It's New Orleans: Happy Hour

Singer, Songwriter, playwright Paul Sanchez describes Fat City as "a polyester Bourbon Street." Paul used to play in a band called Godot in Fat City back in the 1970 s. Being in an artsy new wave band that made musical references to French literature didn t get you laid back then. Paul says, though, that he sometimes went home with a woman who slept with someone else. The reason this conversation even gets started is because Cherie Melancon Franz the creator of Thinkerella mentions she doesn t know where the Cajun Melancon comes from in her family because she is adopted. Her birth mother found her when Cherie was 21 and apparently told her that she was conceived in Fat City one night after mom "met a guy." After some mild deliberation it doesn t look, however, like Paul Sanchez is Cherie Melancon Franz s dad. In case Cajun names get confusing and you don t know your Melancon from your Molaison, Paul brought along singer songwriter Justin Malaison to help him sing a song off his album, Between Friends. There s

Jax Frey is the most prolific painter in the entire world. Yes, you read that correctly. Jax has painted more paintings than anyone in the world. At least 6,500 more than Pablo Picasso who held the previous world record at 13,500. Jax is at 20k and counting. Except she can t get the folks at the Guiness Book of World Records to believe her. Not for want of trying. And not for want of having her record officially sanctioned by Guiness s competitors. The stuff you learn over a drink at Happy Hour is crazy. Did you even know there s a competing world record keeper Anyway, Jax is making 40 bucks a shot selling these paintings and she s knocking out thousands of them. Do the math. Oh, and by the way, she s single. David Capasso was single, more or less, for 13 years. On either side of that was the time he date a woman for a year and a half then went back after the 13 year break and married her. David is an attorney who loves to break certain laws, namely those pertaining to the restrictions on smoking weed. He s a

Lauren Malara is officially The Funniest Person in New Orleans. Lauren is the winner of the 2017 Hell Yes Next award from the comedy HQ of New Orleans, The New Movement Theater. Just a few hours after being crowned, Lauren s first official engagement is Happy Hour. It s trial by fire. One of Lauren s pieces in her routine, which she does on this show, is discussing her mother the racist. Lauren is black and her mom is white. Lauren s dad is black. Which makes Lauren the Obama of New Orleans. And that s not even the most interesting thing about her. Other than being the funniest person in New Orleans she was also a member of the famous Second City comedy theater in Chicago and spent 8 months as a comedian on a cruise ship and and only had sex for the last 3 weeks of the gig. Actually, you re going to have to do the math on that yourself. Kris Fortier is no stranger to people like Obama. The ex President that is. Kris has a company called Porter which caters to people with enough money to have other people make

In the annals of "You never know what the hell is going to come up in conversation," this Happy Hour would have to rank at the top of the list. Aidi Kansas her real name left behind a career as a pet portrait artist to pursue her abilities as a psychic energy healer and has stumbled into the world of getting women to reach spiritual enlightenment by stroking their own clitoris. Aidi calls it Clit Sit Meditation. Masturbatory meditation is only able to be practiced by people with a clitoris, in other words not men. Men, however, can have their own problems with too little ejaculation that can lead to porn and all manner of bad behavior. Talking of badly behaved men, Hitler, according to John Hebert, would have been a nicer person if he d stayed off of the crystal meth. Apparently only the 1930 s equivalent of Photoshop saved Adolf from being portrayed as the meth head he really was. Atoning for his owns sins, and some of his family s "My mother and I were bar fighters" , John is the guy behind all the red and

If you ve ever wanted to meet a bunch of amazing New Orleanians, or you want to reaffirm your faith in the plain old New Orleans tradition of having honest to god real conversations and fun with complete strangers, this is for you. YouTube sensation Princess Shaw describes how she got to be the Princess, what it s like to be a star, to travel the world, to come home to New Orleans with no job, to go from being a lesbian to loving men, and what to do when your partner cheats on you. And that s for starters. Desiree Ontiveros has a company called Badass Balloon Company that makes balloons with sayings on them the like of which you can see in the photo, above. Most of the sayings on these balloons will get us axed from whichever respectable podcast app you listen to podcasts on but you get the idea pretty quickly from Desiree s description. When she s not making balloons Desiree dreams of being a sexy assassin, like the original Princess Shaw. If you re not following that exactly, you ll catch on a couple of min

Mike Dillon is one of the greatest and most inventive percussionists in the USA, or probably anywhere. Mike chose to move to New Orleans for one simple reason the music. He s been on an interesting path to get here, not so much geographically as spiritually and psychologically. Being a New Orleanian also means you can drop the pretense and the b.s. that comes with living other places. If you want to know what that means in the real world, take a listen to what Mike has to say about his own life and life in general. And for a special treat, take a listen to Mike play. Veronica Alweiss is a life coach. If you ve ever wondered exactly what that is and why you might need one, well, everybody s doing it. Even the super cool, super successful folks at Facebook, who are Veronica s clients. Veronica solves the same questions in this conversation that she solves for the big shots at FB why are we here and what would we like to leave behind Along with the mirth, smart ass responses, the beer and cocktails, there are so

Singer songwriter Paul Sanchez is not on this show. But he was supposed to be. Criminal Defense attorney Michael Kennedy showed up early enough to have a couple of drinks to recover from his 2 hours at the gym working on his back which he does on Wednesdays . Linda Summey showed in plenty of time to get started drinking early too. It s Linda s last day on the job as a schoolteacher and one of her last days in New Orleans, so she s happy to have a bunch of drinks too. It turns out, after who s counting anyway number of drinks, that Linda and Michael have a lot in common, starting with the fact that they re married to and living with a guy named Josh, respectively. It s definitely not the the same guy. Linda s Josh is musician Josh Summey who Linda met when she was working at Macy s and Josh was working at Sunglass Hut. Michael s Josh is a guy he met naked at the other end of a Grindr hookup. About half way through this conversation, Paul Sanchez weighs in to say his car has broken down, he can t make it, and h

You might remember Tommy Hayne from the news. Tommy was the guy who got shot recently when he tried to convince a would be car thief to quit trying to bust into cars. He recovered quickly enough to play in an Ultimate Frisbee tournament a few days later but it turns out getting shot wasn t the only crazy thing he s done. He d been shot once before and in between those two firearm incidents he d jumped off of a cliff with a poncho over his face, opened a natural food store in Wyoming, and left his dog off of the leash while he got coffee at CC s on Magazine Street in New Orleans. If you re wondering how leaving your dog off the leash compares with crazy sh t like getting shot and jumping off cliffs, listen up. Emily Istre has had a whole set of other adventures that started when she dropped out of UL in Lafayette and took a random chance on finding herself in Las Vegas. Not only did Emily discover she had the skills to make it as a singer, band leader, and dancer in Vegas, she also found herself working with C

Andrew Duhon returns to Happy Hour after recording his new album, titled fill in the blank . If you have an idea for a title there s a free record, T shirt, and all kinds of other goodies waiting for you. Andrew describes the process of looking for a title amongst his ruminations on the river of love, pain and sundry other emotions that courses through the human body. Any ideas striking you yet Listen to Andrew play a couple of songs off the new album and maybe something will hit you like it hit Dr. Kathy Jo Carstarphen, aka K.J. K.J s idea for a title to Andrew s record is Angiogenesis. If you want to be 100 sure about the meaning of that you could Google it but K.J. is a doctor and describes it in a way that even a geriatric like Grant or her geriatric patients can understand, after a few drinks. K.J. also describes how we in New Orleans have achieved one of the highest rankings in America for the transmission of HIV and Syphillis, which is good to know because you don t get to read much in the news about S

Sage Rouge plays the part of Asterixxx the hobot in an organization called SCROTUM the Sacred Coalition Responsible For The Total Unfunkification of the Multiverse. Sage also pays saxophone in Johnny Sketch and the Dirty Notes as well as a funk band called In Business. The latter s newest recording is a concept album about space shenannigans, principally the battle for the multiverse under leadership of a charismatic futuristic loverboy called Andromeo. And that s just one of Sage s stories in this wide ranging conversation that drifts haphazardly across space and time, from The Good Wife to manicures for the terminally ill. Carissa Kerner Ramirez says a good manicure or pedicure can make you feel great, even if you re terminally ill. Whether or not any healthcare professionals agree, Carissa speaks from experience. Her company, The New Orleanian, will come to your house or hotel room and give you a bunch of stuff that will certainly make you feel better, from a massage to a full skin treatment. Carissa is a

Lori Tipton who you might recognize as both the creator of Sluts Unlimited and the voluptuous dynamo behind the bar in the lobby of the Ace Hotel discovered when she went to knock herself up using the turkey baster method that it s good know how deep your vagina is. Lucky for her, Lori discovered her vagina is shallow, therefore her cervix was easily "bathed" and she got pregnant first time out with the baster masturbation method. And that s just the beginning of the conversation with Lori on today s Happy Hour. There are a lot of "Only in New Orleans" moments on Happy Hour, but how about this one Two guys who have never met each other comparing notes about the Catholic brothers who beat the sh t beaten out of them in high school. And not even the same high school. Mark Berger was too smart for New Orleans and go shipped off to get beaten up in Mississippi. John Papa Gros got beat up here in New Orleans. Apparently it doesn t mess you up too bad. John has gone on to have a stellar career as a New Orleans musi

Frank Scurlock is ready to propose at the drop of a top hat. Admittedly, being super wealthy increases Frank s chances of getting a woman he s just met to agree to accept his Jason of Beverly Hills diamond engagement and wedding ring and commit to live with him and love him for all eternity, but so does the prospect of being married to the next mayor of New Orleans who has an actual plan to fix the pot holes. And this barely scratches the surface of the subjects Frank traverses during this hour from drinks with sheikhs in Qatar to dinner with titans on Wall Street and Disney style factories in New Orleans East. Including male multiple orgasms. Shane Avrard from the band The Noise Complaints comes up with a suggestion for Frank the expandable wedding ring. It s a one size fits all wedding ring for the spontaneous, impulsive proposer. Shane also manages to dismiss the entire contents of the Bible in this conversation as well as play two impressive songs off the band s new record, Feed It Back To Me. When you em

Even for New Orleans, this is an unusual bar scene: a woman in a vagina costume, a drag queen, and a super sexy African American guy having drinks. Which one would you like to know about first? Okay, the drag queen. That s Kitty d Litter. It s 3pm on a Wednesday afternoon and Kitty is wearing what she calls "Day Drag." The difference between day and night drag is that day drag is a little more subdued. Yes, apparently walking around with gigantic costume jewelry, enormous eyelashes, high heels, and an eye catching electric blue dress is a step down from Kitty s regular attire. If you ve ever wondered why certain gay guys like to dress in drag and what it entails, check out this frank conversation. What would make you want to walk around dressed like a vagina, or more strictly, a vulva? Amy Irvin is making a point about women, their vaginas, and raising money for the New Orleans Abortion Fund of which she is Executive Director. The fund gives money to women who can t afford it to pay for an abortion. That s

April Stolf wrote the book on success. It s called The Art and Science of Success. After a couple of cocktails Neuro Linguistic Programming seems pretty easy. April has enough material at this table to keep her busy for a year re programming personalities. First there s Zach Quinn. Zach dropped out of high school in Chalmette in 10th grade due to "mental problems." Today he claims to be riddled with insecurity and self doubt, but it s impossible to tell from his public persona as the front person for wildly successful punk band The Pears. Then there s Matthew Snyder. He s a professor of political science at Delgado with a specialist expertise in the Middle East. He lived and worked in politics and academia in Cairo and believes the whole of the Middle East basically has to burn to the ground before there will ever be peace. On the other hand, in his professional opinion Trump is too much of a buffoon to cause that to happen so we have nothing immediate to worry about. Other than, possibly, heroin. Cat Tod is

A villanelle is not a small cottage in the French countryside. It s a kind of poem where you can make the same point for example, making out with a bartender at The Maple Leaf in a number of chorus like ways. That s about the only literary fact you ll learn from Louisiana s ex Poet Laureate Julie Kane on this Happy Hour, but you will learn some more about Julie and the kind of life you can lead when you re a superstar poet, even if Julie does have Bobby Jindal of all people to thank for the recognition. Fame is no stranger to Richard Pomes. Richard is famous in the world of liquor and millennial liquor lovers as "The face of Fireball," the sweet cinnamon flavored whiskey that took the 20 something drinking classes by storm over the past few years. Today Richard is making an even bigger splash with his new brand, Ghost Tequila. It s a smooth tequila infused with Ghost Pepper one of the hottest peppers in the cosmos. After a shot of Ghost and a few minutes of Richard s magic spell binding sales poetry, you d pr

If you ve ever looked at something in a store and weren t sure whether to buy it or not, apparently the question you are subconsciously trying to answer is, "Is this me " According to artist Rebecca Rebouche, that s the central question in all of our lives in the way we relate to art. How that art gets created is a whole other question. In Rebecca s method, the path from the real world to an image living inside a frame can come from a sliver of nature or the crushing heartache caused by finding out that a total stranger guy you ve been looking at across the room in bar has a girlfriend. Jerry Resse II totally agrees with Rebecca. In Jerry s opinion the heartache of unrequited imaginary love is just as crushing as the real thing. Jerry has his sights set on sports broadcasting or politics but in the meantime he s more than happy to be setting up Dat Dog franchises around the country. If you re interested in making a boatload of money from selling Dat Dogs, look Jerry up. Tell em Happy Hour sent you. Jack Miele

When Cornell roboticist and biolocomotion expert Andy Ruina decided to come to New Orleans for a physics conference he didn t plan on walking into a bar to prepare for his lecture on the physics of the self propelled bicycle and end up being suckered into a podcast conversation with a bunch of yahoos. But thanks to the evil of cocktails we now all get to learn about the physical principles behind pushing a riderless bike across a parking lot. Johnette Downing also gives us an education. You too can learn to build a poboy the way the kids in Kuwait do it. Johnette is the internatonal musical children s ambassador, or children s international ambassador of music or something similar that s harder to remember after a few drinks but whatever her title, Johnette has a charismatic and captivating way of getting your attention, and songwriting skills that create simple melodies that are deceptively catchy. After you ve heard the poboy song try getting it out of your head. Chris Klein is trying to get his music out o

The first thing you notice about A F The Naysayer is that he is totally mucus free. Okay, you might notice that he s tall and striking, with a head of dreadlocks but you ll find out in this conversation why he looks so healthy and how he lost somewhere between 8 and 80 pounds. Closer to 80. It all goes back to 1912 and a mucus free diet. Keith Spera is the music writer for The Advocate. As you might imagine, it s a gig that gives you a lot of nights out. Of all the memories Keith could have dredged up over cocktails, how about the night he spent with Master P in P s Beverly Hills hacienda And then there s the menories of Mo B. Dick. Though after P moved to Baton Rouge with his entire crew that may have become Meaux B Dick. The sure way to be the most popular person in just about any room is to give away free booze. Stacy Johnson is the tasting room manager at Celebration Distillation, where they make Old New Orleans Rum. Stacy spends all day giving away free drinks and concocting new cocktails, and on this sh

If you ever wondered what happened to Carina Nathan she s now Kevin Simons. And Karen Regis. And Crystal Sedona. And Chi Chi the lead singer of the Girl Dogs, who is actually a dog. Katrina Brees sheds some light on this fantastic array of personalities, and their wardrobes. Tank from Tank and the Bangas has her own specialty wardrobe and range of personas too. Her wardrobe doesn t extend to panties which she has given up wearing but she does occasionally wear boy shorts to boost her booty. Her personas start out with Terianne Michelle Ball in New Orleans East and extend to the woman sorting through damaged goods on aisle 4 at Walmart. Norman Spence and Merell Burket from Tank s band, Tank and the Bangas, join the party but strictly under their own names. Ricky Leman s alter ego is Frederick, his real name. Ricky could have gone with alter ego 2, Fred, but he s keeping it real, pleading "the fifth" on a range of issues. All photos on this page were taken by sunny Alison Moon at Wayfare. See omnystudio.com/li

Kate Wright is a romance novelist. If you read romance novels you ve never heard of her. But there s a good chance you ve heard of Vivian Wood, Kate s pen name created by the way by a "mellow yat guy" . Vivian is the creator of a range of titles like "Noah s Revelation," "Gavin s Salvation," and "Taken By The Pack." These novels and novellas mostly feature covers of men who are "ripped" but not necessarily "driven" or "got their sh t together" which is the kind of guy Kate not Vivian is looking for. If you ve ever wondered it might be like spending all day every day in a sex fantasy, Kate like Noah has some revelations. And if you re wondering what men say to an erotic novelist and what kind of insight Kate has gotten about what men and women really want listen up. Alex McConduit is going straight home from this conversation to take a nap with Kate or alone at the time of writing was TBD then get up and launch his career as an erotic novelist under the name Chuck Wood. In his more sedate real life Alex is a c