WEBVTT 00:06.832 --> 00:11.094 [SPEAKER_00]: We really gave podcasts that we called that's a gay podcast. 00:11.715 --> 00:14.016 [SPEAKER_01]: Had the gay on name for a gay podcast. 00:14.616 --> 00:21.440 [SPEAKER_01]: Josh Drake is on that's a gay ass podcast with a lot of sexy baggage. 00:21.580 --> 00:26.623 [SPEAKER_01]: Josh, are you cool if I go in on how you became such a hot successful man? 00:29.563 --> 00:31.804 [SPEAKER_01]: Oh, the invitation is open. 00:31.864 --> 00:35.605 [SPEAKER_01]: So I just want to say that your photos, first of all, are really incredible. 00:35.685 --> 00:37.825 [SPEAKER_01]: It's like it's giving high fashion. 00:37.845 --> 00:41.386 [SPEAKER_01]: It is giving like beyond head shots. 00:41.446 --> 00:45.168 [SPEAKER_01]: I'm sure you're taking all kinds of photos, but you have a career as a performer. 00:45.188 --> 00:50.209 [SPEAKER_01]: You did Aladdin on Broadway, Bats and Derella, you toured with Finding Neverland, you did Dirty Dancing. 00:50.469 --> 00:54.694 [SPEAKER_01]: Can you tell me, are you living the multi-high-finite life now? 00:54.894 --> 00:58.437 [SPEAKER_01]: Are you leaning more photographer, videographer, and less performance? 00:58.497 --> 01:00.920 [SPEAKER_01]: What's just like the breakdown for your current status? 01:01.401 --> 01:05.024 [SPEAKER_00]: You're soon catching me in the midst of that big transition, right? 01:05.044 --> 01:11.531 [SPEAKER_00]: Like I turned thirty, I'm thirty three now, but when I turned thirty, everything sort of shifted like they say, you know, wait a second. 01:14.214 --> 01:17.797 [SPEAKER_00]: Everything sort of shifted or flipped upside down, I like to say. 01:18.418 --> 01:24.464 [SPEAKER_00]: And my passions and my mental health sort of pulled me away from the business of it. 01:24.744 --> 01:34.053 [SPEAKER_00]: But after I did boop in Chicago, the out of town run, I got this job with Broadway Cares and I couldn't say no. 01:34.113 --> 01:35.014 [SPEAKER_00]: So once Broadway 01:35.835 --> 01:38.696 [SPEAKER_00]: for when Boop came to Broadway and the offer came out. 01:38.796 --> 01:45.799 [SPEAKER_00]: I really had to like think about the next two years of my life and I ultimately turned it down. 01:46.780 --> 02:00.926 [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, Josh, what an amazing power play though and I mean like power playing the sense of a powerful moment for yourself of saying yes to what you really want to do and it's sometimes you got to say no to like big opportunities. 02:01.226 --> 02:01.686 [SPEAKER_00]: Absolutely. 02:01.906 --> 02:03.887 [SPEAKER_00]: I mean like I like you said I was in a lot of 02:04.780 --> 02:08.283 [SPEAKER_00]: The chunk of time that I did that show was five and a half years in total. 02:09.084 --> 02:16.170 [SPEAKER_00]: Through the pandemic and a couple of vacations, of course, but five and a half years in one building in one show can ruin you. 02:17.512 --> 02:18.332 [SPEAKER_00]: And it really did it. 02:18.352 --> 02:23.637 [SPEAKER_00]: You know, I killed my body and it just made me look at the business from a different angle. 02:23.977 --> 02:25.699 [SPEAKER_00]: You know, love working for the mouse. 02:25.939 --> 02:26.580 [SPEAKER_00]: Love the mouse. 02:27.080 --> 02:30.003 [SPEAKER_00]: But it is such a corporation and it's a corporation first, right? 02:30.507 --> 02:39.012 [SPEAKER_00]: So I think doing that and then going into bad Cinderella, which was my first original Broadway company, you know, we all know how that story ended. 02:39.112 --> 02:43.954 [SPEAKER_01]: For any listeners who don't bad Cinderella was running for how long? 02:45.095 --> 02:46.856 [SPEAKER_00]: I want to say four months almost to the day. 02:47.336 --> 02:52.699 [SPEAKER_01]: Okay, so, you know, she had legs for, you know, sometime. 02:53.039 --> 02:57.562 [SPEAKER_00]: Well, I think it was April, May, June, maybe three for getting now. 02:59.423 --> 03:00.784 [SPEAKER_01]: We sometimes block out our trauma. 03:02.446 --> 03:21.924 [SPEAKER_01]: Well, I will say that I'm going to ask you obviously questions about Broadway bears about some of your horny stuff, but just because I am someone who also works in trying to be a multi-hifin and also as a performer, I didn't use graffiti for a spell and similarly for like a mental health and also just like 03:22.725 --> 03:25.948 [SPEAKER_01]: I just didn't see a world where I was gonna be paid well, ever. 03:26.208 --> 03:34.335 [SPEAKER_01]: Unless I knew I had to do something first in order to like, then make money doing theater, which was like become like a gay sitcom character who knows. 03:34.735 --> 03:42.341 [SPEAKER_01]: But can you just tell me out of my own curiosity what is like, what do you miss the least about doing musical theater? 03:43.382 --> 03:45.824 [SPEAKER_00]: The least, wow, that's, I've never been asked that. 03:46.104 --> 03:49.627 [SPEAKER_01]: Like what basically in trying to ask like what really fucked you up about the industry? 03:51.062 --> 03:53.986 [SPEAKER_00]: I want to say the schedule, the schedule, mostly. 03:54.306 --> 03:58.531 [SPEAKER_00]: You know, we're trained and we're raised to give everything to the graft. 03:59.933 --> 04:02.536 [SPEAKER_00]: You know, really put yourself at stake for the graft. 04:02.576 --> 04:03.918 [SPEAKER_00]: The show must go on, right? 04:05.245 --> 04:13.289 [SPEAKER_00]: But you don't realize what that means for your lifestyle, for your families, your mental health, your health and your sanitizing a lot. 04:13.529 --> 04:20.172 [SPEAKER_00]: A lot, you know, so for me was the schedule I moved uptown to inward during the pandemic. 04:20.892 --> 04:27.495 [SPEAKER_00]: So coming back to Aladdin post pandemic and, you know, getting out of work at eleven, eleven o'clock, ten thirty. 04:28.454 --> 04:31.178 [SPEAKER_00]: Taking a train that shuts down four stops before mine. 04:31.619 --> 04:34.543 [SPEAKER_00]: Jumping on a shuttle, not getting into eleven, forty five. 04:35.144 --> 04:37.507 [SPEAKER_00]: Oh, waking up to go to a one o'clock matinee. 04:37.527 --> 04:38.168 [SPEAKER_01]: No. 04:38.829 --> 04:39.170 [SPEAKER_00]: Listen. 04:39.895 --> 04:41.815 [SPEAKER_00]: That's enough to really drive you crazy. 04:41.895 --> 04:44.056 [SPEAKER_01]: So now you have your nights back to yourself. 04:44.076 --> 04:45.196 [SPEAKER_01]: Have my nights back. 04:45.456 --> 04:47.276 [SPEAKER_01]: Have your life in in would. 04:48.656 --> 04:51.037 [SPEAKER_01]: Are you now going to go personal? 04:51.157 --> 04:53.097 [SPEAKER_01]: Are you currently single or taken? 04:53.137 --> 04:56.058 [SPEAKER_01]: What's the what's the status currently single? 04:56.398 --> 04:57.058 [SPEAKER_00]: Hell yeah. 04:57.218 --> 05:02.059 [SPEAKER_01]: And if any of our listeners want to send you a flirty DM, how do you feel about that? 05:02.739 --> 05:03.259 [SPEAKER_00]: Absolutely. 05:04.019 --> 05:04.679 [SPEAKER_00]: Absolutely. 05:04.819 --> 05:05.519 [SPEAKER_00]: We love DMs. 05:05.959 --> 05:07.460 [SPEAKER_01]: And you'll get them and you'll get them. 05:07.600 --> 05:09.160 [SPEAKER_00]: It might end up in the requests folder, but 05:10.003 --> 05:13.864 [SPEAKER_01]: And sometimes they do, you know, it doesn't hurt and shoot your shot everyone. 05:13.884 --> 05:19.305 [SPEAKER_01]: And if it lands and requests, it's, you know, at least you're landing amongst. 05:19.345 --> 05:20.646 [SPEAKER_01]: There's no shame, no shame. 05:21.066 --> 05:22.346 [SPEAKER_01]: The stars of requests. 05:23.907 --> 05:28.288 [SPEAKER_01]: So you also have this really great feature on you about doing 05:30.118 --> 05:38.625 [SPEAKER_01]: I believe it was Aladdin and you were talking about taking ballet as a young person and getting bullied because you were growing up doing ballet as a young gay kid. 05:38.645 --> 05:39.766 [SPEAKER_01]: There's a target on your back. 05:40.306 --> 05:45.330 [SPEAKER_01]: Would you say that you embraced your gayness later in life? 05:45.390 --> 05:48.633 [SPEAKER_01]: Was there a moment earlier during your school days? 05:48.693 --> 05:52.055 [SPEAKER_01]: When would you say you're like, I'm gay as hell and embracing it? 05:52.576 --> 05:53.096 [SPEAKER_00]: I was lucky. 05:54.157 --> 05:54.997 [SPEAKER_00]: My family 05:56.109 --> 06:07.221 [SPEAKER_00]: Accepted me full stop and yeah, school was tough, but once I was I moved to North Carolina where I was nine and I found this triple threat training studio. 06:08.162 --> 06:09.443 [SPEAKER_00]: Shout out to Robert Clayton at least. 06:09.523 --> 06:10.784 [SPEAKER_01]: Okay, shout out. 06:10.924 --> 06:12.566 [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, they really they 06:13.567 --> 06:16.831 [SPEAKER_00]: lived in New York for many years and went back to North Carolina at the sort of teach. 06:17.432 --> 06:19.955 [SPEAKER_00]: The kids coming up what was happening in the big city, right? 06:20.275 --> 06:21.777 [SPEAKER_00]: And obviously I was accepted there. 06:21.937 --> 06:26.522 [SPEAKER_00]: So I loved how I joined that studio when I was fifteen, fifteen. 06:26.802 --> 06:33.110 [SPEAKER_00]: And at least the OK who was one of the owners literally sat me down one day and was like anything you want to tell me. 06:33.896 --> 06:36.297 [SPEAKER_01]: Oh, yeah, I remember when she opened the door. 06:36.537 --> 06:42.938 [SPEAKER_01]: She swung that door open and I decided to either step through or what you, oh, you don't. 06:43.158 --> 06:43.918 [SPEAKER_00]: Oh, I don't. 06:44.578 --> 06:46.559 [SPEAKER_00]: I don't because I trusted her. 06:47.059 --> 06:53.120 [SPEAKER_00]: My favorite thing at least here ever said was, you guys are all making bad decisions and you're supposed to be dumb kids. 06:53.620 --> 06:56.501 [SPEAKER_00]: You know, get it out now at this point in your life. 06:56.561 --> 07:00.962 [SPEAKER_00]: I could literally start crying because she really, you know, it kind of formed me and 07:02.925 --> 07:09.188 [SPEAKER_00]: just showed me that what I was feeling was okay, all while dancing and acting and doing what we loved. 07:09.348 --> 07:12.350 [SPEAKER_00]: But she literally sat down and said, is there anything you want to talk about? 07:12.830 --> 07:19.193 [SPEAKER_01]: And you know what she did, is she set you up for a life of not hating who you are deep down. 07:19.313 --> 07:20.514 [SPEAKER_01]: You know, I think that's what we're saying. 07:20.874 --> 07:26.457 [SPEAKER_01]: So many of us deal with is like being shamed by people, whether it was consciously or subconsciously. 07:26.477 --> 07:30.219 [SPEAKER_01]: I mean, becoming adults and being like, why am I saying such horrible things to myself? 07:30.580 --> 07:34.362 [SPEAKER_01]: And listen, I am not immune to that experience. 07:34.462 --> 07:39.565 [SPEAKER_01]: I have, you know, great parents, a great family, but I grew up in fucking Missouri where there was a lot of things told to me. 07:39.585 --> 07:48.550 [SPEAKER_01]: Like subconsciously that really made me, you know, feel like bad that I was given this lot in life of being a big old gay guy. 07:49.090 --> 07:52.153 [SPEAKER_01]: And so I still deal with those really mean thoughts. 07:52.433 --> 07:56.697 [SPEAKER_01]: And I think that the person that you tell me the name again of that amazing. 07:57.278 --> 08:03.724 [SPEAKER_01]: Lisa, we shot out Lisa because you know, it's you really she gave such a positive path for you. 08:03.744 --> 08:10.811 [SPEAKER_01]: As a gay journalist, I'm going to have to ask, did you have your first gay kiss with one of the boys from this program? 08:10.871 --> 08:13.994 [SPEAKER_01]: Was it after when did we have the first moment? 08:14.234 --> 08:15.595 [SPEAKER_00]: It was before, actually. 08:16.855 --> 08:18.656 [SPEAKER_00]: He was eighteen years old. 08:19.336 --> 08:20.757 [SPEAKER_00]: And he was fourteen. 08:21.997 --> 08:28.220 [SPEAKER_01]: Which I'm going to say, not that I'm Judge Judy, but I'm going to say whatever your old teenager is. 08:28.300 --> 08:29.020 [SPEAKER_00]: That passes, right? 08:29.141 --> 08:29.341 [SPEAKER_00]: Okay. 08:29.441 --> 08:29.941 [SPEAKER_01]: I think so. 08:30.161 --> 08:30.481 [SPEAKER_00]: Okay. 08:31.241 --> 08:34.003 [SPEAKER_00]: Not to bring it down, but sadly, he's recently passed away. 08:34.023 --> 08:38.485 [SPEAKER_00]: So that, you know, he sort of took that whole time of my life with him. 08:39.185 --> 08:40.706 [SPEAKER_00]: But he showed me the ropes with all of that. 08:40.746 --> 08:41.426 [SPEAKER_00]: His name was Zach. 08:42.086 --> 08:44.147 [SPEAKER_01]: That we're going to shout Zach out. 08:44.227 --> 08:45.447 [SPEAKER_01]: I believe in the other side. 08:45.467 --> 08:46.688 [SPEAKER_01]: So we're going to say Zach. 08:47.288 --> 08:55.390 [SPEAKER_01]: Thank you for giving Josh the first kiss and we hope you are doing a five six seven eight on the other side. 08:55.570 --> 08:56.951 [SPEAKER_00]: Amen. 08:57.071 --> 09:00.392 [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, he really showed me the ropes and yeah, that was beautiful. 09:00.432 --> 09:00.552 [SPEAKER_00]: So 09:01.412 --> 09:04.974 [SPEAKER_01]: First boyfriend Zack fall wait and how you said you were fourteen? 09:04.994 --> 09:07.196 [SPEAKER_01]: I was fourteen and where were you geographically? 09:07.876 --> 09:11.758 [SPEAKER_01]: North Carolina and he was eighteen and how long did you do date? 09:11.778 --> 09:24.486 [SPEAKER_00]: I don't know I felt like seven years of course it probably was two months You know what short but he was also the one that I was with when I came out my mom found out about us 09:26.132 --> 09:26.913 [SPEAKER_00]: against my will. 09:26.933 --> 09:28.734 [SPEAKER_00]: Sure. 09:28.754 --> 09:29.674 [SPEAKER_00]: But we were together. 09:29.694 --> 09:33.337 [SPEAKER_00]: So he really carried, he carries that whole moment of my life with him. 09:33.797 --> 09:34.297 [SPEAKER_01]: Zach. 09:34.558 --> 09:34.918 [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah. 09:35.238 --> 09:35.518 [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah. 09:35.558 --> 09:36.639 [SPEAKER_00]: Thank you for your service. 09:36.739 --> 09:38.861 [SPEAKER_01]: Zach, we send you all that love. 09:39.041 --> 09:39.661 [SPEAKER_01]: Absolutely. 09:40.061 --> 09:47.226 [SPEAKER_01]: Well, it's really amazing to talk to somebody who has embraced themselves for so long, but especially creatively too. 09:47.706 --> 09:53.750 [SPEAKER_01]: When we talk about Broadway Bears, I need to go into the horniness of that entire 09:54.731 --> 10:11.987 [SPEAKER_01]: celebration you have performed in Broadway Bears there's a video on your Instagram if anybody here has not yet followed Josh go follow Josh and there is a video of you tearing up that stage in a tiny ass thong and now you are what like the in-house videographer what's that deal 10:12.644 --> 10:14.545 [SPEAKER_00]: to really a crazy story. 10:14.605 --> 10:19.189 [SPEAKER_00]: The more I talk about it and think about it, I'm like, this is truly a full circle moment. 10:20.369 --> 10:26.234 [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, so I, my first time doing Bears was twenty-fourteen and I was dancing in the shadows, couldn't see me. 10:26.254 --> 10:33.999 [SPEAKER_00]: I was a child and I actually made some of my two of my best friends ever from doing Bears. 10:34.499 --> 10:41.444 [SPEAKER_00]: The second year my best friend, Kellon Stanzel, who is now the director of the show, Cassney has his lead for his number. 10:42.565 --> 10:46.589 [SPEAKER_00]: So I was leading the second year and then I think I'd led two more times after that. 10:46.729 --> 10:51.573 [SPEAKER_00]: But yeah, you know, once you're in with Broadway cares, it's just like, what else can I do? 10:51.833 --> 10:57.398 [SPEAKER_00]: What more can I do when you start to see the numbers that you're a part of that are being raised? 10:58.399 --> 11:02.062 [SPEAKER_00]: The hunger is just like, oh my god, like it's that easy to just raise money to help people. 11:02.082 --> 11:02.622 [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah. 11:02.662 --> 11:07.707 [SPEAKER_00]: You know, so I dove in and yeah, the passion for my videography and photography. 11:08.470 --> 11:17.657 [SPEAKER_00]: they sort of mesh together during the pandemic and then getting offered, you know, I was working with people throughout the years during various who worked here regularly. 11:17.777 --> 11:21.220 [SPEAKER_00]: So they started to realize my talents outside of performing. 11:22.300 --> 11:28.762 [SPEAKER_00]: And as if I was ready to sort of forfeit that schedule for a bit forfeit, Broadway and join the team. 11:28.862 --> 11:29.483 [SPEAKER_00]: And I said yes. 11:30.723 --> 11:36.765 [SPEAKER_00]: So now I'm sort of, you know, I've been there the last two years shooting the show and still getting to be a part of it. 11:37.125 --> 11:40.847 [SPEAKER_00]: A small sliver of me misses it wants to be back up there, but hey, 11:41.730 --> 11:42.871 [SPEAKER_00]: There's plenty of time for that. 11:43.331 --> 11:48.093 [SPEAKER_01]: And also plenty of opportunities for you to be dancing naked somewhere. 11:48.113 --> 11:49.794 [SPEAKER_01]: I see that in your future. 11:49.814 --> 11:50.694 [SPEAKER_00]: I mean, so true. 11:50.794 --> 11:51.494 [SPEAKER_00]: That's so true. 11:51.915 --> 11:52.635 [SPEAKER_01]: So true. 11:53.175 --> 12:01.319 [SPEAKER_01]: Did you ever meet anybody from rehearsing abroad with bears number and go home and have just furious sex? 12:03.340 --> 12:06.141 [SPEAKER_01]: I just imagine the rehearsal room or the backstage is fraught. 12:06.681 --> 12:07.262 [SPEAKER_00]: It's pretty crazy. 12:07.342 --> 12:07.742 [SPEAKER_00]: I will say, 12:09.240 --> 12:12.701 [SPEAKER_00]: It sort of becomes the new norm, like the normal very quickly. 12:13.041 --> 12:17.122 [SPEAKER_00]: Because you start taking your clothes off and rehearsal and you're like, oh, that's how that person looks great. 12:17.422 --> 12:20.702 [SPEAKER_00]: And then they become a coworker and you're trying to stay professional. 12:20.822 --> 12:21.923 [SPEAKER_01]: You know what it sounds like? 12:22.003 --> 12:25.823 [SPEAKER_01]: I'm doing the fourth person I've interviewed about Barras and I'm always like, I got fucking it. 12:25.863 --> 12:28.604 [SPEAKER_01]: And it's, I'm like, I just come across as like a letter. 12:29.524 --> 12:30.164 [SPEAKER_00]: I want to find them. 12:30.264 --> 12:31.625 [SPEAKER_00]: I mean, trust me, they're fucking. 12:31.645 --> 12:33.225 [SPEAKER_00]: I don't know who it is, but it's happening. 12:34.446 --> 12:44.117 [SPEAKER_00]: But the night of the show is so heartfelt and supportive and it's also hot as hell usually. 12:44.137 --> 12:51.545 [SPEAKER_00]: So people who actually don't even feel that sexy normally because they're exhausted, they're hungry and they're sweating their asses off. 12:51.585 --> 12:53.267 [SPEAKER_00]: So they're like, get away from me. 12:54.768 --> 13:04.258 [SPEAKER_01]: Well, listen, I always have to try to get erratica from Broadway bears and I appreciate you allowing me to... Absolutely. 13:04.338 --> 13:09.563 [SPEAKER_00]: I mean, it's so nice just brushing shoulders with naked people, you know, men women in between. 13:09.683 --> 13:11.104 [SPEAKER_00]: It's just hot. 13:11.465 --> 13:13.166 [SPEAKER_00]: It's just so hot, so nice. 13:14.007 --> 13:22.609 [SPEAKER_01]: Well, speaking of sexiness, as we get into the next part of our interview, which does turn horny, we're going to be going into the paywall. 13:22.669 --> 13:29.470 [SPEAKER_01]: So people who would like to hear the rest of this horny chat, which Josh, we're going to be going into some slut tails. 13:30.370 --> 13:35.632 [SPEAKER_01]: I use the word slut as a compliment, as something we use as a positive identifier. 13:36.192 --> 13:41.153 [SPEAKER_01]: Is the word slut a word you have ever identified with, currently identify with, what's your history with that word? 13:41.753 --> 13:42.013 [SPEAKER_00]: Yes. 13:42.821 --> 13:53.292 [SPEAKER_00]: For me, it always referred to, it was used with women, you know, in really sort of applying it to men and more specifically gay men in my community. 13:54.485 --> 13:55.866 [SPEAKER_00]: is newer for me, I would say. 13:56.707 --> 13:57.468 [SPEAKER_00]: But I welcome it. 13:57.788 --> 13:58.308 [SPEAKER_00]: Absolutely. 13:58.388 --> 13:59.729 [SPEAKER_00]: I'm very sex positive. 13:59.869 --> 14:02.251 [SPEAKER_00]: And I don't think slut even has to be sexual. 14:02.932 --> 14:09.017 [SPEAKER_00]: Now, you know, like it can be like, I'd probably a bear is, you know, I feel so slutty on that stage and I'm dancing for thousands of people. 14:09.097 --> 14:11.078 [SPEAKER_00]: So I think I welcome it. 14:11.239 --> 14:11.919 [SPEAKER_00]: I'm open to it. 14:12.840 --> 14:15.942 [SPEAKER_00]: I know a lot of very kind, whole, hearted, beautiful sluts. 14:16.643 --> 14:18.044 [SPEAKER_00]: And yeah. 14:19.065 --> 14:20.286 [SPEAKER_01]: Do you kind yourself amongst them? 14:21.955 --> 14:27.399 [SPEAKER_01]: Hell yeah, so let's get into that are you as a single slot are you? 14:27.419 --> 14:35.424 [SPEAKER_01]: Have you had any you don't have to go specific yet, but are there and have you recently been dick down in a way that's been great are you hurting for a squirting? 14:38.694 --> 14:41.736 [SPEAKER_00]: I need to write down all these little, these little settings are beautiful. 14:42.577 --> 14:43.798 [SPEAKER_00]: Um, yeah, absolutely. 14:43.858 --> 14:48.081 [SPEAKER_01]: I mean, I, for the rest of this interview, I had to sub-stack linked in the description. 14:48.201 --> 14:56.447 [SPEAKER_01]: You can also watch bonus episodes with Mikey Grassefa from Death Becomes her Isaiah Rutledge, Sunset Boulevard's Demon Moon. 14:56.487 --> 15:02.452 [SPEAKER_01]: We have Derek Cage, Patrick, Nick, Thanos, Mark, they're all hot. 15:02.796 --> 15:09.410 [SPEAKER_01]: The stories are amazing and you should go check it out at subsac.com slash at Eric Will's linked in the description. 15:09.430 --> 15:10.332 [SPEAKER_01]: I love you, bye!