home
OUTmedia is a leading queer cultural activist organization. Our mission is to increase the positive visibility of LGBTQQA people and promote inclusive multiculturalism through the arts. FIND OUT MORE!
You've reached LGBTQ and Straight Allies Entertainment Central. if you're searching for national acts and celebrity talent in comedy, music, spoken word, lecture and performing arts with a POWERFUL multi-cultural bent, you have arrived.
VOTE NOW SO VIDUR KAPUR WINS MTV Logo's NEWNOWNEXT AWARd!!
Q-Me Con NYC 2008 Women's Summit Tickets on Sale NOW!
may 1, 2008
2008 QUEER MEDIA CONFERENCE (Q-Me Con) TO BE HELD IN NEW YORK CITY, WILL FOCUS ON WOMEN’S ISSUES
HEATHER MATARAZZO, ROSE TROCHE, ANGEL BROWN, BARBARA HAMMER, SARAH WARN, MICHELLE KRISTEL, AMY LESSER, KATHERINE LINTON, SHELLY WEISS, KERRY WELDON, OTHER PROMINENT ACTRESSES, BLOGGERS, JOURNALISTS, ENTERTAINMENT EXECS TO PARTICIPATE
Jason stuart's making it to the middle, now on HERE! TV premiering march 28!
March 20, 2008
Jason is set to appear in his first stand up comedy special JASON STUART: MAKING TO THE MIDDLE to air on HERE! TV from March 28th - to April 24th. The Special was filmed in the middle in the country, the middle of his career and the middle of his life. Executive produced by Jerry Rosenberg and line produced and directed by filmmaker Lisa Sanow. To get Here! TV 1.888.HERE.NOW or Go to http://www.heretv.com/
OUTmedia’s “QUEER RIOT!” Tour STORMS THE Wheeler Opera House, aspen gay ski week, january 17! STARRING VIDUR KAPUR, JASON STUART, and MARGA GOMEZ and HOSTED BY MISS Richfield 1981
January 9, 2008
Fresh from Miami’s Gusman Center for the Performing Arts, which is not just a “venue”, but the jewel of South Florida arts and entertainment facilities, comes OUTmedia’s “Queer Riot!” Tour to the historic Wheeler Opera House, and the premiere queer outdoor event, Aspen Gay Ski Week 2008!
Be prepared to belly laugh till it hurts, and celebrate our diverse community with some of the very top queer comedy acts in the US, as they launch a major national tour, destined for international venues in 2009!
This show has an all-star diverse and absolutely no-holds-barred riotous cast.
Diversity Gone Wild! starring vidur kapur in NYC, January 9!
January 7,2008 
Celebrate the one-man culture clash, Vidur Kapur’s selection as NY finalist for NBC’s “Stand Up For Diversity’ with a show that is as diverse as it gets.
This Gotham Comedy Club show has an all star diverse cast including the outrageous Jessica Kirson from The Tonight Show with Jay Leno & The J.A.P. Show in NYC, the hilarious Jamaican/Haitian Michele Buteau from Comedy Central’s Premium Blend and the born in Texas to Korean immigrant parents, and now a Jew teaching Hebrew, Esther Paik Goodhart from PBS's "Asian America".
the divinemaggees rock Out & Equal™ Workplace Advocates summit in chicago 9/14!
SEPTEMBER 13,2006
We're proud to announce that the divineMAGgees performed at the the 16th annual Out & Equal 2006 Workplace Summit, the preeminent lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) workplace conference, that will take place at Chicago's downtown Hyatt Regency. Next up: Catch them at Gravity Lounge in Charlottesville on 10/19, at Mauch Chunk Opera House in Jim Thorpe, PA on 10/21, courting record executives at NY's prestigious Metropolitan Room on 10/23 and 24, and at the National Association for Campus Activites (NACA) Mid-Atlantic Conference in Lancanter, PA 10/25-28, and NACA Northeast on 11/2-4 in Marlborough, MA.
See why Amy Ray of the Indigo Girls said "I loved them", when she saw them perform recently at The Crimson Moon on her home turf in
Dahlonega, GA.
JUDY GOLD& Julie Goldman Join Lewis Black,sARAH sILVERMAN and Jeff Garlin in an all-star tribute honoring lenny bruce and free speech in NYC on 9/13
september 12, 2006
An all-star show of funny free thinkers doing their own schtick on the 40th anniversary of Lenny's death in a benefit for P.E.N. and NY 
Center for Constitutional Rights.
Michele Balan was one of the four finalists on NBC’s 2006 “Last Comic Standing,” and she is "The Last Woman Comic Standing"!
august 9, 2006
Well what a summer it's been for riotous Michele on NBC's hot summer show, Last Comic Standing. From June 6 through August 9, Michele's ever-growing fan base got to see her weekly on NBC, or to her her NBC organized radio tour to scores of markets across the US. Michele will cap her 4th place finish with an action-packed month appearing at the Atlantic Theater in Jacksonville on 8/12, have a triumphant homecoming in NYC at Gotham Comedy club on 8/20, and performing at the Birchmere, on 8/25, the National Hillel conference in Clayton, GA on 8/26, Atlanta's Funny Farm on 8/27, SUNY-Fredonia on 8/31, and with Last Comic Standing winner, Josh Blue at the Comedy Connection in Boston 9/1-3.
Rob nash's holy cross sucks! is one of Time Out new york's
2005 top 10 broadway/off broadway shows
january 1, 2006
Rob Nash continues to dazzle the New York City theatre critics. His award-winning show, Holy Cross Sucks! (alternatively titled, School Sucks!) just added another accolade--Prestigious Time Out New York magazine selected it as one of the Top 10 Broadway/Off Broadway shows in 2005. This comes on top of rave notices in the New York Times, Variety, and a dozen other press sources. NYC audiences went wild, and fans both gay and straight, clamored for more. Who will ever forget, Rob's bowing as his full coterie of 28 multi-age, multi-ethnic, multi-gender and multi-sexual orientation characters characters, and the tumultuous applause?
OUTmedia is a Community Partner to Astraea lesbian foundation for justice
November 7, 2005
Astraea's 18th Lynn Campbell Memorial Fund Benefit will take place in NYC on 11/18 and will feature dazzling spoken word artist Staceyann Chin who "gives off enough electric current to keep Manhattan in air conditioning for a century of summers." (The New York Times). From the rousing cheers of the Nuyorican Poets' Cafe to one-woman shows Off-Broadway to poetry workshops in Denmark and London, Staceyann Chin has been an out poet and political activist since 1998. A co-writer and performer in the Tony nominated, Def Poetry Jam on Broadway, she has been featured on 60 Minutes and has won countless slam poet titles around the country.
holy cross sucks! rocks!!
september 19, 2005
VILLAGE Voice-Short List
Time Out, New York Magazine, High-5, and NYU Ticket Central- Pick of the Week
Rave reviews keep coming!
New York Times
Variety
NY1
Broadway World
Lighting & Sound America Review
Sarah Lawrence college, class of 2009...Be very afraid
august 19,2005
Some demented folks that preceded you had the idea that the Kinsey Sicks would be a rousing conclusion to orientation week. Yes, diversity is valued at SLC from day 1, but will you survive whole this gut-wrenchingly funny show is the question.
rob nash's Holy Cross Sucks! Runs at premiere off-broadway venue Ars Nova from Aug. 31-Oct. 1
august 18, 2005
Ars Nova (voted “Best of New York” by New York Magazine) presents HOLY CROSS SUCKS!, a comical journey through those sadly unforgettable years of high school, starring Rob Nash as an ensemble cast 30 multi-age, multi-ethnic, multi-gender and multi-sexual orientation characters. It’s 1981, year one of the Reagan Error. “New Wave” is replacing disco (Thank God!), and the word “AIDS” has just been coined. It's not a good time for gays (Ben), Communists (Johnny) or children of Marine sergeants (George).They decide to "get together and not conform" under the tutalage of the cool teacher Mr. Smith....
Directed by Tony Award Nominee Jeff Calhoun (GREASE!, BIG RIVER), HOLY CROSS SUCKS! runs August 31 thru October 1 at Ars Nova (511 West 54th Street). Opening night is Friday, September 9 at 8 PM. In the spirit of John Hughes’ 80’s teen film classics Pretty in Pink, Sixteen Candles, The Breakfast Club and Fast Times At Ridgemont High, HOLY CROSS SUCKS! follows three best friends, Johnny (the punk), George (the loser) and Ben (the homosexual) as they navigate those painful, life-defining, and often humiliating years of high school. Nash invites his audience to revisit a place that is uncomfortable and uncertain for all of us. Playing a full cast of beloved and reviled characters, Nash explores these paradoxes with unmatched biting humor, insight, humor, and understanding and a killer soundtrack. Holy Cross Sucks! was developed through the financial support of New York Theatre Workshop (RENT!, Angels in America, Homebody/Kabul). OUTmedia's Shelly Weiss is the Associate Producer.
NY VILLAGE VOICE CHOICE-Short List
High-5 Pick of the Week
Finish your clambake and run!
august 11, 2005
Calling all queer culture afficionados to vacation in Provincetown. Last call for summer, and if you're already there, down that last claw, and race to catch The Kinsey Sicks, Julie Goldman, Eddie Sarfaty, Miss Richfield 1981, Judy Gold, and Hedda Lettuce!
logo tv brings to your home-ruthie and connie: every room in the house
august 4,2005
Join two Jewish grandmothers in an intimate look at their turbulent coming together and courage in coming out. Explore the beginning of their love affair, their relationships with the children they left and their current struggle for rights in this powerful documentary. Part of Logo's Real Momentum documentary series.
August 7, 11 AM and 5 PM
Eddie sarfaty tells katie, matt, ann & Al tomorrow "When He knew"
july 27, 2005
Just in. Catch Eddie tomorrow July 28, between 9 and 10 AM tell his terribly funny tale of when he first knew he was gay. Will Matt want to share when he first dreamed of wearing JLo's Oscar gown? If you want to hear the whole story, catch Eddie in PTown this summer at the UU, or buy Robert Tractenberg's "When I Knew".
Julie Goldman: hot off the PTown net press
july 21,2005
THE REVIEW
FROM KHARIN DEINES. @ PROVINCETOWN.COM
Julie Goldman would be an absurdist if we didn't live in an absurd world. Since we do, there is no other way to describe what she has to say than as the god honest truth. Goldman deals with the art of stand-up like she's got nothing to lose, taking a wild leap of faith straight into the prevailing murk and mire of our sociopolitical swamplands, and emerging clean with some pure truths in hand. This is no abstract presentation of political opinion. Goldman is a crackerjack stand-up comic whose romping pop style and perfect timing allow her to wrest the uproarious from the serious and send her audience careening toward side-splitting bliss. The personal and political collide as she shoots off her smart stunners straight from the hip and with both feet on the ground, always keeping her attacks on bigotry and idiocy rooted in raw experience. Whether that is dealing with a Jewish mother who places homosexuality somewhere lower on her hate list than spinsterhood, or her day job travails as a nanny whose wards cannot determine if she is a boy or girl, Goldman is stunningly adept at dust busting the miasma that twists simple social truths into falsely complex conundrums. A master of irreverent cultural criticism, she will have you roaring so hard that you reach the edge of tears and beyond. Call it feminist or lesbian humor if you want, but the great thing about Goldman is she transcends all those terms and shows us that we're all in this together. She is very now and an absolute must see. Catch amazing Julie at the Vixen in Provincetown 7/5-8/31.
POV's documentary every mother's son nominated for an emmy
July 12,2005
Hunter College film professors Tami Gold and Kelly Anderson have received an Emmy award nomination in the ³Outstanding Individual Achievement in a Craft:
Directing category for their documentary Every Mother¹s Son.
The documentary deals with the topic of police brutality in New York City as told through the eyes of three mothers who lost sons to police violence. The film premiered at the 2004 Tribeca Film Festival, where it won the Audience Award. It also aired on the PBS program P.O.V.
The documentary is up against stiff competition. The other nominees include
Arlington: Field of Honor; Beah: A Black Woman Speaks; My Architect; Ten Days to D-Day and The Fight. The winners of the 26th Annual News and Documentary Emmy Awards will be announced on September 19 in New York City.
Every Mother's Son: Women Speak Out Against Police Violence, National Speaker's Tour poignantly addresses, 3 sons, 3 worlds, 3 mothers united by a common tragedy.
GINA YOUNG, she's so androgynous and now warped!
june 12, 2005
Hot on the heels of the release of her new album, she's so
androgynous, Gina Young is set to perform 47 dates in the
U.S. and Canada as part of the Shiragirl Stage on the Vans
Warped Tour! The Shiragirl Stage will showcase a wild
lineup of fierce female artists, many of them proudly
queer, each day of the tour. Don't miss this explosion of
girl punk.
Margaret Cho on belly dancing, marriage and the Holy City Zoo
june 9, 2005
by Rob Nash
I first met Margaret Cho at the 1991 San Francisco International Comedy Competition. Forty comics competed over two weeks of preliminary rounds. Neither of us advanced. I think she placed 12th. I pulled in at a close 33rd. Now she's on her fourth major concert tour, "Assassin," stopping at Bass Concert Hall on Friday, and I'm . . . writing the odd comedy feature for XL. (Cough.) Click link for Margaret above to continue the article or head to Margaret Cho right here
The L word's creative Music force may 26, 2005
Elizabeth Ziff is the new musical composer for Season 2 of the l word. Who is she? She's one fifth of the band BETTY. Ah, click. Connection made. Yes, BETTY is the band who wrote and sings this season's theme song. Also, they appear on the Season 2 sound track--which Elizabeth Ziff has Executive Producer credits on. Later this season, in time for the finale, there will be another cd released by the L word. It will contain the music that Elizabeth did for the show for Season 2. She's doing this under the name ezgirl music. Ready for another connection? Alyson Palmer, another BETTY member had a cameo in Season 2. Final piece of this web: another member of BETTY, Elizabeth's sister Amy, will appear in Episode 10 of Season 2 ("Land Ahoy").
hot off the grill
may 19, 2005
Cal Poly's Pride Alliance, LGBT Center, GLBU and ASI Student Government invite you
to a CommUnity Pride
event on May 20. Come at 5 PM to a free BBQ followed by the equally sizzling and free, lesbian standup comic, Shann Carr at 7, all at the Performing Arts Center.
Queer Spawned Kids rock
may 19, 2005
Gay dad and activist Wayne Steinman writes, "Well, Shelly, Gina Young is Hope's (Steinman-Iacullo) new most favorite perfoming artist. She saw her on "In The Life" and was turned on by her music. Then she was at a performance for another artist and Gina performed. Hope was smitten. She was invited to the CD release party last weekend. She now plays Gina's CDs all the time. (I'm even listening to her!) Hope is so impressed by Gina's words. She relates to the artist, and her style of music.
Thought you'd like to hear this.
Here's to our favorite Wesleyan pre-frosh of color. Lucky Wesleyan. Mazel tov, Hope!
Think global with vidur kapur
may 18, 2005
NPR's weeklong collaboration on globalization and it's far-reaching
impact is demonstrated by the Think Global documentary Feet in Two Worlds hosted by Pulitzer Prize Winner, Frank McCourt which features Vidur Kapur discussing South Asian gays who find sexual liberation in New York, but also embrace traditional Indian and Pakistani family values.
It will be broadcast on WNYC in the NYC Metro Area:
Friday, May 20 at 3PM on 93.9 FM and 9PM on AM 820
Saturday, May 21 at 4PM on AM 820
Sunday, May 22 at 6PM on 93.9 FM
Check Feet in Two Worlds for NPR listings across the US.
For folks in the Bay Area, catch hilarious Vidur on May 21 at an Asian Pacific American Heritage Month event sponsored by Stanford's Sanskriti, LGBT-CRC, A3C, and Out4Biz. His hilarious tirade incorporates his schizophrenic experiences of being a conservative upper middle class Indian with a Ph.D from the U. of Chicago and a preppy grad from the London School of Economics, a misfit in a family focused on arranged marriages and caste status, a chic urban trend-crazy fashion victim fag in Manhattan, and a person horrified at being mistaken for a terrorist in post 9/11 America.
the kinsey sicks keep turning red states into rosy shades of purple may 13, 2005
Just in from Boyd Jones,
Campus Programs Director,
Winthrop University in Rock Hill, SC:
The students on Winthrop’s DSU Program Board at the end of each year vote and rank all the acts that come our way each year (about 60) in various categories. I always know what I feel about how the acted fared on campus but it is always interesting to see which were the favorites among the students working the shows each week.
Now the good news…THE KINSEY SICKS' DRAGAPELLA …
WINNER… BEST PERFORMING ARTS: SPECIAL ATTRACTION act we brought to campus this year…
WINNER…(out of 60) ... MOST TALENTED ACT we brought to campus this year…
WINNER… (out of 60)… DSU ENTERTAINER OF THE YEAR…
Top 5 (out of 60) ... MOST FUN ACT WE HOSTED THIS YEAR
Congrats!
Please share the news w/ the Kinsey Sicks and you each are receiving a high – five via the internet from the Carolinas at this moment !
vidur kapur nominated for best south asian comedian!
may 10,2005
Vidur has been nominated for the desiclub.com 2005 South Asian Media Awards in the category of Favorite South Asian Comedian! So starting May 13, please vote for Vidur!
Julie Goldman leaves Olivia's Punta cana comedy extravaganza and lands with her bride-to-be at a surprise wedding shower
may 9, 2005
Ever been to a Double Bridal Shower? From girly, fluffy, tra, la, la to butchy and fab, Julie and Nikola's friends showed up in full regalia for our favorite brides-to-be bearing gifts to match. It all happened at the gorgeous apartment of Jen Cohn, part of Julie's friendship circle of terribly talented and underemployed Emerson College grads. Julie's male friends snuck in posing as waiters wearing "Oh Boy! badges on their white shirts as they served franks in jackets, quiche tarts, and Bellini's. Watchout Thom Filicia, for this straight woman directrix Jen armed with paint brushes in red, yellow, and glowing neon, and a dart board table supported on crutches!
ROb nash floors Producers at New york's ars nova Theater
may 6, 2005
Well Jeff Calhoun, director/choreographer extraordinaire of Grease, Big River, and Brooklyn, the Musical fame and I (Shelly Weiss, that is) were at a meeting today with producers Jon Steingart and Jason Eagan from Ars Nova. We've worked for years together nurturing this project and were prepared for good news, but this surpassed our wildest notions. Ars is such an amazing off-Broadway venue, pumped up theatre, prized productions, and accessible to audiences at affordable prices. No wonder New York Magazine, called it "New York's Best". Jon and Jason said they were "Floored!" by Rob's recent rewrite, and wanted to move his opening from closing 2004-2005, to opening and being the premiere event of 2005-2006. "Woohoo" as Rob would say. Everywhere I go this week, I see the word "Floored!" Sky, ceilings included.
Hollywood comes to milwaukee
May 2, 2005
Jason Stuart just emailed us:
I am going back to Milwaukee to do their big PRIDEFEST June 11th with RuPaul and Taylor Dane! I just met Ru in NY and was a guest on his radio show . He was out of drag and was dressed like the green hornet! I have never met Taylor and look forward to meeting. Milwaukee has a soft place in my heart because in 1996 I did their Pride. I had just done a club date and flew that afternoon to do the show a few hours later. I don't do that anymore... if I can help it.
The stage was shaped like horse shoe and people were milling about. There was this great “George Michael” type singer who I had a crush on (that’s another story) and no one was listening to him. I started to panic and get nervous. I was tired and thought, "how can I get there attention and focus." Well there was not time to think and the loud speaker introduced me and the crowd cane to the stage and they gave me a standing O for my first joke and the laughter was like music to my ears. It was the first time I realized that I was making a small difference for being out. And it made me feel that I was not alone in my fight to be an openly gay artist.
eddie sarfaty: Gay, A sephardic JEW, and extremely funny at tufts hillel
april 29,2005
Rahel Menghestab, Tufts LGBT Center said, "Sarfaty was wonderful to have. He's very interactive with the audience, and gears jokes toward the specific type of audience. Extremely funny, and a must for any school!"
This came from Maggie Chaitman, of Tufts Hillel. "Eddie was very funny. It was Admit Weekend and my friends/their pre-frosh's found it a great Thursday evening activity. Hope it gave the prefroshes a good taste of Tufts' openness to people of all kinds and backgrounds. I think it did."
how do we work?
April 25, 2005
Using the arts as a vehicle for societal change, we work to give voice to our lives through live performance events, and have been in the forefront of the movement for LGBT awareness and inclusion in the music, comedy, film, TV, and record industries.
We've received kudos from HRC, the campus based National Day of Silence, Interpride, and ACPA's SCLGBTA for our outstanding work on college campuses and with LGBTQQA youth. Shelly Weiss, OUTmedia's founder was the Spokesperson during the 1993 historic New York City Children of the Rainbow Curriculum battle against the Religious Right, which was the impetus for the development of OUTmedia.
OUTmedia is a leading source for LGBTQ and LGBTQ-affirmative celebrities and other multicultural talent and speakers. We are deeply committed to the promotion of diversity within mainstream and LGBTQQA culture, giving voice to African-American, Latino/a, Asian, Jewish and women artists.
We pride ourselves on great service, professionalism, prices, and most importantly, politics! OUTmedia is a proud sponsor of LGBT youth events including MBLGTACC, True Colors, National Day of Silence. Midwest, Eastern, UCal, Southeast, Northeast GLBTQA Regional conferences, COLAGE, ACPA Nat'l Conference, SCLGBTA events,
and Reaching Out MBA '05 Conference
. We value your support!