<description>&lt;p&gt;My guest this week got his start performing in high school, when he worked as a carnival barker. &lt;a href="https://www.instagram.com/brcostella/"&gt;Bruce Costella&lt;/a&gt; drew inspiration from his environment, which consisted largely of theme parks thanks to a move to Florida initiated by his lesbian grandmothers. Now, he uses that EPCOT-based background in his own international theater productions.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;We’ll have that conversation in a minute. First, if you’re enjoying &lt;em&gt;The Sewers of Paris&lt;/em&gt;, I hope you’ll consider supporting the show on Patreon. And you may also enjoy my other projects, like my podcast about the 90s TV series &lt;a href="http://socastpod.com"&gt;&lt;em&gt;My So-Called Life&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt;, and &lt;a href="http://youtube.com/mattbaume"&gt;my YouTube videos&lt;/a&gt;! Plus, check out my weekly livestreams &lt;a href="http://twitch.tv/mattbaume"&gt;on Twitch&lt;/a&gt;, my book &lt;a href="http://gaysitcoms.com"&gt;Hi Honey, I’m Homo!&lt;/a&gt;, and my free email newsletter. There’s links to all that in the episode shownotes, and at &lt;a href="http://mattbaume.com"&gt;MattBaume.com&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;</description>

Disney parks, fringe theater, and gay David Mamet

My guest this week got his start performing in high school, when he worked as a carnival barker. Bruce Costella drew inspiration from his environment, which consisted largely of theme parks thanks to a move to Florida initiated by his lesbian grandmothers. Now, he uses that EPCOT-based background in his own international theater productions.

We’ll have that conversation in a minute. First, if you’re enjoying The Sewers of Paris, I hope you’ll consider supporting the show on Patreon. And you may also enjoy my other projects, like my podcast about the 90s TV series My So-Called Life, and my YouTube videos! Plus, check out my weekly livestreams on Twitch, my book Hi Honey, I’m Homo!, and my free email newsletter. There’s links to all that in the episode shownotes, and at MattBaume.com.

A Disney Mallrat (Ep 493 - Disney parks/Bruce)

<description>&lt;p&gt;My guest this week is &lt;a href="https://www.instagram.com/ianxcarlos/"&gt;Ian Carlos Crawford&lt;/a&gt;, who you may know from the podcasts &lt;a href="https://linktr.ee/slayerfestx98?utm_source=linktree_profile_share&amp;amp;ltsid=7fbd9f74-b8ca-40ce-a228-29e9860c0bcf"&gt;Slayerfest 98&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href="https://linktr.ee/mybloodyjudy?utm_source=linktree_profile_share&amp;amp;ltsid=8a43a935-46ac-486b-804e-96537de955df"&gt;My Bloody Judy&lt;/a&gt;. As a youngster Ian felt something awakened in him by powerful women like Storm and Buffy — but it wasn’t until moving to New York that he discovered it was a fandom he shared with a lot of other queer folks. And while that was a pleasant discovery, New York had some other less pleasant surprises in store for him, especially when he landed a job at Buzzfeed at possibly the worst possible time.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;We’ll have that conversation in a minute. First, if you’re enjoying &lt;em&gt;The Sewers of Paris&lt;/em&gt;, I hope you’ll consider supporting the show on Patreon. And you may also enjoy my other projects, like my podcast about the 90s TV series &lt;a href="http://socastpod.com"&gt;&lt;em&gt;My So-Called Life&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt;, and &lt;a href="http://youtube.com/mattbaume"&gt;my YouTube videos&lt;/a&gt;! Plus, check out my weekly livestreams &lt;a href="http://twitch.tv/mattbaume"&gt;on Twitch&lt;/a&gt;, my book &lt;a href="http://gaysitcoms.com"&gt;Hi Honey, I’m Homo!&lt;/a&gt;, and my free email newsletter. There’s links to all that in the episode shownotes, and at &lt;a href="http://mattbaume.com"&gt;MattBaume.com&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;</description>

X-Men, Buffy, and working for Buzzfeed

My guest this week is Ian Carlos Crawford, who you may know from the podcasts Slayerfest 98 and My Bloody Judy. As a youngster Ian felt something awakened in him by powerful women like Storm and Buffy — but it wasn’t until moving to New York that he discovered it was a fandom he shared with a lot of other queer folks. And while that was a pleasant discovery, New York had some other less pleasant surprises in store for him, especially when he landed a job at Buzzfeed at possibly the worst possible time.

We’ll have that conversation in a minute. First, if you’re enjoying The Sewers of Paris, I hope you’ll consider supporting the show on Patreon. And you may also enjoy my other projects, like my podcast about the 90s TV series My So-Called Life, and my YouTube videos! Plus, check out my weekly livestreams on Twitch, my book Hi Honey, I’m Homo!, and my free email newsletter. There’s links to all that in the episode shownotes, and at MattBaume.com.

Wear a Cute Top and Beat up a Man (Ep 492 - X-Men/Carlos)

<description>&lt;p&gt;I have a new YouTube video premiering this weekend about the miniseries &lt;em&gt;Tales of the City&lt;/em&gt;, based on the books by Armistead Maupin, and for this week’s episode we’re diving into the &lt;em&gt;Sewers&lt;/em&gt; archives to revisit my 2020 interview with Michael — who, like the main character of &lt;em&gt;Tales&lt;/em&gt;, moved to San Francisco to discover himself and wound up finding someone he didn’t expect. I recorded this conversation almost exactly five years ago, and a lot has changed for Michael since then — stay tuned at the end of our conversation for an update about his life that Michael just recorded.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;And like I mentioned, I’ll have a new YouTube video coming about the miniseries &lt;em&gt;Tales of the City&lt;/em&gt;, and the Republican scheme in the 90s to use a gay love story to defund PBS. That’s going live this Sunday, October 27, at &lt;a href="http://youtube.com/mattbaume"&gt;youtube.com/mattbaume&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;</description>

Tales of the City, cruising, and the ballet

I have a new YouTube video premiering this weekend about the miniseries Tales of the City, based on the books by Armistead Maupin, and for this week’s episode we’re diving into the Sewers archives to revisit my 2020 interview with Michael — who, like the main character of Tales, moved to San Francisco to discover himself and wound up finding someone he didn’t expect. I recorded this conversation almost exactly five years ago, and a lot has changed for Michael since then — stay tuned at the end of our conversation for an update about his life that Michael just recorded.

And like I mentioned, I’ll have a new YouTube video coming about the miniseries Tales of the City, and the Republican scheme in the 90s to use a gay love story to defund PBS. That’s going live this Sunday, October 27, at youtube.com/mattbaume.

Becoming a Library Gay (Ep 491 - Tales of the City/Michael)

<description>&lt;p&gt;My guest this week is &lt;a href="https://www.instagram.com/brg_productions/?hl=en"&gt;Ben Graetz&lt;/a&gt;, also known as Miss Ellaneous — an Australian drag performer whose work is infused with influences that range from a life-changing Tina Turner concert to his family’s First Nations heritage. Ben knew he wanted to perform from an early age, and attended an arts school with some actors whose names you’ll probably recognize. But he struggled to figure out what his place in the theater was, and even stepped away for a few years … before coming at it from a new angle, and finding a way to make it work, on his terms.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;And if you’re going to be in Australia, Miss Ellaneous will be a featured performer &lt;a href="https://www.melt.org.au/events/tina-a-tropical-love-story/"&gt;at Brisbane’s Melt&lt;/a&gt; festival later this month — stay tuned for more details about that in our conversation, and check the show notes for a link.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;We’ll have that conversation in just a moment. First, if you’re enjoying &lt;em&gt;The Sewers of Paris&lt;/em&gt;, I hope you’ll consider supporting the show on Patreon. Patrons get access to an exclusive Discord server, stickers and books in the mail, bonus videos, and more. You can join the Patreon at &lt;a href="http://patreon.com/mattbaume"&gt;patreon.com/mattbaume&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;And you may also enjoy my other projects, like my podcast about the 90s TV series &lt;a href="http://socastpod.com"&gt;&lt;em&gt;My So-Called Life&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt;, and &lt;a href="http://youtube.com/mattbaume"&gt;my YouTube videos&lt;/a&gt;! Plus, check out my weekly livestreams &lt;a href="http://twitch.tv/mattbaume"&gt;on Twitch&lt;/a&gt;, my book &lt;a href="http://gaysitcoms.com"&gt;Hi Honey, I’m Homo!&lt;/a&gt;, and my free email newsletter. There’s links to all that in the episode shownotes, and at &lt;a href="http://mattbaume.com"&gt;MattBaume.com&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;</description>

Hair, Tina Turner, and Aboriginal drag

My guest this week is Ben Graetz, also known as Miss Ellaneous — an Australian drag performer whose work is infused with influences that range from a life-changing Tina Turner concert to his family’s First Nations heritage. Ben knew he wanted to perform from an early age, and attended an arts school with some actors whose names you’ll probably recognize. But he struggled to figure out what his place in the theater was, and even stepped away for a few years … before coming at it from a new angle, and finding a way to make it work, on his terms.

And if you’re going to be in Australia, Miss Ellaneous will be a featured performer at Brisbane’s Melt festival later this month — stay tuned for more details about that in our conversation, and check the show notes for a link.

We’ll have that conversation in just a moment. First, if you’re enjoying The Sewers of Paris, I hope you’ll consider supporting the show on Patreon. Patrons get access to an exclusive Discord server, stickers and books in the mail, bonus videos, and more. You can join the Patreon at patreon.com/mattbaume.

And you may also enjoy my other projects, like my podcast about the 90s TV series My So-Called Life, and my YouTube videos! Plus, check out my weekly livestreams on Twitch, my book Hi Honey, I’m Homo!, and my free email newsletter. There’s links to all that in the episode shownotes, and at MattBaume.com.

Tina Turner's Wet Season (Ep 490 - Tina Turner/Ben Graetz & Miss Ellaneous)

<description>&lt;p&gt;I’ve got a special conversation for you this week: Toni Godwin Sells is the Chief Business and Strategy Officer at the Museum of Pop Culture in Seattle. MoPOP is about to open a new exhibit dedicated to the works of Keith Haring and Toni and I spoke about Keith’s work to bring art to unlikely places — and how Toni found connection with other queer nerds through pop culture touchstones from a love of Dr. Who to designing outfits for drag shows.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;We’ll have that conversation in just a moment. First, if you’re enjoying &lt;em&gt;The Sewers of Paris&lt;/em&gt;, I hope you’ll consider supporting the show on Patreon. Patrons get access to an exclusive Discord server, stickers and books in the mail, bonus videos, and more. You can join the Patreon at &lt;a href="http://patreon.com/mattbaume"&gt;patreon.com/mattbaume&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;And you may also enjoy my other projects, like&amp;nbsp; &lt;a href="http://youtube.com/mattbaume"&gt;my YouTube videos&lt;/a&gt;! I have a brand new video about the show My So-Called Life, and how the character Rickie Vasquez changed television forever. Plus, join me for weekly livestreams &lt;a href="http://twitch.tv/mattbaume"&gt;on Twitch&lt;/a&gt;, my book &lt;a href="http://gaysitcoms.com"&gt;Hi Honey, I’m Homo!&lt;/a&gt;, and my email newsletter. There’s links to all that in the episode shownotes, and at &lt;a href="http://mattbaume.com"&gt;MattBaume.com&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;</description>

Dr. Who, Red Dwarf, and Keith Haring

I’ve got a special conversation for you this week: Toni Godwin Sells is the Chief Business and Strategy Officer at the Museum of Pop Culture in Seattle. MoPOP is about to open a new exhibit dedicated to the works of Keith Haring and Toni and I spoke about Keith’s work to bring art to unlikely places — and how Toni found connection with other queer nerds through pop culture touchstones from a love of Dr. Who to designing outfits for drag shows.

We’ll have that conversation in just a moment. First, if you’re enjoying The Sewers of Paris, I hope you’ll consider supporting the show on Patreon. Patrons get access to an exclusive Discord server, stickers and books in the mail, bonus videos, and more. You can join the Patreon at patreon.com/mattbaume.

And you may also enjoy my other projects, like  my YouTube videos! I have a brand new video about the show My So-Called Life, and how the character Rickie Vasquez changed television forever. Plus, join me for weekly livestreams on Twitch, my book Hi Honey, I’m Homo!, and my email newsletter. There’s links to all that in the episode shownotes, and at MattBaume.com.

Beautiful and a Little Tormented (Ep 489 - Dr. Who/Toni)

Revealing stories about the books, movies, tv, music and more that have changed the lives of gay men. Each week, a guest plucks a piece of entertainment from their past, and answers the question: how did it change your life?

The Sewers of Paris

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