August 14, 2025 • 39 mins
Before JVN, before Karamo, before Antoni, and before Tan… there was “Queer Eye for the Straight Guy”!
In season 6, episode 8, Lorelai rightfully tells Paul Anka he has the “queer eye” when he picks out dark magenta for both the baseboards AND the ceiling.
We’re talking to culture expert from the original run of Queer Eye, Jai Rodriguez! He shares some of his favorite “hip tips”, we look at the iconic legacy of the show, and we hear all about his paranormal encounter!
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
I am all in again.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
Oh that's just you.
Speaker 3 (00:17):
I Smell pop Culture with Easton Allen and iHeart Radio podcast.
Speaker 1 (00:22):
Hey everybody, Hey, it's Easton. My name's Easton Allen. You
just heard Scott Patterson say my name, and now I
am saying it. This is the I Smell Pop Culture Podcast.
That is what we do here. We take a big
whiff of the pop culture references in Gilmore Girls and
we talk to the people behind them, the dreamers, the
visionaries that bring them to life. What makes a pop
culture icon? How do you become a reference in a
show like Gilmore Girls. We are going to figure out
(00:44):
all the answers to those questions. So you've probably seen
on Netflix a show called Queer Eye. It is an
incredible program. You can't get through an episode without sobbing.
It's just such a heartfelt show. And you may or
may not know this, but it is actually a reboot
of a show called Queer Eye for the Straight Guy,
which premiered in two thousand and three on Bravo in
(01:07):
the early days of Bravo, and Queery has been referenced
a number of times in Gilmore Girls. We're going to
highlight a specific reference this is from season six, episode eight,
and it's in the cold open there Laura's picking up
paint colors. This hit home for me personally when I
was rewatching this episode. We are going through the paint
(01:28):
color debate at my house. There's nothing but swatches, nothing
but samples. We are deep in it. So watching this
was really really traumatic for me. But I continued on.
Laura I's picking up paint colors with Luke and she's
asking paul Anka for advice because Luke has no input,
of course, and Paul is like tapping the samples with
his paw and constantly picking out, you know, a magenta
(01:54):
for dark magenta for the baseboards, for the ceiling. He's
picking dark magenta for everything. And at one point Lori Lesisabalanka,
You've got the queer eye, my friend and Queerie for
The Straight Guy, an Emmy Award winning show ran for
five seasons on Bravo, and it would involve these guys
that we call him the Fab five. They're gonna take
(02:14):
a clueless straight man and give him a makeover, teach
him how to dress, teach him how to cook, and
open their eyes to a more colorful world. And we
are going to talk to one of the original Fab five,
the culture expert Jay Rodriguez. He is so cool. This
guy is awesome. If you watched the show in its
(02:35):
original run, he would like help the guys with like
finding cool stuff to do, night life, Broadway shows, things
like that. Who was like a pop culture expert. And
if you watch the new one, he Caromo kind of
picked up his mantle there. But we're going to talk
to Jay Rodriguez. We're gonna find out if a dog
can actually help you pick up paint colors. We are
(02:57):
going to talk about it all with Jay Rodriguez, and
he is here in the waiting room. I'm so excited
to talk to you. This is gonna be so much fun.
How's it going, man, Easton.
Speaker 4 (03:05):
I'm having a great day. It's a beautiful weather here
in California. I'm wearing a tank top. I mean it
is you listen, it's a it's a it's.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
A great day.
Speaker 1 (03:13):
If I may comment, his delts are looking great. He's
really pulling off that tank top. I'm so jealous. So
we're chatting. Just before we started here, a couple of
different references to queer eye for the straight guy in
Gilmore Girls there is one in particular in season six
I wanted to bring up to you where Lorelei and
Luke are like repainting her house and she, Laura is
(03:38):
asking her dog paul Inca, for help picking out a
color and he's constantly picking dark burgundy or something for
the baseboards, for the ceiling, and then she says, you've
got the queer eye, my friend. Brilliant queer Eye for
the Straight Guy just celebrated twenty two years ago, premiered
such a cultural icon. And how does it feel to
be involved with something that is synonymous with having great.
Speaker 4 (04:00):
Well, it's a push pull because at the time you're
you know, one of the differences between the original Queeri
twenty two years ago and the new version is we
shot consistently for three years.
Speaker 2 (04:11):
When you're moving that fast, there's no social media.
Speaker 4 (04:14):
If you want to watch something, you watch it in
real time or you DVR or back then you t
vote it. That was the brand of DVR, and you
don't you miss a lot. And so when you're doing
something iconic, you generally don't know it's iconic.
Speaker 2 (04:31):
It wasn't really I think the.
Speaker 4 (04:33):
Moment that had dawned on us was probably The first
time we set out loud to us by someone we
admired and respected was when we did a reunion ten
years after and it was moderated by Andy Cohen, shot
in New York City on a set and Key listed
the accolades that Queeri had accomplished.
Speaker 2 (04:54):
And just two or.
Speaker 4 (04:56):
Three years ago, I did watch What Happens Live and
we're coming back from a commercial was the bartender. I
was promoting a cabaret show at fifty four below that
I was starring in, and Andy choking because it still
takes my broth away. He said, Jay Rodrie, you know
you guys built this house, meaning Bravo.
Speaker 2 (05:15):
No one had said that.
Speaker 4 (05:17):
Certainly we were not getting paid what folks get paid
now on things like Housewives.
Speaker 2 (05:22):
We didn't know what Evander Pump was, you know what
I mean, Like, yeah, it was a different era.
Speaker 4 (05:26):
So I mean, I don't think you recognize the impact.
Speaker 2 (05:29):
I do know.
Speaker 4 (05:30):
I was parodied twice on SNL. Elijah Wood was the
big star. Actually it was once a SNL once on
had TV. Elijah was the guest star and he played
me and I was.
Speaker 2 (05:41):
Like, listen, let an honor, listen, you know you made it.
Speaker 4 (05:45):
When but I think because at the time we didn't
have social media. I think what we were left with
was people stopping us at airports or whatever. So when
you were forever linked to fashion, you have moments like
you're going to even though.
Speaker 2 (05:59):
I was not the fashion guy.
Speaker 4 (06:01):
When I go to a clothing store or any any
place where people are purchasing items that revolve around any
of the categories any I'll have someone come out to
be like, which one do you do you think of this?
Speaker 2 (06:15):
And I was like, oh, I don't work here.
Speaker 4 (06:16):
They're like, I know, but you're from that show, so
do you think this is? And it's it's really funny.
And you know. There's a comedian that was opening for
Margaret show at Carnegie Hall. His name is Bruce Daniels,
and I went to go see Margaret. Did not know Bruce,
and I sat in the audience at Carnegie Hall and
he opened for her, and he's like, I freaking, hey, queer.
I now my straight friends think I could do all
(06:36):
the things at the Fab five and the whole like
the audience around me like turned and it's funny.
Speaker 2 (06:42):
When I moved.
Speaker 4 (06:43):
He he was one of the first friends I made.
I was like, you may not remember I was in
the audience blah blah blah.
Speaker 1 (06:47):
But yeah, I watched the show as it aired and
I loved it. And I'm a heterosexual man. I took
a lot of tips from that show.
Speaker 2 (06:57):
But also same I learned, well, listen, I was young.
Speaker 4 (07:01):
I was twenty three, so I learned while the straight
guy was learning so many of the things that were
not taught. And by the way, we had, like Martha
Stewart's producers, you know, we had really good research teams
that could we could give an idea and the producers
would expand on it, return it to us, and then
we would craft that idea back to a place that
(07:22):
would make sense coming out of us and via our
world review, which is each of us had a different one,
you know.
Speaker 1 (07:27):
Yeah, yeah, that's awesome. I'd like that. It is a
collaborative process like that. And so you join after like
the second or third episode, is that right?
Speaker 4 (07:35):
So how it happened was they had a cast of
five guys. The chemistry was off for whatever reason. I
don't know if anyone really ever pinpointed what was off
about it.
Speaker 2 (07:44):
But so no one's seen the show. It's just in production.
Speaker 4 (07:47):
They've shot two episodes, they decided to do an emergency
recast on the DL. I had been with my agency
since I was eighteen. I was in Rent. I'd taken
a six months leave of the Broadway musical Rent to
do an off Broadway show. And when you do Broadway financially, you're.
Speaker 2 (08:03):
Kind of okay.
Speaker 1 (08:04):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (08:04):
You go to off Broadway and you're making four hundred
and like ninety dollars a week in New York City,
You're like, how am I? So I told my agent
my acting and I said, listen, can you look for
any other sideline things? And I was doing a cabaret
show at night like imagine gay justin Timberlake with a
live cover band.
Speaker 2 (08:21):
It was.
Speaker 4 (08:23):
It was the height of probably when Gilmore Gore started.
I was gigging at a nightclub called Excel Live Band.
They would not let boys sing there. Drag queens and
females only were allowed to perform, and I beg I said,
I'm playing a drag queen on Broadway and they said, okay,
we'll give you one night. It became a huge hit,
and I think it was like New York mag Someone
(08:43):
reviewed me as the gay.
Speaker 2 (08:44):
Justin Timberlake of New York and that really brought the
crowds in.
Speaker 4 (08:47):
And you know, if it was on the radio, we
were doing it live band, background singers, sometimes dancers.
Speaker 2 (08:52):
When Dirty came out, I performed it with dancers and
like Chaps, the whole thing so awesome.
Speaker 4 (08:57):
I was in the night life New York ether but
also doing an off Broadway show that had billboards everywhere,
and so this show is happening, this TV show. No
one's heard of it. It's not like something I would
even have heard about. So I get an audition. I
want to say, like a Wednesday for a Thursday. And
all I was told, which might sound strange to our
(09:20):
listeners here and our viewers, they're looking for a night
life expert who will will join a team of dynamic
hosts think Charlie's Angels meets Trading Spaces meets the view
Like there was no reference. So so I remember thinking, well,
(09:42):
it's probably going to help financially fill you know, the
void and pay that I have in my life at
the moment. And so I had a night life gig.
I was like, I could be a night I know
New York like the back of my hand. Every time
a tours comes to see your Broadway show. What are
they asking you for your recommendations? So on Thursday I
went in. I sat across from what would be our
(10:02):
product placement woman would formally come from casting, and she's
talking to me and she says, I want you to
take me on a date. As a divorced dad living
on Long Island. Take me on a romantic New York
City date. Easy for me because again, with so many
tourists coming in and out in New York, you have
your finger on the pulse because you're directing them on
things to do that they've not heard of. So she
(10:24):
was like, I love that. How old are you and
I said twenty three? She said you're twenty seven. She
said okay, and she goes, where'd you go to college?
I said, well, I started to go to Wagner, but
then I got rint. She only went for like, you know,
a month and a half. She goes, you graduated. I'm
going to give you a call back tomorrow.
Speaker 2 (10:37):
So I go in.
Speaker 4 (10:39):
I'm sitting in a waiting room with I felt like
a room full of like gay people of color and
I so I was like, okay, they're looking for this
role to be someone of color gay. Well, I knew
you had to be openly gay, which, by the way,
in two thousand and three was a huge, possibly career
(10:59):
end decision.
Speaker 2 (11:01):
Yeah, and this is again, you're not playing a role.
Speaker 4 (11:04):
This is a docuseries that's documenting the work of these
five men who have expertise in these categories. So I'm thinking,
I mean, whatever, it's on Bravo. Nobody watches Bravo. This
is literally what I'm thinking. No one's gonna see it.
And by the way, I wasn't alone on that. So
I go into the room. There's three chairs that's Fate
(11:25):
that are facing a boardroom. There are NBC on one side,
Bravo on the other, so that means Andy Cohen's in
the room. The head of NBC blah blah, the creator
and director of the show are at the head of
the table furthest from me and these three chairs.
Speaker 2 (11:37):
And so I sit in the empty seat and there's.
Speaker 4 (11:39):
A brightly dressed blonde guy to my right and sort
of a gay buddy, Holly to my left. There's Carson
Carson from Drag Race and Everything, and Ted Allen from Chopped. Now,
mind you, they hadn't been on those shows yet. No
one knew who they were visually, so I sat down.
The board would proceed to ask me a question, and
these two guys kept jumping in. They were upstaging me.
(12:01):
They were kind of ribbing me in sort of this
kind of hazing fraternity style queer jabs reading me, and
I was like, I'm not going to get to answer
these questions and I'm not going to get this job.
But what I will do is be funny, quick, quitted,
quippy and memorable.
Speaker 2 (12:19):
So NBC thinks about me for a sitcom in the future.
That was my mindset. So I threw it.
Speaker 4 (12:25):
Right back to them the boardroom, everyone's laughing. Mind you,
my off proabably show. My character had platinum white hair.
This is someone made a poppet of my character and
it's literally this is what I look like. This is
the costume from the show. I had white air. I
had this lightning bolt sparkly T shirt with riped jeans
with sequence all over them, and that was my character
(12:45):
and that was the billboard at So I'm walking in
with like looking like mister j from Top Model. Okay,
so I leave. I have to tell you Easton, I
was so just I was like viscerally disturbed. It was
a Friday. This is my callback. I into the theater
to try to do the glitter on get ready for
the show, and I'm like. I call my agent, who
(13:06):
was a different agent agency had never met him before.
Speaker 2 (13:08):
He was a hosting agent. I said, listen, man, you
don't know me.
Speaker 4 (13:10):
I don't know you, But what I do know is
I just made a fool out of myself. I was
so utterly humiliated. These two guys must want the job
better than me, or they want it more. And I
don't ever want to go out for anything like that
ever again, he said, noted nice medium.
Speaker 2 (13:27):
An hour later he calls back. He goes, I guess
you didn't do that bad.
Speaker 4 (13:30):
You start Monday who And all of a sudden, then
the producers called me to congratulate me.
Speaker 2 (13:35):
They came to see the musical I was in over
the weekend.
Speaker 4 (13:38):
The boys came to my Monday night twist and cabaret
show at this club on Monday night. I went to
their meetings and I started shooting that Tuesday. So I
would work from six am sometimes till seven point thirty.
And the rule that the theater had given was as
long as you could make it to the theater by
eight or five. Well, hold curtain for you, because I
(14:01):
was like the I was the name, you know, I
was like a bit of a name in New York.
So and this is before career. I so I'm doing
both at the same time, and I knew I was
a replacement. So I shot episode three sequentially, but when
it aired to the viewer, that was episode one, and
then they aired the ones that they had shot first
and second as episodes two and three and labeled the
(14:25):
guy who originated the role as a guest culture expert.
Speaker 2 (14:28):
Gotcha, Yeah, so that's how that all went down.
Speaker 1 (14:40):
Something about your role on the show. I mean, like
with the other guys, it's like fashion, cooking, uh, the
like home decord, those are all like tangible. Yeah, these
are all like tangible things. They exist in three dimensional space.
But like you as the like culture expert, I mean,
what was this down for you?
Speaker 4 (15:00):
Okay, great, So this is a really good question. I
think Caramo and I have my successor on the Netflix version.
I have talked about this in great detail, but you know,
imagine how it works is you show up to the
meetings on Monday, who we are going to be discussing
are generally two guys who the guy is next week
and or rather this week.
Speaker 2 (15:20):
Coming, and the guy who's the week after.
Speaker 4 (15:23):
So you're doing final touches on the person you're going
to be working with tomorrow, and then you're going to
be forward producing what is going to be happening a
week from now. So we get a dossier, and in
that dossier, producers have interviewed this guy. If relevant, there's
photos of his home, of his kitchen, of his hair,
of his closet. So now all the other categories have
(15:45):
a visual example of deficit of need. And for culture,
the producer has to assess, after meeting them, spending some
time with them and their family, where they might be
lacking in non tangible ways and how I could be
(16:06):
an asset to them. And that is a really tricky
thing because they present me with a blurb a paragraph,
and then I am supposed to interpret, without having met
this person, what that paragraph might mean via someone else's
lens of them, and then come up with a physical
tangible thing to give them and a physical thing for
(16:26):
them to do the thing with me. And Karama is
Karamo really fought because of his social work or background
to have a conversation be just the segment and having
that shift be inward and maybe not for a camera.
Not at the time, maybe see Bravo was like, absolutely not, Jane.
Speaker 2 (16:42):
Needs to physically.
Speaker 4 (16:43):
That's why so many times you'd seen me giving him
a book or theater tickets in addition to what everything else.
Speaker 2 (16:49):
I didn't want to do that, but I had to.
Speaker 4 (16:51):
I also had to wear a blazer, even if I
wore a T shirt in the middle of summer, because
it would age me up because I was a decade younger.
So I had these on me that the other guys
didn't have, and so it was really kind of interesting.
But yeah, it was the category that should have been
labeled something else, but needed and I wish now at
forty six, I would have had the moxie or the
(17:16):
confidence to advocate for myself and give pushback. I didn't
do that season one. I started to season two and through.
Once we got a little sparkle, once we got you know,
the Emmy and everything, I was like, Okay, I need
to start speaking up for myself. And especially because we
had cycling in of different directors all the time who
(17:36):
did not know us and had seen the show, and
you know you're shooting for a week and that's edited
to forty two forty three minutes. They don't know me,
you know, so they don't know what I'm capable of.
So I had to really advocate. But the category culture
is such a broad one. I did not want to
be remembered as just like the Puerto Rican Emily post.
You know, that was not the goal, and so I
(17:57):
think for me, I found unique and different ways to
lean into my strengths. And I also bonded with a
straight guy because there were so many times after he'd
been comedically beat up by the other guys that I
was like, I know, I get it, I get it
from when I are the same body. But we're going
to figure this out together. And so in many ways,
I says Wingman. And I was also sort of what
(18:17):
I labeled the concierge of cool, which is, if life
is your hotel, I'm going to direct you in the
right avenue of something you didn't know existed but have
always secretly wanted, all along with something to remedy your life,
make your life easier, or expand your life and make
it bigger in a way that I think would benefit you.
Speaker 1 (18:35):
I love it. I love it so much. And you
know I used to watch the show and be and
like part of it would be like, oh, of course,
like straight guys, it's up to gay men to help
a straight guy be like better, Like why is it
your responsibility to like make straight people like palatable to
the world?
Speaker 3 (18:54):
You know?
Speaker 4 (18:54):
Yeah, well, you know It's funny about that is women
have been saying to their husband's partners, whoever for you
years before we showed up, the same thing we say
at once, and they're like okay. And I think the
role reversal of the locker room hazing that many of
us got or whatever from gay from straight guys, reversing
and flipping that switch and empowering us, highlighting that many
(19:18):
of us, in a comedic cliche way, have expertise in
this era, not all, not all, And I think that
kind of comedically gave us a platform. And by the way,
we're now off the wings of queer's folk l word
will and grace. And so there's this that we did
shot this cover of Vanity Fair and they mixed up
(19:41):
all the casts of the current shows that had queer
content in the early odds, and it was like what's
next for gay TV?
Speaker 2 (19:47):
And yeah, we were a gay show.
Speaker 4 (19:49):
I mean we didn't fully have all the colors of
the rainbow, but we did, you know, even makeover. I
think one of the first trends men to get a
makeover on television was on Queer Eye in two thousand
and like four or five. So we were progressive. And
I think at that time the reason why so many
straight folks watched was because A was in the title
(20:11):
for that. But I found throughout the years so many
teenagers and closeted folks in their twenties and such would
say I used to sneak upstairs and watch Queer Eye,
and I was like.
Speaker 2 (20:23):
You didn't have to.
Speaker 4 (20:25):
It was prescribed for your straightness, even though you weren't straight.
Speaker 2 (20:29):
You know, they didn't want to be guilty by association.
Speaker 1 (20:34):
So something that really stuck with me over the years
is like, at the end of the episode, sometimes you
do these like quick little tips and hip tips, hip tips,
hip tips. The one that I will never forget it
his I can't remember lost time I open to CD case,
but I will.
Speaker 4 (20:50):
Do.
Speaker 1 (20:50):
Do you know I'm talking about that?
Speaker 2 (20:51):
I know because Virgin Megastore I would see them do it. Yeah,
And I was like huh.
Speaker 4 (20:57):
And you know you have to have like a very
blunt granite or something like marble, and you could just
slide the wrapping off the CD case and it would
break open because it was always so hard to get
the CD out of the case if you didn't have
like a key or nine or something.
Speaker 1 (21:13):
Yes, yes, and frameone. What we're talking about. The shrink
wrap on like a CD jewel case used to be
a herculean effort to get it off. And my friends
in Fab five, my friends, they taught me to you
rub it against the edge of like a table, and
I ruined a couple of countertops doing this.
Speaker 2 (21:28):
Yeah, we didn't give a caveat them. You're gonna ruin
things you're going to get to hear your music?
Speaker 4 (21:32):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (21:32):
Do you have a favorite hip tip that sticks out
to you?
Speaker 2 (21:35):
One?
Speaker 4 (21:36):
There's so many that are not my category that get
parroted back to me. And one is in terms of fragrance,
spray delay and do you know the end of that spray.
Speaker 2 (21:46):
Delay walk into it? Yep? I remember that spray.
Speaker 4 (21:49):
Delay walk away. People say that to me all the time.
And how about shaving? Do you remember anything about how
to shave what direction?
Speaker 1 (21:58):
Oh, against the green? No, with the grain.
Speaker 4 (22:02):
Yeah, I know, well we're gonna have to that's a fine.
I'll send you the episode turn it out. But those
are the two things peop were like. Shaving with the grain,
I learned how to shave. I mean I still go
a little, you know, trying to get a close shaver
or something. But but yeah, there was a lot of things,
a lot of really cool things, especially and specifically about
like fit of things. I never in my early twenties
(22:23):
would have considered taking things that were slightly ill fitting
to a tailor and how you don't need to buy
expensive clothing. You just you're going to look better if
the garment you've selected for yourself that you love fits
your body and you can get it to fit your
body by taking it to a tailor to make some
slight adjustments. Never would have thought of that, and that
(22:47):
was something that I've taken away I think from the
show with me. I think there was a lot of things,
like especially like remembering someone's name, you know, if we
meet you know you, like like Easton, J Nice to
meet meet you, Easton, you know, like repeating someone's name back.
Speaker 2 (23:01):
That was mono minded. I still do that.
Speaker 4 (23:03):
That's helpful to use it throughout the conversation and early conversations.
Speaker 2 (23:08):
That was a good tip.
Speaker 4 (23:09):
I feel there were some funny ones, some lighthearted ones.
Speaker 2 (23:13):
I mean, you know, we would.
Speaker 4 (23:15):
Pitch our sort of producing team on different things, and
then we would get copy and if we liked.
Speaker 2 (23:21):
It, we would use it, and if we didn't, you know,
we wouldn't.
Speaker 4 (23:25):
But yeah, it was really really kind of fun in
that era because I think people really like that. It's
a great little tag to a show. I wonder I'm
sure the new version still does that. They might not
label it the same way, but I believe from the
episodes I've seen they still do it.
Speaker 2 (23:39):
It's a good tradition.
Speaker 1 (23:40):
Yeah, it's great and I love it, and it stands
the test of time.
Speaker 2 (23:44):
It's life acts.
Speaker 1 (23:45):
Yeah, life acts, baby Wearing it out with Jay Rodriguez.
This is the I Smell Pop Culture Podcast. We're gonna
play some commercials right here, so please listen to them.
I need this job. It's I Smell pop Culture. I
Smell pop culture and you smell it too. I'm hanging
(24:06):
out with Jay Rodriguez, one of the Fab five from
Queer Eye so you dropped for the Street Guy. Uh, yeah,
the season one. Yeah, and it's it's funny because it
in my head, I'm always like, I want to call
it that because I just thought it was kind of fun.
But Queer Eye is easier to say.
Speaker 4 (24:22):
Even the producers who were insistent on it being dropped
after season one because we wanted to be able. We
were making over everybody you know in the house, and
and certainly we didn't make over only straight up.
Speaker 2 (24:36):
The majority of them were straight guys. But they wanted
to drop it, and so they did.
Speaker 4 (24:40):
But now when we do any cross press like we were,
Vice President Harris invited us to the White House last June.
It was me, Carson Caromo, JVN, and the creators and
executive producers of Queer Eye, and they were referencing our
version as for the Straight Guy. But I'm like, you
guys were so insistent that after the first season it
(25:02):
was just fear and even even the logos, everything was just.
Speaker 2 (25:06):
Clear, right. But everyone says for the strike, I don't
I don't mind, but I know that we made over women.
Speaker 4 (25:12):
You know, we made over trends, men, we made over
you know, it wasn't just straight we made over.
Speaker 2 (25:17):
Some gay guys on the show.
Speaker 4 (25:19):
We also made it for some men who later joined
the Alphabet Mafia we found out.
Speaker 1 (25:26):
You know, so you never know, now, if you had
to give a makeover to Luke from Gilmour Girls, what
what tips would you have for him?
Speaker 4 (25:35):
I mean, you know, so much, so much of the
clothing I just did to rewatch. So much of the
clothing was of the time, so it was interesting to
see things like fit of like button ups and stuff
were really baggy dress shirts, dress shirts like really blousey.
Speaker 2 (25:52):
I don't think that would fly now.
Speaker 4 (25:54):
I think someone in costuming would have taken them in
a little bit. I mean, I think Luke is such
a handsome guy that I think there's a piece of
me that like kind of enjoys the aesthetic of it all.
But I think I would have worked on fit overall.
Note the fit.
Speaker 1 (26:09):
All right, Well, the guy who plays Luke is on
this podcast too, so I will pass that along. That's
the note.
Speaker 4 (26:16):
Well, I wonder I'd be very curious how he felt
in the clothing. I mean, you know, we had all
our stuff tailored, like we had fittings with off the
rack things.
Speaker 2 (26:25):
Then in the fitting like most.
Speaker 4 (26:27):
Every TV show, there was someone there pinning, and then
it would go away and it would be tailored in
a week, and you know, you'd.
Speaker 2 (26:34):
Have something that fit nice for camera.
Speaker 4 (26:36):
And I'm curious if creatively, if it was a choice
because they live in a small town, and also if
I make an addendant to that would also just be like,
were there specific moments where if it was like a
romantic scene or something that he noticed the fit got tighter.
I'd be very curious if he felt a shift in
(27:00):
costuming based on what his character was up to.
Speaker 1 (27:03):
That's an interesting perspective.
Speaker 2 (27:05):
It influenced the scene.
Speaker 1 (27:08):
Yes, if that makes sense, because those.
Speaker 4 (27:10):
Were women we know, you know, if you know you
put a woman on camera in a certain color or
a certain kind of neckline. We're already alluding to where
we might be going with the scene, and I'm wondering if,
as you know, the leading man on that show, would
he have felt or even noticed it.
Speaker 2 (27:27):
I'm curious.
Speaker 1 (27:29):
I'm curious too. I want to take a weird pivot here.
I learned something about you earlier today that you have
had a paranormal encounter. Oh yeah, I heard your ghost story,
and you know, I'm not going to make you retell
the whole thing here, but it was it sent chills
down my spine just picturing it.
Speaker 4 (27:47):
So Okay, So basically, when I was a kid, my
my mother and her sister both a single parents, and
so it was me and my cousin were three weeks apart,
my mother and her sister, like Bestie's. The four of
us go up to Lake George, which is an upstate
New York and we're at this cute little like nineteen fifty.
Speaker 2 (28:05):
Style resortie thing, and.
Speaker 4 (28:09):
I remember bringing my At the time, I was super
into smart, so I had a pop a smart plushy.
We spend the day doing some excursions. That night and
we're heading.
Speaker 2 (28:19):
Back to the motel, and so.
Speaker 4 (28:21):
We're in the motel two queen beds. When you walk in,
the first thing you see the left is the two
queen beds that are separated by a nightstand and a lamp.
Then you have a club chair in the far right.
And then if we kept walking from the entrance of
the room, all the way down is a bathroom and
when the door is open, you can see a mirror.
To the left is the shower, to the right is
the toilet. Great I set up the room, so we
(28:43):
go out whatever, and then our parents. We are meant
to be asleep, but we're not really sley and they've rated.
Speaker 2 (28:47):
The mini bar.
Speaker 4 (28:48):
They're having the little you know, like seven and sevens
or whatever they're doing, and this is the eighties, and
so we're pretending to be asleep, and all of a sudden,
I hear we are on the bed closest to the door.
Speaker 2 (29:02):
I hear my mother gasp.
Speaker 4 (29:04):
I jump up and look toward her, which puts me
with an eyeshot of the bathroom. That was the only
light that was on, and the door was slightly a
jar enough for us to see the passing of a figure,
a dark figure. My aunt screams, and they grab us and.
Speaker 2 (29:26):
Take us out of the room and they run downstairs.
Speaker 4 (29:28):
You know, these are two women in their twenties with
small kids, and you know, to like the manager on duty.
He comes and inspects the room, and mind you, at
this point, my little papa smart I had left on
the bed. He goes back, inspects the room. I can't
find it, and I look and it's under the bed,
like the middle under the bed. There's no way I
could have gotten there. So in the middle of the night.
They're determined that you know that they were going to leave,
(29:49):
and they're like, ladies, you don't want to drive them
on the night.
Speaker 2 (29:51):
In the forest.
Speaker 4 (29:52):
They don't do that, So I need you just to
stay here. You can check out in the morning. So
that's their plan. We're going to sleep. Middle of the night.
I feel like something's watching me, and I opened my
eyes and I see in the corner of the room
what appears to me to look like a nineteen fifties businessmen,
full on fedora and you know, kind of trench coat
(30:13):
and business you know, nineteen fifties mad men esque. And
I'm panicked and I'm freaking out, but you're paralyzed with fear.
And so I remember like him staring at me, and
I didn't feel threatened, but I don't know why.
Speaker 2 (30:27):
Little me was like.
Speaker 4 (30:28):
I offered him my teddy bear and he said no,
and he did this and go back to sleep.
Speaker 2 (30:33):
So I don't know. I just went back to sleep.
Speaker 4 (30:36):
The next morning, we're packing in a mad panic and
we have those hard SAMSONI luggages.
Speaker 2 (30:42):
Mine was sky blue.
Speaker 4 (30:43):
There's details to this that I remember to this day.
And so I'm packing my things, all my little stuff.
I put my plushy in there. We head out the door.
As we're driving away in my mother's Chevy Nova, I
look up to the room and I can see this
man in our room between the curtains, which were to
(31:06):
the left of the door if you're facing the building.
Speaker 2 (31:09):
And I'm like, and he's holding the Papa Smurf And I'm.
Speaker 4 (31:12):
Like, oh, So I go home and sure enough, Papa
Smarp's not in there. So years later, when I had
heard this story, I asked my mother to give me
pictures and everything to see if I could find where
this motel was. I found it because I know it's
doing a celebrity ghost story. I found the motel and
I recounted the story to I literally, I said, this
(31:32):
is going to sound so crazy.
Speaker 2 (31:34):
How have you used it?
Speaker 4 (31:34):
And they're like, actually, And they told me the story
about how this man lost his child in the pool.
Speaker 2 (31:40):
The kid he was just basically not watching his kid.
Speaker 4 (31:43):
And his kid drowned in the pool, and that he
is a benevolent spirit who watches over the children at
the hotel and they've never had any problems with him,
but that it's not the first time kids specifically have
seen this man.
Speaker 2 (31:58):
And I felt so validated because I didn't tell her.
I didn't tell her my story. I didn't say nothing.
Speaker 4 (32:03):
She volunteered it and it completely aligned with my story.
Speaker 1 (32:08):
What I mean, I have chills listening to that. It's like,
I know he's a bullet and benevolent spirit. It's still
like a scary thing to see.
Speaker 4 (32:15):
Yeah, as a kid. And by the way, then it
was so funny because we were not super religious at
that time, but years later my mother and my teens
became very evangelical born again Christian and so I was
always scared to kind of bring it up because I
wonder what her memory of it is, and through that
now newly a sort of religious lens, if she would
acknowledge that that happened.
Speaker 2 (32:37):
And so I started with my aunt and I was like, hey,
do you remember anything weird that happened at Lake George.
Speaker 4 (32:43):
She goes, you mean the man that was in the room,
and I was like yes, and she was like, no,
that really happened.
Speaker 2 (32:49):
And then I asked my.
Speaker 4 (32:50):
Mother and she was like, oh yeah, oh no, yeah,
I think it was something not good like you. It
was very fascinating how everyone remembered it, but no one talked.
Speaker 2 (32:59):
To me it.
Speaker 1 (33:00):
Yeah, oh my goodness. And it's it's one like whether
you believe or not, like when you have multiple people
that experience something so similar. I mean, my wife has
a similar story, and it's just like it's it's undeniable,
you know that something happened. Yeah, yeah, well again you
can well you can watch this on Celebrity ghost Stories
on A and E. You you mentioned cabaret earlier. Your
(33:23):
cabaret performance is that that?
Speaker 4 (33:24):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (33:25):
I can't believe you were doing Rent when you were
like eighteen years old.
Speaker 2 (33:27):
That's right out of high school. Why it's so wild
because I didn't have an age or anything.
Speaker 4 (33:32):
I want to perform me or a high school and
a girl who had graduated before me was like, my
agency would love you. You need to meet with them. I,
you know, was nervous about my future, didn't know.
Speaker 2 (33:41):
I met with this agency.
Speaker 4 (33:43):
They gave me audition size through at law and order
for me to play some like drug dealer.
Speaker 2 (33:47):
Kid, you know, a cliche Latin boy role.
Speaker 4 (33:49):
And so then I remember she said can you sing?
I said yes, I sang something from Rent mid song.
Speaker 2 (33:58):
She called casting.
Speaker 4 (33:59):
She said, I have some some clients and today, can
you see one more? I went that very day. The
casting associate gave me a callback on the spot. The
next day the agency signed me. So I went from
Long Island to the city again to sign with his agency.
Speaker 2 (34:11):
Didn't know what that meant.
Speaker 4 (34:13):
Callback, callback, And then by the time I got to
the casting director, Bernard Telsea, who now casts major motion
pictures as well as TV and Broadway, he.
Speaker 2 (34:22):
Said, where have you been? I was like, Oh, I
didn't have an agent or like a headshot or a resume.
He's like, I would have cast you without any of that.
You're perfect for this.
Speaker 4 (34:30):
And I went through the whole process, you know, the
director of the choreographer, Jonathan Larson's parents because they owned
the estate and so they had to approve me. And
then at eighteen, I mean, I was sleeping in the
streets to get tickets in nineteen ninety seven Spring and
starring in the show Fall of nineteen ninety seven.
Speaker 1 (34:47):
Incredible, it's so wild. Yeah, So if people want to
see you perform, now is how can we see you?
Speaker 2 (34:55):
So here's what I do.
Speaker 4 (34:56):
I basically tour with what I call the ninety minute
Raddar Glee version of my life, and I sing Top forty,
I sing Broadway, and I tell funny stories about sort
of my journey, and I always frame them a little differently.
So if I play the same venue and I feel
like it's going to be a lot of the same folks,
and I'll retitle the show and pepper in some new
(35:16):
songs so that people whatever.
Speaker 2 (35:18):
But I keep in the favorites.
Speaker 4 (35:19):
And obviously I talk about my upbringing, I talk about rent,
I talk about queer eye, spill all the tea, and
it's kind of like, you know, my biggest role models
growing up were the Lily Tomlin one person shows, the
Whoopy Goldberg, and the John leg was Amo shows, and
that's what I really wanted to do. But coming from
a musical theater background and being a sort of a
(35:39):
pop rock singer by trade, it felt weird to just
do it without any music. So now I just kind
of I would say, follow me at Ji Rodriguez on Insta,
and I have a Patreon and so I post clips
on there, but like I just paided a clip. I
did a cabaret show in like two weekends ago in
San Diego, and it was super fun, and I think
(36:01):
one of The fun things about it for me is
it's a weird part of me that even some of
my closest LA friends have never seen me do because
I'm usually traveling to do it.
Speaker 2 (36:11):
And when people who know me or know me.
Speaker 4 (36:14):
From television but don't know this side, they're like, you're
so You're so good, And it's not like I received
that in that way. It's more like I'm allowing folks
to see what New York audiences knew in two thousand,
you know. But I think I got so swept up
on TV and film here in Los Angeles. I never really,
(36:37):
you know, leaned into being like some kind of recording artists.
So all that for me is as a talker, as
a storyteller is cabaret. It's not a concert because I
like to tell stories, and so it's you know, I
love the idea of mixing those two.
Speaker 2 (36:52):
And when Leslie Jordan, God Bless his.
Speaker 4 (36:54):
Soul, when he was still with us, I would steal
his cabaret dates because I would play venues that he
played before me, and I thought, okay, we have a
crossover audience, so I would email the venue right after
he played there. I was like, hey, fellow show because
he would just tell stories and he would say, he's
such an incredible storyteller. So I kind of took a
(37:14):
page from his book and incorporated the music. And I
think the music is the big, showy kind of Oh
you didn't know I could do that, you know, And
and of course get people what they want to hear
about the projects I've been on.
Speaker 1 (37:26):
I love it. You're the coolest guy in the world.
I mean, thank you so much for hanging out with
me again. Follow you, he Rodriguez. If you don't already,
you got to smash that follow button.
Speaker 2 (37:34):
Is it true that you guys like you and your girlfriend?
Speaker 4 (37:37):
Like?
Speaker 2 (37:38):
Is you your wife? Your girlfriend?
Speaker 1 (37:39):
I can't remember that's my wife? Yeah, oh wife? Love it.
Speaker 2 (37:41):
I'm stalking your socials. You guys like theme parks?
Speaker 1 (37:45):
Oh my goodness, Yes we do. We do.
Speaker 2 (37:48):
I do too. Will you be doing Halloween horror nights?
You know?
Speaker 1 (37:51):
I just became brave enough to do it. I'm new
to Halloween hornits, but I'm obsessed. I can't wait this.
Speaker 4 (37:57):
So you're the guy who says no, baby, you first
and use her as a human shield.
Speaker 1 (38:02):
Yes, I am got it.
Speaker 2 (38:04):
I want to hang with you, guys.
Speaker 4 (38:05):
I want to go with you guys. It's one of
my favorite things. I don't like horror movies. I love
watching other people get scared. It cracks me up. I
watch the YouTube clips of when Ellen would send people in.
Speaker 2 (38:18):
Those mounted I can watch.
Speaker 4 (38:19):
If I need to pick me up, I will watch
her little reporter go through. I've seen it a million times.
It still makes me. Anyway, we have to do a
theme park.
Speaker 2 (38:27):
Is my point.
Speaker 1 (38:28):
Let's do it. Yeah, I'm down anytime. Wow. Thank you,
Thank you so much again. Ja, you're the coolest guy
in the world.
Speaker 2 (38:33):
Thank you, Thank you so much. Do I talk to
you soon.
Speaker 3 (38:36):
Good Bye, everybody, and don't forget.
Speaker 1 (39:07):
Follow us on Instagram at I Am all In podcast
and email us at Gilmore at iHeartRadio dot com.
I am all in again.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
Oh that's just you.
Speaker 3 (00:17):
I Smell pop Culture with Easton Allen and iHeart Radio podcast.
Speaker 1 (00:22):
Hey everybody, Hey, it's Easton. My name's Easton Allen. You
just heard Scott Patterson say my name, and now I
am saying it. This is the I Smell Pop Culture Podcast.
That is what we do here. We take a big
whiff of the pop culture references in Gilmore Girls and
we talk to the people behind them, the dreamers, the
visionaries that bring them to life. What makes a pop
culture icon? How do you become a reference in a
show like Gilmore Girls. We are going to figure out
(00:44):
all the answers to those questions. So you've probably seen
on Netflix a show called Queer Eye. It is an
incredible program. You can't get through an episode without sobbing.
It's just such a heartfelt show. And you may or
may not know this, but it is actually a reboot
of a show called Queer Eye for the Straight Guy,
which premiered in two thousand and three on Bravo in
(01:07):
the early days of Bravo, and Queery has been referenced
a number of times in Gilmore Girls. We're going to
highlight a specific reference this is from season six, episode eight,
and it's in the cold open there Laura's picking up
paint colors. This hit home for me personally when I
was rewatching this episode. We are going through the paint
(01:28):
color debate at my house. There's nothing but swatches, nothing
but samples. We are deep in it. So watching this
was really really traumatic for me. But I continued on.
Laura I's picking up paint colors with Luke and she's
asking paul Anka for advice because Luke has no input,
of course, and Paul is like tapping the samples with
his paw and constantly picking out, you know, a magenta
(01:54):
for dark magenta for the baseboards, for the ceiling. He's
picking dark magenta for everything. And at one point Lori Lesisabalanka,
You've got the queer eye, my friend and Queerie for
The Straight Guy, an Emmy Award winning show ran for
five seasons on Bravo, and it would involve these guys
that we call him the Fab five. They're gonna take
(02:14):
a clueless straight man and give him a makeover, teach
him how to dress, teach him how to cook, and
open their eyes to a more colorful world. And we
are going to talk to one of the original Fab five,
the culture expert Jay Rodriguez. He is so cool. This
guy is awesome. If you watched the show in its
(02:35):
original run, he would like help the guys with like
finding cool stuff to do, night life, Broadway shows, things
like that. Who was like a pop culture expert. And
if you watch the new one, he Caromo kind of
picked up his mantle there. But we're going to talk
to Jay Rodriguez. We're gonna find out if a dog
can actually help you pick up paint colors. We are
(02:57):
going to talk about it all with Jay Rodriguez, and
he is here in the waiting room. I'm so excited
to talk to you. This is gonna be so much fun.
How's it going, man, Easton.
Speaker 4 (03:05):
I'm having a great day. It's a beautiful weather here
in California. I'm wearing a tank top. I mean it
is you listen, it's a it's a it's.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
A great day.
Speaker 1 (03:13):
If I may comment, his delts are looking great. He's
really pulling off that tank top. I'm so jealous. So
we're chatting. Just before we started here, a couple of
different references to queer eye for the straight guy in
Gilmore Girls there is one in particular in season six
I wanted to bring up to you where Lorelei and
Luke are like repainting her house and she, Laura is
(03:38):
asking her dog paul Inca, for help picking out a
color and he's constantly picking dark burgundy or something for
the baseboards, for the ceiling, and then she says, you've
got the queer eye, my friend. Brilliant queer Eye for
the Straight Guy just celebrated twenty two years ago, premiered
such a cultural icon. And how does it feel to
be involved with something that is synonymous with having great.
Speaker 4 (04:00):
Well, it's a push pull because at the time you're
you know, one of the differences between the original Queeri
twenty two years ago and the new version is we
shot consistently for three years.
Speaker 2 (04:11):
When you're moving that fast, there's no social media.
Speaker 4 (04:14):
If you want to watch something, you watch it in
real time or you DVR or back then you t
vote it. That was the brand of DVR, and you
don't you miss a lot. And so when you're doing
something iconic, you generally don't know it's iconic.
Speaker 2 (04:31):
It wasn't really I think the.
Speaker 4 (04:33):
Moment that had dawned on us was probably The first
time we set out loud to us by someone we
admired and respected was when we did a reunion ten
years after and it was moderated by Andy Cohen, shot
in New York City on a set and Key listed
the accolades that Queeri had accomplished.
Speaker 2 (04:54):
And just two or.
Speaker 4 (04:56):
Three years ago, I did watch What Happens Live and
we're coming back from a commercial was the bartender. I
was promoting a cabaret show at fifty four below that
I was starring in, and Andy choking because it still
takes my broth away. He said, Jay Rodrie, you know
you guys built this house, meaning Bravo.
Speaker 2 (05:15):
No one had said that.
Speaker 4 (05:17):
Certainly we were not getting paid what folks get paid
now on things like Housewives.
Speaker 2 (05:22):
We didn't know what Evander Pump was, you know what
I mean, Like, yeah, it was a different era.
Speaker 4 (05:26):
So I mean, I don't think you recognize the impact.
Speaker 2 (05:29):
I do know.
Speaker 4 (05:30):
I was parodied twice on SNL. Elijah Wood was the
big star. Actually it was once a SNL once on
had TV. Elijah was the guest star and he played
me and I was.
Speaker 2 (05:41):
Like, listen, let an honor, listen, you know you made it.
Speaker 4 (05:45):
When but I think because at the time we didn't
have social media. I think what we were left with
was people stopping us at airports or whatever. So when
you were forever linked to fashion, you have moments like
you're going to even though.
Speaker 2 (05:59):
I was not the fashion guy.
Speaker 4 (06:01):
When I go to a clothing store or any any
place where people are purchasing items that revolve around any
of the categories any I'll have someone come out to
be like, which one do you do you think of this?
Speaker 2 (06:15):
And I was like, oh, I don't work here.
Speaker 4 (06:16):
They're like, I know, but you're from that show, so
do you think this is? And it's it's really funny.
And you know. There's a comedian that was opening for
Margaret show at Carnegie Hall. His name is Bruce Daniels,
and I went to go see Margaret. Did not know Bruce,
and I sat in the audience at Carnegie Hall and
he opened for her, and he's like, I freaking, hey, queer.
I now my straight friends think I could do all
(06:36):
the things at the Fab five and the whole like
the audience around me like turned and it's funny.
Speaker 2 (06:42):
When I moved.
Speaker 4 (06:43):
He he was one of the first friends I made.
I was like, you may not remember I was in
the audience blah blah blah.
Speaker 1 (06:47):
But yeah, I watched the show as it aired and
I loved it. And I'm a heterosexual man. I took
a lot of tips from that show.
Speaker 2 (06:57):
But also same I learned, well, listen, I was young.
Speaker 4 (07:01):
I was twenty three, so I learned while the straight
guy was learning so many of the things that were
not taught. And by the way, we had, like Martha
Stewart's producers, you know, we had really good research teams
that could we could give an idea and the producers
would expand on it, return it to us, and then
we would craft that idea back to a place that
(07:22):
would make sense coming out of us and via our
world review, which is each of us had a different one,
you know.
Speaker 1 (07:27):
Yeah, yeah, that's awesome. I'd like that. It is a
collaborative process like that. And so you join after like
the second or third episode, is that right?
Speaker 4 (07:35):
So how it happened was they had a cast of
five guys. The chemistry was off for whatever reason. I
don't know if anyone really ever pinpointed what was off
about it.
Speaker 2 (07:44):
But so no one's seen the show. It's just in production.
Speaker 4 (07:47):
They've shot two episodes, they decided to do an emergency
recast on the DL. I had been with my agency
since I was eighteen. I was in Rent. I'd taken
a six months leave of the Broadway musical Rent to
do an off Broadway show. And when you do Broadway financially, you're.
Speaker 2 (08:03):
Kind of okay.
Speaker 1 (08:04):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (08:04):
You go to off Broadway and you're making four hundred
and like ninety dollars a week in New York City,
You're like, how am I? So I told my agent
my acting and I said, listen, can you look for
any other sideline things? And I was doing a cabaret
show at night like imagine gay justin Timberlake with a
live cover band.
Speaker 2 (08:21):
It was.
Speaker 4 (08:23):
It was the height of probably when Gilmore Gore started.
I was gigging at a nightclub called Excel Live Band.
They would not let boys sing there. Drag queens and
females only were allowed to perform, and I beg I said,
I'm playing a drag queen on Broadway and they said, okay,
we'll give you one night. It became a huge hit,
and I think it was like New York mag Someone
(08:43):
reviewed me as the gay.
Speaker 2 (08:44):
Justin Timberlake of New York and that really brought the
crowds in.
Speaker 4 (08:47):
And you know, if it was on the radio, we
were doing it live band, background singers, sometimes dancers.
Speaker 2 (08:52):
When Dirty came out, I performed it with dancers and
like Chaps, the whole thing so awesome.
Speaker 4 (08:57):
I was in the night life New York ether but
also doing an off Broadway show that had billboards everywhere,
and so this show is happening, this TV show. No
one's heard of it. It's not like something I would
even have heard about. So I get an audition. I
want to say, like a Wednesday for a Thursday. And
all I was told, which might sound strange to our
(09:20):
listeners here and our viewers, they're looking for a night
life expert who will will join a team of dynamic
hosts think Charlie's Angels meets Trading Spaces meets the view
Like there was no reference. So so I remember thinking, well,
(09:42):
it's probably going to help financially fill you know, the
void and pay that I have in my life at
the moment. And so I had a night life gig.
I was like, I could be a night I know
New York like the back of my hand. Every time
a tours comes to see your Broadway show. What are
they asking you for your recommendations? So on Thursday I
went in. I sat across from what would be our
(10:02):
product placement woman would formally come from casting, and she's
talking to me and she says, I want you to
take me on a date. As a divorced dad living
on Long Island. Take me on a romantic New York
City date. Easy for me because again, with so many
tourists coming in and out in New York, you have
your finger on the pulse because you're directing them on
things to do that they've not heard of. So she
(10:24):
was like, I love that. How old are you and
I said twenty three? She said you're twenty seven. She
said okay, and she goes, where'd you go to college?
I said, well, I started to go to Wagner, but
then I got rint. She only went for like, you know,
a month and a half. She goes, you graduated. I'm
going to give you a call back tomorrow.
Speaker 2 (10:37):
So I go in.
Speaker 4 (10:39):
I'm sitting in a waiting room with I felt like
a room full of like gay people of color and
I so I was like, okay, they're looking for this
role to be someone of color gay. Well, I knew
you had to be openly gay, which, by the way,
in two thousand and three was a huge, possibly career
(10:59):
end decision.
Speaker 2 (11:01):
Yeah, and this is again, you're not playing a role.
Speaker 4 (11:04):
This is a docuseries that's documenting the work of these
five men who have expertise in these categories. So I'm thinking,
I mean, whatever, it's on Bravo. Nobody watches Bravo. This
is literally what I'm thinking. No one's gonna see it.
And by the way, I wasn't alone on that. So
I go into the room. There's three chairs that's Fate
(11:25):
that are facing a boardroom. There are NBC on one side,
Bravo on the other, so that means Andy Cohen's in
the room. The head of NBC blah blah, the creator
and director of the show are at the head of
the table furthest from me and these three chairs.
Speaker 2 (11:37):
And so I sit in the empty seat and there's.
Speaker 4 (11:39):
A brightly dressed blonde guy to my right and sort
of a gay buddy, Holly to my left. There's Carson
Carson from Drag Race and Everything, and Ted Allen from Chopped. Now,
mind you, they hadn't been on those shows yet. No
one knew who they were visually, so I sat down.
The board would proceed to ask me a question, and
these two guys kept jumping in. They were upstaging me.
(12:01):
They were kind of ribbing me in sort of this
kind of hazing fraternity style queer jabs reading me, and
I was like, I'm not going to get to answer
these questions and I'm not going to get this job.
But what I will do is be funny, quick, quitted,
quippy and memorable.
Speaker 2 (12:19):
So NBC thinks about me for a sitcom in the future.
That was my mindset. So I threw it.
Speaker 4 (12:25):
Right back to them the boardroom, everyone's laughing. Mind you,
my off proabably show. My character had platinum white hair.
This is someone made a poppet of my character and
it's literally this is what I look like. This is
the costume from the show. I had white air. I
had this lightning bolt sparkly T shirt with riped jeans
with sequence all over them, and that was my character
(12:45):
and that was the billboard at So I'm walking in
with like looking like mister j from Top Model. Okay,
so I leave. I have to tell you Easton, I
was so just I was like viscerally disturbed. It was
a Friday. This is my callback. I into the theater
to try to do the glitter on get ready for
the show, and I'm like. I call my agent, who
(13:06):
was a different agent agency had never met him before.
Speaker 2 (13:08):
He was a hosting agent. I said, listen, man, you
don't know me.
Speaker 4 (13:10):
I don't know you, But what I do know is
I just made a fool out of myself. I was
so utterly humiliated. These two guys must want the job
better than me, or they want it more. And I
don't ever want to go out for anything like that
ever again, he said, noted nice medium.
Speaker 2 (13:27):
An hour later he calls back. He goes, I guess
you didn't do that bad.
Speaker 4 (13:30):
You start Monday who And all of a sudden, then
the producers called me to congratulate me.
Speaker 2 (13:35):
They came to see the musical I was in over
the weekend.
Speaker 4 (13:38):
The boys came to my Monday night twist and cabaret
show at this club on Monday night. I went to
their meetings and I started shooting that Tuesday. So I
would work from six am sometimes till seven point thirty.
And the rule that the theater had given was as
long as you could make it to the theater by
eight or five. Well, hold curtain for you, because I
(14:01):
was like the I was the name, you know, I
was like a bit of a name in New York.
So and this is before career. I so I'm doing
both at the same time, and I knew I was
a replacement. So I shot episode three sequentially, but when
it aired to the viewer, that was episode one, and
then they aired the ones that they had shot first
and second as episodes two and three and labeled the
(14:25):
guy who originated the role as a guest culture expert.
Speaker 2 (14:28):
Gotcha, Yeah, so that's how that all went down.
Speaker 1 (14:40):
Something about your role on the show. I mean, like
with the other guys, it's like fashion, cooking, uh, the
like home decord, those are all like tangible. Yeah, these
are all like tangible things. They exist in three dimensional space.
But like you as the like culture expert, I mean,
what was this down for you?
Speaker 4 (15:00):
Okay, great, So this is a really good question. I
think Caramo and I have my successor on the Netflix version.
I have talked about this in great detail, but you know,
imagine how it works is you show up to the
meetings on Monday, who we are going to be discussing
are generally two guys who the guy is next week
and or rather this week.
Speaker 2 (15:20):
Coming, and the guy who's the week after.
Speaker 4 (15:23):
So you're doing final touches on the person you're going
to be working with tomorrow, and then you're going to
be forward producing what is going to be happening a
week from now. So we get a dossier, and in
that dossier, producers have interviewed this guy. If relevant, there's
photos of his home, of his kitchen, of his hair,
of his closet. So now all the other categories have
(15:45):
a visual example of deficit of need. And for culture,
the producer has to assess, after meeting them, spending some
time with them and their family, where they might be
lacking in non tangible ways and how I could be
(16:06):
an asset to them. And that is a really tricky
thing because they present me with a blurb a paragraph,
and then I am supposed to interpret, without having met
this person, what that paragraph might mean via someone else's
lens of them, and then come up with a physical
tangible thing to give them and a physical thing for
(16:26):
them to do the thing with me. And Karama is
Karamo really fought because of his social work or background
to have a conversation be just the segment and having
that shift be inward and maybe not for a camera.
Not at the time, maybe see Bravo was like, absolutely not, Jane.
Speaker 2 (16:42):
Needs to physically.
Speaker 4 (16:43):
That's why so many times you'd seen me giving him
a book or theater tickets in addition to what everything else.
Speaker 2 (16:49):
I didn't want to do that, but I had to.
Speaker 4 (16:51):
I also had to wear a blazer, even if I
wore a T shirt in the middle of summer, because
it would age me up because I was a decade younger.
So I had these on me that the other guys
didn't have, and so it was really kind of interesting.
But yeah, it was the category that should have been
labeled something else, but needed and I wish now at
forty six, I would have had the moxie or the
(17:16):
confidence to advocate for myself and give pushback. I didn't
do that season one. I started to season two and through.
Once we got a little sparkle, once we got you know,
the Emmy and everything, I was like, Okay, I need
to start speaking up for myself. And especially because we
had cycling in of different directors all the time who
(17:36):
did not know us and had seen the show, and
you know you're shooting for a week and that's edited
to forty two forty three minutes. They don't know me,
you know, so they don't know what I'm capable of.
So I had to really advocate. But the category culture
is such a broad one. I did not want to
be remembered as just like the Puerto Rican Emily post.
You know, that was not the goal, and so I
(17:57):
think for me, I found unique and different ways to
lean into my strengths. And I also bonded with a
straight guy because there were so many times after he'd
been comedically beat up by the other guys that I
was like, I know, I get it, I get it
from when I are the same body. But we're going
to figure this out together. And so in many ways,
I says Wingman. And I was also sort of what
(18:17):
I labeled the concierge of cool, which is, if life
is your hotel, I'm going to direct you in the
right avenue of something you didn't know existed but have
always secretly wanted, all along with something to remedy your life,
make your life easier, or expand your life and make
it bigger in a way that I think would benefit you.
Speaker 1 (18:35):
I love it. I love it so much. And you
know I used to watch the show and be and
like part of it would be like, oh, of course,
like straight guys, it's up to gay men to help
a straight guy be like better, Like why is it
your responsibility to like make straight people like palatable to
the world?
Speaker 3 (18:54):
You know?
Speaker 4 (18:54):
Yeah, well, you know It's funny about that is women
have been saying to their husband's partners, whoever for you
years before we showed up, the same thing we say
at once, and they're like okay. And I think the
role reversal of the locker room hazing that many of
us got or whatever from gay from straight guys, reversing
and flipping that switch and empowering us, highlighting that many
(19:18):
of us, in a comedic cliche way, have expertise in
this era, not all, not all, And I think that
kind of comedically gave us a platform. And by the way,
we're now off the wings of queer's folk l word
will and grace. And so there's this that we did
shot this cover of Vanity Fair and they mixed up
(19:41):
all the casts of the current shows that had queer
content in the early odds, and it was like what's
next for gay TV?
Speaker 2 (19:47):
And yeah, we were a gay show.
Speaker 4 (19:49):
I mean we didn't fully have all the colors of
the rainbow, but we did, you know, even makeover. I
think one of the first trends men to get a
makeover on television was on Queer Eye in two thousand
and like four or five. So we were progressive. And
I think at that time the reason why so many
straight folks watched was because A was in the title
(20:11):
for that. But I found throughout the years so many
teenagers and closeted folks in their twenties and such would
say I used to sneak upstairs and watch Queer Eye,
and I was like.
Speaker 2 (20:23):
You didn't have to.
Speaker 4 (20:25):
It was prescribed for your straightness, even though you weren't straight.
Speaker 2 (20:29):
You know, they didn't want to be guilty by association.
Speaker 1 (20:34):
So something that really stuck with me over the years
is like, at the end of the episode, sometimes you
do these like quick little tips and hip tips, hip tips,
hip tips. The one that I will never forget it
his I can't remember lost time I open to CD case,
but I will.
Speaker 4 (20:50):
Do.
Speaker 1 (20:50):
Do you know I'm talking about that?
Speaker 2 (20:51):
I know because Virgin Megastore I would see them do it. Yeah,
And I was like huh.
Speaker 4 (20:57):
And you know you have to have like a very
blunt granite or something like marble, and you could just
slide the wrapping off the CD case and it would
break open because it was always so hard to get
the CD out of the case if you didn't have
like a key or nine or something.
Speaker 1 (21:13):
Yes, yes, and frameone. What we're talking about. The shrink
wrap on like a CD jewel case used to be
a herculean effort to get it off. And my friends
in Fab five, my friends, they taught me to you
rub it against the edge of like a table, and
I ruined a couple of countertops doing this.
Speaker 2 (21:28):
Yeah, we didn't give a caveat them. You're gonna ruin
things you're going to get to hear your music?
Speaker 4 (21:32):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (21:32):
Do you have a favorite hip tip that sticks out
to you?
Speaker 2 (21:35):
One?
Speaker 4 (21:36):
There's so many that are not my category that get
parroted back to me. And one is in terms of fragrance,
spray delay and do you know the end of that spray.
Speaker 2 (21:46):
Delay walk into it? Yep? I remember that spray.
Speaker 4 (21:49):
Delay walk away. People say that to me all the time.
And how about shaving? Do you remember anything about how
to shave what direction?
Speaker 1 (21:58):
Oh, against the green? No, with the grain.
Speaker 4 (22:02):
Yeah, I know, well we're gonna have to that's a fine.
I'll send you the episode turn it out. But those
are the two things peop were like. Shaving with the grain,
I learned how to shave. I mean I still go
a little, you know, trying to get a close shaver
or something. But but yeah, there was a lot of things,
a lot of really cool things, especially and specifically about
like fit of things. I never in my early twenties
(22:23):
would have considered taking things that were slightly ill fitting
to a tailor and how you don't need to buy
expensive clothing. You just you're going to look better if
the garment you've selected for yourself that you love fits
your body and you can get it to fit your
body by taking it to a tailor to make some
slight adjustments. Never would have thought of that, and that
(22:47):
was something that I've taken away I think from the
show with me. I think there was a lot of things,
like especially like remembering someone's name, you know, if we
meet you know you, like like Easton, J Nice to
meet meet you, Easton, you know, like repeating someone's name back.
Speaker 2 (23:01):
That was mono minded. I still do that.
Speaker 4 (23:03):
That's helpful to use it throughout the conversation and early conversations.
Speaker 2 (23:08):
That was a good tip.
Speaker 4 (23:09):
I feel there were some funny ones, some lighthearted ones.
Speaker 2 (23:13):
I mean, you know, we would.
Speaker 4 (23:15):
Pitch our sort of producing team on different things, and
then we would get copy and if we liked.
Speaker 2 (23:21):
It, we would use it, and if we didn't, you know,
we wouldn't.
Speaker 4 (23:25):
But yeah, it was really really kind of fun in
that era because I think people really like that. It's
a great little tag to a show. I wonder I'm
sure the new version still does that. They might not
label it the same way, but I believe from the
episodes I've seen they still do it.
Speaker 2 (23:39):
It's a good tradition.
Speaker 1 (23:40):
Yeah, it's great and I love it, and it stands
the test of time.
Speaker 2 (23:44):
It's life acts.
Speaker 1 (23:45):
Yeah, life acts, baby Wearing it out with Jay Rodriguez.
This is the I Smell Pop Culture Podcast. We're gonna
play some commercials right here, so please listen to them.
I need this job. It's I Smell pop Culture. I
Smell pop culture and you smell it too. I'm hanging
(24:06):
out with Jay Rodriguez, one of the Fab five from
Queer Eye so you dropped for the Street Guy. Uh, yeah,
the season one. Yeah, and it's it's funny because it
in my head, I'm always like, I want to call
it that because I just thought it was kind of fun.
But Queer Eye is easier to say.
Speaker 4 (24:22):
Even the producers who were insistent on it being dropped
after season one because we wanted to be able. We
were making over everybody you know in the house, and
and certainly we didn't make over only straight up.
Speaker 2 (24:36):
The majority of them were straight guys. But they wanted
to drop it, and so they did.
Speaker 4 (24:40):
But now when we do any cross press like we were,
Vice President Harris invited us to the White House last June.
It was me, Carson Caromo, JVN, and the creators and
executive producers of Queer Eye, and they were referencing our
version as for the Straight Guy. But I'm like, you
guys were so insistent that after the first season it
(25:02):
was just fear and even even the logos, everything was just.
Speaker 2 (25:06):
Clear, right. But everyone says for the strike, I don't
I don't mind, but I know that we made over women.
Speaker 4 (25:12):
You know, we made over trends, men, we made over
you know, it wasn't just straight we made over.
Speaker 2 (25:17):
Some gay guys on the show.
Speaker 4 (25:19):
We also made it for some men who later joined
the Alphabet Mafia we found out.
Speaker 1 (25:26):
You know, so you never know, now, if you had
to give a makeover to Luke from Gilmour Girls, what
what tips would you have for him?
Speaker 4 (25:35):
I mean, you know, so much, so much of the
clothing I just did to rewatch. So much of the
clothing was of the time, so it was interesting to
see things like fit of like button ups and stuff
were really baggy dress shirts, dress shirts like really blousey.
Speaker 2 (25:52):
I don't think that would fly now.
Speaker 4 (25:54):
I think someone in costuming would have taken them in
a little bit. I mean, I think Luke is such
a handsome guy that I think there's a piece of
me that like kind of enjoys the aesthetic of it all.
But I think I would have worked on fit overall.
Note the fit.
Speaker 1 (26:09):
All right, Well, the guy who plays Luke is on
this podcast too, so I will pass that along. That's
the note.
Speaker 4 (26:16):
Well, I wonder I'd be very curious how he felt
in the clothing. I mean, you know, we had all
our stuff tailored, like we had fittings with off the
rack things.
Speaker 2 (26:25):
Then in the fitting like most.
Speaker 4 (26:27):
Every TV show, there was someone there pinning, and then
it would go away and it would be tailored in
a week, and you know, you'd.
Speaker 2 (26:34):
Have something that fit nice for camera.
Speaker 4 (26:36):
And I'm curious if creatively, if it was a choice
because they live in a small town, and also if
I make an addendant to that would also just be like,
were there specific moments where if it was like a
romantic scene or something that he noticed the fit got tighter.
I'd be very curious if he felt a shift in
(27:00):
costuming based on what his character was up to.
Speaker 1 (27:03):
That's an interesting perspective.
Speaker 2 (27:05):
It influenced the scene.
Speaker 1 (27:08):
Yes, if that makes sense, because those.
Speaker 4 (27:10):
Were women we know, you know, if you know you
put a woman on camera in a certain color or
a certain kind of neckline. We're already alluding to where
we might be going with the scene, and I'm wondering if,
as you know, the leading man on that show, would
he have felt or even noticed it.
Speaker 2 (27:27):
I'm curious.
Speaker 1 (27:29):
I'm curious too. I want to take a weird pivot here.
I learned something about you earlier today that you have
had a paranormal encounter. Oh yeah, I heard your ghost story,
and you know, I'm not going to make you retell
the whole thing here, but it was it sent chills
down my spine just picturing it.
Speaker 4 (27:47):
So Okay, So basically, when I was a kid, my
my mother and her sister both a single parents, and
so it was me and my cousin were three weeks apart,
my mother and her sister, like Bestie's. The four of
us go up to Lake George, which is an upstate
New York and we're at this cute little like nineteen fifty.
Speaker 2 (28:05):
Style resortie thing, and.
Speaker 4 (28:09):
I remember bringing my At the time, I was super
into smart, so I had a pop a smart plushy.
We spend the day doing some excursions. That night and
we're heading.
Speaker 2 (28:19):
Back to the motel, and so.
Speaker 4 (28:21):
We're in the motel two queen beds. When you walk in,
the first thing you see the left is the two
queen beds that are separated by a nightstand and a lamp.
Then you have a club chair in the far right.
And then if we kept walking from the entrance of
the room, all the way down is a bathroom and
when the door is open, you can see a mirror.
To the left is the shower, to the right is
the toilet. Great I set up the room, so we
(28:43):
go out whatever, and then our parents. We are meant
to be asleep, but we're not really sley and they've rated.
Speaker 2 (28:47):
The mini bar.
Speaker 4 (28:48):
They're having the little you know, like seven and sevens
or whatever they're doing, and this is the eighties, and
so we're pretending to be asleep, and all of a sudden,
I hear we are on the bed closest to the door.
Speaker 2 (29:02):
I hear my mother gasp.
Speaker 4 (29:04):
I jump up and look toward her, which puts me
with an eyeshot of the bathroom. That was the only
light that was on, and the door was slightly a
jar enough for us to see the passing of a figure,
a dark figure. My aunt screams, and they grab us and.
Speaker 2 (29:26):
Take us out of the room and they run downstairs.
Speaker 4 (29:28):
You know, these are two women in their twenties with
small kids, and you know, to like the manager on duty.
He comes and inspects the room, and mind you, at
this point, my little papa smart I had left on
the bed. He goes back, inspects the room. I can't
find it, and I look and it's under the bed,
like the middle under the bed. There's no way I
could have gotten there. So in the middle of the night.
They're determined that you know that they were going to leave,
(29:49):
and they're like, ladies, you don't want to drive them
on the night.
Speaker 2 (29:51):
In the forest.
Speaker 4 (29:52):
They don't do that, So I need you just to
stay here. You can check out in the morning. So
that's their plan. We're going to sleep. Middle of the night.
I feel like something's watching me, and I opened my
eyes and I see in the corner of the room
what appears to me to look like a nineteen fifties businessmen,
full on fedora and you know, kind of trench coat
(30:13):
and business you know, nineteen fifties mad men esque. And
I'm panicked and I'm freaking out, but you're paralyzed with fear.
And so I remember like him staring at me, and
I didn't feel threatened, but I don't know why.
Speaker 2 (30:27):
Little me was like.
Speaker 4 (30:28):
I offered him my teddy bear and he said no,
and he did this and go back to sleep.
Speaker 2 (30:33):
So I don't know. I just went back to sleep.
Speaker 4 (30:36):
The next morning, we're packing in a mad panic and
we have those hard SAMSONI luggages.
Speaker 2 (30:42):
Mine was sky blue.
Speaker 4 (30:43):
There's details to this that I remember to this day.
And so I'm packing my things, all my little stuff.
I put my plushy in there. We head out the door.
As we're driving away in my mother's Chevy Nova, I
look up to the room and I can see this
man in our room between the curtains, which were to
(31:06):
the left of the door if you're facing the building.
Speaker 2 (31:09):
And I'm like, and he's holding the Papa Smurf And I'm.
Speaker 4 (31:12):
Like, oh, So I go home and sure enough, Papa
Smarp's not in there. So years later, when I had
heard this story, I asked my mother to give me
pictures and everything to see if I could find where
this motel was. I found it because I know it's
doing a celebrity ghost story. I found the motel and
I recounted the story to I literally, I said, this
(31:32):
is going to sound so crazy.
Speaker 2 (31:34):
How have you used it?
Speaker 4 (31:34):
And they're like, actually, And they told me the story
about how this man lost his child in the pool.
Speaker 2 (31:40):
The kid he was just basically not watching his kid.
Speaker 4 (31:43):
And his kid drowned in the pool, and that he
is a benevolent spirit who watches over the children at
the hotel and they've never had any problems with him,
but that it's not the first time kids specifically have
seen this man.
Speaker 2 (31:58):
And I felt so validated because I didn't tell her.
I didn't tell her my story. I didn't say nothing.
Speaker 4 (32:03):
She volunteered it and it completely aligned with my story.
Speaker 1 (32:08):
What I mean, I have chills listening to that. It's like,
I know he's a bullet and benevolent spirit. It's still
like a scary thing to see.
Speaker 4 (32:15):
Yeah, as a kid. And by the way, then it
was so funny because we were not super religious at
that time, but years later my mother and my teens
became very evangelical born again Christian and so I was
always scared to kind of bring it up because I
wonder what her memory of it is, and through that
now newly a sort of religious lens, if she would
acknowledge that that happened.
Speaker 2 (32:37):
And so I started with my aunt and I was like, hey,
do you remember anything weird that happened at Lake George.
Speaker 4 (32:43):
She goes, you mean the man that was in the room,
and I was like yes, and she was like, no,
that really happened.
Speaker 2 (32:49):
And then I asked my.
Speaker 4 (32:50):
Mother and she was like, oh yeah, oh no, yeah,
I think it was something not good like you. It
was very fascinating how everyone remembered it, but no one talked.
Speaker 2 (32:59):
To me it.
Speaker 1 (33:00):
Yeah, oh my goodness. And it's it's one like whether
you believe or not, like when you have multiple people
that experience something so similar. I mean, my wife has
a similar story, and it's just like it's it's undeniable,
you know that something happened. Yeah, yeah, well again you
can well you can watch this on Celebrity ghost Stories
on A and E. You you mentioned cabaret earlier. Your
(33:23):
cabaret performance is that that?
Speaker 4 (33:24):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (33:25):
I can't believe you were doing Rent when you were
like eighteen years old.
Speaker 2 (33:27):
That's right out of high school. Why it's so wild
because I didn't have an age or anything.
Speaker 4 (33:32):
I want to perform me or a high school and
a girl who had graduated before me was like, my
agency would love you. You need to meet with them. I,
you know, was nervous about my future, didn't know.
Speaker 2 (33:41):
I met with this agency.
Speaker 4 (33:43):
They gave me audition size through at law and order
for me to play some like drug dealer.
Speaker 2 (33:47):
Kid, you know, a cliche Latin boy role.
Speaker 4 (33:49):
And so then I remember she said can you sing?
I said yes, I sang something from Rent mid song.
Speaker 2 (33:58):
She called casting.
Speaker 4 (33:59):
She said, I have some some clients and today, can
you see one more? I went that very day. The
casting associate gave me a callback on the spot. The
next day the agency signed me. So I went from
Long Island to the city again to sign with his agency.
Speaker 2 (34:11):
Didn't know what that meant.
Speaker 4 (34:13):
Callback, callback, And then by the time I got to
the casting director, Bernard Telsea, who now casts major motion
pictures as well as TV and Broadway, he.
Speaker 2 (34:22):
Said, where have you been? I was like, Oh, I
didn't have an agent or like a headshot or a resume.
He's like, I would have cast you without any of that.
You're perfect for this.
Speaker 4 (34:30):
And I went through the whole process, you know, the
director of the choreographer, Jonathan Larson's parents because they owned
the estate and so they had to approve me. And
then at eighteen, I mean, I was sleeping in the
streets to get tickets in nineteen ninety seven Spring and
starring in the show Fall of nineteen ninety seven.
Speaker 1 (34:47):
Incredible, it's so wild. Yeah, So if people want to
see you perform, now is how can we see you?
Speaker 2 (34:55):
So here's what I do.
Speaker 4 (34:56):
I basically tour with what I call the ninety minute
Raddar Glee version of my life, and I sing Top forty,
I sing Broadway, and I tell funny stories about sort
of my journey, and I always frame them a little differently.
So if I play the same venue and I feel
like it's going to be a lot of the same folks,
and I'll retitle the show and pepper in some new
(35:16):
songs so that people whatever.
Speaker 2 (35:18):
But I keep in the favorites.
Speaker 4 (35:19):
And obviously I talk about my upbringing, I talk about rent,
I talk about queer eye, spill all the tea, and
it's kind of like, you know, my biggest role models
growing up were the Lily Tomlin one person shows, the
Whoopy Goldberg, and the John leg was Amo shows, and
that's what I really wanted to do. But coming from
a musical theater background and being a sort of a
(35:39):
pop rock singer by trade, it felt weird to just
do it without any music. So now I just kind
of I would say, follow me at Ji Rodriguez on Insta,
and I have a Patreon and so I post clips
on there, but like I just paided a clip. I
did a cabaret show in like two weekends ago in
San Diego, and it was super fun, and I think
(36:01):
one of The fun things about it for me is
it's a weird part of me that even some of
my closest LA friends have never seen me do because
I'm usually traveling to do it.
Speaker 2 (36:11):
And when people who know me or know me.
Speaker 4 (36:14):
From television but don't know this side, they're like, you're
so You're so good, And it's not like I received
that in that way. It's more like I'm allowing folks
to see what New York audiences knew in two thousand,
you know. But I think I got so swept up
on TV and film here in Los Angeles. I never really,
(36:37):
you know, leaned into being like some kind of recording artists.
So all that for me is as a talker, as
a storyteller is cabaret. It's not a concert because I
like to tell stories, and so it's you know, I
love the idea of mixing those two.
Speaker 2 (36:52):
And when Leslie Jordan, God Bless his.
Speaker 4 (36:54):
Soul, when he was still with us, I would steal
his cabaret dates because I would play venues that he
played before me, and I thought, okay, we have a
crossover audience, so I would email the venue right after
he played there. I was like, hey, fellow show because
he would just tell stories and he would say, he's
such an incredible storyteller. So I kind of took a
(37:14):
page from his book and incorporated the music. And I
think the music is the big, showy kind of Oh
you didn't know I could do that, you know, And
and of course get people what they want to hear
about the projects I've been on.
Speaker 1 (37:26):
I love it. You're the coolest guy in the world.
I mean, thank you so much for hanging out with
me again. Follow you, he Rodriguez. If you don't already,
you got to smash that follow button.
Speaker 2 (37:34):
Is it true that you guys like you and your girlfriend?
Speaker 4 (37:37):
Like?
Speaker 2 (37:38):
Is you your wife? Your girlfriend?
Speaker 1 (37:39):
I can't remember that's my wife? Yeah, oh wife? Love it.
Speaker 2 (37:41):
I'm stalking your socials. You guys like theme parks?
Speaker 1 (37:45):
Oh my goodness, Yes we do. We do.
Speaker 2 (37:48):
I do too. Will you be doing Halloween horror nights?
You know?
Speaker 1 (37:51):
I just became brave enough to do it. I'm new
to Halloween hornits, but I'm obsessed. I can't wait this.
Speaker 4 (37:57):
So you're the guy who says no, baby, you first
and use her as a human shield.
Speaker 1 (38:02):
Yes, I am got it.
Speaker 2 (38:04):
I want to hang with you, guys.
Speaker 4 (38:05):
I want to go with you guys. It's one of
my favorite things. I don't like horror movies. I love
watching other people get scared. It cracks me up. I
watch the YouTube clips of when Ellen would send people in.
Speaker 2 (38:18):
Those mounted I can watch.
Speaker 4 (38:19):
If I need to pick me up, I will watch
her little reporter go through. I've seen it a million times.
It still makes me. Anyway, we have to do a
theme park.
Speaker 2 (38:27):
Is my point.
Speaker 1 (38:28):
Let's do it. Yeah, I'm down anytime. Wow. Thank you,
Thank you so much again. Ja, you're the coolest guy
in the world.
Speaker 2 (38:33):
Thank you, Thank you so much. Do I talk to
you soon.
Speaker 3 (38:36):
Good Bye, everybody, and don't forget.
Speaker 1 (39:07):
Follow us on Instagram at I Am all In podcast
and email us at Gilmore at iHeartRadio dot com.
Hosts And Creators
Amy Sugarman
Danielle Romo
Scott Patterson
Tara Soudbaksh
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