Back to Our Roots
FOF #3000 – And the Feast Goes On
VIDEO: Marc Fills up the Apartment with Fake Smoke for Halloween
PHOTOS: Us as Lady Gaga on the Cover of Vogue
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
Hey Guys: Great show!! Love your input into the Shirley Thing, and you guys have always said that if anyone uses anything of the Feast of Fools please to give credit where credit is due. I do agree. It is your creativity that some people take from and you should have gotten credit for the creation and the Birth of what you guys to tirelessly create for your listeners. Love you guys, Hope to see you all soon.
great show guys.
as for ellen and larry king, she did discuss his death very recently on her show.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QcMEL3_YsVI
~gabe
hey kids, love the show. being a newer girl, in cleveland, i have learned quickly from the start, you can\’t make drag performing about money. you sure can put most or all of your money back into the craft (gowns, costumes, fabric, hair, stones, essentials) but when you have an arsenal of costumes and the like, you can almost have a little extra spending money. but overall, youre never going to make what you put into it…..unless youre just tired and do the same old crap. anyway, when you stop doing shows for the fun and enjoyment of performing and putting your creativity out there, you probably just shouldn\’t anymore. when you don\’t do it for fun, you bring something dark and different to the other girls…and i try to stay away from that. i find so much joy in doing my best, and showing my audiences what i can come up with in my twisted creative little head. that is all, keep up the good work, girls! xoxo Maya
The point I was making with Ellen and Anderson Cooper is that although their personal feelings for his brutal murder Lawrence King are sincere and public, they fearfully choose to avoid putting themselves in harms way.
The ONE thing they could do to reduce hate in this country, which is speaking regularly on their own sexuality, they avoid it like the plague. Neither Anderson nor Ellen talk about their relationships, their attraction to members of the same sex, or their personal experiences with discrimination. They are silent.
Imagine a world where media folks like Ellen or Anderson would talk about their partners on a daily basis the way we all do. Their visibility carries a responsibility to educate their audiences about GLBT acceptance. Not tolerance, acceptance. Embracing queer people in America. Do they do that? No.
Do they shed tears when they witness the pain and suffering of GLBT people? Yes. Do they make an honest attempt to educate their audiences on GLBT acceptance and embracing our differences? No.
It\’s okay to cry, but after the tears are shed, do something about it!
Imagine if Oprah never spoke about being a black woman. Imagine if Larry King never spoke about being Jewish. Imagine if David Letterman didn\’t speak up about being ugly as a monkfish.
I don\’t want to blame them for anything, I just want to remind them and all of us that we can do simple things in our everyday lives to tell the world that not only gay people exist, but that we must be embraced and loved in order to live in a just and peaceful society.
Fausto,
You were wondering what Nicole Ritche\’s race is: Last year Carlos Mencia \”outed\” Nicole as a \”Beaner\” (his word, not mine!) I guess she was a baby of hispanic descent who Lionel adopted.
Okay Fausto I have to defend Ellen a little here.
I saw a few episodes of Ellen\’s show recently. Every time she mention Portia De Rossi her girlfriend. She talked about her surprising her for her 50th birthday with a trip to the vineyards. She showed a picture of the 2 of them hugging out in the vineyards. On another episode she talked about how all their pets sleep between the two of them. I do not watch Ellen every day but I think she talks about her girlfriend a lot.
Anderson Cooper is another story.
Here is a clip from Ellen\’s show of her and Portia Christmas Tree shopping together.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OtADXumOEcM
Fausto & Marc
I completely understand you being upset with Chuck for not giving credit where it\’s due, I completely agree with you on that.
As far as Shirley Q Liquor, do you get equally offended when the Wayans Brothers put on \”white face\” to be white women in the movie \”White Chicks\”? How about Dave Chapelle\’s putting on white face to be a news anchor?
No, I don\’t get offended at all. Why would I? If you\’re thinking its the same thing, it is not. The power structure is completely different. African Americans don\’t have a history of enslaving and exploiting white people.
I totally agree as to the point about how gay bars should give back to the community. I used to work at AIDS Project New Haven, and being that it was a smaller town, almost all of the bars would pitch in and help us whenever we had a fundraiser; it was so awsome.
And then there was this really opportunistic bar owner just like the type Fausto described, and guess what? Less and less people would come to his bar till it was defin no longer THE place to go. I guess that was just a perfect situation as I know it doesn\’t happen that way necessarily, but it made me happy to know there were some community conscious small business owners out there.
See, not all gay small business owners are tyrannical crazies.
BTW, Marc I completely agree, you can\’t just say, oh what about when black people make fun of whites, isn\’t that racist? No it\’s not, because black people do not have a history of subjugating a race of people, namely whites.
Further, as Fausto says, comedy is about making fun of the people in power, when you make fun of the oppressed it stops being funny. Well at the risk of sounding like a liberal wing-nut, Blacks in America are still oppressed. Poverty, lack of political access, etc are all still directly correlated with race in a way we cannot deny. Making fun of spoiled rich white girls is funny and OK (for lack of a better term) BECAUSE THEY ARE RICH WHITE GIRLS.
Shirley Q is entitled to her free speech, but so are we entitled to stand up and say, I\’m not going to watch that or patronize places that show it.
Last point, I wish I was a full lawyer instead of just a half one…it would give me great pleasure to serve a legal complaint on Shirley Q…OH well still got one year to go.
Can\’t wait till Saturday night, I am freaking out with excitement.
Marc
You are correct, African Americans don\’t have a history of enslaving white people in America. The point I was trying to make is racism is not the sole possession of \”white America\”. There are racists in every ethnic group. Also slavery is not exclusive to to \”white America\” either. Slavery dates back probably before the Persians enslaved Europeans, before the Egyptians enslaved the Jews.
First off, I was not trying to attack you, sorry if my post came off that way; and I can\’t speak for Marc so i\’ll just speak for my post.
Secondly, I at no point said that slavery was the exclusive past of America, but that doesn\’t really matter frankly because in an inquiry attempting to determine the propriety of comedy in America it would be most logical to look at the history of America, so I chose to begin my argument with that premise.
Third, I also did not say racism is the sole possession of white America, I said in the specific discrete scenarios you posed of asking essentially why a black actor can make fun of white people and have it be appropriate, that sometimes it is appropriate and non-racist precisely because it comes from an abstract point of oppression. I just think it is a very astute observation that comedy becomes inappropriate when it makes fun of an oppressed class. For some intangible reason, it just seems to turn that humor into a wink-wink nod to the racist stereotypes that have pervaded America since our founding. In contrast, when you have an oppressed class making comedy at the expense of the dominant class, there just isn\’t that same insidiousness.
Just my attempt at recentering the debate on this topic, though probably a bit long winded.
Ryan
It\’s ok, I wasn\’t feeling attacked, I hope I didn\’t come off as being defensive. Maybe I am? Not every white person in America is racist, not every white person in America\’s ancestors were responsible for slavery, and not every white person in America is in a position of power. Not all white people are air headed rich blond socialites like in \”White Chicks\”. Unless you know an individual, you don\’t know what is in their heart. It\’s really easy to dismiss someone as racist and move on, I was just trying to expand the conversation.
BTW that pic with Ru looks STUNNING 🙂
I appreciate you trying to open the dialog; perhaps this is just a particularly sensitive subject for me. But just to be clear in my point, it doesn\’t actually matter whether one\’s ancestors are directly responsible for slavery. I come from a broader worldview wherein I believe that those who are more fortunate in society, those of higher intellect, higher class, higher income, a happy home have a duty to those in society who do not have these advantages. That doesn\’t mean we give hand outs, it just means we try to step in the shoes of people who are less advantaged then ourselves. I ask everyone to try to step into the shoes of someone of a different race and to think about what it would feel like. For me I can honestly say that I could see why if I was black, seeing sambo-like portrayals would remind me of how I am seen as inferior by a large portion of America because of the color of my skin. I can\’t say I have the same feeling as a mixed ethnicity guy when I see people make fun of \”white\” people. I\’m sure other people feel differently, but it is why I, personally, see such portrayals of black people as different than those of whites.
Another brilliant and insightful show guys. I am so proud to be apart of this community. Messages I hear on this wonderful platform called podcasting allow me to put my cynism aside and feel that there is really something genuine in the world of pop-culture. Thanks!
Great show today guys. I loved the beginning, good ol\’ bait and switch.
I have to agree with Gary\’s point earlier though. There is racism in every ethnic group. But Marc also makes a really good point about it not being the same, but for a different reason.
Based on what I know about Shirley, she is a vile, despicable human that not only steals and manipulates the words of others, but also endorses underhanded tactics (such as publishing the personal info of those that oppose her) as a means of silencing her critics. I would assume, based on these actions, that her act is not coming from a place of love as Rupaul suggested but from a place of spite.
There is a place for this kind of thing. It allows us a glimpse of the past, a look at the thoughts and ideas of our ancestors. It allows us to understand what society was like back then. As rational adults, I would hope that we would understand that the ideas expressed in the past about other cultures were horribly wrong and anyone that still thinks in that way needs to get with the times.
great show guys. and i totally agreed with what you guys said about Shirley Q Liquor…. and i can\’t beleive that bitch stole that part of the show and didn\’t give you guys credit!
also, the Japanese censorship is really annoying. i read their gay porn that is in illustrated form.. called anime or yaoi…and there is censorship of the cock in many different ways. its most annoying. and also, in the animated form of the porn, there is very little cock in the gay stuff(yaoi) then in the straight stuff (hentai) which isn\’t cool either.
oh, anderson cooper is actually gay? has it been made official in the same way it has been for ellen?
i can\’t believe the Japanese would censor anything at all…i mean, i consider them to be some of the most sexually aggresive people in Asia..we\’re talking about a country where sexual innueondos can be rampantly found in most of their TV shows, even in cartoon shows for kids..Just check out Crayon Shin Chan. That kid in the cartoon series became famous simply for his tendency to dangle his cock in front of girls…
For cying out loud, they even have reality Tv shows where oral and vaginal sex are some of the tests that participants have to take…
I worked for a company that exported gay erotica to the gay bookstore in Tokyo, and yes there is only one. My boss paid my friends to censor mags that we\’d then ship and charge triple the cover price. For newsprint paper they would use a stamp and for glossy a really vile smelling marker. They got paid $1 for glossy and .50 for newsprint which worked out to a measly $7-$10 an hour. For video tapes we were able to charge 110\’s of dollars. I would remove the reel and repackage it in a puffy envelope with a handwritten note about the graduation or wedding I taped. 1 out of 3 tapes never made it but customers accepted that. Digital downloading has thankfully circumvented this practice. While it is still illegal to show genitalia in porn that is changing ever so slowly. At one time you could not show pubic hair but that is no longer the case.
I really liked that on today\’s show, you really handled race and gender in a responsible way; I\’m tired of people telling me sexism is worse than racism and that I should vote for Hillary because of it; I\’m sure (as you point out) that people who prefer Hillary feel the same way. They\’re both terrible and we shouldn\’t have to pick and choose (and as a gay black man, I\’ve come across that a lot).
And again, a nice articulation of what\’s wrong with that SQL (I won\’t type the full name here) situation. And obviously she\’s a thief so, yet another reason to dislike that performance immensely. You guys did a great job with a few difficult to talk about topics. Shout out to Ryan! w00t!
Plus, did you see?(Idol Spoiler)
Both Davids (Archuleta and Hernandez aka delicious cockslapping stripper man) are in the top 12! Though EXTREMELY gay Danny Noriega didn\’t make the cut. Aw.
As a non American I\’ve been thinking about this whole Hilary/Obama debate and surely the person to tick all boxes as a suitable candidate is – no, not Oprah – but Flotilla DeBarge!
Late comment here: catching up on shows… The whole Japanese censor thing seems a farce considering how racy the commercials, late night programs, and all the rest of what is considered acceptable there. It didn\’t really bother me much other then when going to an art museum that had an exhibit on historic erotic art…and the genitals were covered with cottonballs! Oh blush girlfriend!
The kicker for me was when I went to the movies to see The Crying Game; paid my good yen, and then was stunned to see that the \’reveal\’ blotted out with a dancing spray-painted (pre-digitized days) dancing brown blotch hovering over the neither-regions; it drew more attention to the fact of something we couldn\’t see, and definitely distracted one from any drama at that point.