Nicol Paone & Kate McKinnon Star in Two New Big Gay Web Series
While it is still unclear if Logo’s Big Gay Sketch Show will be picked up for Season 4, leading ladies Nicol Paone and Kate McKinnon are finding a lot of love on the internet, starring in a few new big gay web series. Meanwhile, Julie Goldman remains the bright shining star of Autostraddle’s In Your Box Office and Real L Word: Looking Back.
Vag Magazine
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Who You Know: Kate McKinnon
Plot: Vag Magazine goes behind the scenes at hipster third-wave feminist magazine Vag. The series follows founders Fennel, Sylvie, and Bethany; staffers Heavy Flo (a hero on the roller derby circuit), Reba (truly a legend of gonzo feminist pop culture journalism), and Meghan (the lone holdover from fashion magazine Gemma – which the Vag founders bought out with the proceeds from their Etsy shop); and enthusiastic intern Kit as they teach you how to be a better woman.
Written By: Caitlin Tegart & Leila Cohan-Miccio
Where to Watch: Premieres mid-October at vagmagazine.tv. However you can catch the first 5 episodes at the UCB Theatre in New York City on Tues, Oct 5.
Cowgirl Up
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Who You Know: Nicol Paone (Big Gay Sketch Show), Mandy Musgrave (South of Nowhere), Dot Jones (Coach Bieste on Glee), Marnie Alton (Exes and Ohs)
Plot: Cowgirl Up is about one weekend at an exclusive women only dude ranch in the La Quinta desert area of Southern California which puts on an annual cowgirl competition. Women from all over the country leave their lives, relationships and jobs behind, to put on their cowboy boots for a weekend and hi-jinks (and romance) ensue.
Written By: Nancylee Myatt (South of Nowhere, 3 Way)
Where to Watch: Tellofilms.com is currently looking for donations so they can shoot this thing ASAP. Be a giver!
VIDEO: Nat Garcia Behind the Scenes at Club Skirts Dinah Shore
Club Skirts Dinah Shore’s Fashion Show was a very special spectacular this year due to the very special specialness of the outfits worn by the celesbian models present! Autostraddle’s very own vlogstar cutepants Celesbian Nat Garcia, aka Autonatic, went behind-the-scenes at the Dinah Shore Fashion show to capture the sentiments of her fellow celezzy fashion models.
AutoNatic describes her outfit as “a carrot” and Erin Foley feels uncomfortable with her aquamarine jumpsuit from 1986. Foley and girlfriend Nicol Paone, recently featured funny lady of LOGO’s Big Gay Sketch Show, discuss the broad appeal of Autostraddle, from the bicurious to crackheads to owners of pet racoons. Inclusivity, people!
Meredith “the Baxta” Baxter & her girlfriend Nancy lounge with Nat pre-show. Elizabeth Keener and chefmasterhottie Jamie Lauren discuss the wonders of cooking as well as eating out. Wink.
AutoNatic also meets up with Thea Gill, actress from the popular series Queer as Folk, who recently started her own Wonky Girl Productions and is starring in the upcoming TV mini-series Riverworld on the Syfy Channel alongside Alan Cumming.
Enjoy!
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The Ladies of Logo’s Big Gay Sketch Show Return Tonight, Talk Dirty to Autostraddle
Season Three of Logo’s Big Gay Sketch Show returns TONIGHT, Tuesday April 13th, at 10pm on LOGO. This is going to be the bestest, funniest season ever. We just have a feeling! If you’re already watching GLEE, or noticing that it’s almost 10pm already, then you should set your TIVO. OR, you can check it out on Thursday the 15th at 12am and 12:30PM, Friday the 16th at 2pm, Saturday the 17th at 11:30 AM, Sunday the 18th at 1:30 pm OR Tuesday April 20th at 11:30 PM.
Although men abound on Logo these days/this season, the Big Gay Sketch Show has serious girl power and stars three of our favorite ladies in the whole universe: lesbian Kate McKinnon, bisexual Nicol Paone, and our very own Julie Goldman, star of the Autostraddle Vlog-Series Julie & Brandy In Your Box Office.
Executive produced by Rosie O’Donnell, other returning cast members include Paolo Andino, Colman Domingo, Stephen Guarino and Jonny McGovern (check out his interview with Autostraddle’s Riese and DJ Carlytron on The Big Gay Pimp Show here)
In this season of “The Big Gay Sketch Show,” will Fitzwilliam finally get a vagina? Will Chocolate Puddin’ make the cut in “RuPaul’s Drag Race?” All your favorite characters are back with guest stars that include Rosie O’Donnell, Sharon Osbourne, Isaac Mizrahi, Andy Cohen, Bethenny Frankel, Julianna Margulies, Andre Leon Talley, and Rachel Dratch.
We thought we’d ask some questions of the lovely ladies at the helm of the show. Without any further ado…
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Julie Goldman
1. What’s your favorite sketch from the upcoming new season?
Julie: My favorite sketch from the upcoming season is the one I’m In. Just kidding. Uhhh… I think my fave so far may be The Sapphos Lipps Bar Mitzvah Song.
2. Who’s your favorite guest star this season?
Julie: My favorite guest star was André Leon Talley. I had no idea who he was and Jonny [McGovern] schooled me. He was so huge and so Gay – I couldn’t take my eyes off of him. He was like a Magical Gay Fashion Extravaganza.
3. If you could make out with another member of The Big Gay Sketch Show who would it be (and why)?
Julie: I would make out with the head of Craft Services. I dont think I need to explain why. Cheese crackers and all the mints I can eat. Who wouldn’t? Hot.
4. As a woman, how do you personally bring vadge-power to The Big Gay Sketch Show?
Julie: I just try and be my dykey self and bring the Lesbian Executive Realness. I enjoy being able to be all butchy and then be able to pull out a Liza Minelli or Mariah Carey and wear little dresses and say – yes – believe it. I can actually play women. Shocking. I am happy to represent a lady we dont EVER get to see on TV.
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Nicol Paone
1. What’s your favorite sketch from the upcoming new season?
Nicol: My favorite sketch from the new season is “Guess What I had for Lunch” — I laughed so hard when we were filming it and twice as hard when watching it. Basically the sketch is a new game show with 2 contestants and then we have Liza Minelli, Dr. Phil, Amy Winehouse and Raven Simon as the celebrity guests who burp in the contestants face in order for the contestants to guess what they had for lunch. Yummy deliciousness. Some of my favorite answers were semen, salami, leg of mutton and cocaine. Love that shit!
2. Who’s your favorite guest star this season?
Nicol: André Leon Talley, by far because he cancelled the first time because he didn’t like what he was wearing, which I totally get and then he came back the next week in all his mumu glory looking fantastic. I love that man. Put me in VOGUE.
3. If you could make out with another member of The Big Gay Sketch Show who would it be (and why)?
Nicol: Hmmmm, let’s see well, I’ve made out with Julie, Kate, Paolo, Erica — no not Erica, she wouldn’t kiss women, I guess I would make out with Coleman because he has a GLAAD award and is on Broadway right now.
4. As a woman, how do you personally bring vadge-power to The Big Gay Sketch Show?
Nicol: What a great question, thank you for asking that! Well, unbeknownst to the cast of crew of the show what I do to bring vadge power to BGSS is literally rub my golden snatcher all over everything before everyone gets to work. It takes me upwards to 2 hours! I rub myself on the props, the microphones, the headsets that our ep’s wear, the doughnuts at craft service, the costumes, our wardrobe stylist Bobby’s desk, his dog, our wigs, Amanda Bearse’s coffee mugs, the rug, our scripts, etc. LADY POWER!!!!
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Unfortunately Kate McKinnon has not yet responded to our email containing questions for this piece. Miss January Jennifer Nieves saw Kate on Sunday at something related to acting or whatever it is those kids do, so we know Kate is alive & well and can only conclude that she is just busy/doesn’t like us.
As it is now about five minutes before Big Gay Sketch Show showtime and this post needs to go up, we have no choice but to make up answers for her. We are pretty sure these answers are more or less what she would say as they are things that she DID say, just in a different interview and in another different interview as answers to different questions. But that’s really just semantics.
Kate McKinnon
1. What’s your favorite sketch from the upcoming new season?
“Kate”: There is a Fitzwilliam sketch, but there is also much more. There are some more celebrity impressions … Among them, I will say … Barbara Walters is on the show now. In all respects of her life.
2. Who’s your favorite guest star this season?
“Kate”: I would have to say André Leon Talley, because that is what the other girls picked and therefore it is statistically my most likely response.
3. If you could make out with another member of The Big Gay Sketch Show who would it be (and why)?
“Kate”: They say that I was so drunk that I licked a pole in the Spinnaker lounge and I don’t remember that at all, and I had a stomach virus, probably from something I contracted by licking the pole!
4. As a woman, how do you personally bring vadge-power to The Big Gay Sketch Show?
“Kate”: I like being a lady among men… I’m not sick of lesbian jokes, I think they’re all true, and I love them. I love that if I wanted to walk around and not shave my legs and have a bad attitude, wear a belt buckle the size of a burrito, I could. I could, and that would be okay because people expect that of me, and I like that people expect that of me.
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Catch the new season premiere of The Big Gay Sketch Show tonight at 10pm on LOGO:
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Big Gay Sketch Show’s Nicol Paone: The Autostraddle Interview
Nicol Paone is very busy, very funny and very very good looking. In addition to her spot on The Big Gay Sketch Show, which we’ve been told by multiple sources (Kate McKinnon, Julie Goldman) will actually premiere its third season in 2010, in March maybe, definitely for sure, Nicol’s got a healthy portion of funny sketches on Funny or Die, starred this summer in Judd Apatow’s “Funny People,” and has just added “stand up comedy” to her impressive list of special skills. In fact, she was performing on the Sweet Cruise, both in the Karaoke bar and on the stage, and was very funny!
Riese & Alex of Autostraddle.com sat down (’cause like I said she’s been standing up a lot lately HAHAHAHA) with Nicol Paone on the Sweet Cruise to the Caribbean to talk very quickly about life, love, work, and other important topics.
Nicol Paone’s sketch reel mostly from The Big Gay Sketch Show::
Nicol: Let’s rip it up.
Riese: Tell me what you’re working on right now.
Nicol: Screenplay. Actually, I’m writing and I’m also doing some stand-up around L.A.
Riese: You were doing improv up until now, how did you start wanting to do standup?
Nicol: I did standup when I first got to LA. I just loved doing characters and going in that direction. Now, the immediacy of standup is thrilling for me.
You don’t need to get directors to see your point of view or film it or rehearse it or find other people. Instead you think of something or something funny happens, you get up on stage that night, you do it, the audience tells you whether they think it’s funny or not. I find it thrilling and fun.
Riese: It doesn’t make you nervous?
Nicol: No. I don’t really have jokes. I just tell my stupid stories and people either laugh or they don’t. I’m like “Ok, that doesn’t work”. If this was my number one thing, it would make me nervous. But it’s just for fun, so there’s no pressure and it makes me think I should have that attitude for everything that I do. Just chill out, go with the flow, and see where it goes.
Riese: Now that you’re an “out bisexual,” do you feel more allegiance to gay media than you have in the past?
Nicol: Not really, ‘cause I feel the same exact way I did before, which is that the gay community is where I feel more at home, to be honest. I just feel like —
Riese: ‘Cause they’re weirdos.
Nicol: Yeah, there’s a lot of weirdos in here. It feels exactly the same way. When I came out as bisexual I did get some “boos,” and realized that lesbians don’t like bisexuals. They think we’re spies.
Riese: Right, yeah, I know, I basically identify as bisexual and — [distracted by the look on Alex’s face] — see Alex is already giving me the “don’t talk about bisexuals” look!
Alex: I didn’t do anything just now!
Nicol: I felt the look behind my shoulder.
Alex: I promise I wasn’t even listening.
Riese: I don’t know if not listening is better than giving me the look.
Nicol: Yeah, they think we’re spies. But we can’t help it, we’re just attracted to everyone.
Riese: Bisexuals just want to take off everyone’s clothes.
Nicol: Yeah, that’s the other thing too. Like, people think bisexuals are just like, sluts.
Alex: [trying to make up for giving the Evil Bisexual look] I love bisexuals! I’ve only dated bisexuals, actually.
Nicol: Really?
Alex: Yep. So there you go, I hope that I can represent for the better of us lesbians.
Nicol: I think it’s sort of an older generation thing too. But with a younger group it’s more like, “let’s not have a problem with bisexuals, let’s have a problem with people who don’t like anyone in the LGBT community.” Let’s all bind together! Instead of leaving us out.
Riese: Or feeling like it’s not our space because we’re not completely in allegiance to one side or another.
Nicol: And we’re not spies.
Riese: No, and we’re not. There’s also the misconception that a bisexual will leave a woman for a man.
Nicol: Totally. And that insults my intelligence, you know.
Riese: The stereotypes are super, super disrespectful, as though bisexual actually means “but also likely to cheat” or something along those lines which doesn’t really make sense.
Nicol: Totally. Like, do all lesbians have toolbelts?
[pause]
Riese: Yeah. Well… kinda.
Nicol: Kind of.
Alex: Yeah.
[laughter]
Riese: Not I.
Nicol: Well, some of them are true, but…
Riese: Were [you and Erin Foley] trying to keep your relationship secret at all?
Nicol: Not really. I wasn’t shouting it from the rooftops because I don’t think it’s anybody’s business. I’m definitely a private person. I told all my friends and people that I cared about and cared about me. But I really don’t like a lot of people to know about my personal life because people are weird. We’ve had some stalkery people, they just keep showing up.
See, we publicize our shows so people will come, but when someone starts coming every time … and bringing gifts … and you know, posting everything you do on Facebook, and tagging you in all their photos…
Riese: …and you’re actually only like, in the background of the photo …
Nicol: Yeah, like it’s just the back of my head… There was one time I didn’t feel like being photographed, I just went to a play and that was up on Facebook and I’m just like “Calm down!”
Alex: The Internet’s a crazy place to be. We just talked about this with Erin as well.
Nicol: It really is! It’s like, anything you do now, everybody knows about it. You’re doing it in an auditorium.
“It’s like the most fun I’ve had with anyone in my whole life. Just morning ’til night we’re dying laughing.”
Riese: And if you actually don’t do it, still everybody can know about it too. ‘Cause people just make shit up and then people believe them. I’m actually obsessed with this right now [low embarrassed-to-admit-this voice] because of um, lindsaylohansdad and everyone talking smack abut her [back to normal voice] — just how someone anonymous will just write something and everyone’s just like “Ah! I KNEW IT!”
Nicol: Well, yeah, I saw it in print! Gotta believe it!
Alex: It must be true!
Riese: So do you and Erin make each other laugh a whole bunch?
Nicol: Oh, God, it’s really ridiculous. I mean she’s a lunatic. She’s a total lunatic. It’s like the most fun I’ve had with anyone in my whole life. Just morning ’til night we’re dying laughing. Like going to get milk is like a stupid occurrence between the two of us. ‘Cause we’re just like “Milk, huh, you want milk?” like there’s some stupid character that comes out of it. And we’re both creative people so we can’t really get anything practical done, like looking for something she’s like “Babe, babe I can’t find my keys, babe I can’t find this, Babe, where are you, babe do you have the children? babe? babe? babe?” That’s her joke, so I’m going to give her the credit for it but it’s so true, we really cannot get anything done.
Riese: Do you help each other creatively at all?
Nicol: Yeah, which is really fun, I’ve never had a relationship where someone has helped me, they’ve always criticized me. [laughs] You know who you are. But we do the same thing but it’s also sort of different, so she comes at it from a different angle. So whatever I write, she makes better, and whatever she writes, I make it better. It’s really kinda cool and very easy.
Riese: That’s cool.
Alex: How’d you guys meet?
Nicol: We met at Logo Celesbian interviews.
Riese: Oh, at the [Julie Goldman voice] Julie Goldman Celesbian Interviews?
“I was dropping [Erin] off and so I just turned and I went in for the kiss. She got scared and turned her head and she ran away like a little girl.”
Nicol: Yeah, Julie Goldman’s thing! Erin’s interview was right after mine and I was in the makeup chair and straight and she walked in and I was like “Oh! She’s so pretty!” And then her side of things was that she couldn’t look at my eyes, and then I was like “I’m gonna stay and watch her interview.”
And then we kept bumping into each other over the next year and I saw that she was doing standup somewhere and I was like “I’m gonna go see her do standup,” and then I heard she had a crush on me and she got friends to take me out dancing, and we were dancing and one of my friends was like, “You’re ‘straight’… so you’re gonna have to put it out there with her.. to let her know that you’re interested.” And I was dropping her off and so I just turned and I went in for the kiss.
[Alex: HUGE GASP]
Nicol: (con’t): Yeah, like not like [aggressive interrobanging noise] but just like putting it out there. But she got scared and she turned her head and she ran away like a little girl.
Riese: Did you run after her like a little boy?
Nicol: No, I just said “Alright, great to see you!” But the big bad lesbian got all nervous. Then we talked for a week back and forth, I invited her to a midnight screening of Milk — I just wanted to show her I was down with the community —
Riese: Did you cry at the end of the movie?
Nicol: Yes. But I tried to hold it back. But I probably shouldn’t have, I should’ve just let that out, let her know I’m sensitive. I didn’t. And then we went on a date.
Riese: So you did consider yourself straight before then, or you were just sort of like whatever ..
Nicol: I was kind of like whatever. ‘Cause a year earlier I’d had a crush on a friend of mine so I was kind of like, “Oh, okay, well I guess this is what’s going on now..”
Riese: And then you were on the gay show.
Nicol: For me it was very individual. When I developed a crush on my friend I was like, “Oh.. I like you!” And it was never a big deal. I’m really surprised that it’s such a big deal to people, it really is. It’s never a big deal to the people going through it, it’s always a big deal to everybody else.
Riese: Yeah, but also bisexuality scares the shit out of people.
Nicol: Everybody.
Riese: And they don’t believe in it.
Nicol: Yeah, they really don’t. I think there’s a ‘B’ in LGBT, isn’t there?
Riese: Yeah there is, but they don’t really care, that’s just inserted in there to seem accepting.
Alex: Yeah they have to include you otherwise they’ll get in trouble.
Nicol: Well, no, they’re already in trouble because they don’t include us.
Alex: That’s true.
The Bisexual Flag... for real!
Riese: Luckily we have Tila Tequila.
Nicol: And we have our own flag … I like it better than the gay flag. It’s better colours, I think. It’s like magenta, like a darker pink, and then a purple. It’s coordinated.
Riese: But if we ever really did have a parade —
Nicol: We should have a parade.
Riese: We’d get a lot of shit thrown at us. And a lot of guys would be standing there going “MAKE OUT!”
Nicol: “I wanna do you BOTH!”
Riese: “I think you and your girlfriend are really hot!” .. So your Big Gay Sketch Show third season — coming out next year?
Nicol: Coming up in March, yeah.
Riese: So what are you doing with the screenplay?
Nicol: Yes. Well, I actually just finished the screenplay and I signed with the big agency so we’re going out with it in about four weeks. I was in Funny People over the summer, so I got to know some cool people from that movie and hopefully they’ll like what I wrote.
Riese: So do you feel like it’s been harder to get work now? Because of the recession?
Nicol: No, things are kind of booming, actually, because there’s so many different avenues for comedy. I just got a web deal where I’m working on different videos and I haven’t even started that yet. There’s a lot more outlets, more content, so I think it’s easier.
Julie Goldman, Nicol Paone & Kate McKinnon
Riese: Are you friends with your castmates from the Big Gay Sketch Show?
Nicol: Oh yeah. Definitely. They’re awesome, it’s a great cast, it’s a dream job. Except for the fact that it’s only ten episodes.
Riese: What are some sketches that you wanted to do that you didn’t get to do?
Nicol: That’s a good question. There was this one sketch I didn’t write it, it’s called “Bring Your Fag Hag To Work Day” and Julie Goldman and I were these fag hags and it was really funny because people at Logo brought their fag hags to work and so we were like making fun of Logo a little bit, it was really, really funny. I wanted to do a new CSI show, Dyke Drama Unit. That was pretty funny.
Riese: That would be funny on several levels too, because if you actually tried to call the police to handle actually dangerous dyke drama, they don’t care.
Nicol: I know!
Riese: And so it would be like a political message too, you know, which is always good.
Nicol: Honestly this season I got to do a lot that I wanted to do.
Riese: What is the best thing that you’re most excited about coming up?
Nicol: I got to do the voiceover for Damages, that was fun. There was this one sketch that I thought was hilarious, it was called “Guess What I Had for Lunch?” and it was all these celebrities burping in the contestant’s face and it was really funny. There’s this really cool sketch, it’s called “The Caves,” it’s basically like MTV’s Afghanistan, it’s not Cribs, it’s like The Hills but set in Afghanistan. So it’s really funny. It’s about how ridiculous those people over there are with women and women’s rights and all that stuff in a really funny and scary kind of way.
I did this Mother Theresa sketch, it’s really funny, it was based on the Christian Bale rant, and so it was like as if Mother Theresa went off on one of the nuns, and I know like, Mother Theresa’s gonna curse me, the Muslims are gonna have a fahtwa on her head. It’s like, we’re in trouble this season.
Riese: If you get a lot of people to watch Logo you guys could be in big trouble.
Nicol: I know. Thank God that, no. There are more people watching actually, we’re rated now.
Riese: We really like Logo.
Nicol: That’s great. My dad does too. My dad wears a Big Gay Sketch Show jacket around. This Italian man in New Jersey he’s like, “Yeah, my daughter’s on the show.” It’s really cute and funny.
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Check out Nicol in Funny People, on MySpace, and on Twitter.
The Full VIDEO: Autostraddle’s Riese & A;ex Do Logo’s 2009 NewNowNext Awards
At last we have wrung every last drop of material out of Logo’s Second Annual NewNowNext Awards. Well, not necessarily. There’s always the possibility of a behind-the-scenes B-roll tape!
Soooo … check us out on the red carpet interviewing The Big Gay Sketch Show’s Kate McKinnon & Nicol Paone, comic Erin Foley, girlfriends hot model Jessica Clark & trainer Lacey Stone, Jeffery & Cole (The Very Good Looking Gay Boys), Del Marquis of The Scissor Sisters, the world-famous Alexi Melvin of Alexi’s Closet, Ongina from RuPaul’s Drag Race and The Paradiso Girls, who sing a lovely song about getting a girl drunk so Lil’ Jon can take advantage of her while she throws up. You will also witness brief, flashing moments of our total professionalism and skills with interviewing people about nonsense!
We present the full cut — all ten lovely minutes — of the NewNowNext Awards Red Carpet starring Riese and Alex (sidenote, as of 3:30 PM EST, it was still processing, so it might not be at full quality quite yet):
This illustrious homosexual ceremony, hosted by A;ex’s Number One Feeling RuPaul, will air on gay-channel Logo on June 13th.
VIDEO! Logo NewNowNext Awards 2009 Preview & Photos!
The sneak-preview trailer for our spectacular video coverage of the second annual Logo NewNowNext Awards red carpet is LIVE! Last year we (A;ex & Riese) attended these awards having imbibed significant amounts of vodka during a private vehicular pre-party and we brought with us two broken microphones, zero photographers and a lot of SPIRIT! This year we upgraded: photoblogger Robin was in tow, only one of our two microphones was non-functional and … our vodka consumption the red carpet itself was actually red! That was a lot of pressure to succeed. Luckily we were positioned at the end of the carpet where a lot of the pressure was dissipated by favorable crosswinds.