(Via Stephen Amell’s Instagram)
• Orlando Sentinel: Florida man coughed, sneezed, spit throughout a Best Buy after refusing mask. He told the police he’s “been going through a lot this year and got carried away.” • World Of Wonder: Porn performer Reno Gold donated a week’s worth of his online earnings – over $27,000 – to the Elton John AIDS Foundation, which is awesome. p.s. if you do the math, Reno makes over $1 million a year, so, wow… • Instagram: A 21-year-old fashion/lifestyle photographer in Mexico City shared the emotional moment he told his mother he was marrying his boyfriend and his religious mother denounced him for being gay. The video quickly went viral. “The day I die you are gonna be the one who kills me because I’m always thinking about all the stuff you’ve done wrong,” she told him. “You do wrong. You sin. Think really hard about what you’re doing. Think about it and don’t sin for Satan.”
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The Randy Report: Congratulations on The Award Winning Holiday Album. You’re already ‘award-winning’ before being released! Most recording artists take their holiday albums straight on down the ‘music lane,’ but you specifically bring the comedy here. How did you come to that approach? Marty Thomas: All that we’ve had to keep us company during this pandemic is art, hope, and humor. The concept of this album has been an inside joke all year and Marissa and I finally figured out that it was a joke that might be funny to someone else too! The whole award show approach developed organically as we were curating the album. My boyfriend says I laugh at all of my own “dad jokes” more than the rest of the world. If that’s true, I guess I’m okay with that. TRR: The tracklist is an eclectic mix of holiday tunes. How did you choose the songs? MT: We definitely wanted to try and steer clear of the same 10 tracks every artist releases on their debut holiday album. We also wanted to represent our individual backgrounds and our love of cabaret and musical theater. We poured through so much music and put a lot of care into narrowing the setlist. It was very important for me to represent Marissa’s family and their celebration of Hanukkah as well as my celebration of Christmas. There really aren’t a lot of Hanukkah bops out there so I was determined to arrange a disco Hanukkah anthem to get the party started. I found a song by Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings, tailored it to fit Marissa’s strengths and it quickly became my favorite track on the album. Six of our besties from around the country all signed on to record remotely and I was able to create my dream arrangement of Dolly Parton’s “Hard Candy Christmas.” This album was incredibly joyful to create. TRR: You’ve been ‘Broadway best friends’ for so long. How does that rapport come into play when you’re creating something new? MT: Marissa is one of the hardest working, most creative people I know. I often have to “sell” her on my stupid ideas, but she is always open to putting in the work and creating. We can sort of read each other’s minds musically, and hilariously sound almost identical when singing backup vocals. We weren’t able to enlist any studio singers for the record because of the pandemic and recorded the entire thing in the corner of my studio apartment. All of the vocals you hear on the record are just the two of us. Our long history of working and singing together really came into play nicely. Also, it was just really nice to get to hang out together, like the good old days before Trump gummed up the works. 
TRR: After a lot of fun upbeat tunes, the final track on the album is “Hard Candy Christmas” from The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas. The sentiment is a bit melancholy but definitely forward-looking. It feels like that was a conscious choice to end on? MT: That’s awesome to hear because that’s exactly what I was going for. I imagined it as a very welcomed zoom-call style catch up with our friends from around the country. I’ve always seen that song as a sad, yet still hopeful message. I wanted it to musically represent us comforting each other, supporting each other, and encouraging a bright future. Positivity and vulnerability are hot commodities these days. Marissa and I truly hope someone else out there can relate to the tune. TRR: This whole album could be a cabaret act in itself. Have you considered turning The Award Winning Holiday Album into a live performance? MT: ABSOLUTELY! What’s the point of waking up in the morning if the process can’t eventually be turned into a cabaret act!? Lol. I love creating old school albums, intended to be listened to, from beginning to end. My hope is to do a new holiday album and a holiday concert/party annually. If anything positive came from this window of time 2020 gave us, possibly it was the drive and the time to begin a new joyful journey with my best friend. 
In this episode I chat with my longtime (and awesomely talented) friend, Rachelle Rak, or as she’s known to countless friends and fans, “Sas.” A quick run-down of her lengthy resume includes her many Broadway Credits: Fosse, Catch Me If You Can, The Look of Love, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Thou Shalt Not, Oklahoma!, and CATS. Numerous TV appearances including Abby’s Ultimate Dance Competition and Dance Moms on Lifetime TV, and you’ll remember her from the Broadway documentary Every Little Step: The Making of A Chorus Line. There are two aspects to this chat: Two friends catching up on how the COVID-19 pandemic has affected life, but also how the coronavirus crisis doesn’t have to slow us down. 
