As summer draws to a close, we at TheOccasionalFag reflect on our outings in the park.  Call our listener hotline 206-600-5504.

Both David B. and Brian first met David Zinn back in 1990 when we were all involved with ACT UP: The AIDS Coalition To Unleash Power.  Mr. Zinn and Brian were both on the fundraising committee and worked together on many events for the group.

Back then, as now, David Zinn was an incredibly talented costume and set designer working with Regional Theatres and Operas across the Country. David has recently broken into Broadway with his costume designs for XANADU, THE MUSICAL, and, as we are huge fans of the show, we called to see if he would be up for dinner and an interview.

He was!

Okay, forgive the background noise.  We should have found a quieter restaurant.  Do we ever?  Not really...  But, enjoy the talk about an earlier show that David worked on, Chess, and then talk of Xanadu.

Broadway Bares is a yearly burlesque/striptease show put on by Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS that is now in its 17th year. 

It all started back with the first show where just eight gypsies at the Splash Bar (for a while known as SBNY, now, once again, known as Splash Bar) did two "filled to capacity" shows to raise over eight thousand dollars.  The cast of this year's show topped 250 and raised over three quarters of a million to be distributed to AIDS Service Organizations around the country.

I (Brian) donate my time setting up the show each year (for the past six years) and was allowed this time to bring in the Edirol recorder.

What we have here as a TheOccasionalFag episode is a very loose editing of the almost eight hours of sound that I collected; most of it kinda useless, so I hope you enjoy some of this: there are snippets of the show itself, but being a strip show, it's much funner to watch than to listen to.  There are two interviews with people whom I greatly admire, Armondo Farfalle, the acrobat, and Malan, the designer from Project Runway Season 3, and there is an semi-aborted interview with a big gay celebrity we all know and love. 

And, through it all, commentary from David B and Brian - recorded at a different time just to make it sound oddly removed from the ongoing proceedings...

Enjoy!