Why is Halloween so gay? I personally have never felt a strong connection to this holiday, aside from enjoying all the candy, but for many gay men it's the most important night of the year.
This week's guest is Jamie Maurer, who you may also know as Rantasmo, host of the YouTube series Needs More Gay. He was a shy kid, given easily to social anxiety. But instead of seeking shelter from darker entertainment, he was drawn to the spooky, the unsettling, the uncomfortable. Otherworldly stories, he found, gave him the freedom to explore his discomfort with one foot in real life and one foot in fantasy. Where he could see his fears and himself in a new light.
And that might explain why Halloween appeals to so many gay men: for those of us who feel pressure to hide their true selves, it's one night of the year when we can trade one mask for another, be someone new, and scare everyone else for a change.
Here are some of the things we talked about on this episode:
From the Neverwhere TV mini-series, this is the introduction of the Marquis DeCarabas. I adore the character, and even moreso, how the actor played him, and so decided I would upload this here. I may one day make a tribute video as well, but as that takes a long time and a hell of a lot of work, I'll stick to this for now.
This is the opening to the first episode of the 1991-92 television series "Eerie, Indiana."
I Put A Spell On You - Hocus Pocus 1993
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Music:
Parisian Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/