Wednesday MidDay Medley
TEN to NOON Wednesdays – Streaming at KKFI.org
90.1 FM KKFI – Kansas City Community Radio
Produced and Hosted by Mark Manning
Wednesday, June 11, 2025
WMM presents Michael McQuary + Joey Arias and a special show about Queer Performance in NYC in the ’80s, ’90s, & beyond.
- “Main Title Instrumental – It’s Showtime Folks”
from: Orig. Motion Picture Soundtrack All That Jazz / Casablanca / December 20, 1979
[WMM’s Adopted Theme Song]
- William Stromberg & Moscow Symphony Orch. – “Universal Signature”
from: Salter – Skinner: Monster Music / Marco-Polo / 1995
[Frank Skinner was a composer & arranger born in Meredosia, Illinois on Dec. 31, 1897. He died in Beverly Hills, California, Oct. 9, 1968. A graduate of the Chicago Musical College (now the Chicago Conservatory of Music), 16-year-old Frank found employment in vaudeville and began playing in local areas with his brother Carl on drums billed as the Skinner Brothers dance band. He began writing and arranging music for dance bands in New York, from 1925 to 1935, arranging 2000 popular songs for Robbins Publishing. After a short period at MGM, working on musical settings for The Great Ziegfeld (1936), Skinner was hired by Universal Studios. Over the course of his 30 years there, he composed music for more than 200 films earning five Academy Award nominations (1938–43). His distinctive approach to scoring horror films, such as Son of Frankenstein (1939) and The Wolf Man (1941), has been characterized as a ‘passion for chromatic lines … mirrored contours … [and] restrained, yet ominously mythical orchestrations’ (Marcello). He gained new recognition in the 1950s for his lush romantic scores, including those for such Douglas Sirk films as Magnificent Obsession (1954) and Written on the Wind (1956). Despite many changes in the film industry, his book Underscore (1950) has survived as an excellent introduction to film music composition. The Wolf Man is a 1941 American drama horror film written by Curt Siodmak and produced and directed by George Waggner. The film stars Lon Chaney, Jr. as a werewolf named “The Wolf Man” and features Claude Rains, Evelyn Ankers, Ralph Bellamy, Patric Knowles, Béla Lugosi, and Maria Ouspenskaya in supporting roles. The title character has had a great deal of influence on Hollywood’s depictions of the legend of the werewolf. The film is the second Universal Pictures werewolf film, preceded six years earlier by the less commercially successful Werewolf of London (1935). Lon Chaney, Jr. would reprise his classic role as “The Wolf Man” in four sequels, beginning with Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man in 1943.]
- Yma Sumac – “Malambo No. 1”
from: Mambo! / Capital Records / January 1, 1954
[Mambo! is the fifth studio album by Peruvian soprano Yma Sumac. It was released in 1954 by Capitol Records. Most of the tracks were composed by her husband Moisés Vivanco. //
Zoila Augusta Emperatriz Chávarri del Castillo (born Zoila Emperatriz Chávarri Castillo; September 13, 1922 – November 1, 2008), known as Yma Sumac (or Imma Sumack), was a Peruvian-born American-naturalised vocalist, composer, producer, actress and model. She won a Guinness World Record for the Greatest Range of Musical Value in 1956. “Ima sumaq” means “how beautiful” in Quechua. She has also been called Queen of Exotica[6] and is considered a pioneer of world music. Her debut album, Voice of the Xtabay (1950), peaked at number one in the Billboard 200, selling a million copies in the United States, and its single, “Virgin of the Sun God (Taita Inty)”, reached number one on the UK Singles Chart, becoming an international success in the 1950s. Albums like Legend of the Sun Virgin (1952), Fuego del Ande (1959) and Mambo! (1955), were other successes. // In 1951, Sumac became the first Latin American female singer to debut on Broadway. In “Chuncho (The Forest Creatures)” (1953), she developed her own technical singing, named “double voice” or “triple coloratura”. During the same period, she performed in Carnegie Hall and Lewisohn Stadium. In 1960 she became the first Latin American woman to get a phonograph record star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Afterwards she toured the Soviet Union, selling more than 20 million tickets. According to Variety in 1974, Sumac had more than 3,000 concerts “covering the entire globe”, breaking any previous records by a performer. Fashion magazine V listed her as one of the 9 international fashion icons of all time in 2010. She has sold over 40 million records, which makes her the best-selling Peruvian singer in history. // Sumac was born Zoila Emperatriz Chávarri Castillo on September 13, 1922 in Callao. Then the family (a middle class one) moved to Cajamarca, where she spent her childhood. Her parents were the civic leader Sixto Chávarri (Cajamarca) and the schoolteacher Emilia Castillo (Ancash). Sumac was the youngest of six children. Growing up with the air of the Andean mountains, imitating the birds and other animals, she was “unintentionally making” her huge vocal range. In 1934, she traveled to live in Lima with her relatives. After being privately tutored from the age of 5, she entered a Catholic school in 1935. // Probably Sumac’s first public appearance was on August 16, 1938, with Moises Vivanco in a religious festival at Callao. She graduated high school in 1940. She recorded at least 18 tracks of Peruvian folk songs in Buenos Aires, Argentina in 1943. These early recordings for the Odeon label featured composer Moisés Vivanco’s troupe Compañía Peruana de Arte, of 16 Peruvian dancers, singers, and musicians. // She was discovered by Les Baxter and signed by Capitol Records in 1950, at which time her stage name became Yma Sumac. Her first album, Voice of the Xtabay, launched a period of fame that included performances at the Hollywood Bowl and Carnegie Hall. // In 1950, she made her first tour to Europe and Africa, and debuted at the Royal Albert Hall in London and the Royal Festival Hall before the future Queen of England. She presented more than 80 concerts in London and 16 concerts in Paris. A second tour took her to the Far East: Persia, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Burma, Thailand, Sumatra, the Philippines, and Australia. Her fame in countries like Greece, Israel and Russia made her change her two-week stay to six months. During the 1950s, she produced a series of best-selling recordings of lounge music featuring Hollywood-style arrangements of Incan and South American folk songs, working with Les Baxter and Billy May. The combination of her extraordinary voice, exotic looks, and stage personality made her a hit with American audiences. Sumac appeared in a Broadway musical, Flahooley, in 1951, as a foreign princess who brings Aladdin’s lamp to an American toy factory to have it repaired. The show’s score was by Sammy Fain and Yip Harburg, but her three numbers were the work of Vivanco, with one co-written by Vivanco and Fain. Flahooley closed quickly, but the Capitol recording of the show continues to sell well as a cult classic, in part because it also marked the Broadway debut of Barbara Cook. // The 1950s were the years of Sumac’s greatest popularity; She played Carnegie Hall, the Roxy Theatre with Danny Kaye, Las Vegas nightclubs and concert tours of South America and Europe. She put out a number of hit albums for Capitol Records, such as Mambo! (1954) and Fuego del Ande (1959). During the height of Sumac’s popularity, she appeared in the films Secret of the Incas (1954) with Charlton Heston and Robert Young, and Omar Khayyam (1957). // She became a U.S. citizen on July 22, 1955. In 1959, she performed Jorge Bravo de Rueda’s classic song “Vírgenes del Sol” on her album Fuego del Ande. In 1957 Sumac and Vivanco divorced, after Vivanco sired twins with another woman. They remarried that same year, but a second divorce followed in 1965. Apparently due to financial difficulties, Sumac and the original Inka Taky Trio went on a world tour in 1960, which lasted for five years. They performed in 40 cities in the Soviet Union for over six months, and a film was shot recording some moments of the tour, and afterward throughout Europe, Asia and Latin America. Their performance in Bucharest, Romania, was recorded as the album Recital, her only live in concert record. Sumac spent the rest of the 1960s performing sporadically. // She married Moisés Vivanco on June 6, 1942. After this date, Moisés and Yma toured South America and Mexico as a group of fourteen musicians called Imma Sumack and the Conjunto Folklorico Peruano. Some people in Peru did not appreciate her style of singing, most notably the writer José María Arguedas (La Prensa, 1944). In 1946, Sumac and Vivanco moved to New York City, where they performed as the Inka Taqui Trio, Sumac singing soprano, Vivanco on guitar, and her cousin, Cholita Rivero, singing contralto and dancing. The group was unable to attain any success; however, their participation in the South American Music Festival in Carnegie Hall was reviewed positively. In 1949, Yma gave birth to their only child, Carlos. // She had five octaves according to some reports, but other reports (and recordings) document four-and-a-half at the peak of her singing career. Shortly after her death, the BBC noted that a typical trained singer has a range of about three octaves. // In 1954, composer and music critic Virgil Thomson described Sumac’s voice as “very low and warm, very high and birdlike,” noting that her range “is very close to five octaves, but is in no way inhuman or outlandish in sound.” // In 1971, Sumac released a rock album, Miracles. She performed in concert from time to time during the 1970s in Peru and later in New York at the Chateau Madrid and Town Hall. In the 1980s, she resumed her career under the management of Alan Eichler, and had a number of concerts both in the United States and abroad, including the Hollywood Roosevelt Cinegrill, New York’s Ballroom in 1987[40] (where she was held over for seven weeks to SRO crowds) and several San Francisco shows at the Theatre on the Square among others. In 1987, she recorded “I Wonder” from the Disney film Sleeping Beauty for Stay Awake, an album of songs from Disney movies, produced by Hal Willner. She sang “Ataypura” during a March 19, 1987, appearance on Late Night with David Letterman. She recorded a new German “techno” dance record, “Mambo ConFusion”. // In 1989, she sang again at the Ballroom in New York and returned to Europe for the first time in 30 years to headline the BRT’s “Gala van de Gouden Bertjes” New Year’s Eve TV special in Brussels as well as the “Etoile Palace” program in Paris hosted by Frederic Mitterrand. In March 1990, she played the role of Heidi in Stephen Sondheim’s Follies, in Long Beach, California, her first attempt at serious theater since Flahooley in 1951. // She also gave several concerts in the summer of 1996 in San Francisco and Hollywood as well as two more in Montreal, Canada, in July 1997 as part of the Montreal International Jazz Festival. In 1992, she declined to appear in a documentary for German television entitled Yma Sumac – Hollywoods Inkaprinzessin (Yma Sumac – Hollywood’s Inca Princess). With the resurgence of lounge music in the late 1990s, Sumac’s profile rose again when the song “Ataypura” was featured in the Coen Brothers film The Big Lebowski. // Her song “Bo Mambo” appeared in a commercial for Kahlúa liquor and was sampled for the song “Hands Up” by The Black Eyed Peas. The song “Gopher Mambo” was used in the films Ordinary Decent Criminal, Happy Texas, Spy Games, and Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, among others. “Gopher Mambo” was used in an act of the Cirque Du Soleil show Quidam, as a musical motif in the Russian show Kukhnya (along with “Bo Mambo” and “Taki Rari”), and in an iPhone commercial in 2020. The songs “Goomba Boomba” and “Malambo No. 1” appeared in Death to Smoochy. A sample from “Malambo No.1” was used in Robin Thicke’s “Everything I Can’t Have”. Sumac is also mentioned in the lyrics of the 1980s song “Joe le taxi” by Vanessa Paradis, and her album Mambo! is the record that Belinda Carlisle pulls out of its jacket in the video for “Mad About You”. “Gopher Mambo” is used as the opening song in the British version of the television series Ten Percent. // On May 6, 2006, Sumac flew to Lima, where she was presented the Orden del Sol award by Peruvian President Alejandro Toledo and the Jorge Basadre medal by the Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos. // Sumac died on November 1, 2008, aged 86, at an assisted living home in Los Angeles, California, nine months after being diagnosed with colon cancer. She was interred at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery in the “Sanctuary of Memories” section. // On September 20, 2022, a new memorial bust statue was unveiled at her final resting place, at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery, in honor of what would have been her 100th birthday. // Stories published in the 1950s claimed that she was an Incan princess, directly descended from Atahualpa. The government of Peru in 1946 formally supported her claim to be descended from Atahualpa, the last Incan emperor. However, her biographer, Nicholas E. Limansky, claimed that her Incan royal origin was not true. “Hollywood took this nice girl who wanted to be a folk singer, dressed her up and said she was a princess. And she acted like it,” according to Limansky. // For years, rumors circulated that Sumac was a housewife from Brooklyn whose real name was “Amy Camus”, which she reversed to become Yma Sumac. The origin of the rumor may plausibly be traced to a cleverly formulated review by influential jazz critic Leonard Feather, who used literary device, in a December 1950 column, to suggest that Sumac’s voice was in fact a theremin, that Xtabay—or Axterbay—was Pig Latin for Baxter, and that the name of the singer was Amy Camus, who took Serutan (a contemporary laxative: “natures” spelled backwards).]
10:03 – Intro / Interview with Michael McQuary
Thanks for tuning into WMM, on 90.1 FM KKFI. I’m Mark Manning. Today we bring you a very special PRIDE show about Queer Performance in NYC in the ’80s, ’90s, & beyond with special guests Michael McQuary and Joey Arias, avant-garde artist based in New York City, best known for work as a performance artist, actor, and cabaret singer, but also as a published author, comedian, stage persona and film actor.
Joey Arias will share stories about his best friend Klaus Nomi, and his work with David Bowie, Saturday Night Live, Andy Warhol, Pee Herman aka Paul Reubens, Lady Bunny, Cirque du Soleil and More! We’ll spin musical tracks from: Klaus Nomi, David Bowie, Joey Arias, Dana Gillespie, Yma Sumac, Kiss of The Spiderwoman, William Stromberg & Moscow Symphony Orchestra, and More!
Michael McQuary is known as The Man of a 1001 Faces. Michael started as a child actor at The Portland Civic Theatre. At 18 he left for New York City as a scholarship recipient at the New York Academy of Dramatic Arts. In NYC, Michael worked at River West Theatre, Divine Theater and Cooper Square Theatre. Michael’s solo shows played in the West Village at: Eighty-eights, Duplex, Trocadero, and the Cooper Square Theatre with his show, Astonishing. He premiered his show, The Secret Power of Fu Manchu at Cooper Square where he alternated the late-night spot with RuPaul and Mona Foote. Michael played downtown NYC clubs: the SoHo Grand, with Joey Arias & Susanne Bartsch, the Pyramid, Boy Bar, and Starlight Bar & Lounge. Uptown, Michael performed at Danny’s Grand Sea Palace, Don’t Tell Mama, The Bon Soir and Rick Talbots Ladies. Michael premiered his one-man production, Crystal Allen Strikes Back, by Jon Michael Johnson at Danny’s Grand Sea Palace. After 33 years in New York, Michael relocated to Kansas City, where he premiered his one-man show, I’m Hollywood, at KC Fringe Fest. Michael also works in film, starring in CORVALO for Mile Deep Films, Keeper and Love Shadow, for Bill’s Eye Cinema, MADEYE, Connections for Cooper Square Productions and two documentary films about his work: Portrait of an Artist for Cooper Square Productions and Man of 1001 Faces, for Taishi Studios. Michael McQuary also played seven characters in 2022’s television situation comedy, Daddy’s Divas on Amazon TV. He will soon be seen in the upcoming feature film by Patrick Rea, “Super Happy Fun Clown.”
Michael McQuary will perform his one-man show, Sunday, June 15, at 2:00pm at Englewood Arts Center, 10901 East Winner Road, Independence, Missouri. More info at: http://www.englewoodarts.art
Michael McQuary thanks for being with us on Wednesday MidDay Medley
Béla Lugosi – For Michael McQuary is all started with Béla Lugosi …and his cape.
Hollywood Monsters. Michael calls himself an X-File.
Michael McQuary was a child actor at The Portland Civic Theatre and Doris Smith scholarship recipient. Was on plaque bearing his name for 1977.
Portland, Oregon to New York City – At age 18 in 1980 Michael McQuary was a scholarship recipient at the New York Academy of Dramatic Arts. Michael found himself drawn to the burgeoning downtown and nightclub scene, performing at the legendary Boy Bar, Bon Soir and Trocadero.
Working as an actor in New York City – While in New York, numerous stage appearance included productions at the River West Theatre, the Divine Theater and the Cooper Square Theatre. Plays include Arlecchino’s Unlucky Heart, Royal Hunt of the Sun, Aristophanes’ Peace as well as the world premieres of Spreadin’ It, The Secret Power of Fu Manchu, and En Attendant Oiseau.
Michael has actively concentrated on solo work and has performed in numerous Manhattan clubs and cabarets. His various one-man shows have played the famous West Village cabarets, Eighty-eights, the Duplex, the Trocadero, as well as in the cabaret space in the Cooper Square Theatre with his show, Astonishing.
It was there that he conceived and developed Matinee Idol, a one-man cinematic collage of classic films ranging from Sunset Boulevard to Clash of the Titans.
He premiered his show, The Secret Power of Fu Manchu at Cooper Square Theatre where he alternated the late-night spot with drag stars, Ru Paul and Mona Foote.
New York in the 1980s, 1990s, Michael worked at Unique Boutique where he met many famous celebrities where he met Fred Schneider of the B-52s. And was Catherine Deneuve’s personal shopper. Sonny Bono.
Veteran New York cabaret impresario Erv Raible invited McQuary to bring his show to Eighty-Eights, where Michael worked his magic for five years, Playing into dozens of characters and earning two 1988 Back Stage Bistro Awards for Outstanding Cabaret Debut and Best Characterization Show. This was followed by four consecutive MAC nominations.
Access cable icon Miss Sybil Bruncheon (a/k/a John Burke) invited McQuary to perform in his stage show Café Berlin, where Michael’s roles ranged from Marlene Dietrich to Cab Calloway and Bela Lugosi.
Michael’s cabaret shows also played, Joe’s Pub at the Public Theatre, the Duplex, and Judy’s Chelsea
Michael was an acting student at the famous HB Studio in NYC, founded by Herbert Berghof in 1945 by Herbert Berghof and located in Greenwich Village, New York City. In 1948, Uta Hagen joined the Studio as Berghof’s artistic partner, and the two wed ten years later. Her master classes led to the writing of her books Respect for Acting and A Challenge for the Actor. It was at the HB Studio where Michael was discovered.
Michael played downtown NYC clubs: SoHo Grand, with Joey Arias & Susanne Bartsch.
Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein
10:15 – Underscore for Michael’s Story
- William Stromberg conducts Frank Skinner’s Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein live in concert with the Golden State Pops Orchestra
from: Live / Halloween 2008
[Frank Skinner was a composer & arranger born in Meredosia, Illinois on Dec. 31, 1897. He died in , California, Oct. 9, 1968] [Recently on March 18, 2025, Intrada Records released Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein/Abbott and Costello Meet the Keystone Kops featuring the Royal Scottish National Orchestra! // Intrada presents its 12th album recording project—Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein/Abbott and Costello Meet the Keystone Kops. The project was generously funded through a Kickstarter campaign, and again proudly features the Royal Scottish National Orchestra under the baton of William T. Stromberg. It was an oft-requested title ever since Stromberg conducted scores to earlier titles in the horror series, including House of Frankenstein, Ghost of Frankenstein, Son of Frankenstein, The Wolf Man and many more. The recording occurred in early September 2024, with a delighted orchestra commenting on how refreshing and fun it was to perform the music. The score was reconstructed by the late and sorely missed John Morgan, Bill Stromberg and Anna Stromberg. The album was mixed and edited by Leigh Phillips and mastered by Ray Faiola and Chris Malone, featuring liner notes by Faiola as well. It’s the long-awaited release of some truly effervescent film music. // For scoring duties on Frankenstein, composer Frank Skinner, who had worked on earlier pictures in the series, largely kept it serious. His sophisticated score is the straight man to the antics on screen, giving the film a rich dimension by following in the footsteps of Franz Waxman, while at the same time making everything even funnier. As a bonus, Intrada is pleased to include the hyped-up antics of Abbott and Costello Meet the Keystone Kops, featuring theme and score by William Lava with additional scoring by Henry Mancini and Herman Stein. It’s a packed album full of vigorous and inspired performances by the RSNO and a proud addition to Intrada’s Excalibur Collection.]
10:18 – More Interview with Michael McQuary
Michael McQuary is the creator of the award winning one-man shows in NYC – Matinee Idol, Man of 1001 Faces, and My Own Space, and “I’m Hollywood.” for KC Fringe.
Being an actor, sustaining a career, do you find faith in the journey of those actors who you cherish and keep alive -Béla Lugosi. Michael is Steven Spielberg’s favorite “Bela Lugosi”.
“Michael McQuary is more than a pretty face, and he’s got a thousand, anyway. His is a talent today’s entertainment world needs more of. From Fu Manchu to Phantoms to Dietrich, Michael carries them all off to perfection, and I knew the originals. This talented entertainer perfects his transformations while allowing the audience a glimpse of the artist beneath the mask.” – Rex Reed
10:22 – Emergency Alert System Test
10:23
- Joey Arias – “No One Knows”
from: PAST PRESENT FUTURE / Beige Recording NYC / November 19, 2023
[New 14-song studio album . Much of the album was recorded right here in Minnesota. “It was a dream come true. It was the ultimate focus.” The studio time was extremely fruitful. “We were supposed to do 15 songs, but we ended up doing 30 songs,” Arias says, “Because everyone was so on top of it, and asking what do we do now, what do we do next.”Arias collaborated with an impressive group of musicians, which included many talented Minnesotans alongside a few of his usual collaborators. “I was so blessed to work with a core group of Minnesota-based musicians, with Jason McGlone as our lead engineer. JT Bates played drums. Jeff Bailey played bass. David Feily played guitar. My long-time pianist, Eliot Douglass, flew in from Vegas to do all the sessions,” says Arias, “And all of us, we all literally lived at Pachyderm Studios in Cannon Falls, Minnesota, for weeks. Music all day and night. We didn’t leave the property…There were no outside influences. Just what came out of all of us.” // This album is really a summation of Arias’ career to date. “When we first started this project I was asked ‘What do I want out of this project?’ I said, ‘Well this is going to be the past, the present, and the future.’” In seeking to fulfill that goal, Arias has built a track list that dives deep into the many artistic lives he has led. // “The past refers to songs and material I did, basically as a teenager, when I was signed to Capital Records. The present is all the material that we wrote in Minnesota, in the studio. The future is…. It’s a combination of everything. Pop. Modern. Avant-garde. The sexy. The sensual. It has hard hits. And it has soft hits.” // Being that this is a Joey Arias project, it will be as uniquely ineffable as Arias himself, but it can broadly be categorized as a pop album. “We are going straight ahead with surreal pop music…it’s the Joey style of pop. Not candy pop. Lyrics about love, but also about what is going on in the world today. And how might we better shape the future.“ // Arias gets inspiration from many places, many genres. “The music just gets me. The music has a vibration,” says Arias, “I love seeing new bands. Hearing new music. Everything. Everything from country to hip hop to rap to jazz, heavy metal, rock n roll, disco. There is a vibration to it all.” He continues, “Every day I think about the songs. Think about where we are going. I am so grateful to be working with such generative artists and producers. – Buer Carlie LAVENDER (June 1, 2023)
10:27 – Joey Arias Interview
Joey Arias, is an avant-garde artist based in New York City, best known for work as a performance artist, actor, and cabaret singer, but also as a published author, comedian, stage persona and film actor. One of the original Groundlings in Los Angeles. Joey left for NYC in 1976 and embarked on a new career singing with his best friend Klaus Nomi on stage, in videos, and with David Bowie on SNL in 1979. Arias gradually became involved in the burgeoning 1980s performance art scene, appearing at downtown venues including Club 57 with John Sex, Ann Magnuson, Kenny Scharf, Keith Haring, and Basquiat. Joey also began a career in cabaret, channeling the vocal style of Billie Holiday. Joey can be seen in the films: Wigstock: The Movie, with Lady Bunny, Jackie Beat, Debbie Harry, Leigh Bowery, and RuPaul. Joey is also in Big Top Pee-wee, a 1988 sequel to Pee-wee’s Big Adventure starring Paul Reubens as Pee-wee Herman. Joey is featured in Mondo New York with Karen Finley, Lydia Lunch, and Ann Magnuson; Elvira: Mistress of the Dark starring Cassandra Peterson as Elvira. Joey also has roles in Flawless, starring Robert De Niro and Philip Seymour Hoffman; and To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar starring Wesley Snipes, Patrick Swayze, and John Leguizamo. In 2001 Arias began work for the Las Vegas based, Cirque du Soleil – Zumanity at the New York-New York Hotel. In addition to starring in the show, he co-wrote two of the show’s songs. After six years, Arias returned to NYC where he starred in Arias with a Twist, with puppeteer Basil Twist at HERE Arts Center. The show was also produced in Los Angeles and Paris. Arias continues to perform in venues such as Joe’s Pub and Feinstein’s/54. Recently Joey released his new album, Past Present Future.
In our interview, Joey Arias will share stories about his best friend Klaus Nomi, his work with David Bowie, Saturday Night Live, Andy Warhol, Paul Reubens, Lady Bunny, Cirque du Soleil and More! We’ll spin musical tracks from: Klaus Nomi, Dana Gillespie, David Bowie, The Cast of Big Top Pee Wee, Frankie Goes to Hollywood, and Joey Arias.
10:30 – Joey Arias Interview (5:17)
43:42 –- Born in Fayetteville, North Carolina, Arias was six when he moved with his family to Los Angeles. After high school he sang with the rock band Purlie, which had a 1973 single on Capitol Records.
He met Gary Austin (born Gary Moore; October 18, 1941 – April 1, 2017) was an American improvisational theatre teacher, writer, and director who founded The Groundlings theatre company in 1974.
Joey Arias became one of the original members of The Groundlings with founder Gary Austin, where he worked with Laraine Newman.
Groundlings were cast as High School students in the film Carrie, but Joey didn’t make the cut because he just didn’t look the part.
40:05 – Joey met Kim Hastreiter in 1974. In 1976 he decided to leave LA and with his friend Kim Hastreiter – who would later co-found Paper magazine – drive across country in a pickup truck and move to New York City. It was his Bi-Centennial cross country trip.
Joey wanted to meet Andy Warhol and The Factory Superstars.
Bo Allen was Joey’s mentor. Katy Kay introduced Joey to Klaus Nomi, who was a baker. Klaus invited Joey over to his apartment where they talked for 6 or 7 hours. Joey was –
38:25 – Joey: “finding my people.”
10:35
- Klaus Nomi – “Nomi Song”
from: Klaus Nomi / RCA / 1981
[Klaus Sperber (January 24, 1944 – August 6, 1983), known professionally as Klaus Nomi, was a German countertenor noted for his wide vocal range and an unusual, otherworldly stage persona. // In the 1970s Nomi immersed himself in the East Village art scene. He was known for his bizarrely visionary theatrical live performances, heavy make-up, unusual costumes, and a highly stylized signature hairdo that flaunted a receding hairline. His songs were equally unusual, ranging from synthesizer-laden interpretations of classical opera to covers of 1960s pop standards like Chubby Checker’s “The Twist” and Lou Christie’s “Lightnin’ Strikes”. Nomi was one of David Bowie’s backup singers for a 1979 performance on Saturday Night Live. // Nomi died in 1983 at the age of 39 as a result of complications from AIDS. He was one of the earliest known figures from the arts community to die from the illness. // Klaus Nomi was born Klaus Sperber in Immenstadt, Bavaria, Germany on January 24, 1944. In the 1960s, he worked as an usher at the Deutsche Oper in West Berlin where he sang for the other ushers and maintenance crew on stage in front of the fire curtain after performances. He also sang opera arias at the Berlin gay discothèque Kleist Casino. // Nomi emigrated to New York City in 1972.He did some off-Broadway theater work and moonlighted as a pastry chef. // In 1977, Nomi appeared in a satirical camp production of Richard Wagner’s Das Rheingold at Charles Ludlam’s Ridiculous Theater Company as the Rheinmaidens and the Wood Bird. // Nomi came to the attention of the East Village art scene in 1978 with his performance in “New Wave Vaudeville”, a four-night event MC’d by artist David McDermott. Dressed in a skin-tight spacesuit with a clear plastic cape, Nomi sang the aria “Mon cœur s’ouvre à ta voix” (“My heart opens to your voice”) from Camille Saint-Saëns’ opera Samson et Dalila The performance ended with a chaotic crash of strobe lights, smoke bombs, and loud electronic sound effects as Nomi backed away into the smoke. Joey Arias recalled: “I still get goose pimples when I think about it… It was like he was from a different planet and his parents were calling him home. When the smoke cleared, he was gone.” After that performance Nomi was invited to perform at clubs all over New York City. // At the New Wave Vaudeville show Nomi met Kristian Hoffman, songwriter for the Mumps. Hoffman was a performer and MC in the second incarnation of New Wave Vaudeville and a close friend of Susan Hannaford and Tom Scully, who produced the show, and Ann Magnuson, who directed it. Anya Phillips, then manager of James Chance and the Contortions, suggested Nomi and Hoffman form a band. Hoffman became Nomi’s de facto musical director, assembling a band that included Page Wood from another New Wave vaudeville act, Come On, and Joe Katz, who was concurrently in The Student Teachers, the Accidents, and The Mumps. // Hoffman helped Nomi choose his pop covers, including the Lou Christie song “Lightnin’ Strikes”. Hoffman wrote several pop songs with which Nomi is closely identified: “The Nomi Song”, “Total Eclipse”, “After The Fall”, and “Simple Man”, the title song of Nomi’s second RCA French LP. This configuration of the Klaus Nomi band performed at Manhattan clubs, including several performances at Max’s Kansas City, Danceteria, Hurrah and the Mudd Club. He also appeared on Manhattan Cable’s TV Party. // Disagreements with the management Nomi engaged led to a dissolution of this band, and Nomi continued without them. In the late 1970s, while performing at Club 57, The Mudd Club, The Pyramid Club, and other venues, Nomi assembled various up-and-coming models, singers, artists, and musicians to perform live with him, including Joey Arias, Keith Haring, John Sex and Kenny Scharf. He was briefly involved with Jean-Michel Basquiat, then known for his graffiti art as SAMO. // Nomi and Arias were introduced to David Bowie at the Mudd Club, who hired them as performers and backup singers for his appearance on Saturday Night Live on December 15, 1979. They performed “TVC 15”, “The Man Who Sold the World”, and “Boys Keep Swinging”. During the performance of “TVC 15”, Nomi and Arias dragged around a large prop pink poodle with a television screen in its mouth. Nomi was so impressed with the plastic quasi-tuxedo suit that Bowie wore during “The Man Who Sold the World” that he commissioned one for himself. He wore the suit on the cover of his self-titled album, as well as during a number of his music videos. Nomi wore his variant of the outfit, in monochromatic black-and-white with spandex and makeup to match, until the last few months of his life. // Nomi played a supporting role as a Nazi official in Anders Grafstrom’s 1980 underground film The Long Island Four. // The 1981 rock documentary film, Urgh! A Music War features Nomi’s live performance of “Total Eclipse.” His performance of “Mon cœur s’ouvre à ta voix” was used for the closing credits. In the liner notes of Nomi’s 1981 self-titled record, 666 Fifth Avenue was listed as the contact address. // He released his second album, Simple Man, in November 1982. He also collaborated with producer Man Parrish, appearing on Parrish’s 1982 album Man Parrish as a backup vocalist on the track “Six Simple Synthesizers”. // In the last several months of his life, Nomi changed his focus to operatic pieces and adopted a Baroque era operatic outfit complete with full collar as his typical onstage attire. The collar helped cover the outbreaks of Kaposi’s sarcoma on his neck, one of the numerous AIDS-related diseases Nomi developed toward the end of his life. // Nomi died at the Sloan Kettering Hospital Center in New York City on August 6, 1983. He was one of the first celebrities to die of complications from AIDS. Upon his death, Nomi’s close friend Joey Arias became the executor of his estate. His ashes were spread across New York City.]
10:38 – More Joey Arias Interview
Arias got a job at the famous Fiorucci designer clothing store. He and other store staff like Vincent Gallo, performed (danced and modeled clothes) in the shop windows.
He was a stylist to Jackie Onassis, Gloria Vanderbilt
37:48 – At Fiorucci he met Andy Warhol
36:59 – with Truman Capote
While in New York, he also performed with Ann Magnuson in a band called Strange Party which recorded and performed in various night clubs. At Club 57 Joey and Ann Magnuson created the “Andy and Edie Show.” Andy saw the show nd praised Joey’s portrayal and y gave Joey one of his wigs. Andy praised Magnuson for her portrayal of…
35:23 – “The Dead Girl”
10:41
- Dana Gillespie – “Andy Warhol”
from: What Memorie We Make: The Complege Mainman Recordings (1971- 1974) / Cherry Red recordings / March 29, 2018
[[Written by David Bowie. It is an acoustic song about one of Bowie’s early artist inspirations, the American pop artist Andy Warhol. // Originally the song was written for Dana Gillespie, who recorded it in 1971, but her version of the song was not released until 1973 on her album Weren’t Born a Man. Bowie produced Gillespie’s version and Ronson also plays guitar. Gillespie performed the song in 1974 on the Dutch television programme TopPop. // Bowie, an admirer of Warhol, sent him a copy of Hunky Dory and performed “Andy Warhol” for him in person at Warhol’s studio the Factory in New York in September 1971, before the album was released. But due to Warhol’s typically minimal reaction, Bowie was never sure if he liked it. Tony Zanetta, who had brought Bowie to the Factory and later portrayed Warhol in Warhol’s first play, Pork (1971), maintained that Warhol “didn’t say anything but absolutely hated it”. // The song was released as the B-side of the single “Changes” in January 1972. It also appeared on the Japanese compilation The Best of David Bowie from 1974. An edited version, with the dialogue in the introduction cut, as it was on the US single version, is included on Re:Call 1, part of the 2015 boxed set Five Years (1969–1973). // A performance sung by Dana Gillespie was recorded for BBC Radio’s In Concert strand on 3 June 1971, presented by John Peel and first broadcast on June 20 that year.]
10:43 – More Joey Arias Interview
Joey Arias was the original doorman at The Mudd Club. Klaus Nomi & Arias were at the Mudd Club when they were introduced to David Bowie, who hired them as performers & backing singers for his appearance on Saturday Night Live.
Originally Toni Basil was going to be performing with Bowie, but plans changed and Bowie decided to do SNL with Klaus Nomi and Joey. They spent that week with Bowie, deciding the songs to perform. Joey and Klaus came up with their own choreography
On the first day they sat in a little room. Bowie interviewed them on film about their lives.
On December 15, 1979, Nomi and Arias appeared on Saturday Night Live accompanying David Bowie for a live performance of three songs: “The Man Who Sold the World”, “TVC 15” and “Boys Keep Swinging”. During the performance of “TVC 15”, Nomi and Arias dragged around a large prop pink poodle with a television screen in its mouth.
Nomi was so impressed with the plastic quasi-tuxedo suit that Bowie wore during “The Man Who Sold the World” that he commissioned one for himself. He wore the suit on the cover of his self-titled debut album released years later in 1981, as well as during a number of his music videos. Nomi wore his variant of the outfit, in monochromatic black-and-white with spandex and makeup to match, until the last few months of his life.
29:27 – (29:17) – “Voted by SNL as their #1 Musical Performance ever”
10:49
- David Bowie – “The Man Who Sold The World”
from: Saturday Night Live Performance / December 15, 1979
[Bowie arrived at the famous studio 8H at 30 Rock with a trio of tracks under his belt and a new accompanying artist in tow. The inimitable Klaus Nomi, the notable movement coach and artist, and the flamboyant New York performance artist Joey Arias arrived with Bowie equipped with some avant-garde costumes and a performance unlike anything America had ever seen before. It was about to get a little strange. // In this appearance on December 15, 1979 during the US comedy show Saturday Night Live, David Bowie, Klaus Nomi and flamboyant New York performance artist Joey Arias perform three songs, ‘The Man Who Sold The World’, with Bowie carried to the front of the stage by Nomi and Arias, while wearing a man’s evening dress and a large bow tie (emulating the poet Tristan Tzara). Nomi was so impressed with the costuming that he adopted the huge plastic tuxedo Bowie wears during ‘The Man Who Sold The World’ as his own, wearing one on the cover of his first album and performing in it until his death from AIDS in 1983. // “The Man Who Sold the World” is a song by the English singer-songwriter David Bowie. The title track of Bowie’s third studio album, it was released in November 1970 in the US and in April 1971 in the UK by Mercury Records. Produced by Tony Visconti. // The Man Who Sold the World” went relatively unnoticed upon initial release in 1970. It was not released as a single by Bowie, though appeared as a B-side on the 1973 reissues of “Space Oddity” in the US and “Life on Mars?” in the UK by RCA Records. // The song has been covered by hundreds of artists, with many noting that certain covers have managed to outshine the popularity of Bowie’s original recording. // American rock band Nirvana performed the song for the television program MTV Unplugged in 1993, introducing it to a new audience.]
10:52 – More Joey Arias Interview (7:37)
27:13 – In NYC while having lunch with former Groundling and good friend Cassandra Peterson (Elvira), Cassandra introduced Joey to Paul Reubens
This led to Joey being cast in Big Top Pee-wee, a 1988 American comedy film directed by Randal Kleiser. A standalone sequel to Pee-wee’s Big Adventure (1985), the film stars Paul Reubens reprising his role as Pee-wee Herman.
After the film, Paul Reubens and John Paragon were visiting Joey in NYC and they all three went to Unique Boutique where Michael McQuary worked.
Michael mentioned that Paul should have given him a larger part in the film. That’s when Joey introduced Michael to Paul Ruebens. Michael hadn’t recognized Paul and went screaming out of the room.
22:30 – Joey described Michael as talking very fast like he was on speed and coffee
22:48 – “Paul Reubens meet Michael McQuary”
Paul said, “Well… it was ‘my’ movie.”
21:50 – Michael: “That was really a fun moment.”
11:00
- Cast of Big Top Pee Wee – “Big Top Big Finale (1988)”
from: a clip from Big Top Pee Wee (1988) [cut it at 1:45]
11:02 – Station ID
11:02 – More Joey Arias Interview (7:20)
20:50 – Mark: Mondo New York
Mondo New York is a 1988 film directed by Harvey Nikolai Keith. Mondo New York examines the lives and activities of Manhattan performance artists, and features Joey Arias and Rick Aviles. A number of New York City denizens appear in various sketches, each linked by a young woman’s exploration of the city. Other performers include Charlie Barnett, Joe Coleman, Phoebe Legere, Karen Finley, Lydia Lunch, Veronica Vera, Frank Moore, and Ann Magnuson. The film was produced by Night Flight creator Stuart S. Shapiro.
Elvira: Mistress of the Dark is a 1988 American comedy horror film directed by James Signorelli, starring Cassandra Peterson as eccentric horror host Elvira. The film’s screenplay, written by Peterson, John Paragon, and Sam Egan, follows Elvira inheriting a house nestled in the heart of an overtly prudish community.
Flawless is a 1999 American crime comedy-drama film written and directed by Joel Schumacher, and starring Robert De Niro and Philip Seymour Hoffman.
To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar is a 1995 American road comedy-drama film directed by Beeban Kidron and starring Wesley Snipes, Patrick Swayze, and John Leguizamo as three New York City drag queens who embark on a road trip. Its title refers to an iconic autographed photo of Julie Newmar they carry with them on their journey. Newmar also has a cameo appearance in the film as herself.
Wigstock: The Movie. – Joey did his character “Justine” for Lady Bunny. Wigstock: The Movie is a 1995 documentary film focusing on Wigstock, the annual drag music festival that had been held New York City’s East Village through the 1980s and 1990s. The film presents a number of performances from the 1994 festival, including Crystal Waters, Deee-Lite, Jackie Beat, Debbie Harry, Leigh Bowery, Joey Arias, Freddie Pendavis, and the Dueling Bankheads. The film also captures a performance by RuPaul at the height of his mainstream fame during the 1990s.
Joey Arias was friends with Leigh Bowery (who died in 1994)
In the early 1990s, Arias covered the songs of Holiday in a show titled Strange Fruit which ran for over a year at the Astor Place Theatre on Lafayette Street in New York City and received a positive notice from John Lahr in The New Yorker. During these years he also began a career in cabaret, channeling the vocal style and mannerisms of Billie Holiday.
The 1990s also saw Arias perform in weekly shows at Bar d’O, an intimate lounge in the West Village of New York City performing with Raven O, and then also Sherry. And then inviting other guest performers at Bar d’O including: Jimmy James, Sade Pendavis, Daniel Isengart and Flotilla Debarge. The evenings have inspired annual reunion shows each December at Indochine restaurant and became the subject of a 2011 documentary film produced by Bobby Sheehan.
In 2001 Joey was approached to help with a new Cirque du Soleil’s show featuring an Exotic Sex Cabaret. Joey helped directors get in contact with French designer Manfred Thierry Mugler who was then hired to create the costumes.
17:00 – Joey asked the producers, “who is your emcee?” They said they wanted him to be the emcee. He turned them down. Hanging up on them, until they tricked him into being in the show. In 2001 he started doing rehearsals in Montreal.
In 2003 Arias moved to Las Vegas, Nevada to star in Cirque du Soleil’s Zumanity at the New York-New York Hotel & Casino. In addition to starring in the show as te Mistress of Seduction, he co-wrote several of the show’s songs.
15:25 – Backstage Joey met many celebrities including Burt Bacharach.
14:14 – Joey kissed Burt Bacharach’s hand because “those hands had written his favorite songs of his lifetime.” Joey asked Burt, “Do you know he way to San Joe-ay?”
Michael: “Joey did you know that Burt Bacharach was Marlene Dietrich’s Music Director?”
14:20 – Mark: “Joey did you know that Burt Bacharach is originally from Kansas City?”
14:26 – Joey “It’s all coming back home.”
11:09:50
- Frankie Goes to Hollywood – “San Jose”
from: Welcome to the Pleasuredome / ZTT / October 23, 1984
[Welcome to the Pleasuredome is the debut studio album by the English band Frankie Goes to Hollywood, first released on 29 October 1984 by ZTT Records. Originally issued as a vinyl double album, it was assured of a UK chart entry at number one due to reported advance sales of over one million. It actually sold around a quarter of a million copies in its first week. The album was also a top-10 seller internationally in countries such as Switzerland, Sweden, Australia and New Zealand. // The album was commercially successful and contained new versions of the songs from the group’s singles from the same year (“Relax” and “Two Tribes”, plus B-side “War”), as well as several cover versions. Trevor Horn’s production dominated the record so thoroughly that the band’s own instrumental performances were often replaced by session musicians or Horn himself. Frankie’s second album, Liverpool, actively featured the full band. // Frankie Goes to Hollywood were an English pop band that formed in Liverpool in 1980. They comprised Holly Johnson (vocals), Paul Rutherford (backing vocals), Mark O’Toole (bass), Brian Nash (guitar) and Peter Gill (drums). Johnson and Rutherford were among the first openly gay pop singers, and Frankie Goes to Hollywood made gay rights and sexuality a theme of their music and performances.]
11:13 – More Joey Arias Interview
14:26 – Joey: Michael and his Man of 1001 Faces
14:00 – Joey: “I remember reading something in newspaper about Michael selling his apartment and moving away.”
13:50 – Michael: “When I hear the Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein Suite, I remember the performance we did at Soho Grand. Joey: “I grabbed a flashlight”
12:40 – Joey: “Every one was terrified by your faces. Susanne Bartsch loved it!
12:24 – After six years with Zumanity, Arias returned to New York where he starred in Arias with a Twist, a collaboration with puppeteer Basil Twist at HERE Arts Center. Produced by Barbara Busackino and Tandem Otter Productions, the show received a positive review from Ben Brantley in the New York Times. The show has toured to Los Angeles and Paris and spawned a “docufantasy” film of the same name which premiered at the TriBeCa Film Festival in 2010. // Arias with a Twist: Deluxe, a revamped and expanded version of the show, returned to New York for a limited run at Abrons Arts Center from Sept. 14 to Oct. 16, 2011. // Arias’ relationship with Abrons began in October 2010 when Joey Arias in Concert marked Arias’ first concert appearances in New York in over a decade. Based on the success of the show, Earl Dax collaborated with Josh Wood who produced Arias in concert at New York’s Town Hall on April 21, 2010.
Arias continues to perform in venues such as Joe’s Pub and Feinstein’s/54 Below.
11:15 – Joey’s album PAST PRESENT FUTURE (2023) was recorded in Minneapolis, MN
10:19 – Joey: “You put it out there, it comes back.”
9:45 – Elliot Douglass on piano
8:35 – There will be a Christmas Album too.
7:17 – Joey is working on a book deal. They’re reading his manuscripts. Joey is going “Horizontal in life.”
6:15 – Mark: I have heard both you and Michael talk of being aliens. Joey tells a story of seeing a “glowing person.”
5:20 – Joey tells story of being at Arlo Guthrie’s house
“All you need is love. Let’s make love.” – Joey
00 – Bye Bye
11:27
- Joey Arias – “Ooh, What A Feelin
from: PAST PRESENT FUTURE / Beige Recording NYC / November 19, 2023
[New 14-song studio album . Much of the album was recorded right here in Minnesota. “It was a dream come true. It was the ultimate focus.” The studio time was extremely fruitful. “We were supposed to do 15 songs, but we ended up doing 30 songs,” Arias says, “Because everyone was so on top of it, and asking what do we do now, what do we do next.”Arias collaborated with an impressive group of musicians, which included many talented Minnesotans alongside a few of his usual collaborators. “I was so blessed to work with a core group of Minnesota-based musicians, with Jason McGlone as our lead engineer. JT Bates played drums. Jeff Bailey played bass. David Feily played guitar. My long-time pianist, Eliot Douglass, flew in from Vegas to do all the sessions,” says Arias, “And all of us, we all literally lived at Pachyderm Studios in Cannon Falls, Minnesota, for weeks. Music all day and night. We didn’t leave the property…There were no outside influences. Just what came out of all of us.” // This album is really a summation of Arias’ career to date. “When we first started this project I was asked ‘What do I want out of this project?’ I said, ‘Well this is going to be the past, the present, and the future.’” In seeking to fulfill that goal, Arias has built a track list that dives deep into the many artistic lives he has led. // “The past refers to songs and material I did, basically as a teenager, when I was signed to Capital Records. The present is all the material that we wrote in Minnesota, in the studio. The future is…. It’s a combination of everything. Pop. Modern. Avant-garde. The sexy. The sensual. It has hard hits. And it has soft hits.” // Being that this is a Joey Arias project, it will be as uniquely ineffable as Arias himself, but it can broadly be categorized as a pop album. “We are going straight ahead with surreal pop music…it’s the Joey style of pop. Not candy pop. Lyrics about love, but also about what is going on in the world today. And how might we better shape the future.“ // Arias gets inspiration from many places, many genres. “The music just gets me. The music has a vibration,” says Arias, “I love seeing new bands. Hearing new music. Everything. Everything from country to hip hop to rap to jazz, heavy metal, rock n roll, disco. There is a vibration to it all.” He continues, “Every day I think about the songs. Think about where we are going. I am so grateful to be working with such generative artists and producers. – Buer Carlie LAVENDER (June 1, 2023)
Additional notes: Klaus Nomi died August 6, 1983. Joey Arias became executor to the Klaus Nomi (Sperber) estate. A tribute to his friend is held in Berlin every year, and the documentary film The Nomi Song was released in 2004. A film on the life Arias shared with Nomi was in development in 2010 with Alan Cumming slated to play Nomi. // In 2019, his archives, which also include material relating to Klaus Nomi, were acquired by Harvard’s Houghton Library.
Joey appears in the 2016 film The Zanctuary by Spanish director José André Sibaja, with Amanda Lepore and Sophia Lamar. // He appeared in the German documentary Wie ich lernte die Zahlen zu lieben/How I Learned to Love the Numbers (2014) by Oliver Sechting and Max Taubert. In 2012, he was interviewed in the documentary feature film Jobriath A.D.
Arias portrayed Joan Crawford in New York and San Francisco productions of Christmas with the Crawfords, a spoof of Christina Crawford’s book Mommie Dearest that’s been a holiday tradition since 1992. The San Francisco-based production premiered Off-Off-Broadway at the Grove Street Playhouse in 2000. Arias also starred in a 2001 and 2015 revival of the play at the Chelsea Playhouse.
11:30 – Underwriting
11:32 – More Interview with Micheal McQuary
After 33 years in New York, Michael relocated to Kansas City, where he premiered his one-man show, I’m Hollywood, at KC Fringe Fest.
Michael also works in film, starring in CORVALO for Mile Deep Films, Keeper and Love Shadow, for Bill’s Eye Cinema, MADEYE, Connections for Cooper Square Productions and two documentary films about his work: Portrait of an Artist for Cooper Square Productions and Man of 1001 Faces, for Taishi Studios.
Michael McQuary also played seven characters in 2022’s television situation comedy, Daddy’s Divas on Amazon TV.
Michael McQuary will perform his one-man show, Sunday, June 15, at 2:00pm at Englewood Arts Center, 10901 East Winner Road, Independence, Missouri.
11:40 – Michael’s Performance in honor of Chita Riveria
- Michael McQuary performs – “Kiss of The Spider Woman” (Live) written by Kander and Ebb
11:43 – More Interview with Micheal McQuary
When not acting or performing, Michael is a visual artist specializing in rapidly drawn portraits known as “Your Essence in Seconds.” Michael’s “Power Sign” jewelry and wall art is avidly collected and can be seen on walls, around wrists, necks and on fingers around the world.
Michael is an artist, in make up, costume, stage settings, props for film and stage. Micheal is also a visual artist of personal portraits, “life captures”with china ink that are collected internationally. Michael designs for YourPowerSign.com where he creates personal art works of metal.
Michael will be in the upcoming feature film by Patrick Rea, “Super Happy Fun Clown”
Michael McQuary thanks for being with us on Wednesday MidDay Medley
Michael McQuary will perform his one-man show, Sunday, June 15, at 2:00pm at Englewood Arts Center, 10901 East Winner Road, Independence, Missouri. More info at: http://www.englewoodarts.art
For WMM, I’m Mark Manning. Thanks for listening.
11:53
- Carmen Dragon & Capitol Symphony Orchestra – “Lady of Spain”
from: Tempo Espanol / Capitol Records / 1959
[This number was one of the biggest hits of British song-writer Tolchard Evans, in particular being an international best-seller for Eddie Fisher in the 1950s. Here it is in a typically vivacious orchestral arrangement by Carmen Dragon from a 1950s Capitol ‘Full Dimensional Stereo Sound’ LP. The lyrics have been added for anyone who wishes to sing along. This upload is dedicated to a close relative living in Spain. I hope she enjoys it!]
- Noel Coward – “The Party’s Over Now”
from: Noel Coward in New York / drg / 2003 [orig. 1957]
Next week, on Wednesday, June 18 present another of our PRIDE specials as we welcome back to the show Chris Garibaldi co-founder of Lotuspool Records and Mark Henning of the bands Zoom, National Trust, Voice of Action, share details about the new Lotuspool release: James Grauerholz – Life’s Too Good To Keep, a 21-track, double vinyl album of the recorded songs of James Grauerholz. Grauerholz has long been known as ‘The Burroughs Guy’. From 1974 until William Burroughs death in 1997, James handled the business of William S. Burroughs Communications, acting as his manager, bibliographer, editor, literary executor and companion. To this day he continues to helm the business of Burroughs. What has been little-known up until now is that James has led a double life as an accomplished musician and songwriter with an extensive body of work stretching back from the late 1960s to the present. In fact, music was his first passion. This new collection of songs span thirty years, or as James so aptly puts it ‘My Life In Four Acts’ – with each side of the two lps representing an Act. Though much of the material could easily be considered Great American Songbook, there is also a deeply personal and distinctly Queer element to the songs. One must not forget that back in the 1970s hardly anyone was doing this. In fact, James may have created his very own lane. More info at: http://www.lotuspool.com
We will also talk with Sisterbot aka Adee Dancy, Hadiza and Zan Bondi about the mini festival Solstice at Sunset at Manheim Gardens on Saturday, June 21, 2025, from 2pm to midnight, featuring 8 musical acts: Snow Goose, Kissin, Babydoll, 2W33dy, Hadiza., Sisterbot, Christina Silvius, and Coloratura, with performances running from 3-11pm.
And we’ll talk with musician Lonnie Fisher.
Big THANK YOU TO THE FABULOUS 44 PEOPLE WHO DONATED in support of Wednesday MidDay Medley for KKFI 90.1 FM’s during our On-Air Winter Fund Drive! With the help of my amazing co-hosts, we raised $2,693.00 toward our goal of $2,685.00. We achieved 100% of our goal for KKFI 90.1 FM. Thank you Betse Ellis, Rachio Head, and Mikal Shapiro and J Kelly Dougherty and all our fabulous donors and listeners!
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Our Script/Playlist is a “cut and paste” of information.
Sources for notes: artist’s websites, bios, wikipedia.org
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Show #1099
Wednesday MidDay Medley 