DENNIS ANYONE? with Dennis Hensley Dennis Hensley

Dennis is joined by author Carl Siciliano for Part 2 of their conversation about Carl's new book Marking Room and his decades-long career, fighting to protect the lives of LGBTQ youth in New York City. Carl talks about the most difficult part of writing the book; reliving the murder of his young friend Ali Forney. He also talks about the big themes he wrestles with in Making Room, specifically humans seeming need to humiliate each other and Americans need to believe that they're always the good guys. Carl also talks about lighter subjects, like the Thanksgiving weekend in 2016 when both Madonna and Lady Gaga wanted to make top secret visits to the Ali Forney Center. Other topics include: how his looks effected his work, seeing his own family background in the stories of young people who'd been kicked out of their homes, the human cost of the gentrification of Times Square, why the monks cried when he left the monastery he spent time in as a young man.

Dennis is joined via Zoom by author Carl Siciliano to discuss his new book Making Room: Three Decades of Fighting for Beds, Belonging and a Safe Space for LGBT Youth, which documents his founding of the Ali Forney Center in New York City in 2002 as well his many years at the Times Square youth center Safe Space before that. It was at Safe Space in 1994 that Carl met Ali Forney, a non-binary black young person who had been living on the street since they were 12. The pair developed a unique bond and when Ali was senselessly murdered by a gun shot to the temple, one of the ways Carl dealt with his grief is to start a new youth center specifically for queer youth and to name it after Ali. Carl talks about the capacity for love and unshakeable faith in God that made Ali so unique and recalls how he used Ali's memorial to get more media attention to the plight of the citiy's homeless queer youth. Other topics include: the day Tyra Banks showed up to walk the runway with Ali, dealing with unsympathetic and bullying politicians like Mayor Bloomberg and Mayor Cuomo, a moment of grace he experienced on a train back from Coney Island with several of his kids, how he ended up with a parrot that says "Sit your butt down" and his complicated journey with Catholicism. He also shares a story about Bea Arthur from The Golden Girls that's guaranteed to make you love her more than you already do.
https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/720043/making-room-by-carl-siciliano/

Dennis is joined via Zoom by Capella Fahoome, a film producer who also works as what she calls a "Production Whisperer," which is a consultant who helps sets run more smoothly. Capella talks about how she first got into film, the rookie mistakes she made when she was first starting out and the difference between being a Set Whisperer and a Set Wolf. Dennis also talks to Capella about a Masters Program she completed that Dennis has been interested in; the Masters of Positive Psychology from the University of Pennsylvania. Other topics include: working as a producer on films like Don't Stop Believin': Everyman's Journey and I'm Fine (Thanks for Asking), dealing with rejection, why she loves Gen Z and the mistake she came very close to making as a producer that could have landed in her a Florida jail.
 www.capellafahoome.com

Dennis is joined via Zoom by photographer and director Mike Ruiz to discuss his latest project, Vanessa Williams new music video "Legs," his long friendship with Williams and how he relates to the song's theme of being fabulous at any age. Meanwhile, Dennis recalls how he once asked Vanessa Williams to dance at a Halloween party in 1986 and she said no, she was taking a break. Mike also talks about how he first fell in love with photography in his late 20's after working for years as a model. Then he recalls shooting with such A listers as Prince, Dolly Parton, Betty White, Jennifer Lopez, Katy Perry and most recently, Jack Reacher hunk Alan Ritchson. Other topics include: being obsessed with his dad's body-building mags when he was a kid, the perils of trying to forge friendships with celebrities, appearing on RuPaul's Drag Race, America's Next Top Model and The A List, treating his body like an art form through body building, the charity work for animals and the LGBT community, being repeatedly sexually harassed as a model, his childhood obsessions with Studio 54 and Patrick Duffy in The Man From Atlantis and why he loves to say, "Yaaassss" during his photoshoots. www.mikeruiz.com

Dennis is joined via Zoom by Kevin Daniels and Logan Arditty, who co-star in the play Monsters of the American Cinema, which is produced by the Rogue Machine theater company and showing at the Matrix Theatre in Hollywood through May 19th. Dennis caught the play and was struck at the connection between the intergenerational pair who are the only actors in the cast. Here's the play's synopsis: "When his husband dies, Remy Washington (Daniels), a Black man, finds himself both the owner of a drive-in movie theater and a caregiver to his late husband’s straight, white teenage son, Pup (Arditty). Their relationship fractures when Remy discovers Pup and his friends have been bullying a gay teen at his school." In the interview, Kevin and Logan talk about what drew them to the piece, the special bond they've developed on stage and off, how they memorized all those lines and the thrill they get when they can hear audience members cry and occasionally scream. Other topics include: the moments they they wanted to act, managing the ups and downs of a creative career, their favorite scary movies (Friday the 13th, Sleepaway Camp), Kevin's stint playing Magic Johnson in the Broadway play Magic/Bird and his new film Not Another Church Movie, Logan's upcoming films Trust In Love and Stay Out, the magic of live theater and how cool it is to be on a billboard on Melrose Avenue with your very first play.
www.roguemachinetheatre.org

For the 10th Anniversary of Dennis Anyone, Dennis flips the script and gets interviewed by one of his past guests, filmmaker and longtime Dennis Anyone listener Robert Chandler. This is Part 2 of their interview, in which Dennis recalls some of his most memorable interviews with folks like Leslie Jordan, Kate Flannery, Mitchell Anderson and Dick DeBartolo from Match Game and Mad Magazine fame. They also discuss the guests Dennis would love to get on the show like author and birdwatcher Christian Cooper and American Idol alum David Archuleta. Other topics include: the CD of music Dennis made in the 1990s, a summer trip to rehab, the world's loneliest voicemail inbox, turning 60 and the Xanadu luncheon to end all Xanadu luncheons.