Jan 15, 2026
Dennis is joined via Zoom by author Jon Imparato to talk about his new memoir The Good Inside the Grief, in which he writes about everything from his Catholic childhood to his challenging relationship with his father to volunteering to man the shaving cart and shaving AIDS patients at the height of the pandemic. Jon also talks about the moving and surprising reactions he's gotten to it so far and what it was like to write about such difficult topics as losing three lovers to AIDS, having two difficult heart-to-hearts with his father 45 years apart and getting sexually assaulted by a guy he met in acting class at 19. He also writes about working with gay youth at the LA LGBT Center, teaching writing to queer seniors at Triangle Square in LA and discovering the magic of being in "vagina world" when he booked Eve Ensler's The Vagina Monologues as his first big show as Director of the Cultural Arts Department of the Center in the late 90's. Other topics include: why he used to call people for two rings and then hang up, the pleasure of Sunday Sauce, befriending a Canadian soldier while traveling in Bali and having it change his life forever, the wisdom of Betty White and a psychic Stevie Nicks story that will blow your mind.