OUTRAGEOUS! (1977) - The Friday the 13th The Series Spectacular Part Three

Hey there everybody. Before I start the show, I just have a few quick announcements to make.First of all, when we recorded this a few months ago, I was having severe mic problems. I don't know what happened.I still don't really know what happened, but the mic that I used for ScreamQueenz for years and years and years all of a sudden was not working at all. No matter what fix I tried, nothing was working. So I realized that bad sound was better than no sound.So I bought a cheap microphone just to fill in until I got everything working. So the sound quality for this episode and the following episode are not up up to snuff.So I apologize for that in advance and it really breaks my heart because both of these episodes are very, very special. Because yes, we're doing a Friday the 13th spectacular episode, but we're going a little off topic. We're not doing a horror movie.Instead, we're doing a very special forgotten queer classic film called Outrageous. But that's not all. This is a two part episode. Because today we're going to be talking about the movie.And tomorrow, yes, tomorrow, I'm putting out a second episode tomorrow, Saturday the 13th, where we speak to one of the stars of the film, a fabulous man who I worked with many, many years ago at Albert Playhouse, Mr. Richert Easley. And don't.Just because we're talking about a classic queer movie, that doesn't mean it doesn't completely tie in with the Friday the 13th series universe, because it does. So we're on topic, but we're not talking about a horror movie. So please, please open your hearts, open your minds.The other big announcement is that starting with this episode, Damewonka Lewis is now also a video podcast with its own YouTube channel. So if you want to see all our smiling faces talking about the movie as well as listening to it, you can head on over there where?Which is@YouTube.com scream queenspodiverse. At some point, Damie Uncle Lewis will have its own YouTube channel. But right now we're working with the ScreamQueenz Podiverse umbrella.And the link is right down there in the show notes. The videos are there. So go down there and look at us sparkle, why don't you?And of course, the last announcement is that starting next month, Damian Uncle Lewis will be going public.All these episodes that have been locked behind the Patreon payroll are going to be slowly releasing one by one by one to the general public right here on the Scream Queen's feed. And we're all very excited to share them with you.We got a brand new sexy logo by artist K. Loman from evil goods design that I'm going to be unveiling for everybody next week. And we're all very excited. I hope you're excited, but that's all in the future, and today's show is happening right now.So I want you to sit back, relax, and absolutely enjoy it. Love ya. Oh, hello. Come in, come in, come in. Do come in out of the terrible weather. Oh, welcome. Welcome to my very curious curio shop.Although I hate to inform you the shop is closed for tonight because there's a. Well, it's a rather special evening. It's our monthly meeting of sorts. So unless you're here for the meeting, I'm going to have to ask you to leave.The nature of the meeting, you ask. Let me put it to you this way. Sometimes Uncle Louis does dreadful things.Welcome to damn you, uncle Lewis, the Friday the 13th series retrospective podcast. Hello, everyone. Welcome back to my very curious curios shop. My name is Patrick Walsh.Welcome to another episode of damn you, Uncle Lewis, which is the podcast where we talk about Friday the 13th the series, but not tonight because technically we're on hiatus until the show goes public in November. So tonight we're doing something very special.We're having another Friday the 13th the series spectacular episode, where we talk about a movie or a series of movies have some connection to somebody in the Friday the 13th oeuvre. And tonight we're talking about the movie outrageous, exclamation point from 1977, which was written and directed by Richard Benner.Richard Benner also was the screenwriter for one of our favorite favorite episodes of the season. And now the news, featuring the haunted radio and the return of Effie Stokes. But you know what?I've been talking a really long time, and I hate listening to the sound of my own voice, especially when there's two fabulous people sitting in the wigs. Guys, are you ready to come out? It's great, my brother. Take the st right out. Come on, come on.

Come out? Come Out? I am so old. How long have I been out? Patrick?

You were off the. You were out. You're out. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't care. I don't care because you're here now.I'm living in the moment, Maya, not living in the past. How are you both? It feels like it's been a thousand years since we went to the funeral home, but we're here now.

Oh.

Oh.

Just me as Rita Repulsa emerging from the cave.

Ah.

1,000 years.

I'm great. How are you?

I'm good, I'm good, I'm good. Trading. How are you?

I'm doing great.

Well, you look fabulous. I love your Alfiber shirt.

Me too.

Thank you. Thank you.

For those of you who don't know what's going on here today, well, we're over on ScreamQueenz. We had a tradition.Whenever Friday the 13th came up on the actual calendar, we would cover the next installment of the Friday the 13th movies in the franchise. But we ran out of movies really quickly because ScreamQueenz ran forever. So what we did was this.I came up with this idea, okay, we're going to keep the tradition going, but we're just going to connect the dots in a different way. And that's what we're doing here as well. So tonight our spotlight is on writer director Richard Benner.The thing is, I realized going forward with these things because we might have to do this again in the future after the show goes public, is that a lot of these creators didn't always work in the horror genre. So we can't spoil ourselves to always commit ourselves to one kind of a movie. We're going a little off the regular track here tonight because I.Trading. I think it's your turn. Trading. What is the story of outrageous exclamation point from 1977.

Oh, it is about two friends, Liza. And I'm blinking on the main character.

Robin.

Robin, that's right. Robin. Okay. Robin and Liza. Liza is a schizophrenic who has just left her hospital and they.Two of them now are living together and the movie follows them as he tries to make it as a drag queen and she tries to just find some kind of stability in her life and happiness.

Might have anything want to add to that?

It reminds me of just when I moved to New York. Drag queen and mentally ill woman just trying to get their shit together like it was.

It's a Maya Murphy story is what it is. Listen, I like it's for me, it's a. But it's an unconventional buddy comedy. Yes.Where you have these two friends who should not be clicking together and it's kind of parent you don't see in a movie. And they should be at odds with each other, but they're not. And they this weird connection keeps saving them over and over and over again.That the movie's really not about her trying to become a writer or her trying to stay out of the asylum or about him becoming a director. It's really about what's happening with them. Because that's.

I was trying to figure out why it's not an Odd Couple. What is it if it's not an Odd couple? You're so right. It's a. It's a loving buddy comedy, since it's.

A very, very queer story. It's about unconventional families. It's about found families. These two found each other, and they are working because she is a very sick woman.

It's very dangerous. They gotta spoil all special people. You gotta promise, Robin. I promise. Oh, good, good. I can do it. I can go saying just like anybody else.Of course, yes.

She's not. I mean, she's not well. And by all means, she should be. I mean, she escapes in an asylum. I mean, that escapes.But she leaves the asylum, she should be in a hospital. Everyone. Her doctor keeps saying, you need to be in the hospital. Her mother keeps telling her she's in the hospital.These friends keep saying, you should be in the hospital. And by all, by movie rights, she should be in the hospital.Or even by real life lights, like, the right thing for you to do is go to the hospital and get the proper medication. But that's not working for her. It's just not. This is what's working. This.For some reason, this works when nothing else works and she's staying on her meds and everything. She's doing everything right, but it's just that. Whatever. I don't know if I'm making myself clear.

Well, you absolutely are. Sorry, Trae. You go.

Well, it just ends up that Robin is the one person who lets her be who she is. Like. Like.Because when she comes to the house, she starts having an attack where she's seeing, you know, she thinks the walls moving in, and so she's lying on a bed, pressing up. And instead of stopping her, he gets beside her and immediately starts helping her, you know, push it away. And he helps calm her down.

Solomon. Solly. Molly, knock. It's here. What?

Come on. Okay, back to the cages. Kong. Come on.

Okay.

Come on. We can lick it together. Just sit. Push.

At the movie, he's the one person who kind of accepts her as who she is.

And you're right. I'm glad you said that, because that's something I could put into words.Whenever she is having an episode like this, he's the only person in the story that, when encountering her having an episode is like, stop it, stop it, stop it, stop it. He's like, okay, let's work through this together. Oh, the wall's crossing. Let me help you push it back.

And that's her introduction to them together.

Yeah. And he's able to shock her out of things and they're able to grow together, and they. They balance each other out in this really unconventional way.Okay. Okay. Go any further before we further. Tell me about Robin, our main character. Tell me about Robin.

Robin is a sad, queer hairdresser. Has all these pictures up of. Of grand ds of Hollywood literally doing those hairstyles on his clients whether they.

Want it or not.

And he's just kind of, like, sad in the eyes. And you see him, like, lip sync or not lip syncing, singing. Excuse me. Give my regards to Broadway. At home in his mirror, like. Like a kid not.Not expressing himself. He's just his lights under a bushel.

But I also think it's important that he's not necessarily closeted. He's also living. You know, he's a hairdresser. Job as a hairdresser. So he's. He lives in a weird twilight of sort of at night he goes.At night he goes and lives the gay lifestyle. And it daytime, he kind of. He doesn't lie about it, but he's not upfront about it.

So he's kind of. He's forced to.

At work.

He's kind of forced into the closet at work. Even though he's a hairdresser, which is ironic, which we'll talk about later. Later.

Well, that's.

It's not surprising. It's not surprising. But just in this world that we're building here, he wants to do drag, but he doesn't have the courage to do drag yet. Or.I'm sorry, it's not even that he wants to do drag. He wants to perform. Because he's got a gift. And we see it throughout the movie like he is.We're dealing with, like, what I think is kind of fun, which I realized this time through. We have Liza, his roommate, who's schizophrenic, who is dealing with all these exterior voices inside her own head, you know, these.These different characters that are always coming in and crushing it on her reality. Meanwhile, he's got all these people living inside of him that are always popping out in opportune moments.Except the people living inside of Robin are all these grand dolls of the stage and screen. You know, Carol Burnett, not Carol Bur. Carol Channing, Mae West, Peggy Lee, Ella Fitzgerald. All these women are living inside of him.And they'll occasionally pop out to comment on whatever situation is going on and then disappear back into the ether.

They have that fabulous conversation at the diner where Liza talks about all the female impersonations he does the exact same way she talks about the voices she hears in her head. And then she. She clarifies a little. I forget the exact phrase she uses.

I have it right here, and I'll actually play the audio for it.

Oh, my goodness.

That was one of my magic moments that I. For that I wanted to make sure I did not. He's.He's talking about, well, they asked me to host this thing, and I don't know if I want to do it, and I'm scared. And she's all for it because she's like. She's the one who pushes him as much as he's always the one saving her.She's the one who's always pushing him forward in a positive way. She goes, no, no, no. Bring out Tallulah. Bring Tallulah out to play. Let Tallulah come out.

I know, Robin. You should get Tallulah Bankhead to go.

Who?

Tallulah. Even an Oriental prince should know that name. Tallulah

lives inside Robin. She's like Elsie.Do you remember she had all those people who lived inside and they used to pop out and scare people because they still look like Elsie. Only Tallulah is different because she's a friend. Tallulah's one of them, but she's a friend.

But this does show how the two of them are good for each other. He helps her, but she helps him. They kind of need each other. They're bringing out the best in each other.

Well portrayed. Well portrayed.

Can I add to that?

You may.

They kind of have this inverse thing where Liza's already expressing herself creatively. She comes out of the asylum with her giant album of everything she's writing.That's never been a problem for her, but she needs to integrate with a social life. And Robin has an okay job and friends, but isn't doing his creative thing, so they help each other express the part that's lacking.

As the movie goes, that was very Artist's Way of you. But yes, you're absolutely right.

Excuse me, I gotta go do my morning pages. I'll be right back.

Somebody who swears by the Artist's Way. That was very artist way by way of you. Nobody has any idea what we're talking about, and that's okay, you know, Artist's Way by Julia Cameron.Go check it out. YeahWhether you're an artist or not. Yeah. So the thing about this movie, like what I also. I find very charming about this movie is that it is very low budget.It was made for just over $100,000. And, I mean, it shows. I mean, the sound problems is lighting problems. They are doing a lot of stuff guerrilla style. But you know what?They got the money. They're. They got a dream chasing it, and I love that. Yes, it focuses on dragon female impersonation, but it's from a different era.Before it was an industry. Like, these are people, like, just scrapping together costumes and doing the best they can with what they have. Where drag wasn' out reveals.You had to actually get up there and do something.

Death drops, layered wigs.

Yep.

Yeah.

Reality performance.

Yeah.

And.

And our. Our star, Robin, who is Craig Russell. He's wonderful.

Yeah.

Oh, my God,

what a dump. Speaking of Joan Crawford, Joan and I were reminiscing recently, and I reminded her of all the times that she'd been evil.Capital E, evil. In her pictures, her very moving pictures. You remember Mildred Pierce? She played a waitress.But she couldn't wait to beat up Anne Blythe because she was stealing her boyfriend, Zachary Scott. Well, Joan gave her the shoulders and the full treatment. Vita, you little tramp.Then, of course, years later, she graduated to a typist who couldn't type because she was going out with an outpatient. Where else would you go with an outpatient? And one day, he picked up her typewriter and smashed her hand.She took her one good hand and got Vera Miles right on the cheek. Why, you little slut.

The movie gives him, like, two different drag numbers, like, where if you're a singer, you get, like, your own song. He gets, like, his own little, like, drag number twice in the show, and both times, it's amazing.

Got quite a few. I've maybe. Maybe it feels like. Well, you know what it is?

I feel like we get two in their entirety, and then we get little slices of more.

You know what? What I just realized, it's because his. When we see his.His act, his big act for the first time, it was Diamonds Are A Girl's Best Friend over and over. But different divas performing it was one song over and over and over again.

But, you know, we've been singing that song for 25 years now, and it's almost perfect. Right now. I've decided to take a new role, a new characterization, new wig and everything.I'm accepting the title role in who's Afraid of Virginia Wool? We're opening at the Owensburg Drive in Dinner theater.

That was fabulous. Different interpretations from different divas. You're right. Things I wanted to say.This was actually based on a short story by Margaret Gibson called Making it from her collection of short stories called Butterfly Ward. Margaret Gibson was Craig Russell's roommate in real life. So this is. It's an autobiographical story.

Didn't they also get married later?

Yeah, Lavender. Marriage. Lavender.

My team. My team.

So. So there's a lot of heart going on behind this movie. And what I find really fascinating about his. His performances.The movie makes a distinct separation between drag queens and female impersonation. He's a female impersonator. He's not a drag queen. He very rarely is in drag off the stage. Like, we see him go back out in the club and he's back in.In men's clothes. He introduces himself with a man's name, not a drag name.I watched a video from another podcast where an older gay and a younger gay watch movies together. And the younger gay was like, the drag was just so boring. His performances are just so boring.And I can kind of get that because he's not doing caricatures of these big Hollywood celebrities of Bette Davis, of Tallulah Bankhead and all the other people, Peggy Lee, all these other great singers. He's doing dead on impersonations of them.

No, what I wanted to tell you was I got this. I went to a Hadassah bazaar, actually. And I picked up this big machine, this. What do you call it, a movie aura.And we cut the picture myself because that way we get a woman point of view, you know, this woman. And actually, I had a very good dialogue with K ristopherson through the whole picture. If you recall, every time he said. Watch closely now. I'd say CUT!And speaking of stars, it's really nice being born a star. Yes.

Even if it's not, like, vocally perfect. He's got the mannerisms, the ticks, like the vocal. Like the vocal styling down.Even if it doesn't sound exactly like them, it's eerie to watch and see.

The vocals are still very impressive. No, 100% very impressive.

With his facial expressions and his posture. Like, he's really good about hopping from Persona to Persona also.

And if my research fails me, wasn't he the president of the Mae west fan club?

Oh, was he?

Was he?

And then her personal assistant for a little while.

Oh, I love that.

I read that too.

Save your hands, boys. You might need them later. I feel like a million tonight. One at a time. I know when you were gonna be here. I'd have worn a leather boa.

He was a man and he did it wrong. No, he's delightful to watch that. He's not doing cartoons, he's doing something else.And it's a different art form than it is now and it was just fun.

It's changed a lot. It's changed a lot for tele.

I'm sorry, I'm sorry. Well, no, you're fine. I'm just having. I'm the thoughts.

No, I cut you off.

How dare you. It takes me back. Like I forgot this kind of early drag. This takes me back to when I was first coming out, like. And local stuff. When he's.When you're in the big cities, it's one thing, but when you go to like, local stuff, like, like an off city, like Toronto, this is what you're probably going to get, especially 1977. But it's not a huge industry, when it's not the hottest thing on the planet, when it's still this kind of weird side thing.Oh, the other thing I just wanted to touch on here, that something that hit me was that I've read a lot of things. People get really hung up on Liza's mental illness.

You know, I'll never understand it, what straight guys turn out to be such psychos.

Damn crazy bitch!

But so much time dwelling on it's such a big deal. And I said, do you not get the connection here?Because it was only a few years before that being gay and being a female, you know, dressing in drag were also considered a mental illness. So they. Much closer.

People complain about that.

Well, you know, because it's not like it's so wrong and she's. It's so abusive. It's not abusive, but just so exploitive of her condition and blah, blah, blah.

It was so clear to me that was also.

It's an autobiography.

It's autobiographical, but also the movie is called Outrageous and the. But the movie is so intimate, it's. It isn't outrageous. They are considered outrageous because of these aspects of themselves.They didn't entirely choose. That's the damn point.

And the movies never mocks her or what she's going through at all. In fact, it's very. And especially the very end. It's very loving towards her. So, I mean, you're right.In the real world, it would be a completely irresponsible thing to let her live on.But in the movie though, he's the one person who gives her peace, you know, who is like a refuge that she can go to because he's the one person who just lets her be.

She also grounds him in her own way, too. He thinks about something other than himself.He could be an awful person in a different scenario, but she's forcing him to think about something other than himself in his career all the time. And it's true. It balances itself out. Her name is Hollis McLaren, is that right? Yeah, Hollis McLaren. And she's lovely. I love her.I think she's wonderful. She's got a Sissy Spacek thing going on, which is really nice.

She does. In the cheekbones. Yeah.

And that. She just seems so fragile looking, like beautiful. But if you touch her, she'll just. Just vanish in a wisp, which is wonderful. There's another.There's another future star in this semi star. I don't know if you caught it. Helen Shaver. Helen Shaver. She's a Canadian actress. She works all the time, but most famously for our people.She was Nancy's mom in the Craft. The one who wanted the jukebox full of Connie Francis songs.

I missed that entirely. I would have wore my Craft T shirt if I had caught that.

So who is she in this movie?

She was also in. She also was up for an Emmy a couple of years ago for the Penguin. So she's in the Marvel universe of the DC universe, whatever it is. But anyway.But that's your. That's your people. But no, she's a regular actress who's always doing great supporting work and has been for a thousand years. But she was.There were those two women that kind of forced their ways into the movie halfway through.

The Mean Lesbians.

The mean lesbian and her friend. That was Jessica Clown.

While you've been out there swishing and drinking, she's been working like some damn slave and she hasn't even had time to eat herself. She is very thin. Robert and Joe, I didn't know. Does she have. Well, there's not a thing. Not even soup. Well, I'll go out for something.You are a sick, power hungry, egotistical, and you need someone to push around. So around comes Lysa. Someone who is disturbed. Someone who can't complain no matter what you do to her, because she loves you, thinks she loves you.She is sick. And you. You use her.

Helen Shaver was the one. One that was just like a raggedy ankle. That. Okay, that dress did not go through wardrobe. That.That's clearly how you know that they had no money and everybody brought their own costumes because that dress was hideous. Hideous. But no, that's Helen Shaver shaved That's her first films.

That's wild. You know who else was in the credits that I missed in the movie and didn't have the patience to scrub around to find?

I know, but please tell me

Michael Ironside.

I don't know where he is neither.

I couldn't find him. It's a drunk. And I'm like, we're always in a bar. Which drunk?

He's listed in the IMDb and we'll ask Richert, he'll know. Oh, who's Richert? Well, well, here's the thing. It turned out when we. Covered and. And now the news.When I saw Outrageous In Richard Benner's IMDb I said that sounds familiar. Because the thing about this movie as well is that it's been forgotten. Nobody it remembers it.And I'm also having Bill Van Ryn from Groovy Doom double check this for me because he's the, he's the expert on print ads for old movies. Because I could swear to God that this movie was running on midnight bills like every Friday and Saturday night would be outrageous.You know, you had your choice of midnight movie. Dawn of the Dead, Rocky Horror, raise your head. I could swear that it was on that circuit.And now nobody remembers it, which is tragic because it is a lovely slice of history.

The Hedwig movie makes multiple references to things in Outrageous and Too Outrageous. There's visual references and there's little plot points. I know because I have the DVD to Hedwig and I've rewatched it too many times.So like there's definitely a cultural imprint that I began to recognize.But I also think it's for anyone used to queer films now, even starting 20 years ago, it can be a slow start because it's running on spit and string and it's just so intimate and quiet.

It's not Priscilla.

It's not. I love Priscilla. I love Priscilla, but it's not, it's.

Not that two hours of sequins and fabulousness with a little bit of grit on the side. This is a lot of grit and.

An established DC super villain yelling at you in sequence.

Well, also we're talking about the budget. It reminded me of the movie Basket Case, the horror movie Basket Case by Frank Hennin Lauder. That was micro budget but it makes it feel authentic.Like this feels almost like a documentary because it's just so I said it's, it's. The story carries along really well. It's kind of meanders. But I was never born. I was always getting into it. It's a yeah, it's.But it feels like this could almost be a documentary of just some really.

Sad people of Toronto, gay Toronto in the 70s, because you're getting a look at things that you would not normally see, and they're not particularly glamorous either. And that's okay. And I don't think they're shot in an actual bar at any point in this movie. It looks like it's the same room over and over again.

Looks like a VFW hall.

This. This is how low the. But okay. Two things. Two things. I want to say this now.Before, I was in love with the movie instantly, the first couple seconds of the movie, because it's a drag queen going, can we get some professionalism in this club? I'm like, I'm in.

Yes.

You wake up there. Isn't there any professionalism in this club? Would you spin my record, please? And then. And then she demanded professionalism.

And finally her tape starts up and it's this shitty song that she's doing badly. I'm like. On the nose. But she's flirting with a guy in the audience. Trae, did you recognize the guy in the audience?Maya, did you recognize the guy she was flirting with?

The guy? The. The one whose keyring she smacked on his balls.

We just talked about him in the last movie. That's a Howard from. From My Bloody Valentine. Who is the. The. The cop in Funeral home. Ding Dong Patrick from the future here.The actor's name is Alf Humphries from My Bloody Valentine and Funeral Home. Al Humphreys. He has a name. Patrick. Ding dong. Back to the show.

What?

What? Go back and watch it. It's the same dude. He's got a big goofy smile. I'll get flirting with a drag queen. I'm like, yeah, I'm sorry, a female person.No, that was a drag queen.

That one was a drag queen.

Other drag queen.

But yes, it's wonderful moment. I forgot.

I missed that entirely.

I forgot where I was going before I derailed this. That thought was important. I forget what I was saying.

Oh, we were gonna talk about your connection to the film.

So. Okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Excellent idea. So. Right.So way back when, when we were discussing and now the news, I was doing all the boring research stuff and I was going through all everybody's IMDb's and I got to Richard Brenner's and I saw Outrageous, and just seeing the title brought back this flood of memories. And I said, no, no, I know this movie. I know this movie. It's a dip memory bell going off I said, I know what this is.This is a gay classic, and I've forgotten it. I wonder if the world's forgotten it. I just got obsessed with it. When I finally watched it, I said, this is a fabulous film.I want to talk about this film. I want to talk about this on ScreamQueenz. But it just didn't fit the format of the show, and I needed to wrap up the show. So I just.There was no time for it anymore. But the other reason I really wanted to cover the movie is because when I finally sat down to watch it, the movie started.And I went, oh, my God, that's Richert Easley. I know somebody in the cast. I worked with somebody in the cast.I could pick up the phone right now and call somebody that's in the cast of this movie. Richert Easley I did Summer stock with in 1999 at Allen Berry Playhouse, and we've talked about him on the show because he.When we did the other Kate Trotter episode, he. Trotter, who did it was Effie Stokes, and we were in Amish land.I talked about how I did that whole Amish musical, and I showed pictures, and I showed a picture to these guys of me and my Amish outfit with Richert Easley. So one of the things that's frustrated me about this process is that I can't find out any information about Richard Benner himself.Like, it's hard to do this spectacular about him when there's no information about him. He didn't do a lot of work and he died young. But Richert Easley is going to be joining us later this episode, and I'm very excited.He starts out as a frustrated hairdresser who wants to do drag, but he's too embarrassed, and he finally starts doing it. He's getting a milestone, but there's no money in Toronto. And he gets fired from his job. He's like, fuck it, I'm going to New York.

Can we talk about why he gets fired from his job?

Yes.

He has all these pictures of all these Hollywood glam queens up at his hair salon. And he keeps giving women who don't ask for them vintage movie star hairdos

Peggy O' Brien did not appreciate the Cleopatra look. She was. She was going on a game show, Maya. She was going on Magic Squares, and she has to go on Magic Squid look like Cleopatra.

That bitch. She should have tipped me 50 for giving her class. I guess she didn't want class.Any woman in this town should be thrilled to look like Cleopatra or Bette Davis. I mean, those gals are Tough. I think they're made of steel, but they're dazzling, alive. They've got guts and they had fun. These women here, they.They live life like it's a can of Coke and they're afraid to drink it too fast or it'll all be gone. Life isn't a can of Coke. That Pepsi. They set my station in the yak about renovating their house.They should renovate their shitty little lives instead. Some days I think, Robin Turner, this is your life for the next 40 years. No, dazzle,

that's not why he got fired, by the way.

Because he was clocked as a female impersonator by someone who knew one of the customers.

That's what I thought was interesting too. Like this whole, like, I did love this, the stuff in the, in the hair salon, but because it was ringing true.Like the guy who ran the hair salon is gay, but he's like, no, no, we can't let them know we're gay.

Listen, running a beauty salon is very serious. I mean, it's all in the image of the hairdresser. Most ladies don't come in here to. Have their hair done.They come in to have their egos boosted by men. And if you lose that straight image, you lose the clients. Who wants to be filled up by faggots? I can think of two people in this room who'd love it.

Like he was this self hating gay who hated the drag queens.

And the gay clubs in this town don't make enough money. No one gets paid for doing drag.

Well, being gay is one thing, but doing drag?

oh. Sugar.He wants to liberate the denim pegs and lock up the satin queen.

All of his argument was just really gross and icky.

I think my brain censored that for my own self preservation because I remember that scene.

Now these women want to be told, beautiful by the by. Tell how beautiful they look by a man, not by a drag queen.

Piggy o' Brien's son is gay. Whoopee. She caught him doing the telephone man in the study. He told her everything.

Liberation comes to Thorncliffe,

you know, he even told about that nifty club he goes to where some of the men dress up like women men. She knows. You'Re fired,

but like you're a huge cocksucker. He's like, yeah, they don't know you. Yeah, you're a hair hairdresser. But.But anyway, we go to New York and this movie so low budget that when he's playing the clubs in New York, it's the same extras bel.

Some of them have new T shirts with eagles on them. So we know what bar it is now.

They're in leather now, but that's how low budget this was. And bless these extras who probably, I'm sure, did not get paid and had to work, work horrendous hours.Stand standing, because there's no seating in any of the bars. There's no drinks in any of the bars. There's no smoking any of the parts. Clearly not a bar. But it was just cute. It was.It was a cute thing because those guys I was talking about that did the video podcast with the old queen and the young queen, the guy said, I love this movie so much that I moved to Toronto. And then I would go to these bars. And it was the same bars, and in the bars were the same guys.

Who were in the movie wearing the.

Same outfit. And I would have sex with them. And I said, okay, that's a great story.

Okay.

Maya got Scrunchie Face. You can see it because we have video now.

We have video now. At least it's not disgusted Scrunchie. Like I was just getting about the story I censored from my own brain.

Oh. Since we brought him up, I can't believe we just brought up Richert. Which Richert? What's my friend Richert doing this movie? Tell me about Perry.

Perry's trying to find an outfit.

I have found the solution. I'm going as a stewardess. Karen Black, Airport 75. You never get out of the cockpit, darling. When's a positive brainstorm?See, Sensible shoes, tasteful skirt, not a lot of makeup, smallish breasts.

And Perry's the voice of reason for the first half of the movie.

He's.

He's the comic relief leaf for the first half of the movie. And yes, all he wants. All he wants is to be Karen Black. Or more specifically, Karen Black in Airport 1975.

I can't fly this plane alone. I can't. I can't.

But he just can't seem to find the right outfit.

It's hideous, isn't it?

No, no, no, it's real cute. It's. It's just. It's real cute.

I knew it. Even Karen Black wasn't pretty in this junk. I've got to change it all.

But that's. That's the wrong Karen Black. I'm gonna be Karen Black in this other movie. I had me on my phone goog in black.

This time I have it. I really have it. Karen Black as she was in Nashville. Oh, cross your eyes and hope to die. Robin, she is an actress.

I can't land this plane alone. I just can't. Oh.

Oh. Mentally ill lady, you just got out of the hospital. Can I have this one jumpsuit you own? No. If I break it, I'll buy you 12 of them.But I need this one right now.

To Wong Foo

Yeah.

Liza, I need it. It's the perfect. Whatever this is. This. It's perfect.

No, Perry, that's my best.

This is your best? Oh, my God. Please.

You stretch it to shreds.

No, I won't. If I do, I'll buy you a new whatever it is

The other thing, I just want to say, he's delight, he's delightful, and he's very charming. He's very sweet.And I loved seeing him so young and just this character. Never seen this side of Richert before, which is fun. I can't wait to talk to him about it. I'm sure he's very eager to talk about it.He's, like, very aware that it's been forgotten. He's like, and Richert's gone and Craig is gone, and somebody needs to tell the story. And so it'll be great. It'll be a nice little treat.And it might even be a separate episode. I don't know. We'll see. Where else. The writing in this is exceptional. Like, there's some dialogue in here that just slams.Like, not just this funny stuff, but also just moments of absolute truth. There are moments that just ring that I went, wow. That was a magic moment. I'm thinking the first one that really hit me was when Liza was.When Liza's mother shows up trying to take her home.

Oh.

Awful.

I brought your suitcases, honey. All your favorite clothes. Let me bring them in for you. We could talk.

No, Mother. Mother, I've got too much to do.The nurse is coming, and I've got to do things alone. It's important. Mother.

You blame me, don't you? It was the best mental home in the province. What else could we do? Nightmares. You had those things. You saw the crying.I couldn't stand you always crying. Liza. We do love you, honey. Whatever you do, you're still my little girl.

You blame me, don't you? Yes. Yes, we do. We do. She might not, but we, the audience do. Bitch. But she says after. She's like. She's like. Are you mad that I didn't see my mother?

Robyn, Are you mad at me for not seeing Mother? No. She always gets me so depressed, and. And then I can't keep my mind steady.I know I mean, she comes with good intentions, but she leaves visions of lepers behind her.

Leaving behind visions of lepers is such an evocative turn of phrase that I had to stop and just chew on it for a while. The way she speaks is very. Is always very poetic.

I loved it.

Yeah. It's not direct and it's very visionary, and you have to really. It's not. I love all of her dialogue, you know.

You know what she reminded me of when she talked like that? It was Holly Golightly from Breakfast at Tiffany's, where she was of the mean reds.

Yeah, yeah.

Yes.

Yeah. Very Holly. Go lightly.

Yes. So actually, her relationship between her and the other guy is a little bit like Breakfast at Tiffany. This is like a very low rent.

Breakfast to Tiffany's with an actual gay man.

Yes.

Instead of the rewrite. Instead of the rewrite that they did.

For the movie, she kept calling herself the woman who was born Dead. Like she. Everything in this little circuitous. You could clearly tell she wasn't trying to be flowery. It was how her brain processed it.

All the shrink's horses and all the shrink's men couldn't put Liza together again.

And she has this amazing album of everything she's been writing, and she carries it with her, like her heart.

And it's her stories for crazy. It's my crazy stories. She's writing for crazy people. She's like, this needs to help other crazy people. I think it's great.Robin has a teen after he does drag publicly for the first time.

When I was 14, I looked in the mirror and I said, admit it, Robin, you're different. I learned I could get by as long as I kept the lid on. A few years later, I looked again and said, robin, you're a typical screaming hairdresser.So I put the lid on a little tighter. Somehow I got through all the days and all the jobs. Never really happy, but somehow getting by.And then tonight, I blew off all the lids and out popped this junk.

robin, if a caterpillar was afraid of wings, it'd never become a butterfly.And people would look at it and say, oh, look, there's a worm on the tree. But they'd never see it spinning colors into the air. You've got to do the club, Robin.

Why?

so The people laugh and they don't go crazy.Presenting the dazzling Robin Turner.

Nuts.

Oh, do it, Robin. Do it for me. And all the crazies.

If a caterpillar was afraid of its wings, all people would see is a worm in a tree. Instead of the shiny colors in the sky, I'm like, oh. Oh, it's wonderful. Little tiny moments that are just magic. Yeah, they're just magic.And it makes up for so much of the stuff that's not great. Like, you can let it go because that's real. So many moments of realness. And it was. It was a charm. Charming little movie we're not gonna spoil.I do have to bring up the taxi driver.

Licsten, Mighty mouth. Streisand opened on the other side of the river. At least I'm opening in Manhattan. Yeah, at the Jackrabbit Club. What do you know about it?

I know lots about it. I'm an out of work agent.Got your own car and everything, huh? Listen, I was the best junior William Morris ever had. All they ever talked about was packages, packages. I thought I was in Bloomingdale's.So I got bored and quit. Just doing this between careers. You're a Drag, huh?

No, I just like to travel heavy.Can you help me out with this stuff.

Hey, this is New York, fella.

Oh, I can't make an entrance solo. Come on. Spend a few minutes with a star.

Yeah, what's in it for me?

I'll make you my New York agent.

That's 10% of nothing. What else?

Oh, I don't negotiate on the street. Sage brush.

Not bad.

Her taxi driver boyfriend that she get. She. She takes one. He takes one goddamn cab ride and gets a fucking boyfriend and a manager. fuck off.

Oh, yeah. Just gets discovered. Rolls up to all his success and connections up.

I. Cause we're shooting a lot on the west side Highway. I'm like, oh, this is where all the sleazy clubs are. The clubs that.The clubs where if you went in and touched anything, you'd have to wash your hands with oven cleaner. But it was totally worth it.

They're still like that.

No, they're not.

No. Well, now they're straight, but you need to wash your hands.

No, but even the gay club like the New York City Eagle now is. It's leather, but fashionable leather. It's pizza.

Oh, no, sorry. I meant just if you walk into a bar from the west side highway, you want to wash your hands.

That's for normal filth. This is for filth. Filth. Everything is covered in the Eagle anymore.

Now it's fashion.

Yes, exactly. That was the other Rich. One of Rich's favorite. L. Like I said, he just wants to do. Karen Black.And the other one's like, you're not going to win the contest with that. He's like, look, everybody, every single ball, it's just all glitz and glam.

Look, everyone goes to these drag contests, all glittering glamour. But, I mean, how many Ja Gabor can be in a room at a time? No one's an individual.

How many Zsa Zsa Gabor can there be in one room? And I said, that could happen on Drag Race now because there's always.There's always that battle between the glamour queens and the comic queens and someone doing little.

Edie.

Someone doing little. I was exactly what I was thinking of. And then falling asleep.

Oh, Jinx.

I do want to talk a little bit about the sequel 2 outrageous. Also, exclamation point.I also love that both movies have an exclamation point in it because technically, that automatically, by gay law, makes them a musical, which they are.

The lead character does his own singing. I'll count it as a musical.

But what kind of a musical?

A gay musical?

Diegetic vocabulary word a few episodes ago. Diegenic.

The music is actually. The music you're hearing is in the scene itself.

I misheard you. I thought you said Titanic. And I went, titanic doesn't have an explanation. I did Titanic.

Peripatetics.

Maybe, but not.

It's a diuretic. Yeah.

So there is a sequel as well, called Too Outrageous. And People hate. This is considered garbage. People hate.

I did not like it nearly as much. The first one is so intimate. And I'm a hater.

I didn't love it either, but I. But for some reason, probably just because of my age and what we do for a living.Maya resonated more because now he's in New York and he's trying to make it New York. And so I'm seeing the New York that I was coming out to in 1987 because it's 10 years later, like having to find your brand. And all these.All these things that this. This speaks to me. I know this game. This game I'm familiar with. He's. He's on my turf now. So I was. I was relaxing with that a bit more.But there's this problems with it. There's problems with it.

I think it's. It's trying to be three or four different films. It's trying to be all things. And in trying to jam all of those in there, it just.It can't decide where it wants to land. And it ends up being written a little soapy. All the actors do some heavy lifting with a script that goes over here to over there. But I just.I don't know if it comes together in the same kind of intimate way where I just. The first one is so lovely.

You can't capture lightning in a bottle and.

No, of course.

And you can't do it twice.

No.

They do their best. And when it works, it works. I didn't hate it. I didn't hate it. Like, I was still entertained by it. Like I said, this isn't great. That's not great.This isn't great.But the main core of it, the two of them, those two friends, that friendship is still holding is what's holding that movie together, even though they're going their separate ways, Things like that. But what I thought was interesting about it was that the first movie was all about trying to make it in Toronto so you can get to New York.And the second movie is all about making it in New York so you can get to Toronto.

That was cute.

No, I mean, it wasn't cute, but. But no, it made sense because that was back when people actually previewed shows out of town.And he's got this agent that wants him to straighten up his act and he's going back to Toronto, which is a very different Toronto than he left 10 years ago.It's also the thing with the movie that it is 10 years later, which means it's 1987, which means AIDS has entered the picture and you can't ignore it.

It.

No. And we get around to that, and it's gutting.

It's. It's gutting, but also not done well because.

No. And then I'm mad that I should be much more gutted right now, and it's not handled well.And then I try to decide if I'm being dismissive because I wasn't here for that as an adult. I. I just. I. That made me mad.

It didn't make me mad because it made me a little disappointed at first. But then I realized, you know what? How. How hard is it to talk about this stuff when it's actually happening? It's happening when I'm.Because Richard Benner died in December 1990 of AIDS. Craig Russell died a month before on Halloween of AIDS. So they were probably sick when they're making this movie. So I'm cutting a lot of slack.I mean, because you're in the middle of a fucking crisis, you can't not address it because it would not be real. But they do their best. And I can also see not wanting to hang on it either. My big problem with it was that the original music is terrible.

It's so bad.

It's terrible. The whole thing ends. We're all building to this big number. He finally breaks free of his. He's like, no, I'm not. It's his.His I am what I am moment was like, no, I'm not gonna be this you stupid woman. I'm gonna be my own show. And you know what? I don't do this show anymore. Drag. Fuck all this stuff. I'm gonna do things my way from now on on.It's supposed to be this big come to Jesus moment every. And the song is just awful. It's cringe. It's cringe. But I'm sure Richard will have story about this as well, because I dabble a little bit more.He did another movie called Happy Birthday, Gemini, which it's got the same problem. It's not great. It was based on this very hit Broadway play that was huge in the 70s called Gemini Night.We had Danny Aeillo in it and the commercials run constantly. So. Hey, any Gen X kids out there? If you go, I'm not hungry. I'll just pick or take human bites. You know exactly what I'm talking about.

You're invited to my son's 21st birthday party. Good food, good people. Our neighbor Bunny.

Am I weird?

Nah.

A genius son.

Nurse. Take human bites, my honey Lucille.

I'm not hungry.

I'll just pick. my son's friend from.

Harvard and his lovely Come on to you. Happy birthday, guest of hon.

My Ivy League son.

It's going to be some party.

Gemini on Broadway, at the little theater.

Get a snack.

The movie always feels like a play. It never got past that. And they didn't get Danny Aiello, so they got another guy doing the Danny Aiello thing.It's a big Italian comedy and the guy's doing big Italian humor. But it's. You can see it's an act for him. And it's because it's not for Danny Aeillo. It's just Danny Aeillo. And so it's not working.But it does have Madeline Kahn and Rita Moreno, who are gold. So there's still reason to watch it. There's comedy gold. And I'm sure there's something about it there because I think that kind of.I think this movie kind of sent him. It feels like to me, he got attention with Outrageous because it won all the awards in town.It, I think got cult status and, you know, got him famous. And so because you don't go from nobody to booking Madeline Kahn and Rita Moreno in the same movie.

Movie, yeah.

And I think he blew it. I'm not sure, but I'm sure Rich will have story because Richert's in that movie as the judge. Well, did he just say he doesn't see Madeline Kahn?Would be cool to find out what a gift that was. Like, what I think is interesting is that they. For two of these. Spectacular episodes. And this is not intentional. We have come back to.And now the news, because that was the episode that was also directed by Bruce Pittman from hello Mary Lou, Prom Night too. And it's also got one of the stronger scripts.Not only did it bring back Kate Trotter, that was the one where everybody felt like they were really act like Mickey. And Mickey and Ryan, they felt like they were really clicking. Like they were. There was.They were working as a team in a way that they don't normally do. And we had that ending where Mickey got attacked by the sexual predator dude and she had that panic attack where she's dry heaving.We saw a vulnerability in Mickey that we never saw before. And I think it's interesting. We got this Perfect Storm episode that brought all the Gatorade together.

Needed drama, went to the gays.

Yeah, well, what. It also kind of reminded me, especially at the very end, because at the end, the end of the movie is heartbreaking because Liza is pregnant.And then she has a stillbirth. And. But she ends up going. And she calls Robin, Ron come. Robin comes to save her. He comes and takes her, but then she ends up at the club. And that is.She says, the Boneshaker isn't here. I'm dead inside. But he's not here. It's like this is her place. And she goes out.And it reminded me of Tales of the City, a little bit of just her finding her. Her chosen family, her spot among the gays. And like, the bomb crusher.

He's not here.

He'll show up. Everybody gets here eventually.

But I'm in his domain. I'm dead inside.

You are not dead.You're alive and sick and living in New York like 8 million other people. Listen, you're Liza. You're not Joe. You're not your mother. You're not any of the people the doctors wanted to make you into.You'll never be normal, but you're special. And you can have a hell of a good time.

Even like Tales of the City, this is like a Shaggy movie where it's sloppy, but it kind of works for me because it just. It feels like I said, there's an authenticity to it, that the low budget helps.It feels almost like a documentary as opposed to a movie that we're watching.

Yeah, it's sloppy. Like, life gets sloppy. And also, thank you for bringing that up, because that was another magic moment. It's like.It's the big climactic conversation that the two of them have when she's just. She's just like, I'm crazy. I'm crazy. And he's like, yeah, you're crazy. You're the craziest person I know. You'll always be crazy.And you're not just crazy. You're mad. Mad, mad. So be mad.

There's only one thing. You're mad as a hatter, darling. But that's all right. So am I. So am I. I've never known anyone worth knowing who wasn't a positive fruitcake.We're on that. You and me are here to love and look after each other. You're not dead. You just have a healthy case of craziness. Craziness, yes. Make it work for you.Mad. Mad, darling. Mad, mad, mad, mad, mad.

Well, she's put all this value. I'm not the person who's born dead. I'm pregnant. I can get pregnant.And the entire time her mother told her, her doctors told her, you, you cannot do that. She had hung all of her personal value on if she can exist in the outside world, on her ability to have a baby. And just that moment of Robin.Picking a new outfit, a new song, all of it together to, like, bring her back to life and show her the value of the found family scene, it's just. It's heartwarming. Even. Even my cranky, icy heart loved it.

Well, it's like she's a square peg who everyone wants to put in a round hole, including herself. And there's one person saying, no, you are a square peg. This is a hole you belong in. It is fine.

One size does not fit all.

Trust.

Right? Right.

Square pegs, square pegs. Square square pegs.

Square pegs, square pegs.

I think they want to like us, but i don't think they like us,

see Maya's left out. Now. We had a musical moment.

Trae, i wore my gayest Star Trek shirt with Patrick to go shopping. It. It said friend of. Of Garrick, and it has a picture of him and a nice little rainbow. And Patrick didn't even know what the shirt meant.So, you know, we leave everyone out sometimes times.

Yeah.

I love how even the actor plays Bashir, says that they should have been a couple or should have.

Garrick said that. They. They're responsible for the rumors that they were.

Yeah. Even the actors like, no.

The actors are like, no.

I just want to circle Back to this. I'll probably insert this back where we were talking about Helen, not Helen Shivers. Helen Shivers is Sarah Michelle Geller in I know what you did last summer. Helen Shaver! Shave her? I hardly know her. But there's a scene after where. Where, where, where, where they. The, the.The women, those two women we talked about, the lesbian and the mean lesbians. Clown dress. Helen, like, you know what? We're taking Liza. She's gonna live with us now. You're not doing it right. You don't treat her right.You treat her like a slave. And Liza has one of her episodes where with the walls crushing in and this woman does not know how to hand. She's like, no, I'm out.I'm out, I'm out, I'm out. I love that moment because it's like, everybody likes to talk that game. No, this is what you need to do. This is what you need to do.This is how you need to do things. Then when the moment's happening, like, you're not trained for this either. You don't know what you're talking about either.You took her out of a situation that was working and you can't handle it and you look like an idiot. Your dress is hideous.

That fashion has come back around. A friend of mine absolutely adores what she calls her clown pajamas.

Is there a production of Godspell you escaped from? You know.

Oh, we're not doing that one anymore.

We don't do the clown version of that show anymore. No, we don't.

We're not doing regular Godspell anymore. No one's doing Godspell.

Everybody's doing Godspell. Everyone's always doing Godspell. Thank you. I'm doing it right now in my head.

Yeah, that's because you do it once, it lives in your brain forever.

That is true. That is true. Nobody knows what we're talking about. Nobody cares. All right, I think we're going to leave things off here.Going to have to be a two part episode. We'll come back with Richert next time and we'll talk about all kinds of fabulous things. I don't see the.I don't know where else to go with this because I don't know anything about. Oh, I did want to say I'm sorry.I was so eager to get into the discussion of the movie that I forgot the format of the show that we do every single time. We never talked about the other things that Richard Bemmer did.And there's a reason for that, because there's not much What I was about to say, though, before my own head and threat to myself, was that I was eager to talk. I'm eager to talk to Richard because there's so little information out there about Richard Bembert.Just the basic stuff that I forgot to tell you about the basic stuff. So here's his IMDb credit. He didn't do a lot of other things. He only did a handful of movies. He always wrote his stuff.He did the Three Movies and a Cup. That's it. He wrote a couple of scripts for tv. He did an episode of Monsters, which I'd never watched, but he did two of Tales from the Dark side. One.Stars Charles Ludlum of the Ridiculous Theater Company, as in the Mystery of Irma Vep.So another classic drag queen, classic drag thing that I want to go look up now, but I wish I'd known about it earlier because I think I might watch that instead. One of these things. But anyway, I want to watch that. We never want to babble. You know what?

All right, so do we. Wait, one thing. So this is not backwards.

Yeah. Mine says on refinish.

Okay.

Because that's been driving me nuts. How to change that. But I guess.

Don't worry about that. Don't worry about that. Yeah, don't worry about it. Back page of the ad. Back page of the Advocate man. Sorry, Advocate man.

I thought I had enough money to.

Get me through the rest of the week, and I'm short. Can you help me out?

What you're really asking is for me to pay for it, isn't it?

I made the back page of the Advocate a couple of months back.

A celebrity on my very own couch.

I was on the back page of.The Advocate, you know.

Oh, yeah. Only to follow it up. And they say, well, I'm what they call trade. Surprising. I didn't go for that. I'm what they call Trae that.That would have been a funny name.

That would have been great. All right, so, yeah, we're gonna take a break here, and when we come back, we'll be here with Richert Easley.And also, we're gonna have a costume change

We're gonna see what position my Muppet is in when we return.

Oh, my God. Yes. So, yeah, okay. Until next time, don't go anywhere. I'll be right back.But just in case something bad happens, we got one thing to say before we switch topics. Damn you, Uncle Lewis and Liza's mom. Your makeup is terrible. Ding dong. Patching the future here.Our interview with Richert Easley will be airing tomorrow, December 13th. Don't miss it. Ding dong.