We’re Not Finished

Freedy Johnston is on his way to Key West! Tropic Cinema show is Saturday 2/15

I chat with singer-songwriter Freedy Johnston, a master storyteller and celebrated artist, about my favorite songs of his - "Bad Reputation" and "The Mortician's Daughter," finding much more happiness as we grow older, and his plans to make his first ever trip to Key West, Florida for a special concert at the Tropic Cinema on Saturday, Feb. 15, 2025. 
7:30 p.m. show
Ticket info: www.tropiccinema.com/single-film/?title=An%20Evening%20with%20Freedy%20Johnston

Pop superstar Debbie Gibson on her Love Songs Tour coming to Key West, being a Jeopardy! question and her 'DebHeads' fanbase

Gwen chats with singer-songwriter Debbie Gibson, who made music history in the 1980s as a 16-year-old pop superstar and went on to keep making music, star on Broadway and now produces films.
Her new tour, Debbie Gibson's Love Songs, arrives at the Key West Theater at 8 p.m. Feb. 16. 
Tickets: thekeywesttheater.com/e/?event=622060
For more than 35 years, Debbie Gibson has been a force: a singer, songwriter, producer, musician, actor, and entrepreneur.
She's been famous since she was a kid. Gibson took the music business by storm when she hit the Billboard Pop Charts at 16 with her song “Only In My Dreams.”
Debbie became the youngest artist ever to write, produce and perform a No. 1 hit song -  “Foolish Beat" - on the Billboard Hot 100 and entered the Guinness Book of World Records. She remains the youngest female to hold that record. Oh and less than a year later, she did it again with “Lost in Your Eyes," which she wrote and produced.  

Sarah Koenig, host and co-creator of the award-winning Serial podcast

We close out this season with Sarah Koenig, the host and co-creator of the heaviest hitter of podcasts, Serial.
Sure, her reporting helped overturn a murder conviction by revealing how it was based on questionable evidence, she won a Peabody and reinvented the podcast with Serial. 
But did you know we also palled around while working as rookie reporters in snowy New Hampshire back in the late 1990s? Yeah, this doesn't get as much attention in the news reports. 
We talk about the deep dive Serial took into the Adnan Syed case. Watching him leave a courthouse a free man. Whether "true crime" fandom is a good thing. And attending the best dang wedding in Concord, New Hampshire.
 
Thanks to everyone at The Studios of Key West for your partnership on We're Not Finished, which was produced by Kevin Assam. 
 

Artist Ernest Shaw Jr. and comedian Charly Esturilho

Artist, muralist and educator Ernest Shaw Jr. talks about being inspired by his hometown of Baltimore, documenting the Black/Africanist experience, spending time in Key West as an artist in residence at The Studios of Key West, and works that left me speechless, like Crossing Gods. 
 
Comedian Charly Esturilho and I talk shop, South Florida life and why his gigs include going into drug rehabs to perform for people in recovery.
 
Gwen Filosa is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist based in Key West. She is also a regular performer at Comedy Key West. 

Key West artist Tory Mata and performer Jobie Jacomine

This episode features two Key West artists who recently made big art news and who know the daily grind needed to succeed on this expensive island. 
Tory Mata recently won a prestigious 2022 South Florida Cultural Consortium Visual and Media Artists grant that includes $15,000 and an exhibition at a Miami museum. We talk about how she finds inspiration on the roadside - there was a rusted fender in the desert one time and changing directions in art.
Jobie Jacomine, who performs as drag queen Puddin Tain, hosted the wildly successful Queer Keys fundraiser at the Key West Theater recently and has quickly become a popular performer at 801 Cabaret on Duval St. We talk about his New Orleans roots, queer stuff and the hustle needed to pay island rent.
 
 
I make this podcast with The Studios of Key West, a leading arts institute in South Florida and producer Kevin Assam, a writer and artist in Key West.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Key West Burlesque director Christa Hunt and Key West historian Cori Convertito

Christa Hunt created Key West Burlesque 17 years ago. She shares about the new season, how to burlesque the Harry Potter franchise and the Gurly Burly Burlesque Show on Sept. 8, which I'm co-hosting btw. Key West is a really small town.
Cori Convertito is the curator and historian for the Key West Art and Historical Society. We talk about the Writers in Paradise lecture coming up at Comedy Key West on Sept. 15. The list of writers who have lived on the island include Tennessee Williams, Wallace Stevens, Elizabeth Bishop, Judy Blume, a longtime resident who runs Books & Books at The Studios of Key West, and the fella who wrote Farewell to Arms and The Sun Also Rises.
 
This podcast is presented in partnership with The Studios of Key West, a leading art institute in South Florida, at 533 Eaton St., and produced by Kevin Assam. For a list of events and more programming like this, visit tskw.org.

Let’s talk about Jordan Peele’s film, ”Nope”

This episode is all about Jordan Peele's latest film Nope. I was knocked out by this spectacle and pronounced it Peele's best work yet. But I have lots of questions about what exactly is going on in Nope. 
So I invited two guests. 
Rene Rodriguez, an award-winning writer  teaches at the University of Miami and runs the Bill Cosford Cinema for the UM School of Communication. We chatted about the significance of Nope, how it was shot with Imax cameras and whether it's too long. 
Runi Goyal is a former board member of the nonprofit Tropic Cinema in Key West. She now lives in Hawaii but she saw Nope while in Boston, after I asked her to be on the podcast. That is dedication to film. 
This podcast is presented in partnership with The Studios of Key West, a leading arts institute in South Florida, and produced by Kevin Assam. 
 

Poet Steve Turtell and Key West actor Susannah Wells

Steve Turtell, a poet in New York whose work includes the collection Heroes and Householders, shares about having more than 50 jobs in 50 years, his career as a baker, LGBTQ+ rights and the time he spent in Key West. 
Susannah Wells talks about theater work in Key West, the virtues of the board game Clue and we bond about making crafts when we were vacation Bible school kids.
This podcast is presented in partnership with The Studios of Key West, a leading arts institute in South Florida. It's produced by Kevin Assam. 

Author Emma Berquist and Key West actor Erin McKenna

Emma Berquist, author of Devils Unto Dust and Missing, Presumed Dead, shares about why people like true crime, writing dark novels and dealing with Twitter. 
Erin McKenna, an actor, dancer and founder of Love Cheeky apothecary, talks about her success on Key West theater stages, how she got her start performing and parking legally at the jumping bridge on Sugarloaf Key.
 
 
This podcast is presented in partnership with The Studios of Key West. 
Gwen Filosa is a Key West-based journalist with a standup comedy side hustle. Follow her on Facebook and Twitter for Key West news updates. 
She performs regularly at Comedy Key West. She is headlining Wednesday, Sept. 7 as part of Womenfest 2022 Showtime is 8:30 p.m. Doors open at 7:30 p.m. 
Click here for tickets. 

Comedian Katherine Blanford and David Sieminski, owner of Leather Master Key West

Katherine Blanford and I talk about her debut comedy album, "Salt Daddy," the perils of bachelorette trips and why Fort Lauderdale is "Miami with love handles."
David Sieminski shares about leather, sex stuff, running Leather Master Key West, and why some Key West leaders can calm down about Fantasy Fest nudity. 
This podcast is presented in partnership by The Studios of Key West and produced by Kevin Assam.
 
gwenfilosa@gmail.com