
  Speaker 4: We also made it for some men who later joined
• 25:23
  Speaker 4: the Alphabet Mafia we found out.
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: You know, so you never know, now, if you had
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: to give a makeover to Luke from Gilmour Girls, what
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: what tips would you have for him?
• 25:35
  Speaker 4: I mean, you know, so much, so much of the
• 25:37
  Speaker 4: clothing I just did to rewatch. So much of the
• 25:40
  Speaker 4: clothing was of the time, so it was interesting to
• 25:44
  Speaker 4: see things like fit of like button ups and stuff
• 25:47
  Speaker 4: were really baggy dress shirts, dress shirts like really blousey.
• 25:52
  Speaker 2: I don't think that would fly now.
• 25:54
  Speaker 4: I think someone in costuming would have taken them in
• 25:56
  Speaker 4: a little bit. I mean, I think Luke is such
• 25:58
  Speaker 4: a handsome guy that I think there's a piece of
• 26:03
  Speaker 4: me that like kind of enjoys the aesthetic of it all.
• 26:06
  Speaker 4: But I think I would have worked on fit overall.
• 26:08
  Speaker 4: Note the fit.
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: All right, Well, the guy who plays Luke is on
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: this podcast too, so I will pass that along. That's
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: the note.
• 26:16
  Speaker 4: Well, I wonder I'd be very curious how he felt
• 26:18
  Speaker 4: in the clothing. I mean, you know, we had all
• 26:21
  Speaker 4: our stuff tailored, like we had fittings with off the
• 26:24
  Speaker 4: rack things.
• 26:25
  Speaker 2: Then in the fitting like most.
• 26:27
  Speaker 4: Every TV show, there was someone there pinning, and then
• 26:30
  Speaker 4: it would go away and it would be tailored in
• 26:33
  Speaker 4: a week, and you know, you'd.
• 26:34
  Speaker 2: Have something that fit nice for camera.
• 26:36
  Speaker 4: And I'm curious if creatively, if it was a choice
• 26:41
  Speaker 4: because they live in a small town, and also if
• 26:45
  Speaker 4: I make an addendant to that would also just be like,
• 26:48
  Speaker 4: were there specific moments where if it was like a
• 26:52
  Speaker 4: romantic scene or something that he noticed the fit got tighter.
• 26:56
  Speaker 4: I'd be very curious if he felt a shift in
• 27:00
  Speaker 4: costuming based on what his character was up to.
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: That's an interesting perspective.
• 27:05
  Speaker 2: It influenced the scene.
• 27:08
  Speaker 1: Yes, if that makes sense, because those.
• 27:10
  Speaker 4: Were women we know, you know, if you know you
• 27:13
  Speaker 4: put a woman on camera in a certain color or
• 27:16
  Speaker 4: a certain kind of neckline. We're already alluding to where
• 27:19
  Speaker 4: we might be going with the scene, and I'm wondering if,
• 27:22
  Speaker 4: as you know, the leading man on that show, would
• 27:25
  Speaker 4: he have felt or even noticed it.
• 27:27
  Speaker 2: I'm curious.
• 27:29
  Speaker 1: I'm curious too. I want to take a weird pivot here.
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: I learned something about you earlier today that you have
• 27:36
  Speaker 1: had a paranormal encounter. Oh yeah, I heard your ghost story,
• 27:41
  Speaker 1: and you know, I'm not going to make you retell
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: the whole thing here, but it was it sent chills
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: down my spine just picturing it.
• 27:47
  Speaker 4: So Okay, So basically, when I was a kid, my
• 27:50
  Speaker 4: my mother and her sister both a single parents, and
• 27:55
  Speaker 4: so it was me and my cousin were three weeks apart,
• 27:57
  Speaker 4: my mother and her sister, like Bestie's. The four of
• 28:00
  Speaker 4: us go up to Lake George, which is an upstate
• 28:02
  Speaker 4: New York and we're at this cute little like nineteen fifty.
• 28:05
  Speaker 2: Style resortie thing, and.
• 28:09
  Speaker 4: I remember bringing my At the time, I was super
• 28:12
  Speaker 4: into smart, so I had a pop a smart plushy.
• 28:15
  Speaker 4: We spend the day doing some excursions. That night and
• 28:18
  Speaker 4: we're heading.
• 28:19
  Speaker 2: Back to the motel, and so.
• 28:21
  Speaker 4: We're in the motel two queen beds. When you walk in,
• 28:24
  Speaker 4: the first thing you see the left is the two
• 28:26
  Speaker 4: queen beds that are separated by a nightstand and a lamp.
• 28:28
  Speaker 4: Then you have a club chair in the far right.
• 28:31
  Speaker 4: And then if we kept walking from the entrance of
• 28:34
  Speaker 4: the room, all the way down is a bathroom and
• 28:36
  Speaker 4: when the door is open, you can see a mirror.
• 28:38
  Speaker 4: To the left is the shower, to the right is
• 28:40
  Speaker 4: the toilet. Great I set up the room, so we
• 28:43
  Speaker 4: go out whatever, and then our parents. We are meant
• 28:45
  Speaker 4: to be asleep, but we're not really sley and they've rated.
• 28:47
  Speaker 2: The mini bar.
• 28:48
  Speaker 4: They're having the little you know, like seven and sevens
• 28:50
  Speaker 4: or whatever they're doing, and this is the eighties, and
• 28:55
  Speaker 4: so we're pretending to be asleep, and all of a sudden,
• 28:58
  Speaker 4: I hear we are on the bed closest to the door.
• 29:02
  Speaker 2: I hear my mother gasp.
• 29:04
  Speaker 4: I jump up and look toward her, which puts me
• 29:08
  Speaker 4: with an eyeshot of the bathroom. That was the only
• 29:11
  Speaker 4: light that was on, and the door was slightly a
• 29:14
  Speaker 4: jar enough for us to see the passing of a figure,
• 29:20
  Speaker 4: a dark figure. My aunt screams, and they grab us and.
• 29:26
  Speaker 2: Take us out of the room and they run downstairs.
• 29:28
  Speaker 4: You know, these are two women in their twenties with
• 29:31
  Speaker 4: small kids, and you know, to like the manager on duty.
• 29:33
  Speaker 4: He comes and inspects the room, and mind you, at
• 29:35
  Speaker 4: this point, my little papa smart I had left on
• 29:38
  Speaker 4: the bed. He goes back, inspects the room. I can't
• 29:41
  Speaker 4: find it, and I look and it's under the bed,
• 29:43
  Speaker 4: like the middle under the bed. There's no way I
• 29:45
  Speaker 4: could have gotten there. So in the middle of the night.
• 29:48
  Speaker 4: They're determined that you know that they were going to leave,
• 29:49
  Speaker 4: and they're like, ladies, you don't want to drive them
• 29:51
  Speaker 4: on the night.
• 29:51
  Speaker 2: In the forest.
• 29:52
  Speaker 4: They don't do that, So I need you just to
• 29:54
  Speaker 4: stay here. You can check out in the morning. So
• 29:55
  Speaker 4: that's their plan. We're going to sleep. Middle of the night.
• 29:58
  Speaker 4: I feel like something's watching me, and I opened my
• 30:02
  Speaker 4: eyes and I see in the corner of the room
• 30:05
  Speaker 4: what appears to me to look like a nineteen fifties businessmen,
• 30:10
  Speaker 4: full on fedora and you know, kind of trench coat
• 30:13
  Speaker 4: and business you know, nineteen fifties mad men esque. And
• 30:16
  Speaker 4: I'm panicked and I'm freaking out, but you're paralyzed with fear.
• 30:21
  Speaker 4: And so I remember like him staring at me, and
• 30:23
  Speaker 4: I didn't feel threatened, but I don't know why.
• 30:27
  Speaker 2: Little me was like.
• 30:28
  Speaker 4: I offered him my teddy bear and he said no,
• 30:31
  Speaker 4: and he did this and go back to sleep.
• 30:33
  Speaker 2: So I don't know. I just went back to sleep.
• 30:36
  Speaker 4: The next morning, we're packing in a mad panic and
• 30:39
  Speaker 4: we have those hard SAMSONI luggages.
• 30:42
  Speaker 2: Mine was sky blue.
• 30:43
  Speaker 4: There's details to this that I remember to this day.
• 30:46
  Speaker 4: And so I'm packing my things, all my little stuff.
• 30:49
  Speaker 4: I put my plushy in there. We head out the door.
• 30:53
  Speaker 4: As we're driving away in my mother's Chevy Nova, I
• 30:58
  Speaker 4: look up to the room and I can see this
• 31:00
  Speaker 4: man in our room between the curtains, which were to
• 31:06
  Speaker 4: the left of the door if you're facing the building.
• 31:09
  Speaker 2: And I'm like, and he's holding the Papa Smurf And I'm.
• 31:12
  Speaker 4: Like, oh, So I go home and sure enough, Papa
• 31:15
  Speaker 4: Smarp's not in there. So years later, when I had
• 31:18
  Speaker 4: heard this story, I asked my mother to give me
• 31:21
  Speaker 4: pictures and everything to see if I could find where
• 31:23
  Speaker 4: this motel was. I found it because I know it's
• 31:25
  Speaker 4: doing a celebrity ghost story. I found the motel and
• 31:28
  Speaker 4: I recounted the story to I literally, I said, this
• 31:32
  Speaker 4: is going to sound so crazy.
• 31:34
  Speaker 2: How have you used it?
• 31:34
  Speaker 4: And they're like, actually, And they told me the story
• 31:36
  Speaker 4: about how this man lost his child in the pool.
• 31:40
  Speaker 2: The kid he was just basically not watching his kid.
• 31:43
  Speaker 4: And his kid drowned in the pool, and that he
• 31:46
  Speaker 4: is a benevolent spirit who watches over the children at
• 31:50
  Speaker 4: the hotel and they've never had any problems with him,
• 31:53
  Speaker 4: but that it's not the first time kids specifically have
• 31:57
  Speaker 4: seen this man.
• 31:58
  Speaker 2: And I felt so validated because I didn't tell her.
• 32:01
  Speaker 2: I didn't tell her my story. I didn't say nothing.
• 32:03
  Speaker 4: She volunteered it and it completely aligned with my story.
• 32:08
  Speaker 1: What I mean, I have chills listening to that. It's like,
• 32:12
  Speaker 1: I know he's a bullet and benevolent spirit. It's still
• 32:14
  Speaker 1: like a scary thing to see.
• 32:15
  Speaker 4: Yeah, as a kid. And by the way, then it
• 32:17
  Speaker 4: was so funny because we were not super religious at
• 32:19
  Speaker 4: that time, but years later my mother and my teens
• 32:23
  Speaker 4: became very evangelical born again Christian and so I was
• 32:26
  Speaker 4: always scared to kind of bring it up because I
• 32:28
  Speaker 4: wonder what her memory of it is, and through that
• 32:32
  Speaker 4: now newly a sort of religious lens, if she would
• 32:35
  Speaker 4: acknowledge that that happened.
• 32:37
  Speaker 2: And so I started with my aunt and I was like, hey,
• 32:40
  Speaker 2: do you remember anything weird that happened at Lake George.
• 32:43
  Speaker 4: She goes, you mean the man that was in the room,
• 32:46
  Speaker 4: and I was like yes, and she was like, no,
• 32:48
  Speaker 4: that really happened.
• 32:49
  Speaker 2: And then I asked my.
• 32:50
  Speaker 4: Mother and she was like, oh yeah, oh no, yeah,
• 32:53
  Speaker 4: I think it was something not good like you. It
• 32:55
  Speaker 4: was very fascinating how everyone remembered it, but no one talked.
• 32:59
  Speaker 2: To me it.
• 33:00
  Speaker 1: Yeah, oh my goodness. And it's it's one like whether
• 33:04
  Speaker 1: you believe or not, like when you have multiple people
• 33:05
  Speaker 1: that experience something so similar. I mean, my wife has
• 33:09
  Speaker 1: a similar story, and it's just like it's it's undeniable,
• 33:12
  Speaker 1: you know that something happened. Yeah, yeah, well again you
• 33:15
  Speaker 1: can well you can watch this on Celebrity ghost Stories
• 33:18
  Speaker 1: on A and E. You you mentioned cabaret earlier. Your
• 33:23
  Speaker 1: cabaret performance is that that?
• 33:24
  Speaker 4: Yeah?
• 33:25
  Speaker 1: I can't believe you were doing Rent when you were
• 33:26
  Speaker 1: like eighteen years old.
• 33:27
  Speaker 2: That's right out of high school. Why it's so wild
• 33:30
  Speaker 2: because I didn't have an age or anything.
• 33:32
  Speaker 4: I want to perform me or a high school and
• 33:33
  Speaker 4: a girl who had graduated before me was like, my
• 33:35
  Speaker 4: agency would love you. You need to meet with them. I,
• 33:38
  Speaker 4: you know, was nervous about my future, didn't know.
• 33:41
  Speaker 2: I met with this agency.
• 33:43
  Speaker 4: They gave me audition size through at law and order
• 33:45
  Speaker 4: for me to play some like drug dealer.
• 33:47
  Speaker 2: Kid, you know, a cliche Latin boy role.
• 33:49
  Speaker 4: And so then I remember she said can you sing?
• 33:54
  Speaker 4: I said yes, I sang something from Rent mid song.
• 33:58
  Speaker 2: She called casting.
• 33:59
  Speaker 4: She said, I have some some clients and today, can
• 34:01
  Speaker 4: you see one more? I went that very day. The
• 34:04
  Speaker 4: casting associate gave me a callback on the spot. The
• 34:06
  Speaker 4: next day the agency signed me. So I went from
• 34:09
  Speaker 4: Long Island to the city again to sign with his agency.
• 34:11
  Speaker 2: Didn't know what that meant.
• 34:13
  Speaker 4: Callback, callback, And then by the time I got to
• 34:15
  Speaker 4: the casting director, Bernard Telsea, who now casts major motion
• 34:18
  Speaker 4: pictures as well as TV and Broadway, he.
• 34:22
  Speaker 2: Said, where have you been? I was like, Oh, I
• 34:24
  Speaker 2: didn't have an agent or like a headshot or a resume.
• 34:27
  Speaker 2: He's like, I would have cast you without any of that.
• 34:29
  Speaker 2: You're perfect for this.
• 34:30
  Speaker 4: And I went through the whole process, you know, the
• 34:32
  Speaker 4: director of the choreographer, Jonathan Larson's parents because they owned
• 34:36
  Speaker 4: the estate and so they had to approve me. And
• 34:39
  Speaker 4: then at eighteen, I mean, I was sleeping in the
• 34:41
  Speaker 4: streets to get tickets in nineteen ninety seven Spring and
• 34:44
  Speaker 4: starring in the show Fall of nineteen ninety seven.
• 34:47
  Speaker 1: Incredible, it's so wild. Yeah, So if people want to
• 34:51
  Speaker 1: see you perform, now is how can we see you?
• 34:55
  Speaker 2: So here's what I do.
• 34:56
  Speaker 4: I basically tour with what I call the ninety minute
• 34:59
  Speaker 4: Raddar Glee version of my life, and I sing Top forty,
• 35:03
  Speaker 4: I sing Broadway, and I tell funny stories about sort
• 35:06
  Speaker 4: of my journey, and I always frame them a little differently.
• 35:09
  Speaker 4: So if I play the same venue and I feel
• 35:10
  Speaker 4: like it's going to be a lot of the same folks,
• 35:12
  Speaker 4: and I'll retitle the show and pepper in some new
• 35:16
  Speaker 4: songs so that people whatever.
• 35:18
  Speaker 2: But I keep in the favorites.
• 35:19
  Speaker 4: And obviously I talk about my upbringing, I talk about rent,
• 35:22
  Speaker 4: I talk about queer eye, spill all the tea, and
• 35:26
  Speaker 4: it's kind of like, you know, my biggest role models
• 35:28
  Speaker 4: growing up were the Lily Tomlin one person shows, the
• 35:32
  Speaker 4: Whoopy Goldberg, and the John leg was Amo shows, and
• 35:35
  Speaker 4: that's what I really wanted to do. But coming from
• 35:37
  Speaker 4: a musical theater background and being a sort of a
• 35:39
  Speaker 4: pop rock singer by trade, it felt weird to just
• 35:43
  Speaker 4: do it without any music. So now I just kind
• 35:45
  Speaker 4: of I would say, follow me at Ji Rodriguez on Insta,
• 35:49
  Speaker 4: and I have a Patreon and so I post clips
• 35:52
  Speaker 4: on there, but like I just paided a clip. I
• 35:54
  Speaker 4: did a cabaret show in like two weekends ago in
• 35:58
  Speaker 4: San Diego, and it was super fun, and I think
• 36:01
  Speaker 4: one of The fun things about it for me is
• 36:04
  Speaker 4: it's a weird part of me that even some of
• 36:07
  Speaker 4: my closest LA friends have never seen me do because
• 36:09
  Speaker 4: I'm usually traveling to do it.
• 36:11
  Speaker 2: And when people who know me or know me.
• 36:14
  Speaker 4: From television but don't know this side, they're like, you're
• 36:18
  Speaker 4: so You're so good, And it's not like I received
• 36:21
  Speaker 4: that in that way. It's more like I'm allowing folks
• 36:25
  Speaker 4: to see what New York audiences knew in two thousand,
• 36:29
  Speaker 4: you know. But I think I got so swept up
• 36:32
  Speaker 4: on TV and film here in Los Angeles. I never really,
• 36:37
  Speaker 4: you know, leaned into being like some kind of recording artists.
• 36:40
  Speaker 4: So all that for me is as a talker, as
• 36:44
  Speaker 4: a storyteller is cabaret. It's not a concert because I
• 36:47
  Speaker 4: like to tell stories, and so it's you know, I
• 36:49
  Speaker 4: love the idea of mixing those two.
• 36:52
  Speaker 2: And when Leslie Jordan, God Bless his.
• 36:54
  Speaker 4: Soul, when he was still with us, I would steal
• 36:57
  Speaker 4: his cabaret dates because I would play venues that he
• 37:00
  Speaker 4: played before me, and I thought, okay, we have a
• 37:02
  Speaker 4: crossover audience, so I would email the venue right after
• 37:06
  Speaker 4: he played there. I was like, hey, fellow show because
• 37:09
  Speaker 4: he would just tell stories and he would say, he's
• 37:11
  Speaker 4: such an incredible storyteller. So I kind of took a
• 37:14
  Speaker 4: page from his book and incorporated the music. And I
• 37:18
  Speaker 4: think the music is the big, showy kind of Oh
• 37:20
  Speaker 4: you didn't know I could do that, you know, And
• 37:22
  Speaker 4: and of course get people what they want to hear
• 37:24
  Speaker 4: about the projects I've been on.
• 37:26
  Speaker 1: I love it. You're the coolest guy in the world.
• 37:28
  Speaker 1: I mean, thank you so much for hanging out with
• 37:30
  Speaker 1: me again. Follow you, he Rodriguez. If you don't already,
• 37:33
  Speaker 1: you got to smash that follow button.
• 37:34
  Speaker 2: Is it true that you guys like you and your girlfriend?
• 37:37
  Speaker 4: Like?
• 37:38
  Speaker 2: Is you your wife? Your girlfriend?
• 37:39
  Speaker 1: I can't remember that's my wife? Yeah, oh wife? Love it.
• 37:41
  Speaker 2: I'm stalking your socials. You guys like theme parks?
• 37:45
  Speaker 1: Oh my goodness, Yes we do. We do.
• 37:48
  Speaker 2: I do too. Will you be doing Halloween horror nights?
• 37:51
  Speaker 2: You know?
• 37:51
  Speaker 1: I just became brave enough to do it. I'm new
• 37:55
  Speaker 1: to Halloween hornits, but I'm obsessed. I can't wait this.
• 37:57
  Speaker 4: So you're the guy who says no, baby, you first
• 38:00
  Speaker 4: and use her as a human shield.
• 38:02
  Speaker 1: Yes, I am got it.
• 38:04
  Speaker 2: I want to hang with you, guys.
• 38:05
  Speaker 4: I want to go with you guys. It's one of
• 38:07
  Speaker 4: my favorite things. I don't like horror movies. I love
• 38:11
  Speaker 4: watching other people get scared. It cracks me up. I
• 38:14
  Speaker 4: watch the YouTube clips of when Ellen would send people in.
• 38:18
  Speaker 2: Those mounted I can watch.
• 38:19
  Speaker 4: If I need to pick me up, I will watch
• 38:21
  Speaker 4: her little reporter go through. I've seen it a million times.
• 38:24
  Speaker 4: It still makes me. Anyway, we have to do a
• 38:27
  Speaker 4: theme park.
• 38:27
  Speaker 2: Is my point.
• 38:28
  Speaker 1: Let's do it. Yeah, I'm down anytime. Wow. Thank you,
• 38:31
  Speaker 1: Thank you so much again. Ja, you're the coolest guy
• 38:33
  Speaker 1: in the world.
• 38:33
  Speaker 2: Thank you, Thank you so much. Do I talk to
• 38:35
  Speaker 2: you soon.
• 38:36
  Speaker 3: Good Bye, everybody, and don't forget.
• 39:07
  Speaker 1: Follow us on Instagram at I Am all In podcast
• 39:11
  Speaker 1: and email us at Gilmore at iHeartRadio dot com.