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AE: How does it feel to be at the forefront of such a movement?
FF: I'm waiting for the Department of Homeland Security to bang my door down at any moment! [Laughs.] It's scary because we are putting so much of our intimate lives out there for the world to pick apart. I don't know if Marc and I will ever be able to get a corporate job in the future since we've stuck our necks out there. My real name is Fausto Fernós, and if I ever apply for a job, all they have to do is Google me to find out what I really think about so-and-so. We are real people speaking our minds, giving a voice to hundreds of gays and lesbians who for the most part are invisible in the mass media. I hope that I'm not a person that's going to frighten some teen into staying in the closet another 10 years because “damn, gays are bitter, scary and mean.” I try to treat the audience as if they were my younger, closeted self, with a lot of love, sass and fun.

My partner Marc and I and all my friends are having a blast! We've single-handedly managed to do something that the gay TV networks only dream of, which is to reach a mass global gay audience. Every week, over 30 thousand people from all around the world — although most are in the U.S. — listen to our show, and write us back to tell us how much our humble little audio-blog means to them. It's humbling.

AE: Who have been some of your favorite interview subjects on the podcast?
FF: I think comedian Kathy Griffin was one of our favorites. She invited us to hang out in the back seat of her limousine, and we asked her about her reality TV show, insulting comedians, and her plastic surgery. I asked her if she was going to pull a Tyra Banks and have a plastic surgeon grab her boobs to show they were real. So she said, “Why wait?” and put my hand on her left breast. I grabbed it, nervously. “So was it real?” Kathy asked … I didn't know what to say since I couldn't tell the difference between a real boob and a fake one! [Laughs.] But they were nice and soft. Later on I did get to touch my half-sister Yayi's boob job, and that was fake. You could definitely tell the difference. Implants feel like a Ziploc bag full of goo, not human flesh.

Twisted Sister lead man Dee Synder was great 'cause he gave us 15 minutes after having done this amazing show at the Hard Rock Cafe. He totally has come to embrace the drag queen aspect of his costumes and is a very outspoken free speech activist.

John Waters continues to be one of my personal favorite people to interview because he's always so present, honest and has a great outlook on his colorful film career and life. He told me he thought that today's generation doesn't really care if you're gay or straight. They are beginning to see people for who they are. I don't share that sentiment fully, because gay-hating is real and alive in high schools across the U.S.A. In many ways our programming is the only gay and lesbian voice that so many young people have to keep them company in the privacy of their iPod.

Since we get so many emails from people who are in their teens wanting to talk about coming out, we had John and Char Cepek, some of the biggest leaders of PFLAG, on the show talking about embracing their gay son, John Charles. They were so loving and cool. So embracing of their son being gay they have dedicated their lives to being activists.

AE: What about least favorite?
FF: It would have to be astrologer Alan Oken. He was so full of himself and so on the defensive about the nature of astrology. It's no secret that I'm an equal opportunity destroyer when it comes to superstition and religion. So when I flat-out asked him how astrology works and how anyone came up with the whole rationale, he turned around and declared vaguely that it was all an ancient art form and that he drew upon knowledge from thousands of cultures. Did he have footnotes? Bibliography? Nope. So the listeners tore him apart on the show's website. You better be careful, because people will sniff out a liar and a charlatan. I'd love to get a chance to interview President Bush, Jr., but you know it's never going to happen.

AE: Who are some of your dream interview subjects for the Feast of Fools podcast?
FF: Besides President Bush, Jr.? Oprah Winfrey, Bill Maher, William Hung, Simon Cowell, Paul Reubens, Sandra Bernhard, Michael Moore, Muhammad Ali, Stevie Wonder. I never get that journalists, the people who are known for their interviews, never get interviewed themselves.

I would have loved to talk to Aileen Wuornos or Jeffrey Dahmer or Roy Cohn. But as far as villains go? Dick Cheney, Condoleezza “the Gap” Rice, Anita “O.J.” Bryant, Phyllis “I hate my gay son” Schlafly, Tom “Oprah sofa jumping” Cruise, Saddam “depends on how you define torture” Hussein, Alberto “depends on how you define torture” Gonzales, those women terrorists in burkas blowing themselves up, the creeps over at Enron, Tom DeLay, Karl “Porky Pig” Rove. There are a lot of bad people to talk to as well as good folks. I'd rather focus on the good people of the world. That's why we usually steer away from interviewing jerks, assholes and creeps.

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