Broadway World
Carol Channing, et al. to Participate in GAY DAYS at Disneyland, 9/30-10/2
by BWW News Desk
September 1, 2011

The 2011 Gay Days at Disneyland are set to take place Friday, September 30 to Sunday, October 2. For its 14th year, the event is expected to attract more than 30,000 LGBT park-hoppers from California and all over the country.

Newly added to the schedule is An Intimate Conversation With Carol Channing, in which the 90 year-old legend will talk about her life, career and new CD with Eddie Shapiro, co-author of Queens in the Kingdom: The Ultimate Gay and Lesbian Guide to the Disney Theme Parks. The chat will take place at Disney’s Grand Californian Hotel on Sunday, October 2 at 6:30 p.m. and will benefit the Dr. Carol Channing and Harry Kullijian Foundation for the Arts, whose mission it is to put the arts back into the public schools. Tickets are $20.

Glee star and 2011 Emmy-nominee, Dot Marie Jones, will also be on hand, hosting the VIP cocktail party with Gay Days regular, Bruce Vilanch. The party, for VIP Gold ticket holders, is on Saturday, Oct. 1 at 5:30 p.m. VIP tickets are available by calling (714) 778-BLUE.

The weekend opens Friday, September 30 with WONDERLAND, a dance party with DJ Ray Rhodes (Tiger Heat, KBIG 104.), hosted by Los Angeles drag diva Momma. Oscar winning screenwrite, Dustin Lance Black (Milk and the forthcoming J.Edgar) will preside over the VIP room. he event, which benefits The Trevor Project, runs from 9:30pm-1am at Ralph Brennan‘s Jazz Kitchen located in Downtown Disney at the Disneyland Resort. Tickets are $20 at the door.

Saturday, October 1 will be Gay Day at Disneyland, which culminates with KINGDOM, the weekend’s signature dance party with music from renowned DJ Kimberly S. and a special performance by The Voice finalist, Frenchie Davis, KINGDOM will be held at the House of Blues Anaheim in Downtown Disney from 9pm-1:30am. Tickets are $35 in advance, $45 at the door.

New this year is a Saturday ladies night, featuring a performance by renowned comedienne, Suzanne Westenhoefer, performing her show, Semi-Sweet. Tickets are $25 in advance, $30 at the door. That will be followed by another Gay Days Anaheim first, a lesbian lounge at The Anabella Hotel, across the street from Disneyland.

Sunday, October 2 will be Gay Day at Disney’s California Adventure and the return of the Gay Days Anaheim pool party, PLUNGE! from noon until 4:00 p.m. at The Anabella Hotel. DJ Zach Moos will be spinning while Momma and her bathing beauties splash around in the pool. Tickets are $20 in advance and $25 at the door.

VIP ticket packages for all three parties are available now.

Both days in the parks will feature gatherings only available over Gay Days weekend, including scavenger hunts, a group photo, a PFLAG luncheon, group meet ups at varying attractions, and many more events targeted to families, youth, bears, couples and Mouseketeers of every ilk. A complete schedule is available at the Gay Days website www.GayDaysAnaheim.com

Other highlights of the weekend include free gift bags at the Gay Days Welcome Center (located inside the Trillium Room of Disney’s Grand Californian Hotel), and a Gay Days Pin Trading event on Sunday.

Gay Days Anaheim is a “mix-in” with the park’s other weekend guests, but gays and lesbians are encouraged to wear red shirts in order to identify each other and to show strong numbers. Official T-shirts are available at the official Gay Days at Disneyland website. Note: Gay Days Anaheim is NOT a Disney-sponsored event so Disney will not have any information regarding the “unofficial” happening.

Sponsors for the event include Undergear, Absolut Vodka, Howard Johnson Anaheim, Hotel Menage, The Anabella Hotel, Knott’s Berry Farm, Miller/ Coors, and the Anaheim/Orange Country Visitor and Convention Bureau. Media sponsors are Gay.com, Frontiers, PIX, Odyssey Hawaii, Rage, Grindr, Hollywood and Highland, EDGE and QVegas.

For complete details, including discounted hotel rooms and park tickets, visit www.GayDaysAnaheim.com

The post Bruce Vilanch, Carol Channing, Others To Participate In Gay Days At Disneyland first appeared on We Got Bruce!.

Greg In HollyWood
Stage: Rip Taylorâ€s surprisingly serious “It Ainâ€t All Confetti” show gets a star-studded launch
By Greg Hernandez on May 24, 2010 1:44 pm

If you want laughs, you will get plenty watching Rip Taylorâ€s one-man show It Ainâ€t All Confetti at the El Portal Theatre in North Hollywood. But you will also be deeply moved by the monologues he delivers about his life and what performing in front of an audience means to him.

After tossing off dozens of silly jokes rapid-fire with confetti and various props in the mix, Rip literally rips off his toupee and gets real. He tells about a tough childhood which included being in foster care where he was molested and learning to make bullies laugh in school to escape their fists.

He tells of working in the U.S. Capitol as a congressional page before joining the Navy where, unexpectedly, he got his start in showbiz. From then on, the anecdotes flow. There were 20 appearances on The Ed Sullivan Show and nearly as many on The Jackie Gleason Show until “The Great One” flew into a rage because Rip casually touched him while they shared a laugh.

His shtick of ripping up index cards after a joke fails was born during what he thought was a bomb appearance on The Merv Griffin Show. Rip thought he was going over so badly that he began ripping up cards and throwing shoes then stormed off the set. He was invited back the next day by Merv and asked to be that crazy man again.

He hasnâ€t stopped since.

Rip didnâ€t talk at all about The $1.98 Beauty Show, thew syndicated show from the late 70s that I remember him so well for or his time as a regular on The Brady Bunch Variety Hour. Maybe thatâ€s because he has so many other accomplishments including a three-time Entertainer of the Year winner in Las Vegas and serious acting roles in such films as Indecent Proposal where he played Demi Mooreâ€s boss, unrecognizable in a dramatic role sans toupee.

The running theme of the show is how the spotlight was a cure-all for Rip and it is clear that it still is for this star now in his mid-70s. Iâ€ve interviewed him on several red carpets and he has at times appeared a little shaky because of knee surgery. But as I watched him own the stage Friday, it was as if 25 years had melted away and he was still in his prime.

Fascinating to watch.

Ripâ€s show is performed inside the El Portalâ€s 99-seat Forum Theater so there is a real intimacy to the show which has already been extended through June 6. (click HERE for ticket info).

Rip is well-regarded by his peers and many showed up for Friday nightâ€s official grand opening including Kathy Griffin (pictured, left, with Rip after the show) along with Ruta Lee, Alek Trebeck, Julie Newmar, Bruce Vilanch, Anne Jeffreys, Dee Wallace, Dick and Pat Van Patten, Susan Olsen (pictured below with Rip and Jane Kean), Judy Tenuta, Kate Linder, Rich Little, Margaret Oâ€Brien and others.

I talked to some of these folks before the show began and asked them what made this show a must-see:

Ruta Lee: “Rip Taylor, beyond being one of the funniest people God put on this Earth, is also one of the nicest people God put on this Earth. Heâ€s generous, heâ€s warm, heâ€s very loving and heâ€s totally insane which makes him an angel.”

Bruce Vilanch: “I loaned him my hair 20 years ago and Iâ€ve come to collect it.”

Susan Olsen: “I loved Rip [on the Brady Bunch Variety Hour), he was a sweetheart. He’s still a sweetheart. He contributed to our book Love to Love You Brady which was about the variety show. He was a doll.”

Jane Kean: “He’s one of my favorites., he’s just a natural funny man. He got a ticket for jay walking with my sister once, that makes us very close [laughs].”

Judy Tenuta: “Weâ€re both high maintenance and wild.”

Fellow comedian Rich Little said he wouldnâ€t want to share a marquee with Rip because: “I donâ€t think Iâ€d want to because no one would notice me.”

Kathy Griffin didnâ€t do press but she did sign autographs for a very aggressive group that also swarmed around Alex Trebek and Susan Olsen. Publicist Harlan Boll, who was handling PR for the event, had profanities and slurs shouted at him by some of the autograph hounds and the police had to be called. Thankfully, most of the audience was already inside the theater and blissfully unaware of the ugliness going on outside.

The post Bruce Vilanch Takes In Rip Taylor’s “It Ain’t All Confetti” first appeared on We Got Bruce!.

The post Video: BRUCE VILANCH RAW INTERVIEW ” SISTER MARY” first appeared on We Got Bruce!.

Denver Post
Posted May 17, 2010, 1:06 pm MT
Live review: Bruce Vilanch @ Lannieâ€s Clocktower Cabaret
By RAY MARK RINALDI

When Bruce Vilanch walks on stage itâ€s as if Edna Turnblad never left.

Vilanch shares a certain something with the louder-than-life “Hairspray” character he played on Broadway and in the touring production that was wildly popular in Denver a few years back. Both carry around a sort of lumpy androgyny and a natural charm that depends on anything but looks.

Certainly Vilanch, in the comedy persona he brought to Lannieâ€s Clocktower Cabaret Saturday, is more self-aware than Edna, more purposefully odd to look at in his floppy, pleated trousers and school bus yellow “Jewbacca” T-shirt. Edna just wanted to fit in, but Bruce likes to stand out, with his the bowl of blonde bangs and trademark red-frame glasses.

Still, both are sincere to a fault and match their exterior brashness with an interior generosity. Theyâ€d each be trailer trash if they werenâ€t so nice, and fundamentally sure of themselves underneath it all.

Vilanchâ€s act — itâ€s really a chat rather than stand-up — is more polite than any comedianâ€s out there. He gossips a little as he tells long stories about the years he spent as a writer for comedians and television specials, (including two decades with the Academy Awards broadcast). He pokes a bit of fun at the famous, jabs at pop culture in general.

But nothing stings or feels mean. His humor is all about being an insider and sharing anecdotes about the foibles of working in show business. Edna Turnblad, who appreciated a good variety show, would have found him amusing.

As a woman of the early 60â€s though, she probably would not have appreciated his cultural references. Vilanch mines a very particular, somewhat limited era of American history for his material, roughly post-Lyndon Johnson, pre-Janet Jackson.

The man tells Cher jokes and shares tales starring Bette Midler and Dolly Parton, but thatâ€s about as current as it gets. He name drops George Burns and does a long, long riff on Pia Zadora. He ends his act with 10 minutes of Sophie Tucker jokes.

To say itâ€s a specialized humor would be generous; To say itâ€s dated, or at least terribly middle-aged, would be more honest. That doesnâ€t mean it isnâ€t funny, because it is, but itâ€s a lot funnier if the person next to you doesnâ€t have to whisper an explanation of who Pia or Sophie are, or were.

Mostly Vilanch gets through the evening by simply being himself. Heâ€s got the resume to talk Hollywood and the good sense not to update his act insincerely; nothing worse that Jay or Dave or Regis telling Jon & Kate jokes when itâ€s clear they donâ€t even know who those people are.

Thereâ€s room for this niche, especially in a small, underground room like Lannieâ€s, which is finally coming into its own as one of the most interesting presenters in Denver.

If Vilanch is your cup of tea, the schedule there bears watching.

The post Review: Bruce Vilanch At Lanny’s – Denver, Colorado first appeared on We Got Bruce!.