"Qtalk" Gives the Gay 'View,' with Hot Topics, Singers & Underwear
By Bruce-Michael Gelbert
photo by Bruce-Michael Gelbert
Qtalk, with Joseph Macchia, Frantz Hall, Arbender Robinson, Terese Genecco & Stacey Todd Holt
The Ice Palace presented something different for a weekend evening, on July 17, with "Qtalk," a talk show-something of an LGBT version of television's "The View"-complete with hot topics, hot singers, and a hot underwear fashion show. Frantz Hall was the host and Terese Genecco, a Fire Island virgin, the guest host, and Stacey Todd Holt, also new to FI, and Joseph Macchia were the other panelists. Audience participation was encouraged as well.
Discussion of the hot topic, billed as "Relationships: One on One or Free for All," or open relationships vs. monogamy, ranged from agreements between lovers and honesty in openness to commitment-including committed threesomes-exploration and "cheating." The Meat Rack and its etiquette, and the hanky code were also probed.
Assisted by pianist Jeff Cubeta, singer Genecco, a MAC Award Winner, who lives in San Francisco, and has a show at Iridium in Manhattan on the last Tuesday of every month, contrasted a lusty "When You're Good to Mama," from "Chicago," with a wistful "If I Were a Boy," a ballad by Maria Gentile and Karen Cole, encompassing such lines as "Would you love me better if ...?" and "Would my Daddy love me if I was his son?" Arbender Robinson ("Hairspray," "Little Mermaid," and about to join the cast of "Hair"), announced as "the first gay, African-American Disney Prince on Broadway," sang "King of the World (chief of the sea)" in a powerful tenor-with, amazingly just one functional lung-and followed it with a dulcet "Georgia on My Mind," complete with piano interlude from Cubeta.
The evening included an N2N Bodywear fashion show, with some of the briefs modeled by Brandon the Ice Palace lifeguard, bartender Ugo from Jumping Jack's Seafood Shack, and cocktail waiter James from Cherry's.
