[SPEAKER_01]: I'm a gay up name for a gay up podcast.
[SPEAKER_00]: Albert Moose Keys is on that's a gay ass podcast you might know him as edgy Albert and you might also know he is a straight man.
[SPEAKER_00]: Albert you just told me off Mike that you listened to the John Marco episode to prep for this.
[SPEAKER_00]: What do you think you have in store on this gay ass recording?
[SPEAKER_01]: Um, there may be, there may be a whole question thrown in there.
[SPEAKER_01]: Um, I, but I, he and I are different people.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm, I'm, I'm game for whatever you're going to throw at me.
[SPEAKER_01]: And, um, I've been really excited to come on especially since listening.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm glad you got a couple more famous straights in ahead of me.
[SPEAKER_01]: They kind of, you know, they broke the glass ceiling here.
[SPEAKER_00]: Wow, look at that straight man can do it all.
[SPEAKER_00]: I will say that you might be excited to be on this podcast, but I'm probably more excited than you are because you are somebody who I truly look up to as a fashion icon, but also as a hairy king, which yes, we will ask about that.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't think I'll go into whole.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm not going to do whole.
[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe we'll go whole, but it depends on how this goes.
[SPEAKER_00]: Um, so for anybody who for some reason might not know who you are, edgy Albert is your handle.
[SPEAKER_00]: You have an amazing TikTok Instagram YouTube channel.
[SPEAKER_00]: Your sub stack is excellent.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's called the mid letter.
[SPEAKER_00]: And you were called by GQ, a social media sensation or as I like to call it a sensation.
[SPEAKER_00]: However, I haven't seen many interviews about you as related to your gay audience.
[SPEAKER_00]: So I think it is important for us to get into the nitty gritty.
[SPEAKER_00]: Before I ask you the gay ass podcast question for who was your first, let's get into a very important part of your her story.
[SPEAKER_00]: You went to a performing arts high school, true or false.
[SPEAKER_00]: True, true.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, Edgy Albert, tell me, if you were in the Performing Arts High School, was it giving theater king, where you battle a Reno visual artista?
[SPEAKER_00]: What happened?
[SPEAKER_01]: I was, yeah, I was in the theater department.
[SPEAKER_01]: I was a theater king.
[SPEAKER_01]: And those weren't my first gaze in the theater department, but they were some of my formative gaze, certainly.
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay, this is great.
[SPEAKER_01]: This is really good.
[SPEAKER_00]: But for the gaze of it all, I love to ask people about their theater history, especially when we were in high school.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: Those shows felt so high stakes.
[SPEAKER_00]: If we look back, are there any Albert Moose keys rules that you thought at the time could have transferred a Broadway to Broadway?
[SPEAKER_00]: You were so proud of.
[SPEAKER_01]: Um, there was a student written musical parody of Twilight that I was in, where I had the good fortune of playing Edward Cohen, and it was called My Soul of Soulmate, and that was definitely my star turn in high school.
[SPEAKER_01]: So people treated you differently after you they saw you in my show.
[SPEAKER_01]: I, it was really funny because all of my friends were so such talented dramatic actors that whenever it came time for casting, I was always sidelines.
[SPEAKER_01]: So getting to do something that was a little sillier, I got a bit of a chance to shine.
[SPEAKER_01]: But I'm still really good friends with so many people from high school.
[SPEAKER_01]: It was honestly, it was a very positive fun experience way better than I think.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, a lot of other people's were.
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, geographically speaking, this is Los Angeles.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes, you grew up in LA.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, it's right.
[SPEAKER_01]: What's name of the school?
[SPEAKER_01]: What I know about it?
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't know.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's called Laxa.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's the Los Angeles County High School for the Arts.
[SPEAKER_00]: So what was the reason for Albert to go to a performing art school where your parents was like super woke?
[SPEAKER_00]: And they're like, let's add the straight guy here and throw some balance into the wilderness.
[SPEAKER_00]: And
[SPEAKER_01]: No, I mean, I grew up in South Pasadena, um, so a lot of good, like, public schools there, but I felt like the main public high school I would have gone to was very much about sports, which was the world I've never quite fit into.
[SPEAKER_01]: And, um,
[SPEAKER_01]: And my, my, my very, I was getting involved in the theater program in my middle school and, uh, yeah, like fresh, or sorry, uh, in sixth grade, I was a spotlight operator for, for, uh, guys and dolls and, um, I was just like completely star struck by the seventh and eighth graders and that was kind of my big.
[SPEAKER_01]: big theater moment.
[SPEAKER_01]: So I was getting more involved in that and I really enjoyed it and I felt like everyone I met in that world was so amazing.
[SPEAKER_01]: And yeah, and there was this public magnet high school called Locks that you could audition for.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so in eighth grade, I had to audition and my best friend and I both got in.
[SPEAKER_01]: And yeah, so yeah, I'm like, and now even, um,
[SPEAKER_01]: My friend that I do the YouTube channel with, we travel all over the world together.
[SPEAKER_01]: He was one of my theater friends from that era.
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, I love so much.
[SPEAKER_00]: So I'm a turgically speaking.
[SPEAKER_00]: Was he best friend who got into the school with you?
[SPEAKER_00]: Was he a homosexual or repostrate?
[SPEAKER_00]: um we're both straight.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: Wow.
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_00]: So again, straight guys really can't do it all.
[SPEAKER_00]: So then let's get into the podcast question that I have you prepped for, which is edgy Albert, who was your first gay?
[SPEAKER_00]: What was the first moment you realized that you were maybe connected to the homosexuals?
[SPEAKER_01]: Um, my first gay was actually a couple.
[SPEAKER_01]: It was two guys.
[SPEAKER_01]: They were family friends.
[SPEAKER_01]: Um, one half of the couple was, uh, my mom's best friends older brother.
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so he was older.
[SPEAKER_01]: They were older than my parents.
[SPEAKER_01]: And, uh, the sky David, he had moved to England and had met his partner.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so,
[SPEAKER_01]: They would come to visit us in LA and they were just so sophisticated and so worldly and they like collected vintage China and vintage furniture and I was very taken with them immediately and they gave me my first my first tintin comic book if you're familiar of course
[SPEAKER_01]: And they just had incredible taste, and I really looked up to them, and then as I got older, and I had opportunities to travel by myself to Europe, I'd always make a point to see them.
[SPEAKER_01]: They have a beautiful second home in D-App.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so they would take me out for these great dinners and take me to museums.
[SPEAKER_01]: And they were really an edifying presence in my life.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I think before I met them the first time, I was probably like four or five.
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, I don't, gay marriage wasn't legally yet, but my mom just to make a simple fight for me.
[SPEAKER_01]: It was like these are, these guys are married.
[SPEAKER_01]: They're together.
[SPEAKER_01]: Boys can be married.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I was like, awesome.
[SPEAKER_00]: Shout out.
[SPEAKER_00]: Love this news.
[SPEAKER_00]: Your parents sound excellent, especially because your mom had these gays in her life that she could then introduce to her for whatever reason, fashion, for son.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think you're so lucky.
[SPEAKER_00]: Would you kind of call them like gay uncles in a way?
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I mean, I'm afraid I've grown a little bit apart with
[SPEAKER_01]: with time, but they were definitely a seminal gate on goal.
[SPEAKER_01]: Fig, yeah, what did you say there, their second home and deep, deep?
[SPEAKER_01]: It's a, yeah, deep is in the north of France.
[SPEAKER_01]: Sure.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's like a, it's like an old working class kind of town, but they bought this like beautiful old.
[SPEAKER_01]: row house there and like every single thing like the bedding every single thing in their home is immaculate and it's incredible.
[SPEAKER_00]: I just the part of the being the part of being gay that I find to be so exciting is the taste level and I think that you really like landed on something important which is that they
[SPEAKER_00]: did not spare any detail or expense on making sure like they felt the aesthetics really up to their taste level.
[SPEAKER_00]: I myself was now born into the soul of a man who has taste and I'm okay with admitting that about myself, but I look at people like you and I feel the inspiration and every year I grow older on this planet, I try and
[SPEAKER_00]: to wear nicer things to like surround myself.
[SPEAKER_00]: My husband has impeccable taste, gorgeous taste, and so like I'm inspired by people like you who just really get it.
[SPEAKER_00]: For the rest of this interview, we are going to talk about your personal fashion sense because of course what you are known for.
[SPEAKER_00]: we're going to talk about some of your herstery going to vaster, majoring in history after doing a performing arts high school.
[SPEAKER_00]: We're going to talk about, yes, again, rocking the body hair.
[SPEAKER_00]: But you're bringing up France, which I'm going to brag and tell you, I've done so much research on you that I did find out you did study abroad in Paris.
[SPEAKER_00]: And as somebody who's similarly studied abroad in Paris, I want to ask you the question, do you think at a better time,
[SPEAKER_01]: I think you probably did it.
[SPEAKER_01]: Why?
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't know.
[SPEAKER_01]: I just, whenever I'm in France for long stretches of time, I'm gripped by a deep sense of on-week, you know, like, I feel like you've got to do.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes, you do.
[SPEAKER_01]: Uh, uh, what?
[SPEAKER_01]: So I always feel like, I mean, maybe you're, maybe we're similarly overwhelmed when you're in a foreign country, but I don't know.
[SPEAKER_01]: So far, I have full faith that you had
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, the sort of defining factor that I did have a good time, but I had my first boyfriend at the time, and I was, um, I don't think I talked about this on the podcast, but when I studied the product, it was my senior year of college, and I was in love with this boy that I just started dating for like three months and a long story long.
[SPEAKER_00]: I said to him, I've always wanted to live in Paris.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm now getting to do it.
[SPEAKER_00]: Can we open up our relationship?
[SPEAKER_00]: And he was like horrified.
[SPEAKER_00]: We really like get 20 years old But he was like I guess like yeah, that's what you want and then my whole time there I was too afraid to act upon that openness did not touch a single soul I meant one really hot guy on the metro who we exchanged phone numbers and he asked to hang out And then he canceled on me because I don't think he thought I was gonna put out
[SPEAKER_00]: So, I didn't, I like to think it to be a slot at all in Paris.
[SPEAKER_00]: Did you at least get like a good Parisian lover?
[SPEAKER_01]: Same but different.
[SPEAKER_01]: I just felt like with the language barrier.
[SPEAKER_01]: And...
[SPEAKER_01]: I was so scared to try and make it happen.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I feel like the provisions are just naturally elegant people.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I was in sort of an awkward stage of like figuring out my facial hair.
[SPEAKER_01]: There's a lot.
[SPEAKER_01]: I was working, I was a junior in college.
[SPEAKER_01]: And yeah, I think I was just too nervous to seal the deal ever.
[SPEAKER_01]: And yeah, and then I wasn't like around expats or anything, which I would have been the next best thing.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, you keep bringing up this idea of anxiety and as a juice, I really identify.
[SPEAKER_00]: There was an article that actually named you as a Jewish daddy, I believe.
[SPEAKER_00]: Are you in fact a fellow Jew?
[SPEAKER_01]: I am.
[SPEAKER_01]: That article is insane though.
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't know.
[SPEAKER_01]: I have seen that.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's been sent to me.
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't know who that was or why that was written.
[SPEAKER_01]: But yes, I am.
[SPEAKER_01]: I am a Jew.
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_00]: So the question I'm begging to be asked where you barmit's foot and if so, what was the theme of your party?
[SPEAKER_01]: I was barmit's foot and I was not allowed to have a theme to my party.
[SPEAKER_01]: Same
[SPEAKER_01]: Uh, I think my parents didn't want it to be like showy or like extravagant to us.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's kind of like a Spartan performance of the party.
[SPEAKER_00]: Um, so let's then get into the nitty gritty.
[SPEAKER_00]: I like this sort of name the elephants in the room here.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, you're saying you're a Jew, which I fully believe.
[SPEAKER_00]: I believe Jews also have the last name Moose Keys.
[SPEAKER_00]: M-U-Z, Q-I-Z, Q-I-Z.
[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you, Q-U-I-Z.
[SPEAKER_00]: Is there some sort of Hispanic element?
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes, yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: And this will figure in to probably the body hair conversation.
[SPEAKER_01]: You get Latino, and you get, and you get Jew, and you get hair.
[SPEAKER_00]: You get Latino, you got Jew, and you get hair.
[SPEAKER_00]: Whose side is Latino?
[SPEAKER_00]: My dad.
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, dad is Latino, mom is US.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know, I feel like there's the Jewish anxiety, but then there's like a Latino Swave.
[SPEAKER_00]: Do you think that you inherited both?
[SPEAKER_01]: I would say that the Jewish side dominates.
[SPEAKER_01]: The anxiety dominates.
[SPEAKER_01]: The Swave Sito didn't quite stick the landing.
[SPEAKER_01]: I can summon it in times of need, but only under Dress.
[SPEAKER_00]: in times of need, we some in Swavadri, I think there are so many important Latino Jews, in pop culture, Edgy Albert being one of them at Mauricio, Manzki from the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think it's very exciting that Jews can be also Latino.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think that's such a cool part of us.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I mean, it's like a kind of classic L.A. combo to, I was it.
[SPEAKER_01]: I just, all I feel like it's like very L.A. Like the Jew and the Mexican, like, I know, I've known a few, a few of my ill, especially at a theater high school.
[SPEAKER_01]: We're a couple of us.
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay, wait, so thank you for bringing us back for a second.
[SPEAKER_00]: Because I want to really dive into the Albert Gay Connection here.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, you were in high school and be honest.
[SPEAKER_00]: As a gay journalist, I must ask.
[SPEAKER_00]: Did you ever bully a gay guy?
[SPEAKER_01]: It wouldn't have, well, I did not first of all, but you haven't said a gay guy's bully, do.
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, they did not, but I would say it would have been imprudent of me because I was in the minority at my school.
[SPEAKER_01]: No, our high school was sort of like a little bit like glee.
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, maybe more just like the performing parts of glee, but we definitely definitely was not bullying and
[SPEAKER_01]: I think that's a cool part about going through, you're all going through puberty together so you're all, you're all in together and we have these small classes and these small plays and you have to kind of rely on each other in those circumstances so you're not really, there's no like a deep end like that.
[SPEAKER_00]: We're a lot of the guys out when you were in high school because it was more of like an open environment.
[SPEAKER_01]: Um, it was kind of 50 50, I would say, like I think there were definitely people that came like all guns blazing out of whatever their middle school was and they were in a much more open environment and they were ready.
[SPEAKER_01]: Um, but there were definitely some people as well that took them a little time kind of like warming up at a, I think more welcoming space for them to, you know, come out.
[SPEAKER_00]: that makes sense.
[SPEAKER_00]: And it's also, I find it interesting that you did go from the Performing Arts High School to the vast or to study history, which was a very smart move.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, I think it's sort of insane that some of us decided to pursue BFA's, what the hell was I thinking.
[SPEAKER_00]: What was behind your smart decision to major in history?
[SPEAKER_01]: I just always, I felt like a lot of my classmates obviously wanted to go to conservatories and do, or go straight into the business, but I loved, I was up reading, I liked reading history specifically, but I had an improv teacher in high school and he told me,
[SPEAKER_01]: uh, he who dies with the most knowledge wins.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I always, I, I wanted to do something in culture or entertainment or comedy or something, and I just felt like consistently the way to be, have like the best references and to be the best verse, and that was just like steady up.
[SPEAKER_01]: So it was kind of, it was an educational moment, but it was motivated by being, maybe funny or more having a broader horizon for the silly stuff I wanted to do.
[SPEAKER_00]: But it's, it's really genuinely amazing that you were able to pivot into being a part of culture.
[SPEAKER_00]: The cultural conversation, creating things that are about fashion, about pop culture, about trends.
[SPEAKER_00]: You actually have asked to wrote your thesis on Levi's and masculinity, which is very cool.
[SPEAKER_00]: But I think it's interesting to flip that topic on its head and ask a straight man like you, Edgy Albert, what's your most feminine quality?
[SPEAKER_01]: I think a lot of people would say that my love of my taste and love of those things is probably my most feminine quality.
[SPEAKER_01]: I just, you know, like, I deeply, deeply love clothes and accessories and things.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so maybe the, I guess it just depends on how people are using the word feminine if they mean in sort of a drugstorey sense because I think people would throw that at me that don't like me online.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: That must be, that must be insane because I obviously keep joking about how, you know, making fun of how straight men can do it all.
[SPEAKER_00]: But at the end of the day, like straight men are at the top of the food chain, uh, societally, but then again, a fashion straight man is othered in a way.
[SPEAKER_00]: So I guess I only really think about like the first comments you get, the amazing brands
[SPEAKER_00]: give you call you slurs or are there guys that like think that you are a fact of training for lack of a better term?
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh big time, big time.
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean it just depends on where I am and kind of the rhythm of how well things are going, but you know I think that's the price of if you have a video that does well.
[SPEAKER_01]: you're going to have people that don't know you interact with you for the first time.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I think for a lot of straight guys, the idea that they might have to try a little bit and like try and dress themselves, try and look at like these parts of culture that were really siloed as feminine.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like that they might have a responsibility to themselves to look at those things.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's really, uh, I think kind of scary to them.
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, you did not, I did not think you're going to have me self-reflect this hard, but maybe that's part of the reason why I never developed taste is because I grew up in a very straight community.
[SPEAKER_00]: I say that a lot, my actual, I three straight brothers, a mom and a dad, and I never grew up in like my direct family, we're not like macho assholes who said I had to sports to matter.
[SPEAKER_00]: My brothers did all play sports, but the school I went to was like hyper masculine.
[SPEAKER_00]: It was like you need to be an athlete with no body hair to matter and guess what, I was doing Oliver covered and fur.
[SPEAKER_00]: So I was like, you know, self-hating from the jump.
[SPEAKER_00]: And maybe in a way, I never developed a sense of fashion and like a zest for things because it was perceived as
[SPEAKER_01]: But I think it's apt, like, I remember, yeah, specifically middle school, like, you know, you wore like the most shape or people what would wear to the most like shapeless t-shirt, the most shapeless basketball shorts.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like it was to do any, to step out of line at all was to like make yourself a target and to, and I think a lot of, unfortunately, a lot of straight men still live in that in those worlds in those,
[SPEAKER_01]: And I mean, even I felt like when I started to kind of develop my personal style a little bit more in college, even like my friends who were very with it would like.
[SPEAKER_01]: kind of like poke fun at me when I was trying new things and look at me now.
[SPEAKER_01]: But look at you now.
[SPEAKER_00]: It is hard to try new things.
[SPEAKER_00]: So I very much identify with that.
[SPEAKER_00]: I live in New York for 13 years and I wanted to do so many things creatively and I would stop myself from doing them because I was afraid of being made fun of for either being a beginner or doing something new.
[SPEAKER_00]: So when I moved to LA about five years ago, I
[SPEAKER_00]: I started to do things I was always wanting to do and my life exploded in a positive way.
[SPEAKER_00]: So I get the like the fear around presenting as anything new, any part of yourself is being new.
[SPEAKER_00]: But if you talk about this like Jewish anxiety that you inherited, then you're also zagging what people are zagging with fashion, what do you think gave you the confidence to do that?
[SPEAKER_00]: Like allow yourself to even develop a fashion style sense.
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, where did it was actually through history?
[SPEAKER_01]: I think it's two like a femoral and exhausting to try and look at fashion, at least for me.
[SPEAKER_01]: And especially at that time,
[SPEAKER_01]: from a perspective of like what is the cool thing like that's exhausting and you it's a game you can't win but because I was getting into history and I was doing some like there's a I did a really amazing denim internship here in LA when I was like 19 and it was this guy who was like really painstakingly
[SPEAKER_01]: I started to meet like really interesting stylish people through that and I realized like, oh, this is how you make clothes is that you go back to the genesis point of every garment and the people that are really good at this actually are these like walking in psychopedias of history.
[SPEAKER_01]: And if you go back far enough, you kind of start the simple thing.
[SPEAKER_01]: Then you can kind of work your way forward until you find the version that like you think is cool that works with your style.
[SPEAKER_00]: So almost like you're like modernizing or adapting a historic trend to something that speaks to you in the now.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, and I think also having, I think, and this is kind of the hack.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think for a lot of straight guys with clothes is that they're really into like the specs or the details or the history.
[SPEAKER_01]: And it's just like, it's just a permission structure for you to care about something that is considered feminine, just like dressing yourself and being stylish.
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, man, it's the masculinity is a prison in so many ways.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, big time.
[SPEAKER_00]: So speaking of you post these great leaks you go to fashion weeks in Europe, but you get a lot of gay guys in your comments who are enjoying your physical form, how does it feel?
[SPEAKER_00]: How does it feel when gay guys thirst over you on the internet?
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, you know, we talk about the taste, so if, if, if I, if I'm doing something right, I think, you know, the minute that stops, I'm done, I'm done, I was like, no, I love that.
[SPEAKER_00]: I love a straight man who can take a compliment from a gig.
[SPEAKER_00]: I really do.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I mean, you know, I think I definitely, it's weird because when I was on TikTok, I wasn't really getting that much, and then when I switched over to Instagram, it was like the gender split of my followers was reversed, and it really kicks up a notch in a big way, and I mean, you know, ultimately like,
[SPEAKER_01]: It is a vote of confidence.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's something that I'm really appreciative of.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's something that I was surprised by, but again, it's extremely validating and nice.
[SPEAKER_01]: But also, it matters more because these are the guys that wear clothes and these are the guys with taste and they're sort of like the hardest demographic to, I feel like we're in over and to be,
[SPEAKER_01]: and to, you know, keep in your corner.
[SPEAKER_01]: So as long as, you know, gay guys are liking what I'm doing, it means that I am at least somewhat relevant and that's what's important.
[SPEAKER_00]: everybody brewed that in edgy albert gets it and hey gay guys show some love in the comments for a straight guy who feels validated by gay thirst um i'm so in love with that take but i also cannot hesitate any further in a talking about body hair albert it's just a part of my mission
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, for any new listeners, I grew up with a lot of shame around body hair, as I mentioned before, and so I love to celebrate it now.
[SPEAKER_00]: You, when you do post-shortless, are rocking a hairy bod, which we are big fans of, have you always embraced being a hairy guy?
[SPEAKER_01]: I grew up in a weird pop culture vacuum, because my parents both went to film school.
[SPEAKER_01]: I grew up on a lot of old movies, and so when guys were shirtless and old movies, they were Harry.
[SPEAKER_01]: They were Harry.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like, I think that some of the movies that were most important to me growing up that made me interested in style and all these things were the Sean Conner James Bond's.
[SPEAKER_01]: and so it's talk about a hairy king.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, big time.
[SPEAKER_01]: So that to me was kind of like what the peak male form was.
[SPEAKER_01]: I, mercifully for a weird confluence of reasons didn't see a lot of this sort of like super waxed 2000s bodies that were prevalent.
[SPEAKER_01]: How old are you if we can get into the weeds of when because I think I'm only a few years older you graduated college 2017 yeah, I'm 31.
[SPEAKER_00]: I just don't think so.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, that's interesting.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like historically speaking because I even just I'm Five years older than you and I feel like even that five year gap.
[SPEAKER_00]: I was really in the pocket of Big Abercrombie, Big Lacks.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I, I, I, I, I, I feel like I was, I was really fortunate in that.
[SPEAKER_01]: even very kind of, speak about my taste, but it was a later, it came later, you know?
[SPEAKER_01]: So I think that I was kind of like just traveling through life, semi- dissociating, at least in terms of like culture and style and these like other things that wasn't really clicking for me yet.
[SPEAKER_01]: So by the time I did develop an interest in it, we were a little bit out of that.
[SPEAKER_00]: I say, I say, yeah, did you get Harry when you were in high school at a time when we were like going through the puberty, devastating phases of our bodies changing?
[SPEAKER_01]: I think the hair came more so in college.
[SPEAKER_00]: Gotcha, gotcha, gotcha.
[SPEAKER_00]: So that kind of is a later as well.
[SPEAKER_00]: I do appreciate that you don't remove your shoulder hair.
[SPEAKER_00]: Is that something you do on purpose?
[SPEAKER_01]: It was something I had never once thought about and then when I started posting more on TikTok and I saw some of the guys that were posting similar content and they were so manicured.
[SPEAKER_01]: I thought, well, fuck that, you know, like I'm not going to do that.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so it was just kind of a nice surprise that those things did well and it is nice.
[SPEAKER_01]: I do get a lot of comments about like positive comments about guys.
[SPEAKER_00]: with shoulder hair who are like no, yeah, I'm like I'm rocking some of it right now, but I have been known to I'm ashamed to admit it because I and I don't admit this on the podcast ever, but I feel like this is a safe space.
[SPEAKER_00]: But I do sometimes manicure my shoulders out of shame and you are inspiring me to maybe let it grow.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I mean, it doesn't, it was something I had never thought about and then yeah, the pressure to think about it was entirely external and yeah, I mean, I get people that are like upset about it sometimes, but it's just such a lame thing to be upset about I agree and it's also I don't know it's it's doubly validating from someone like you because you do take so much care.
[SPEAKER_00]: in your looks fashion, and then to see that part of you being braised, I think it actually has sort of a bigger impact than it normally would have.
[SPEAKER_00]: As we get into your personal style, I want to ask you a question that S. Squire asks you when it comes to shorts.
[SPEAKER_00]: You said that you are definitely a fan of shorts as long as they're above the knee.
[SPEAKER_00]: What is the shortest
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, well, um, there are a few factors that affect that.
[SPEAKER_01]: It depends on what the like internal netting situation is or if there's like a built in, if there's like a built in like compression short or something.
[SPEAKER_00]: I see, I see.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think because there are like two to three inch inseam shorts that look great, if you're like walking around, but if you're like trying to be sitting in certain spaces, it just becomes a little risky.
[SPEAKER_01]: So like ball, ball, spillage.
[SPEAKER_01]: Any, yeah, any, any, any spillage, anything.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: Um, and it's just a, you know, I,
[SPEAKER_01]: But it's also, I do feel like, yeah, the only times that I've been I've been cat called in the wild had been when I'm wearing shorts that short and so you can interact a little more attention than well, maybe you want to, but if you don't want to, you're like going to attract a little more attention than you thought you would who's cat calling you know, it's been women but it's also been men.
[SPEAKER_00]: shout out.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: You call it the tune of the Kekali.
[SPEAKER_00]: Um you have been collabing with huge brands and like it's very cool to see your creator journey.
[SPEAKER_00]: Was that your vision when you went to school or when you graduated?
[SPEAKER_00]: I know that you, you know, did the theater journey.
[SPEAKER_00]: You did improv and college.
[SPEAKER_00]: You studied the history, but what were your
[SPEAKER_00]: What came true, but also looking forward, what are your next aspirations?
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, I mean, I really love doing comedy in college and I wanted to do something in that world.
[SPEAKER_01]: What is cool?
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, the reason I don't have my mustache currently is that we're doing promo for my friend from college wrote a play that we've done several times in LA, but we're doing a month long run in October in New York.
[SPEAKER_01]: So, incredible.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, it's called LBJ The Play, everyone should come see it.
[SPEAKER_01]: It was at the illusion way back.
[SPEAKER_01]: We did a few runs out of the illusion.
[SPEAKER_01]: Where are you doing it in New York?
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, gosh everyone always asks me that.
[SPEAKER_00]: We can we can let it linked in the description everybody and go Exactly.
[SPEAKER_00]: Grab this tickets.
[SPEAKER_00]: We'll find it online.
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, cool.
[SPEAKER_00]: So I interrupted you.
[SPEAKER_00]: So you've got this comedy play happening in New York.
[SPEAKER_00]: Very cool.
[SPEAKER_00]: And that's a part of your
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I think that's kind of like more I wanted to do more stuff in the performing world.
[SPEAKER_01]: And then I also wanted to do it's kind of was unfortunate time.
[SPEAKER_01]: It was as print media was dying.
[SPEAKER_01]: But I sort of I think if I had been
[SPEAKER_01]: If this is a few decades back, I would for sure have wanted to work at GQ or Esquire.
[SPEAKER_01]: Obviously, those are still viable careers.
[SPEAKER_01]: Shout out my friends at GQ and Esquire.
[SPEAKER_01]: Shout out.
[SPEAKER_01]: But, you know, it's a harder game now than it used to be.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so, yeah, I mean, and it just so happened that I was getting excited about clothes at that time and diving into that
[SPEAKER_01]: I was trying to focus on these other things and like, and meanwhile, my quest to find the perfect pair of jeans was like eating up every single second of my life and my like, you know, bandwidth in my brain.
[SPEAKER_01]: But I definitely didn't think that, I mean, the internet wasn't really, wasn't at all in the state it is now, and college, and there were influencers,
[SPEAKER_01]: they didn't exist in the way that they do now.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so do you call yourself?
[SPEAKER_00]: Do you call yourself influencer or creator?
[SPEAKER_00]: What do you, what's like when people say, how about what do you do?
[SPEAKER_00]: What's your answer?
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, I feel like, I just, yeah, I'll bite the bullet and say influencer.
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, it's like, that has a bad, you can have a bad taste in your mouth from that, but I'd rather people think less than me and then see the stuff and hopefully they like it, you know, creators are so vague.
[SPEAKER_01]: I guess now that I know, I do more stuff on YouTube now, so I guess I'm more a creator but again, it's just it I don't like how vague it is and it's just it sounds a little a little pompous to me, I don't know.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's, which is funny to me because every label has its own association that could be considered negative, like the influencer thing people really bristle at that creator, I understand, because I, too, like, I have pivoted in so many times because I've had to.
[SPEAKER_00]: I went to the theater school thinking I was going to be just like a straight up capital A actor, and now here I am
[SPEAKER_00]: a solo show and all these things that I did not set out to do.
[SPEAKER_00]: So I did something, I did this meeting yesterday that someone asked me what do I do and I say I guess I'm a podcaster, but that has its own negative connotation too.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, I don't know, we're living in a time where it's exciting, but we can identify in all these different ways, but also like someone limiting by the labels that we have to subscribe to.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I think I just, I, I, I try and own the,
[SPEAKER_01]: I try and own the influencer.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think more and more I'm trying to make like edgy Albert in short form and then like Albert Muskie's in long form, more separate entities.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, but yeah, well, that'll have been in time.
[SPEAKER_00]: We'll speak of some of the longer form things you're doing.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes, on YouTube, I'm loving those videos.
[SPEAKER_00]: On Substack, you titled an essay, engineer boots the house down, a very gay title.
[SPEAKER_00]: Albert Muskie's, thank you.
[SPEAKER_00]: Not only is that a great title, not a great essay, but as you're using gay nomenclature in this title, I want to ask you a gay ass podcasty question.
[SPEAKER_00]: Is there a gay pop culture moment or just a pop culture moment that you would assume the gaze also love that really speaks to you?
[SPEAKER_00]: It could be a movie, it could be a headline, it could be a specific performer.
[SPEAKER_00]: Any pop culture moments that really speak to you?
[SPEAKER_01]: Um, uh, when I was having these sort of, uh, difficult, uh,
[SPEAKER_01]: facial hair moment when I lived in Paris, my host mom would say that I look like George Michael.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I've been revisiting some of the great works, the greatest works of George Michael.
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, great answer.
[SPEAKER_01]: And yeah, and so that's been really great.
[SPEAKER_01]: But I mean, what you'll find in the YouTube video that accompanies that essays I learned
[SPEAKER_01]: uh, I was realizing how important Tom of Finland was to the main streaming of, like, the sort of masculine workware classics in fashion.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so I realized that that, you know, that was kind of the key that I didn't have access to and I wrote my thesis in college was this part of the story.
[SPEAKER_01]: So I think, um,
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, the Great Thomas Finland, I think, contributed a great deal to the state of like what men wear today, all men wear today.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I actually hadn't thought about the crossover from Gaze to actual like mainstream hetero culture, because Thomas Finland is more and more becoming the explanation for what I'm into, like as a like horny guy.
[SPEAKER_00]: hot masculinity to it, but also like a foraniness to it, um, that is really yummy.
[SPEAKER_00]: Speaking of substack, uh, would you be down for a like 10 minutes at the end of this to do any of the questions I didn't get to ask you for our paid listeners?
[SPEAKER_00]: It's a very, uh, totally fine.
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, I got a thumbs up.
[SPEAKER_00]: Uh, that is, um, so nice and substuck listeners are going to be obsessed with that.
[SPEAKER_00]: So knowing that,
[SPEAKER_00]: I'll do our final few questions before we head over to the sub-stack side.
[SPEAKER_00]: Let's go into a question about pants.
[SPEAKER_00]: Albert moves keys.
[SPEAKER_00]: You say pants are the best thing to buy vintage.
[SPEAKER_00]: You said to Esquire, I know that it can seem difficult at first, especially buying online, but once you learn your measurements, you'll never make a mistake again.
[SPEAKER_00]: Albert, the size queens want to know, what is your pants measurement?
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, like my waste measurement.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: Waste and in seam.
[SPEAKER_01]: Um, I, right now I'm probably a true 33 waste.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is, this is important because I think I'm a 33.
[SPEAKER_00]: I need to do like a, my waste has been sort of fluctuating.
[SPEAKER_00]: There's a 33 like frowned upon in the pants world, because it seems like it's a little harder to find than a 32 or a 34.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I mean, the, the odd sizes are definitely neglected, at least not, at least in the tag tag versions, but it's really, I, I mean, I haven't announced this publicly, this will be the guess me doing it, but I'm doing a jeans collab that's coming out hopefully, hopefully in October and we're doing the, hopefully the production samples are in tomorrow, but it's weird, you know,
[SPEAKER_01]: like the more you work in pants, the more you realize that all these measurements are totally bullshit because sometimes a 34 when you measure it is kind of a 32, these and also like all these and then when especially when you get into vintage like I'm now
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm buying size 36, sometimes 38 Levi's because they've shrunk so much over time.
[SPEAKER_01]: We're depending on how you want the legs to fit.
[SPEAKER_01]: So I would advise, I know that we're a very like numbers based society, but I would advise everyone to try and make peace with whatever it is because it's more important that they fit than like the number be, you know, a certain thing.
[SPEAKER_00]: Very well said, I am can't tell you how many times I suffered through a like tight pan simply because I did not want to go up the size and it's like, let's just breathe.
[SPEAKER_00]: Let's as linemen one Miranda said in the heights, breathe.
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, final question that we asked here on the main pod before going over to Substack is a question that I asked no matter what your sexuality is and that question is if the world was ending and you could only save one character actress who would you save?
[SPEAKER_01]: It's funny when I started looking at this question, I thought it was like a desert island question, but it's actually it's it's it's not it's like an apocalypse question.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: So the the character actors has the response building not only of like entertaining just you for the rest of time, but all of humanity.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's a hard-ath.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's a big-ask for the character I trust.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's kind of like a station 11 situation.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah We've that's the straightest way to answer this by the way It's the thing about the apocalyptic Sort of elements to it
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, I, but also it's theater, you know, they got to travel the wasteland right and making art.
[SPEAKER_01]: My first instinct was to say Parker Pozy, because I'm a big Parker Pozy fan, but then as I was thinking about the end times, I was like, maybe I need to go more like Kathy Bates.
[SPEAKER_01]: like the Kathy Bates knows her way around like a rope not no just I mean I just just your talent I like saw you know some is very recently for the first time and I just like I mean I was doing some like searching I feel like we have so few modern like strictly character actresses but he's like a once-be-leading
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, the funny thing too is there's like a, uh, some people perceive a negative connotation to the phrase character actress.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I've always thought it as something to be celebrated, but I interviewed, uh, Christopher Catelis, who's like this huge Broadway director and choreographer, and he has worked with.
[SPEAKER_00]: probably every single big Actress and he would not answer the question because he thought that some of the women he would have named would have been angry To hear themselves refer to as a character Actress and I thought that was he's very much in the
[SPEAKER_00]: the horse's mouth as it were.
[SPEAKER_00]: Whatever that phrase is so um okay so gorgeous answers Albert you really never cease to surprise me with your taste not only from a denim perspective but then a Parker Posey Kathy Bates are you joking it is just incredibly well done and us gaze are lucky to have a straight guy like you in our lives so will you please tell these gorgeous listeners where to follow you and if there's anything else you would like for them to know or
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, first of all, if any of them already follow me, I appreciate you guys, it means a lot.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm Edgy Albert on everything, Instagram, TikTok.
[SPEAKER_01]: I would really recommend you guys head over to YouTube, our history of the engineer boot is
[SPEAKER_01]: It was my favorite project to research recently and was the one where we got to meet with folks from a Tom and Philan Foundation and ended up being a really important story.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I did realize that gay fashion was sort of instrumental in turning so many of the clothes we take for granted today from workware into true fashion pieces.
[SPEAKER_01]: So let's watch that and like subscribe and the sub stack is called the mid letter.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I update that infrequently, but it's there.
[SPEAKER_00]: lovely.
[SPEAKER_00]: I've linked it all in the description.
[SPEAKER_00]: Everybody go support Albert, go follow, go watch the videos.
[SPEAKER_00]: They really are incredible.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I just love that you're honoring the history of uskays and just fashion at large.
[SPEAKER_00]: But since we have a few minutes, let's go into the extended version of this for the paid sub-stack girls.
[SPEAKER_00]: And again, Albert, we are so grateful that you were doing this.
[SPEAKER_00]: I wanted to take this opportunity to ask you some questions about
[SPEAKER_00]: but also some BTS on Albert.
[SPEAKER_00]: On Substack, you said that you are partial to the Ralph Lauren boxer brief when traveling.
[SPEAKER_00]: What is your underwear situation on a normal day today?
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I feel like I'm a big Calvin Klein guy and the Polaroid Florian, that specific model is good.
[SPEAKER_01]: They're also quite flattering.
[SPEAKER_01]: I feel like that's like the whole their whole pitch.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's like it's something to do with the pouch technology.
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, look, it makes your bowls look a little
[SPEAKER_01]: have it does it does definitely flatter the bulge but it's also there sort of sporty so they are really good when you're like traveling and on the road.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm trying to get into boxers but a lot of boxes are too narrow in the thigh I find.
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh yeah and you've also like you you do leg days you like got some some foster.
[SPEAKER_01]: I got big thighs so I'm curious I'm like boxer curious but mainly I'm happy in the brief box of briefland.
[SPEAKER_00]: Um, our, our boxer breads, what you're currently wearing cut-wise.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think so.
[SPEAKER_00]: Great.
[SPEAKER_00]: Um, do you have natural, um, does Albert have naturally, have defies, or are they manufactured in a fitness regimen?
[SPEAKER_00]: For the rest of the interview, head to sub-stack linked below where you will also find chats with Colin Braun, Rich Burns, Christopher Patterson, Rosso, Tyler Varvel, Sebastian Dino, Cody Silver, Johnny Sibley, Sam Altizer, and
[SPEAKER_00]: more.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's at substack.com slash at Eric Wills.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I will see you there for a gorgeous Harry Horny time.
[SPEAKER_00]: I love you.
[SPEAKER_00]: Bye.