FOF #2861 - The Rainbow Connection

Attention ye lovers of magic, the ballots have been counted! The world’s oldest magic society has a new leader: John Sturk!

Just like Dumbledore in Harry Potter, John Sturk is unapologetically gay and a hero for the underdog, but unlike the Harry Potter franchise, John also supports trans inclusivity.

As the new head of The Society of American Magicians, John’s mission is to invite everyone to participate in magic-- it’s not just for stuffy guys in tuxes and capes. Doctor Strange you’ve been warned!

Today magician John Sturk, the newly elected President of the Society Of American Magicians joins us to look at his love for turning tricks, playing the organ in comedy shows and what happens when magic tricks go horribly wrong.

Plus- the wild wonderful world of Harry Houdini. Was he secretly gay lovers with Sherlock Holmes writer Sir Arthur Conan Doyle?

• CHECK OUT JOHN STURK: http://www.johnsturk.com
• SOCIETY OF AMERICAN MAGICIANS: https://www.magicsam.com

Dreamgirls, the Broadway musical based on the showbiz aspirations of legends like Little Richard, James Brown, Diana Ross and the Supremes, is about as perfect as a musical can be.

It lands running with a wonderful percussive bongo beat and takes us on a roller coaster ride through the struggles Black entertainers faced in the past and how they changed the world for the better.

The breakout song “And I’m Telling You I’m Not Going” became a #1 hit on the R&B Billboard charts when it was released in 1982 and launched Jennifer Holliday into superstardom.

Our friend musician and actor Robert Cornelius is now playing the role of music producer Marty in the new production of Dreamgirls at the McCarter Theater in Princeton, NJ.

BUY TICKETS: https://www.mccarter.org/

As the nephew of Soul Train producer and host Don Cornelius, Robert was a regular dancer in his teens on the show and subsequently became an indie music fixture as a member of the alt-pop music group Poi Dog Pondering.

Today musician Robert Cornelis joins us to look back on his amazing career, being part of Black music royalty and why Dreamgirls and Jennifer Holidays torch song “And I’m Telling You I’m Not Going” will never leave our hearts.

Everything Beyoncé touches turns into solid gold soul, even country music.

Her latest single, 'Texas Hold ‘Em,' is a number one hit on the Billboard country charts, making her the first black woman to ever achieve such a milestone in a genre of music that, despite its roots in black culture, has traditionally excluded artists of color.

Even Dolly Parton is a big fan and congratulated her on social media. But whenever you break a boundary, there’s bound to be some backlash.

Today comedian Matt Brown joins us to talk about the popularity of Beyonce’s Texas Hold ‘Em, and how popular culture is a powerful tool in breaking down barriers of inequality.

Listen as we look back on the new documentary Thriller 40 that examines how Michael Jackson's album Thriller changed the face of music and helped hip-hop go mainstream, The Color Purple Musical Film gets a Best Supporting Actress Oscar nomination for Danielle Brooks and Matt’s third part docu series on Whitney Houston’s musical style is now live his YouTube channel Black Music Archive.

FOLLOW US ON INSTAGRAM:
★ instagram.com/faustofernos
★ instagram.com/marcfelion
★ instagram.com/msbrowncomedy

BLACK MUSIC ARCHIVE:
★ https://www.youtube.com/BlackMusicArchive

Plus--

➤ Did Beyoncé’s “Texas Hold ‘Em” rip off the theme song from Franklin the Turtle, a Canadian Kids cartoon? https://www.youtube.com/shorts/AWr-E7ZnuuY

➤ Ricky Martin has a foot fetish.

➤ LGBTQ sections of popular news sites close up shop. Yikes. What does this mean for you and me?

➤ Barbara Streisand says not looking like the girls in the magazine was critical to her success.

We live during an extraordinary time for building muscle. What started out over a hundred years ago as a theatrical curiosity has grown to become a sport and art form that has millions of people pumping iron all around the world.

And while genetics certainly plays a factor, from Hollywood to your friends at the gym, there are more jacked up folks around these days than ever. How do they do it?

Let’s Grow Big Together: the podcast that starts off wearing a hoodie, then takes it off to reveal the pumped muscle hiding underneath.

Today my coach Matt Claussen, powerlifting and bodybuilding legend, joins us to look back on my winning the silver in Classic Physique Masters Division at the NPC Mid American Winter Classic 2023, the content that had the jacked up Santa Claus mascot warning us “Winter is Coming.”

What are the attributes of successful bodybuilding athletes and coaches?

FOLLOW US ON INSTAGRAM:
★ instagram.com/mattclaussen
★ instagram.com/faustofernos
★ instagram.com/marcfelion

Plus--
➤ Kristen Stewart stars in deadly lesbian bodybuilding thriller ‘Love Lies Bleeding.’

➤ The Enhanced Games- an Olympic style competition where performance enhancing drugs are not only permitted but encouraged.

➤ The evolution of bodybuilding categories and controversy over the new Men’s Wellness winner, Brazilian non-binary bodybuilder San Moraes.

➤ All your questions that will even make an abductor machine blush!

Suck it haters! Taylor Swift, Joe Biden and the Kansas City Chiefs win Superbowl LVIII (58). Everyone in America now has to be trans for a week, sorry, those are the NFL rules.

Today we celebrate 20 years of Feast of Fun- the podcast Apple said helped “pave the way to bring podcasting from an underground movement to a mainstream phenomenon.”

To help mark our 20th season, we have a very special guest, y’all need to calm down, Taylor Swift--- on the keys E Ross! Who else? Our friend Taylor E Ross was the musical director for our live show Feast of Fools, and our first guest on the podcast where talked about the Superbowl commercials and the half time show.

★ Taylor E Ross Piano Studio:
https://www.facebook.com/share/4Cij1CygwBR67C1k/?mibextid=WC7FNe

FOLLOW US ON INSTAGRAM:
★ instagram.com/faustofernos
★ instagram.com/marcfelion

Listen as we talk about this and the sizzling hot news--

• Usher roller skates into our hearts during the HalfTime Show.

• LA creates mini homes for struggling Mariachi performers who are facing record homelessness due to Covid.

• Comedian Larry David chokes Sesame Street’s Elmo on morning television.

Couples that play together, stay together. Creating something fun and sharing it with the world is a great opportunity to connect with someone you love.

Today we’re having a double date with musical partners and lovers John Coons and Jonah Wheeler. For John and Jonah a date night usually involves putting on a musical show filled with outrageous humor and grim topics.

John Coons background as an opera and jazz singer has gotten him some amazing gigs with the Boston POPS, Ben Folds, Amanda Palmer and my good friend Sxip Shirey.

Jonah Wheeler is well known for his sexy videos on membership platforms where he plays it hot all while subverting people’s expectations.

For folks who are wanting to bare it all, what’s a good way to strike the balance between embracing the human body and not getting shut down on social media?

Listen as we chat with John and Jonah about their Valentine’s Day plans, our new favorite obsession and their hilarious show in Chicago this Wednesday at the Newport Theater “BLEAK: Songs for the Not-Quite-End of the World.”

🎵 GET TICKETS: https://www.eventbrite.ch/e/bleak-songs-for-the-not-quite-end-of-the-world-tickets-800222255307

★JOHN COONS: instagram.com/bluenote27
★JONAH WHEELER: instagram.com/showoffjonah

🎵 FEATURED MUSIC: John Coons & Jonah Wheeler:
https://www.youtube.com/@JohnCoonsMusic

One of our favorite oddballs we’ve come across in the decades of doing the Feast of Fun podcast is musician Chris Condren, a comedian whose catchy tunes parody time travel, movie trailers and superstardom.

Chris came from the Chicago comedy scene of the 2010s we were a part of, that gave rise to popular queer comedians like Matteo Lane and Cameron Esposito.

Today musician, comedian and time traveler Chris Condren joins us to look at 20 seasons of the Feast of Fun podcast, carrying his keyboard in a trash can and the notorious episode “Pagan Christmas” which frustrated a Wiccan witch with his titular song.

CHRIS CONDREN:
★ instagram.com/thunderdavis

Plus--
• Barbie the Movie’s director Greta Gerwig and star Margot Robbie get snubbed for Oscar Nominations while their co-stars America Ferrera and Ryan Gosling nab the honors.

• A new survey reveals 28% of Gen Z identity as LGBTQ+.

• How the future of Augmented Reality is going to help you get your freak on, literally.

• A gay couple gets married at the Chicago Rat Hole.


Listen to Feast of Fun without any ads:
★ feastoffun.com/plus
★ patreon.com/feastoffun

There’s a belief that fitness and comedy are at odds with each other. We’ve seen many comedians get jacked and then they don’t appear to be as funny.

Carrot Top famously said he stopped bodybuilding because it didn't fit his style. Dave Chappelle put on muscle and started trolling trans people, and who can forget those awful Bud Light TV ads from the 80s where Joe Piscopo dressed up in drag and flexed his bulging biceps?

But even for all those comedic tragedies, Instagram is packed with muscle men who get the laughs and the lifts.

Let’s Grow Big Together, I mean, Welcome to Feast of Fun! The podcast that always makes you sore in all the right places.

Today comedian and obstacle course athlete Joel Bryant joins us to chat about racing, lifting and comedy.

When he’s not working as a comedy host or doing stand up, Joel is dodging giant foam blocks in an American Ninja style race or crawling through the mud in a Tough Mudder.

Listen as we pit Joel Bryant against the AI robot to see who is funnier, muscle man or machine?


JOEL BRYANT: https://joelbryant.net

Plus--
➤ The Feds issue new guidelines discouraging comedy from highway safety billboards and signs.
➤ The Smithsonian Institution releases over 4.5 Million historic images into the public domain,
➤ Rest in pudding Ron DeSantis’ political career.

When it feels like the whole world is falling apart, the art of comedy can help us laugh and feel better. So why are so many comedy giants bombing spectacularly?

Ricky Gervais just failed in a big way in his recent comedy special, Dave Chappelle continues to troll trans people for attention, and Jo Koy bit it hard core at the Golden Globes and blamed his nervous performance on the writers and audience.

Where’s our generation equivalent of Eddie Murphy, Robin Williams or Gilda Radner? Are rich and famous comedians so lazy that they are turning to AI bots for help?

Today Chicago comedian and comedy writer Dan Cass, who has his own comedy special “Drama Boy” coming out soon, joins us to look at the recent comedy icons’ public failures to make people laugh. Listen as we pit Dan against a killer robot from the future to see who can make people laugh harder.

CHECK OUT DAN CASS: https://www.instagram.com/dankkass

Plus--
➤ False claims arise that astrophysicist Stephen Hawking asked little people to solve big math problems on Stephen hawking’ Island of Horrors.

➤ Why you shouldn’t trust anyone named Dick Stroker or Peter Gozinya.

➤ A man in Reno, Nevada complains to the police after finding what he thought was cocaine on his Subway sandwich.

2023 began like a scene from a horror film, when you thought the monster had been defeated, it came back with a vengeance and all hell broke loose.

The cancer I had thought was long gone made a comeback. The first half of the year was all about death: radiation therapy, my mom in hospice care, a car accident, and inflation and greed that threatened us all.

It seemed like the wrong thing to do: after lifting at the gym for 35 years, for the first time in my life I entered a bodybuilding contest that involved changing everything about your life, and surprisingly I won!

Today we take a look back on the rollercoaster ride that was 2023. Death, resurrection and muscles, the terrible people and heroes we met along the way and our favorite words and events that shaped our lives.

Plus-- Will Artificial Intelligence destroy the world with hilarious memes?

• Twink of the year Aidan Maese Czeropski throws his career away for some really good dong.

• And which Republican said: “I haven’t been invited [to be a judge on RuPaul’s Drag Race] but I do love to read a bitch.”

FAUSTO FERNOS:
★ instagram.com/faustofernos
★ facebook.com/faustofernos

MARC FELION:
★ instagram.com/marcfelion
★ facebook.com/marcfelion