FOF #2677 – Great Moments in African American Viral Food Videos – 11.19.18
FOF #1823 – Beyond What What in the Butt – 07.09.13
Video-University of Michigan Harlem Shake
Best Videos of 2010
About Fausto Fernós
Fausto Fernós is the host of iTunes’ #1 LGBT talk show, the Feast of Fun podcast, which he produces and hosts with his partner, Marc Felion.
Born in San Juan, Puerto Rico, Fausto Fernós created the Feast of Fools in 1998 as wacky artists variety show in Chicago, Illinois. Feast of Fun grew out of an audio blog to promote the live show into the world’s most downloaded talk show aimed for gay people.
When he’s not blogging, recording or sleeping, Fausto can be found at the gym or appreciating the beauty found in nature.
Comments
Auugh! I have Chocolate Rain on the Brain! Loved the show! Tay is quite the articulate lad. You can really tell he is still just a 25 year old grad student that just happened to make it big. I think part of the reason why he was so vague with some of his answers was because he wanted to protect that part of him. After all, this dose of celebrity he’s living right now could be just a flash in the pan. There’s something to be said for staying semi-anonymous, and I give him credit for that.
When he’s sitting on the couch with Oprah, he’ll have the Feast of Fools to thank… 🙂
I loved, I love this podcast: #585.
Really I do…(have you voted today?)
Please post a thumbs up on the social bookmarking site of your choice! Stumbleupon, Digg, etc…
I voted! Feast of Fools: http://www.podcastawards.com
I have to say that the song is much more interesting than the person. I have to applaud Marc & Fausto for trying to so hard to get more out of him. I almost turned the podcast off 22 minutes into this, but I could never do that to Marc and & Fausto.
I don’t want to label my feelings about the show, but I voted today.
I have to say that the song is much more interesting than the creator, I almost turned off the pod cast after 19 minutes. I could never do that to Marc and Fausto. You have to give our dynamic duo credit for trying to pull as much as they did out of him.
And I voted twice 🙂
I move toward my computer to vote for Feast of Fools.
I think Tay has a real good deep voice. Hope to see an album in the future.
I think it would have been funny if he answered every question on the breakdown 2007 by just singing “Chocolate Raiiin”.
that breakdown was like pulling teeth…so funny though “I could perhaps be a little more concrete” I was cackling like an old wench, could hear Marc trying to keep it together, hilarious! Tha bloke was quite a sweet boy really, though his abstractness would just drive me up the wall if I knew him!!!!
Tay Zonday Breakdown 2007 (Revised)
What’s your favorite color? Chocolate brown.
What’s your favorite food? Chocolate.
Describe yourself as a fancy shade of paint: Chocolate Rain.
When you were a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up? Rick Astley.
Name and species of your childhood pet: A chocolate lab named Rain.
What’s the biggest misconception people have about you? That I’m Rick Astley’s love-child.
Your best feature: The binary of my left eye and my right eye.
What turns you on? I don’t believe in labeling things “on” or “off”.
If you could change one thing about you, what would it be? I’d become Rick Astley.
What’s the BEST thing that’s happened to you recently? Chocolate Rain.
What’s the WORST thing that’s happened to you recently? Chocolate rain not being an actual weather pattern 🙁
What should we be investing in? YouTube.
What would you like to see Oprah doing in 5 years? “Chocolate Rain, we say your name!”
If you could travel back in time and meet anyone, who would it be? Rick Astley.
What makes you mad? Caramel sunshine.
If your vagina wrote its own monologue, what would it say? Chocolate Rain!
What are you addicted to? Rain and chocolate.
What musical instruments do you play? Keyboard.
What’s for dinner? Chocolate cake.
What happens when we die? I don’t believe in the binary of “alive” and “dead”.
I’m dying here… LOL
Love the revised Breakdown. I think Tay is a sweetheart.
Honestly, to me, he sounded like a pretencious prick, and I just wanted to choke him the entire time. And, I would go with your gut feeling that this is all a huge social experiment by him, and he’s a big phony. But that’s just me.
Shit, who pissed in my Wheeties this morning?
I was listening and couldn’t help but laugh at all the different ways Fausto went about asking Tay Zonday if he was gay or not. Very creative and classy, didn’t go unappreciated. 😀
DynaMike! That is HILARIOUS…
Thanks Pablo!
John- What is it about Tay that makes you feel he’s a “phony?”
Is it possible to be so passionate about being dispassionate? He sounds like he needs therapy. Oh, but don’t label him. Hated this show. All the man did was talk and talk in circles because he was afraid to commit about anything. I can’t believe someone thought he was articulate.
Q. What’s the song about?
A. Well, what’s it about to you?
Q. What do you have to say about people who take you for Gay?
A. Why do people have to use labels?
He’ll never make it in the music industry, but he might make a good politician.
That “someone” was me… and I stand by what I said. Sure he dodged questions, I don’t deny that. But you know what? Not everyone knows how to handle being asked a bunch of questions about themselves. He didn’t ask for this… it was thrust upon him by chance. I think you’re being awfully mean and harsh.
Is that passionate enough for you?
Um. He’s posted numerous songs on YouTube in search of fame or notoriety – and he wasn’t forced to be on the show – he chose his path. That’s hardly being thrust unexpectedly.
Pia Zadora should have been so lucky.
No fault of your own Marc & Fausto, but Tay gave what I thought was quite possibly one of the worst interviews I have ever heard.
And when it comes to sexuality, I don’t really buy into the whole, “I don’t subscribe to labels” thing. How very Mika of him. You either like boys, like girls, like both or like neither. The label for those does not have to define who are as a person though. Just who you like to mess around with.
love the show. thought you would find story this interesting …
http://www.boingboing.net/2007/08/07/rep_bob_allen_cites_.html
I think people are being a little harsh on Tay. I’ve never heard anyone be so evasive and noncommittal, however that in itself isn’t a reason to call him a “pretencious prick” or suggest that he needs to seek therapy. In fact, he might consider politics. Tay’s just a guy who has some unique antisocial quirks to his personality.
That being said, Tay Zonday isn’t someone I’d like to hangout with for any extended period of time. Despite his abnormal defensive nature I still enjoyed listening to this podcast. In particular, I was impressed with Fausto’s creativity in trying to pry answers out of Tay. Tay’s responses were also enjoyable, I couldn’t believe how instinctively protective this guy was about the most mundane questions. I can’t help but wonder what his academic writing must be like. Someone might consider creating a sample of this guys writing.
Tay Zonday creates content to express what he’s thinking or feeling without any idea the response he might get. It just ascends into the ether. More can be analyzed in the public response than in the original content. “Chocolate Rain” is just one person’s piece of music “put out there” as Fausto might say. Consciously or not, it does comment on society, but as Tay Zonday suggests, there’s more to the interpretation of it than in what he did to make it. Frankly, “Internet Dream” is a better crafted song structurally and lyrically than “Chocolate Dream” and more accurately captures a detailed social portrait. In less than a month the newer song has already had nearly half a million hits. Considering a lot of the other claptrap thrown about on the Web, e.g., reposts of other people’s content, Tay Zonday’s work is no better and no worse. At least he seems mature enough to say it is what it is and that criticism, positive or negative, doesn’t really matter.
Perhaps he hammers too hard on the no-labels nail, but it’s the most valid point there is to make. Modern culture wants to narrow everyone and everything down to a word or two, a sound bite, a video clip. Human experience spans vast millennia, so to pigeon-hole anyone is a futile effort if not a cruel one. Why not avoid the labels? Evade the pinpoint accuracy? Ambiguity is refreshing!
In the interview, Marc and Fausto presented a very objective set of questions and were accepting of Tay Zonday’s responses, even managing to elicit answers that he probably didn’t intend to give. It was a good interview with a person that never probably never expected to become a lightning-flash celebrity on the Internet though he may have sought some recognition. (As far as posting on the ‘Net, don’t we all want to get our nanosecond of fame? I mean, isn’t that the point?)
Thank you Fernós & Felion for making such an inclusive podcast where anyone can be a guest star, from the local tranny (Josh Cole) to the Austin granny (sorry, Patricia, I’m going for the rhyme) to the lesbo Canny(dian? Elvira Kurt).
I’ve been voting every day, and there are about half a dozen more categories FOF should take along with Podcast of the Year and Best GLBT.
I don’t know about anyone else, but when someone says they “don’t subscribe to labels” when questioned about his sexuality it usually means he’s into some freaky sick shit.
It’s either that, or he’s trying not to destroy his fans sexual fantasies, like Mr. Clay Aiken. But I’m guessing it’s the former of the two.
Tay gives the most ambiguous answers to questions I’ve ever heard. It seemed that the only direct answer given in the interview was to the question about the origin of his stage-name (google).
Kudos to Fausto and Marc for the intelligent interview questions. I think Tay was surprised to be asked to back up some of his conclusions. Those answers were not given in a concrete form, mostly just sociologic textbook rhetoric.
I don’t know if anyone else noticed this, but at the beginning of the interview Fausto asked Tay about the reactions he receives from people regarding his voice not matching his body. Tay answered something to the effect of [people who know me, it’s not unusual]. Later in the interview he admits that his voice does not match his body… Why did he deny it in the beginning?
When it came to the “rapid fire” questions, I could go on for hours for that. We did not get one concrete answer out of the boy… He couldn’t even name a favorite food. EVERYONE in the world who eats has a favorite food… During that portion of the interview he said that all of his answers were “honest.” I think he was seriously masking himself. He dances around almost every question. If everyone was as indecisive as he was, we would never leave the house in the morning.
Phrases of the day:
“Binary”
“On some level…”
“I think everybody….”
“Binary”
“Labels”
“Most people sing”
Phrases of the day:
“Most people sing”
But some CHOOSE not to sing. I liked that point he made.
I have to admit when we asked him the Oprah question I lost it. I had to leave the mic.
this was by far one of the most boring and annoying interviews i’ve heard on the FOF. Im sure he’s a nice guy, but he did not answer many questions clearly, and that whole ” i don’t like labels” and i wish i could take a pill instead of eating comments just bugged me, i know people said he is young but he is not that young! he’s 25 ! he just seemed like a socially inept person, who once again seemed pleasant enough, but NOT someone i would like to see on the show again, I would much rather hear my favorites, like Miss Ronnie, Amanda, Alpana , or that cute Andy guy you had on the other day any time, But I love the FOF and I did vote for you guys on the podcast awards
Andy
i thought the interview was quite..interesting….
he was extremely ambiguous and dodgy about all the questions…but…..
i guess he was just unsure and slightly uncomfortable about becoming famous….he’s done lots of interviews but i guess he still dosen’t feel comfortable to completely express himself with every question he is asked…maybe he dosen’t want everything about himself to be known to everyone in great detail.
i mean…he dosen’t seem like a very social person either.. i could kinda understand his ambiguity in some of his questions.. i’m not a very social person at all in real life and sometimes when i get asked questions, i don’t really answer them directly, and don’t say everything i really think of in my head.
i mean, come on, i don’t think Tay was expecting to get all this popularity.. he seemed like a boring kinda guy, nothing too extravagant about his personality.. and.. some people are like that. just plain and simple. i think he went a little far with the ant-labeling thing..but i guess that was his way to dodge the questions.
and yeah i could go on more about it but i won’t..but it was neat that Marc and Fausto got to interview him.
and i am voting everyday. :B
I think that Tay is feeling overwhelmed by all of the publicity, interviews, etc., that he has been getting and giving, and this may have affected his performance during this interview. This happens frequently to anybody who is breaking through and experiencing the first few of their Warholian 15 minutes, and it has made or broken many a celebrity. Give the guy credit for at least going on a podcast hosted by two openly gay men and at least attempting to answer the questions in the Breakdown.
And while we’re at it, let’s pray for a quick recovery for Lindsay Lohan.
;-p
I am going to slap the next youngster that does not want to label himself. Zunday takes it to the extreme: he doesn’t want to label what he eats as a specific sort of meal!? We have languages all over the world that label things we do, see or are so we can communicate about them. People are not all unique little snowflakes that could not possibly be compared to anything that came before or after – we’re all basically interesting variations on the theme of Humans, with variances in genetics and circumstance. Sometimes someone can come up with a unique or truly novel idea because we slowly evolve as a species and the circumstances in which we live change as well, enabling new concepts. Podcasts could not have been conceived before the internet came to pass for instance. So yes the occasional IDEA can be new, but people generally don’t jump so far ahead of the current curve that they are undefinable by existing terms.
There was an article for a gay magazine with Mika on the cover, saying he did not want to label himself as any kind of ‘-sexual’. Well I am sorry, but no matter what your sexual interest, there is actually a word that covers your prediliction or a way to describe what your loves and lusts are in one sentence, even if you are the first person who only wants to have sex with clouds but could only love a sea urchin. The whole ‘I won’t label myself’ movement just seems to lack the balls to stand up for anything they feel so as to not be confronted about it. There is a label for that: wishy-washy. (Courtesy of Charlie Brown)
Btw this little rant is not so much aimed at Zunday – something closer to a condition seems to be going on there – but I have been hearing this ‘do not label me’ from more people and celebrities lately and frankly I think it is a load of crap. If that earns me the label of Narrowminded Bitch, then so be it.
Gosh, I can understand not liking labels, but this guy can’t even commit to accepting the labels of breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Gosh.
I agree with you, Stevenvant. Labeling is not only part of language, but a natural part of the human thought process. The trendy invention of ‘not labeling’ oneself is a misguided attempt to be uniquely individual by being everything to everyone— it makes no sense.
The reason I listen to FoF is because it makes me laugh. The Tay Zonday interview, for the reasons already mentioned by others, was almost painful to hear. I only listened to the end in the hope that Marc or Fausto would pin him down on some question, no matter how trivial.
“A lot of times I just forget to eat.”
-Tay Zonday
At least not in that binary…
I thought this was a terrible interview with all the blame being placed on the interviewee not the interviewers–they’re fabulous. Tay was like human Ambien. I almost fell asleep at the wheel listening to him, his boring personality, and his non-comittal answers. I’ll be thrilled in 2 weeks when nobody even remembers him or Chocolate Rain.
I really enjoyed this show – frankly, I think that it’s fine he was noncommittal and was willing to express it. These days whatever you say is permanently available and he’s probably scared of that within the context of his newfound fame. Or maybe not – maybe he could just care less about breakfast, lunch, and dinner. After all, these are social constructs – there were times when you just ate when you were hungry.
He was willing to get on the show – I found him very interesting and engaging – it’s his right to determine what he wants to say and what he doesn’t.
And, I think you two handled a difficult interview very gracefully. You probably got more out of him than many others did.
This was a really difficult show to listen to. I agree will all the previous posts about how awful Tay Zonday is at expressing his artistic vision. The song is catchy but I think the reason the video on YouTube is so disconcerting is because there is a strong suggestion that it is not his voice, that there is some distortion. Zonday was annoyingly vague, noncommital and elusive. His response to the question about the bridge collapse in Minneapolis was a clear sign of his lack of maturity and/or his play-acting (“I’m so cool and aloof that I can’t even commiserate with the victims of a tragedy.”) Fausto and Marc deserve a medal for their patience and for their excellent interviewing skills.
I TOTALLY agree that the McGruff the Crime Dog version of this song’s video ROCKS and is much better than Zonday’s!!!! I actually like the Vanilla Snow version too…
And of course, I’ve been voting!!!!
vanilla snow! open doors with hot spaghetti-o’s!
Vanilla snow is hot. I’d like to see him and Tay make out together.
As a person who has lived with two roommates who went through grad school for performance studies, I felt very familiar with and interested in listening to what Tay had to say. Comparatively he is not as pretentious as most academics. Not by a long shot. I am surprised he did not throw the word tropes in there a few times.
As for all the comments about his being non committal and reticent to give solid answers- he pretty much sums it up when he talked about wanting to be a robot as a child. He all but said he is afraid to show his true feelings on any subject. The more I think about it, the more his music sounds as if a robot made it, the repetition and exaggerated diction.
I think marc and fausto did a great job with the interview.
Did anyone notice that Tay and Marc have the same giggle? I would love to listen to them have a tickle fight on the couch.
This guy sounded like he was doing bad character improv. He was totally ready to be pretentious about his songs, and to get into discussions along those lines; but ask him anything out of box, and he got dodgey. He hadn’t done his homework, and wasn’t prepared to be part of an in-depth interview, and Marc and Fausto suffered because of it.
this kid ALMOST ruined the breakdown 2007 for me forever. it’s always my absolutely favorite part of the show – i’m fascinated by people’s answers. however, i literally had to pause my ipod a couple times cause this kid’s wishy-washiness was driving me up the wall.
at least in that binary…
~gabe
Wow… harsh much. If he doesn’t want to give a concise answer that’s his prerogative.
To be completely honest, I don’t like the song… the lyrics don’t seem to mean anything and the music is horrible (it’s ok for a jingle, but not a full song). But Tay does seem to be an ok person… he’s honest, it’s not that he was avoiding the questions, he just didn’t have an answer. I don’t really mind anti-social/aloof people. As for the breakdown … he seems like a very serious person, while the breakdown is anything but.
The McGruff version worked better… he looks way to young for such a deep voice.
YaY! for metaphysical Wikipedia articles!
The ending music was catchy… alot better than Chocolate Rain
Chocolate Rain? Chocolate yawn. Am listening to this podcast a little late but getting really bored with it!
“Chocolate Rain? Listening to Tay will make you feel some pain
Chocolate Rain? Tay Zonday will really numb your brain
Chocolate Rain? Fausto did so well to keep it sane
Chocolate Rain? Don’t have Tay on the show again”
Now I will put my claws away! Nice try Marc and Fausto to get the guy to talk. I don’t think you could have done any better really! Your subject would just not “put it out there people”!
Wow! That guy is a lot smarter than he realizes. He sought out a handle that wasn’t getting any other hits on google. (“…now they all come to me”) Now that’s a marketing strategy!
He’s bright. Maybe slightly confused but I enjoyed his answers none the less.
You guys did a fantastic job at interviewing a “hard” interviewee. Wonderful job!
One word… OUCH! Great personality but OUCH.. Can we say the next voice over for James Earl Jones! I don’t believe singing is his proper career choice. But as the new ‘JimmyEJo” for sure! I am sure many people like his singing, but is is most definitely not for me.