Q&A of the Day – From Midnight in the Garden of Good & Evil to Duval street
Each day I’ll feature a listener question that’s been submitted by one of these methods.
Email:brianmudd@iheartmedia.com
Twitter: @brianmuddradio
Facebook: Brian Mudd https://www.facebook.com/brian.mudd1
Today’s entry...
Brian Mudd is always talking about how the only side of an issue that matters is the factual side. This morning he was discussing something which led him to say that Key West is not dangerous.....unless you’re walking on the wrong side of Duval Street and that his wife has had to push away a few hands and maybe it’s because he’s small (paraphrased). Just wondering Brian Mudd if you would clarify what you meant here because it sure sounded like you were referring to the homosexual population there and how you were being ogled. Just asking for the facts.
Bottom Line: Where. To. Begin. I was laughing out loud when I recently received this note via a Facebook post. Partially because I was joking when I made the comment and partially because of how many people wake up and wait to be offended by something. I mean seriously people. But I’ll play ball and answer the question because you’re clearly taking the comments far more seriously than I was when I made them.
First, my saying is that there are two sides to stories and one side to facts. The point of the saying is that we’re all entitled to our own opinions but there’s only one set of facts. So, starting with the facts since you’re asking for them. No, I’m not suggesting that I’ve been ogled by homosexuals, it’s gone much farther than that and not just on Duval and not just in recent years.
What would you like to know? That I was dressed in drag by the Lady Chablis and danced with her for a promotion during the heyday of Midnight in Garden of Good and Evil in the 90’s? That I was pinched more times than I could count during that experience? That after being cast in The Gingerbread Man and Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil my male agent propositioned me? That the reason I left acting was that experience? Or that yes, more recently I’ve been grabbed by a guy while walking on the sidewalk and kissed on the lips? That guys have been handsy on Duval? See the difference between, let’s say some people, and me – is that I’m at the opposite end of the spectrum when it comes to being offended.
The Chablis stuff was a bit creepy, but I expected it given the circumstances and we became friends over the years before I left Savannah. She used to call into my show and would attempt to convert me. They were funny bits, or at least I took them that way. The situation with my agent was genuinely horrible, I had to get my parents involved, and clearly, I took a different path with my career. As an aside I can say that the MeToo thing in that industry is very much a two-way street. There were/are several homosexual and bisexual highly influential people in that industry. I specifically know the stories of two A list celebrities, male, who experienced what I did with that agent. They did what I wouldn’t do.
As for the rest of it, aside from being shocked to be grabbed and kissed by a guy – that was an odd experience, I’ve generally laughed it off. And yes, as for my size, I’ve been told that plays in role in how aggressive certain guys are willing to be. What you see and hear from me is what you get. I’m analytical, considered and passionate. But I’m also a mostly washed up surfer who only wears board shorts and flips outside of work (if I can help it) and am happiest being around water with my wife and a good drink. I have very little free time in my life and the last thing I’m inclined to do with it, is to be offended.