DENNIS ANYONE? with Dennis Hensley

Dennis is joined via Zoom by writer-performer Mike Albo to talk about his new audio original Hologram Boyfriends as well as his upcoming appearance as one-third of the comedy troupe Unitard at the Cavern Club Theater in Silver Lake (March 20-22). Hologram Boyfriends, from McMilan audio, is a series of personal essays about love, sex and connection before and after the advent of the smartphone. Mike talks about why he wanted to the examine the topic, the process of writing and recording it and how once he committed to do it, all these weird things started happening to him. He also talks why Unitard, which also features Nora Burns and David Ilku, are still going strong after over 20 years. Other topics include: his failed attempts--so far--to get the domain name MikeAlbo.com back from the greedy entity who ended up with it, his meditation and chanting practices, spontaneously performing his iconic Underminer character for Tommy Hilfiger and his wife in Palm Beach, the sweet, shameful days of Manhunt.com and why he wouldn't mind ending up like Emmylou Harris.

Once again, Dennis is joined via Zoom by Glenn Gaylord, Senior Film Critic at The Queer Review and star of the YouTube channel Glenn Hates Everything and actor-writer-film enthusiast Drew Droege to talk about the movies of 2025. Part 1 was last week. Here's Part 2 and the films discussed include: Song Sung Blue, Hamnet, Blue Sun Palace, Before We Forget, It Was Just an Accident, The Parenting, A Nice Indian Boy, Sirat, Friendship, A Night Like This, Pee-wee As Himself, Lurker, Marty Supreme, The Naked Gun, Wicked: For Good, Kiss of the Spider Woman, Sentimental Value, F1, Superman, Bugonia, Dust Bunny, Peter Hujar's Day, Dead Man's Wire, Companion, Enigma, My Mom Jayne, Strange Journey and Come See Me In the Good Light.

Once again, Dennis is joined via Zoom by Glenn Gaylord, Senior Film Critic at The Queer Review and star of the YouTube channel Glenn Hates Everything and actor-writer-film enthusiast Drew Droege to talk about the movies of 2025. The films discussed include Ella McCay, Twinless, Weapons, Plainclothes, The Baltimorons, Final Destination: Bloodlines, Materialists, Rent Free, The Secret Agent, Sorry Baby, If I Had Legs I'd Kick You, Bring Her Back, The Long Walk, The Plague, One of Them Days, The Mastermind, Rebuilding, Wake Up Dead Man, The History of Sound and One Battle After Another. Drew also talks about his recent triumphant off-Broadway run, starring in Messy White Gays, a play he wrote, and the amazing thing audience member Hillary Clinton said to him backstage after the show.

In this episode, Dennis is joined by the director and cast of the new play Foursome, which is currently running at the Atwater Village Theatre in Los Angeles. The play is about two couples who head to a mountain cabin for a New Years getaway and let's just say...the play isn't called Foursome for nothing. The show's director Tom DeTrinis as well as the cast, which includes Matthew Scott Montgomery (who is also the show's playwright), Jimin Moon, Adrián Javier and Calvin Seabrooks join Dennis for a game of You Don't Know My Life! featuring these two Foursome-inspired questions: You're writing an article called "A Weekend Getaway I'll Never Forget" based on an experience from your life. What happens in it? and What kiss from your life felt like something out of a movie? The gang also talk about what they love about the show and playing their respective characters, the audience reactions so far and the show's unique mix of laugh-out-loud comedy and lump-in-the-throat drama.

https://www.iamatheatre.com/

In this episode, Dennis is joined by singer, actor and American Idol alum David Hernandez to talk about his new single and video "Beautiful 2.0," which features trans artist Mila Jam. David talks about his inspiration for re-recording the song, which he wrote and released in 2016, working with his former Harlem roommate Mila Jam, and how he feels much more comfortable on camera now than he did in 2016. He also talks his stint on American Idol in 2008, his favorite memory from the show, being on the same season as fellow out singer David Archuleta, how it blew up his life and the Idol connection that helped get him back on track. He also discusses his forays into acting, playing a serial killer in the Tubi horror movie Glamping. Other topics include: what he's learned about himself since getting sober a few years ago, his favorite Idol memory, appearing in Naked Boys Singing, his relationship to his voice, his "really weird childhood" and how it felt to get naked and pay homage to D'Angelo's "How Does It Feel" in his musical video "Special."

Dennis is joined via Zoom by playwright Robert Axelrod to discuss his new play Lifeline, which is a dramedy about a group of new volunteers at a suicide hotline. It was inspired by Robert's own experience as a volunteer for The Trevor Project hotline. Robert talks about what it was like to volunteer there, the extensive training volunteers go through and he recalls some of his more memorable conversations. He also talks about the importance of collaboration and why he loves to be the dumbest person in the room. Other topics include: the moment he got bitten by the playwriting bug, the ancestral magic of theater, how he approaches writing characters that aren't like him, like a neurodivergent Gen Z-er and a trans woman of color and why showing up at work toting a latte from Starbucks and a scone might rub some co-workers the wrong way.

Dennis is joined via Zoom by playwright Justin Tanner whose one-person show, "My Son, the Playwright," is currently running at the Rogue Machine Theatre in Hollywood. Justin talks about his motivation for writing the play, in which he plays a version of his father in Act 1 and a version of himself in 2004 in Act 2. He also talks about how he memorized the 14,000 word script by using a the robotic voice feature in Final Draft as well as an Allison Janney-inspired method involving the first letter of each word. Dennis and Justin also discuss the challenges and opportunities of writing plays compared to other formats, with Justin sharing insights about his early theater career and the impact of sobriety on his work. Other topics include: the theater scene in Los Angeles, how caring for his sick cat changed Justin's perception of himself, whether burnt bridges can ever be rebuilt, the glory days of LA queer gathering places like Cuffs and Basic Plumbing, the connection or lack thereof between the LA theater scene and success in Hollywood and what he thinks his late father would think of My Son the Playwright.

https://www.roguemachinetheatre.org/

Dennis is joined via Zoom by actor Ron Butler who has narrated hundreds of audiobooks including the current bestseller Baldwin: A Love Story by Nicholas Boggs, which is about the life and loves of the iconic queer writer James Baldwin. Ron talks about how the project came to him, how he approached doing Baldwin's voice and getting so emotional at the end of the process that he cried. He also talks about how the business of audiobook narrating works, from how he gets paid to the prep work that happens before to the sexy little home booth he bought for himself right before the pandemic. Other topics include: the Heated Rivalry-esque gay romances he's narrated Illegal Contact (football studs) and Dirty Steal (baseball studs), making the move to Palm Springs, growing up in the Bahamas as the son of Bahamanian musician and club owner Ron Butler Sr, leaving his post-college corporate job to pursue acting, playing a breakdancing Barack Obama on Jimmy Kimmel in 2007 and the queer coming of age book that brought him to tears in the recording booth.

https://www.ronniebutler.com/

For this episode, Dennis is joined via Zoom by the cast of the new film Adam and Steve Escape From MAGA for a rollicking game of You Don't Know My Life! Writer-Director Craig Chester is joined by his cast mates Nora Burns, Nadya Ginsburg, Ned Van Zandt, Madeline Reed, Mélisa Breiner-Sanders, Cary Curran, David Ilku and Michael Musto to answer these two questions: As your film demonstrates, last year was a total shitshow...but what's something good you experienced in 2025? AND You're writing a magazine article entitled My Actor's Nightmare based on an incident from your life. What happens in it? Their surprising and hilarious answers include stories about everything from Chorus Line and Studio 54 reunions to getting horny in Trader Joe's at Christmas to having explosive diarrhea in a bagel shop and turning the story into an audition monologue.

Watch Adam & Steve Escape From MAGA here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rgVjFrF0AwM&t=3095s

Dennis is joined via Zoom by author Jon Imparato to talk about his new memoir The Good Inside the Grief, in which he writes about everything from his Catholic childhood to his challenging relationship with his father to volunteering to man the shaving cart and shaving AIDS patients at the height of the pandemic. Jon also talks about the moving and surprising reactions he's gotten to it so far and what it was like to write about such difficult topics as losing three lovers to AIDS, having two difficult heart-to-hearts with his father 45 years apart and getting sexually assaulted by a guy he met in acting class at 19. He also writes about working with gay youth at the LA LGBT Center, teaching writing to queer seniors at Triangle Square in LA and discovering the magic of being in "vagina world" when he booked Eve Ensler's The Vagina Monologues as his first big show as Director of the Cultural Arts Department of the Center in the late 90's. Other topics include: why he used to call people for two rings and then hang up, the pleasure of Sunday Sauce, befriending a Canadian soldier while traveling in Bali and having it change his life forever, the wisdom of Betty White and a psychic Stevie Nicks story that will blow your mind.

https://www.jonimparatowriter.com/