Charles Busch on Liza & Judy, Rosie O'Donnell, Joan Rivers & more
Hot Takes & Deep Dives
Jess Rothschild
4.5 • 774 Ratings
🗓️ 18 May 2026
⏱️ 58 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Jess is joined by playwright and "male actress" CHARLES BUSCH! Topics include: ROSIE O'DONNELL producing the disastrous Boy George musical 'Taboo,' performing at The Duplex in the late 70s, becoming close with JOAN RIVERS, the chaos of interviewing LIZA, working with NATASHA LYONNE, and how 'Vampire Lesbians of Sodom' became one of the longest-running Off-Broadway plays of all time.
⭐ Night of 1000 Judys: June 1 @Joe's Pub
* all donations benefit The Ali Forney Center *
⭐ IG: @jessxnyc
⭐ Jess' docu-series on the history, mystique & lore of Fire Island — Finding Fire Island
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome back to hot takes and deep dives, and my next guest is best known for his play's |
| 0:20.1 | Tale of the Allgist's wife vampire |
| 0:22.4 | lesbians of Sodom his films psycho beach party and my favorite die mommy die please welcome to the |
| 0:29.4 | stage playwright and male actress Charles Bush hi Charles Bush well hi their neighbor |
| 0:36.3 | yes wait can we just say you were the king of |
| 0:39.5 | Abington Square? Thank you. The king, yes. Well, you know, I don't move around. You know, I've lived on |
| 0:47.2 | my block since 1980. 1980. I've only actually lived in, in my entire life, I think I've only lived in three addresses. |
| 0:56.9 | Isn't that weird? No, well, for me, I'm saying no, because I've only lived in three or four. |
| 1:02.9 | Yeah? Yeah. Yeah, because most people I know have lived in six different apartments in Manhattan. |
| 1:08.0 | Yeah. Okay, wait, I actually do want to talk about Abington Square because I think most, I think if |
| 1:13.2 | you literally walked up and down Hudson Street for 20 minutes and asked every single person |
| 1:19.0 | you passed, hey, where's Abington Square? |
| 1:21.7 | I don't think one person. |
| 1:23.4 | I think only somebody who lives in your building or the neighboring buildings would actually know what Abington Square is. |
| 1:31.5 | It's very eccentric in every way because actually my building is at the crossroads of Bleaker Street, Bank Street, Hudson, and 8th Avenue. |
| 1:42.9 | All meet right there. It's like the Chamz-Aise of... Of the West Village. Yeah, yes. It really is. And it's very hard to explain to someone. But Abington Square... So, like, there's obviously Abington Square Park. Yes. Which is a beautiful little... A little triangular pocket park. I just don't think the only reason that I'm bringing up |
| 2:02.6 | Abington Square is because you're shouting Abington Square from the rooftops on Instagram. |
| 2:08.4 | You're like, here's my photo of my view. I mean, you're doxing yourself day and day in. I am. I don't know. |
| 2:14.7 | I have a very wonderful and odd kind of celebrity. You know, my, |
| 2:21.3 | my base is, you know, maybe, you know, a couple thousand people, but I will, I will pitch, |
| 2:28.2 | I will pit the enthusiasm and loyalty of my group against Taylor Swift or anybody. |
| 2:35.7 | No, I just, I'm really fortunate. |
... |
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