It’s time for the podcast you’ve all been waiting for: “To L and Back” Live in L.A. With The L Word®: Generation Q Cast: an Autostraddle x SHOWTIME® Event!” We had an incredible time on Wednesday making this particular work of lesbian art come to fruition, and you’ll get a FULL EVENT RECAP from us later this week which’ll include pictures of your shiny happy faces! Here we are after the recording, also feeling shiny and happy!

Recorded at the LA LGBT Center with an audience of ~200 delightful humans, Carly and Riese talk to Jacqueline Toboni (Finley), Leo Sheng (Micah), Rosanny Zayas (Sophie) and Arienne Mandi (Dani) about filming sex scenes, L Word origin stories, riding losing winning, falling in love with your best friend, on-set shenanigans, fan fiction, fangirling and so much more! Plus: use code AUTOSTRADDLE at showtime.com/try30 for a 30 day free trial of SHOWTIME®!

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As we announced at the show, we’re going to be taking the next eight weeks off of your regularly scheduled “To L and Back” original series recap podcast and in its place you will find a “Generation Q” podcast, hosted by Analyssa Lopez and Drew Gregory. Analyssa is a self-appointed “pop culture lesbian” working in television as a creative executive whose interests include tv criticism, celesbian gossip, and crossword puzzles. Drew is a writer, filmmaker, and theatremaker you may know from her work writing on Autostraddle, Bright Wall/Dark Room and Thrillist, among others. We’re all very excited for the unique perspective they’ll bring to the table in my kitchen. This week’s Gen Q podcast will debut Thursday because Karen can only do so many things in one day, but in subsequent weeks you can expect it to turn up on Mondays as usual.

I will be recapping Generation Q in print right here on this website and will see you back on the pod on February 3rd! We hope you love this very special episode as much as we loved making it for you.

Carly Usdin: Today’s very special live episode of To L and Back is brought to you by Showtime.

Riese Bernard: As I’m sure you know, our favorite show The L Word is returning with The L Word: Generation Q, starring Jennifer Beals, Kate Moening, and Leisha Hailey, alongside a new group of tight-knit friends experiencing love, life, setbacks, and success in LA.

Carly: That’s right. It’s a bold new series for a bold new generation.

Riese: We are truly so excited and cannot wait to watch!

Carly: Like seriously we are so excited.

Riese: We’re actually so excited that we already did watch, um, and we loved it.

Carly: We loved it!

Riese: And if you are ready to watch right now, good news: Showtime has a special offer for To L and Back listeners. Use the code autostraddle to get a 30-day free trial of Showtime!

Carly: Offer is valid through December 31 and is valid for new customers only.

Riese: So you can sign up at showtime.com/try30 and use the offer code autostraddle.

Carly: And don’t miss new episodes of The L Word: Generation Q Sundays at 10 pm Eastern and Pacific, only on Showtime.

[theme music; audience screams a lot]

Carly: Oh my god, hi.

Riese: Hi. Hi I’m Riese.

Carly: And I’m Carly.

Riese: And this is —

Riese and Carly: To L and Back.

Riese: We’re so excited to have you guys here today.

Carly: Yes thank you so much for being here. This is our — obviously — very, very special live episode. We have some very, very exciting guests, but before we get to that, we are going to show a wonderfully extended trailer for The L Word: Generation Q. Enjoy.

[extended trailer plays, followed by applause]

Riese: It looks okay. Right?

Carly: [laughs] Yeah. It looks all right.

Riese: I think I’ll be fine.

Carly: Just kidding, it’s awesome. All right, we’re just gonna get right into it. We’re going to start bringing out our guests. First up, we have Arienne Mandi, an LA native you may have spotted on NCIS and Hawaii Five-0 or the go90 series In the Vault. She’s fluent in four languages and plays Dani Núñez, a powerful and calculating PR executive desperate to use her power for good.

[audience applause]

Arienne Mandi: Hi, everyone.

Riese: Next up is Leo Sheng who, like me, is from the Ann Arbor, Michigan, area and attended the University of Michigan.

Audience member: Woo!

Riese: Woo, Wolverines! Um, he rose to internet fame through sharing his transition online on Instagram, Huffington Post, and MTV Voices, and was subsequently cast as Ethan in the feature film Adam. He plays Micah, a soft-spoken educator terrified of vulnerability. He’s Dani’s ex and best friend, and is known for being very sweet and kind.

Carly: Please welcome to the stage —

[audience applause]

Carly: Next is Rosanny Zayas, a Juilliard graduate who appeared on Orange Is the New Black, The Code, Elementary, and Instinct, as well as a whole lot of theater. She plays Sophie Suarez, a TV producer who’s always pushing to use her public platform to cover substantial issues and has a habit of putting everybody else’s needs before her own.

[audience applause]

Carly: Awesome. Welcome.

Riese: And last, we have Jacqueline Toboni who, like me, attended the University of Michigan, and unlike me canoodled with Kiersey Clemons on three seasons of the Netflix series Easy and also appeared in Grimm as well as numerous film and theatre credits. She plays Finley, an ambivalent careerist trying to live her best life — though she may not remember large chunks of it — while struggling with unresolved family issues and her religious background.

[audience applause]

Carly: Next up — I’m just kidding. We don’t have any more chairs.

Riese: That’s it.

Carly: Thank you all so so much for being with us. We are so excited.

Arienne: Thanks for having us. We’re super excited, too.

Carly: So we always start with guests on our podcast by talking about L Word origin stories. Now an L Word origin story is the circumstances upon which you first saw the original series. So, all four of you are going to tell us your L Work origin stories.

Jacqueline Toboni: You want to start with me?

Carly: I do, yeah.

Jacqueline: Fantastic. Um, I first saw The L Word because the only out girl at my high school, Christina Vilahous — I hope you’re listening to this. I’m putting you on blast here — we were friends and, um, she gave me a gift, sophomore year for my birthday. I was not out. And she gave it to me and I was like, “Wow, this is so nice, you did not have to do this.” And I opened it in season one box set of The L Word. [audience laughs] And she was like, “just until you figure it out.” I was like, [dying noises], just like so embarrassed. And I figured it out. And [laughs] when I got the show, I sent her a message and I was like, “This is all because of you. Thank you.”

Riese: Did you have any like favorite characters from your first — from your first watch?

Jacqueline: I definitely just wanted to be Shane. Who didn’t. And I also loved Alice and was in love with Carmen. So, any Carmen fans out there? [some audience members scream] Whoa, stans for Carmen. Hello.

Rosanny Zayas: Um, yeah, I mean I was a teenager and honestly I just did not like going to sleep, I just wanted to watch TV like all day. [audience laughs] Like all day. So, you know, put on Showtime, Showtime baby. I had a, I, I probably shouldn’t say this one, but I had an illegal cable box, you know, a cable box that you see, you know, they they sell them in the corner. They got “two for 20,” and you get one because they get all the channels, and then, um, yeah they came on super late at night and I would just sit on the couch and watch it. Everybody else would be asleep. My little sister would try to run in I’m like “would you get the fuck out of here, please? I’m trying to watch my tunes, my shows.” And then yeah, it was that show, and then I would go to school the next day and my friends would be just as tired as I was, I’m like “what you did.” “I watched The L Word.” “Me too!” So yeah, that’s, that’s how I watched it. I watched it on my couch, when it came on the television, through my illegal cable box.

Riese: So you watched it like as it was airing?

Rosanny: Yep.

Riese: Wow. Did you — were there any characters you were drawn to?

Rosanny: I really loved Bette and I loved Alice. Whoop whoop! [audience laughs] I love Alice. I mean, she’s so funny. So great.

Riese: It’s — so far you guys are fans of the characters that are still on the show, which works out well for publicity for the, for the show. You’re like “all the best characters are coming back!”

Jacqueline: I’d say Carmen. I’d say Carmen. These are not trained answers, okay?

Carly: She could come back. We don’t know.

Rosanny: You don’t know.

Riese: She’s not coming back.

Jacqueline: I cannot confirm or deny that statement. I’m not saying no.

Carly: I just, I just, I just opened floodgates of some kind. I haven’t seen it. I haven’t seen anything. I don’t know. Leo, please, save me.

Leo: I was 11. So probably just a little young, to be honest, to be watching The L Word. My first, the first scene I’d ever seen, and it’s really kind of a downer, I’m sorry, is when Max came out to the girl he was seeing. [some audience groans] Oh, yeah, okay. For those of you who just groaned you know what that scene is, you know, he says, “I really like you. And I feel like I should tell you something. I’m trans.” Me being 11 with no real concept of my own gender identity, rather than just being a tomboy, I was like, “This is fucking sad.” I mean, I didn’t say the f-word, I was 11. [audience laughs] But it was sad. And then, you know, back when YouTube only allowed like three-minute clips and somehow I, from there, I ended up on a sex scene and, you know, like, you know when you close your laptop really quickly and you don’t know what’s happening? It was that but with the desktop, which is just shutting everything down.

Rosanny: Yeah, I was about to say you had a laptop at 11, what?

Leo: No, I — you hold down the little thing on the computer until it all shuts off.

Carly: You just, you just panic and just unplug the whole thing.

Leo: I probably did.

Carly: Throw it out the window.

Leo: I probably did knowing me.

Carly: Throw the computer in the trash.

Riese: Just smash it.

Leo: It was all done, it was just all done. But that was my first, my first exposure to it, to trans masculinity, trans men, um, and here I am now.

Rosanny: Yeahhhh.

Riese: Did you — when did you watch the whole series?

[audience laughs]

Arienne: You’re looking at me to bail you out and I can’t.

Leo: This one knows it by line. Okay, so to be fair, I have seen it, I have seen episodes, I just haven’t watched it consecutively.

Carly: It’s fun to watch episodic television out of order. I love doing that.

Leo: I’m sorry to Marja. I’m sorry to everyone.

Jacqueline: Well, I think you were rewatching when we got the job, and then it was weird to continue watching after you’re working with these people —

Leo: And be like, oh hey I was just — no I mean I wasn’t just watching you on the screen.

Jacqueline: We definitely have watched on set before —

Leo: And they have definitely walked in on us watching before.

Jacqueline: It’s embarrassing.

Rosanny: I can’t y’all, y’all are — oh man.

Riese: Just to rewind, so you were 11, so it was on YouTube, that you got access to it on YouTube?

Leo: Yes I don’t — honestly at 11 years old my, my thing was watching bloopers on YouTube, so I don’t know —

Riese: Did you start with bloopers?

Leo: — this really sad scene, then a sex scene?

Riese: Yeah.

Leo: Probably deleted my search history after that.

Riese: Yeah. That’s queer life though, right. Sad scene, sex scene.

Leo: But the thing is, I had two moms —

Riese: Yeah, right.

Leo: — and so I don’t know where this came from.

Riese: Wait did your moms watch it?

Leo: You know, my moms have watched more than I have. When I got the role and I moved out July 1, starting July 1 to probably mid-August they had seen all six seasons, they have full time jobs y’all, but they did, I don’t know.

Riese: You find time. You’re up.

Arienne: So, again, Leo and I are around the same age, and uh, I — do you remember when when you had had to have like a passcode to unlock certain channels ’cause your parents would put like a lock on certain channels? I don’t know if anyone remembers that. But my parents did, and I was at my dad’s house, and he was pretty strict. And I knew the passcode somehow. I was super, like, just always doing weird, stupid shit and always getting in trouble. And I would watch all the channels when my dad was not home and then he comes home one day, and I’m scrolling and I find The L Word, and it happens to be like a scene — I think it’s like one of the scenes where it’s like full vadge, and my dad just walks in, and I’m there like, literally like two feet away from the TV with the remote, like, “I swear it’s not what it looks like, I just —.” Anyway, from that moment on I was super intrigued, had to keep watching it, kept watching it, was, was young, so it was like the first thing I’d ever seen of its kind — not to mention was like the first all-lesbian show so I was like, wow, this is unlike anything I’ve ever seen. And on top of that, I get into a lot of trouble to watch it, but I loved it, it was great. And then I — I went back and rewatched it for the show and like watched it all the way through and it’s, it’s super scandalous and fun and all the things that I was feeling when I was like 11 or 12 when I watched it.

Leo: How’d you figure out the passcode? Did you just ask him his favorite dates?

Arienne: I used to just watch him when he was doing it. I’d be like somewhere nearby and like come like peek my head over and be like, Oh, that’s the passcode.

Riese: I cannot believe all the TV you guys were watching when you were 11. I was not allowed to watch TV shows that had commercials on them when I was 11. Because of consumerism. My mom is also a lesbian. [audience laughs] Did you have any favorite characters?

Arienne: Oh gosh. I loved Alice, just because she was so funny and she was so likable, and I loved watching Dana and Alice, like their friendship turn into more, I thought that was like one of my favorite things. [some audience noise]

Carly: Wow, that that was a crowd pleaser. Okay. Noted.

Riese: These are people in love with their best friends waiting for the moment —

[audience laughs]

Carly: Yeah, the person you came here with, watch them —

Riese: — where they have gift-bag sex —

Arienne: Everyone has had that, like at some point, where you just fall in love with your best friend. Or maybe no, I don’t know. I know I have. So it was cool for me to watch.

Rosanny: And I bet everyone sitting next to their “best friend” is like —

Carly: — full disclosure —

Rosanny: — “for real.”

Carly: “Hey, what are you, what are you doing on Wednesday night, you should come with me to this thing. It’s, I don’t know, it’s really cool.” I tried that. I tried that when I was younger. I made a, I made a friend go see But I’m a Cheerleader in the theaters with me in high school.

Arienne: Wow.

Carly: I’m old. I’m old.

Riese: I saw it in the theaters, too, and beforehand me and my friend talked about how we just made out with girls, but it wasn’t like a real thing. [audience laughs] Anyway next question.

Carly: Anyway.

Riese: So the first scene of the original series, The L Word, it’s like Bette and Tina are in the bathroom, and Tina’s ovulating, and they’re excited about it — and they’re wearing full pajamas. Right?

Carly: Full pajamas. Yes.

Riese: The first scene of Generation Q, um, that’s your boobs.

Rosanny: Oh, my boobs?

Riese: Yeah.

Arienne: Yeah, your boobs.

Rosanny: Fo’ sure.

Riese: So we’re just wondering, um, how was, how was it filming these sex scenes? How did you like opening, opening the show on a very different note for this new generation of like morning sex, uh, you know, nudity?

Arienne: There’s actually a great blooper — we had a little blooper reel at the wrap party — and there’s one great blooper of you riding in the —

Leo: Yes.

Ariennne: — riding in the —

Rosanny: Yes. Yeah. What do you say? It was our last day of shooting. And it was the scene, you know, and I’m like, thinking about, you know, life going by, you know, you watching cars, you see your life, you know, it’s passing you. It’s a great, great scene. And um — it really is! I have this thing where I like sound sarcastic, but I’m not I’m being really honest. Um. [laughs] So yeah, I was just like, “damn. My mom’s gonna see my tits on TV.” [audience laughs] Like, it’s that moment where it’s like, “My mom’s gonna see my titties on TV.”

Arienne: And you’re like super pensive about it, like thinking about it.

Rosanny: Yeah, but then I’m like, “ehh, she knows what they look like. It’s fine.” Rosa? You know what they look like. Um. Yeah. I mean, it’s crazy. It’s crazy. I’d say something that I learned about the nudity of this show, the love making of the show, was um, the mission behind what we’re doing just is so big and so great, and it’s, it’s something that like I’ve always dreamed of doing when it comes to work and acting and, and it’s always been to reach as many people as possible, and so when we were doing these scenes, I, it felt bigger than that. And then in turn, it kind of helped me accept my body more. Because I was like, I mean, you know, you go every day and it’s just like, you’re outside and listening to the world and something is always telling you that your body is not right, or something like that, or making you feel a certain way. And then I started this show, and I was like, I love this and I love this. [audience applause] And doing that, like really, it really helped a lot, and now, doing those scenes, I just have a new perspective on what it means to show that kind of content and always thinking about like, what is the reason, why are we doing this, and it’s pretty important, so it doesn’t really — I didn’t really think about the nudity anymore, I just thought of like, wow we’re actually doing a great thing and we’re showing something really amazing, and Marja always reminded us of that, but she didn’t really have to after a while because it was like, we were there.

Arienne: I think she made it super easy for us, too — like our whole team working on the show made us super comfortable and it was like the safest, warmest space to just be ourselves and be in love with each other in — in our space, in our home. Like I call it like slice of life, like it’s a little piece of our life together and it shows how in love we are, and — and it wasn’t — it didn’t feel uncomfortable, like I had a great partner to work with, Ro was, was, was the best, and we did this, we shot this for like eight hours?

Rosanny: A very long time.

Arienne: It was like an eight-hour sex scene, but it was a lot of fun. [laughs]

Jacqueline: Was fun.

Arienne: And it’s the real deal, it’s like what really happens. I mean, you both know, you saw it. It’s a little different.

Carly: We saw it.

Riese: We thought like, we know, you’ve done it.

[laughter]

Riese: Did you guys work with like an intimacy coordinator and stuff like that?

Arienne: Yeah, we did. We did. Um, her name was Amanda. She was, she was great. She worked with all of us, and really walked us through the whole process of it all.

Jacqueline: It’s nice — this set, this entire crew, is really diverse. There is a lot of women, there’s a lot of LGBTQ+ people on set, and it just makes you feel, um, totally supported. And like you have, you know, nothing to fear outside of your own stuff. And I feel like the industry is changing in that way, and having an intimacy coordinator is sort of, you know, showing that.

Carly: This all sort of segues into what I wanted to talk about next, which is just kind of the actual, like shooting of the show and being on set every day with these characters that you had been watching for, you know since you were like, 11, you know, like, being with the OG cast, and then like, getting to all be together, like just, you know — we were talking earlier about how the show was originally shot Vancouver and everyone was like away, and like it all shot here and it was like, you got to just like, be here and be with everybody, and I just wanted to kind of get a sense of like, what was it like on set? Like, what was the whole experience like?

Jacqueline: First — I don’t want to speak for everybody, but nod along if you agree. First, it was like, terrifying, because you’re like — I think it feels like you’re stepping on somebody else’s turf, when you’re doing like a sequel or reboot, or whatever you want to call it. And immediately, they sort of sat us down. We like came in — I don’t know if you guys remember this — but we were like, “what was it like filming the original series?” We were just like, fanning out. [some audience laughter] And they were like, “just to be clear, this is not that. That’s like a totally separate thing. This is our show. This is all of ours. You know what, this is not just, you know, the three of us.” They sort of like passed the torch in a way where we can all, you know, create from a place of freedom and feel really supported. And so, it was awesome. I will say like, I got caught a few times just like being a huge fan. I like outed myself as a fan, it was very embarrassing, but other than that, smooth sailing.

Arienne: Piggybacking off of that, Jennifer definitely said, I remember her just simply being like, like, “we had our thing, we had our run, and we want you guys to have your own experience. We’re here if you need anything. You know, we’re kind of like, watching from the sidelines. But you guys, you do your thing, you have your experience, and we’re here if you need anything.”

Leo: Yeah, I was just gonna echo that. And I was just gonna say, the first table read. I mean — I don’t know, I mean, like, I feel like surreal doesn’t even describe it. It’s like, for me personally, going from being a social work student at Michigan to then sitting in a fucking table, like at a table read for a Showtime series? Like, what? And I will say every time somebody would come, I’d be like, “Jacq, Jacq,” and she’d be like, “you need to chill,” and like I can’t, physically can’t, cannot chill —

Jacqueline: I don’t want to embarrass you but Leo would go,”holy shit it’s her,” and I was like “I know, but you’re like, her coworker now, like you gotta keep it together, dude.” And he was like, I gotta, I can — can I say hi?” And I was like “yeah, like yes!”

Leo: Not easy at all.

Carly: Oh my god, act cool. Be cool.

Leo: That was literally — she was literally, just be cool. Dude? Chill.

Carly: What was your — everyone’s day on set? Like were there any like just days that stand out in your mind of just like — with obviously without giving any spoilers away?

Jacqueline: My favorite day was with you.

Rosanny: Aww. Tell ‘em! Tell ‘em! [audience laughter] Say it, say it soft.

Jacqueline: When we were dancing to Tegan and Sara. God, that sounds so gay.

Rosanny: [laughs]

Jacqueline: We were dancing to Tegan and Sara and we wrote a full Broadway musical.

Rosanny: Oh, that’s when we started our musical.

Jacqueline: Yes!

Leo: It’s good.

Rosanny: Right.

Jacqueline: Right. And we have — I somehow got forced into dancing so much on this series —

Rosanny: Oh, so good. We got to write it.

Jacqueline: — so embarrassing. I just embarrass the hell out of myself. So be kind.

Riese: Did you name your musical?

Rosanny: Working title, working title, working title.

Leo: You gonna sing it?

Rosanny: Oh, we’re gonna do it.

Jacqueline: Please no.

Rosanny: Let’s do it.

Carly: Can you perform a number?

Riese: You kind of have to do it.

Rosanny: Wow, Jacq. Wow. Wow!

[audience reacts]

Jacqueline: Please don’t make me do that. My worst fear is singing in front of people.

Rosanny: You did it to yourself. I mean, damn.

Carly: Yeah, you did.

Jacqueline: Maybe at the end. We’ll do an outro.

Carly: Okay. Great.

Rosanny: No, that was nice. That was — we did it for two days. Two days. We worked on our musical. It was really great. Oh, I loved it. Yeah, maybe later, maybe later.

Leo: I… it is good. I, I was privy to some of it, and, and —

Riese: There’s like, there’s like a full score?

Leo: Listen.

Carly: Has it been in previews somewhere?

Leo: The Tonys, the Tonys are gonna —

Jacqueline: We got like two or three songs.

Rosanny: I thought it was four.

Riese: So sort of a ET.

Jacqueline: It’s about coming out. It’s about falling in love.

Rosanny: — falling in love —

Riese: Classic tale.

Rosanny: — love, your parents —

Jacqueline: Your father is not accepting.

Rosanny: — your father, your father works at the meat market, he’s having a tough time —

Jacqueline: [musical-style signing] I can’t breathe.

Rosanny and Jacqueline: [musical-style signing] She can’t breathe.

[audience screams/applauds]

Jacqueline: [musical-style signing] Papa accept me.

Rosanny: [musical-style signing] Papa accept me.

Jacqueline: [musical-style signing] Mama said take your time.

Rosanny: [musical-style signing] Papa accept me.

Rosanny: [musical-style signing] Your sister’s in the corner. She can’t breathe, I can’t breathe!

Carly: Wow.

Rosanny: It’s a lot. We got some good stuff.

Carly: That’s really good.

Rosanny: Crystal blue eyes.

Jacqueline: [singing] Crystal blue eyes. [inaudible] in her hair.

Rosanny: [singing] Hair.

Jacqueline: [singing] Hair. [not singing] I can’t sing.

Rosanny: Yeah you can.

Rosanny and Jacqueline: [singing] Strawberry hair.

Jacqueline: Alright, that’s it, we’re done.

Rosanny: That’s good.

Carly: Wow.

Arienne: Wow.

[audience applauds]

Carly: Wow wow wow. Stay tuned.

Jacqueline: Broadway.

Rosanny: That’s the first time we’ve shared our musical, so —

Carly: That’s 2021.

Rosanny: Copyright! Copyright!

Jacqueline: Yeah.

Rosanny: Put that little c on there.

Carly: Wow. Wow wow wow. That was beautiful.

Riese: That was a, that was a preview of a future hit show, right here —

Arienne: I don’t know how you top that.

Jacqueline: We definitely didn’t write a musical together or anything.

Leo: I will say, uh, we had a fun few scenes outside in the heat.

Arienne: Always involved exercise, running up and down stairs, in really hot weather.

Leo: I am not a runner y’all. She was going up and down and I was like still on the first step. But it was fun ‘cause you were just going for it.

Arienne: It was also — I think we were super goofy that day ‘cause it was just really hot out, so we were a little delirious, but —

Leo: It was like 90 degrees, this LA heat does not mess with y’all.

Arienne: Yeah, it was, it was, it was fun.

Leo: There was a bug at one point — and I don’t do bugs either, I don’t run, I don’t do bugs — it came kind of close to us. [Arienne and audience laughter] That was it, that was a close call. That was a close call on set.

Arienne: That was a — I have to say, that musical? Between takes, they would like start singing to us.

Leo: Yeah.

Arienne: And I’d be like, what are you singing? What is this?

Rosanny: It’s a hit, baby.

Arienne: Something about these crystal blue eyes? I was like, what?

Riese: I feel like maybe you guys should do like a musical episode.

Rosanny: Oh, we’ve talked about it. We’ve pitched it. We’ve uh —

Jacqueline: They said no.

Rosanny: They said no.

Riese: It did great for Gray’s Anatomy.

Jacqueline: But they loved our musical.

Rosanny: Yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah.

Carly: It’s a bold move in the first season of a show to do a musical episode.

Rosanny: I mean —

Riese: Season two.

Carly: Bold, bold.

Arienne: That’s Generation Q though.

Carly: Exactly. I’m just saying.

Riese: Brave, bold —

Carly: Yeah. You know.

Riese: We’re going to do like a little game, sort of, right. So what I’m going to do is I’m going to lead — or I’m going to read, I’m going to lead — I’m going to read a list of verbs. And I want you to raise your hand if your character is going to do this for during the course of the show. Okay, talking.

[everyone raises their hand]

Riese: Laughing.

[everyone raises their hand]

Riese: Loving.

[everyone raises their hand]

Riese: Breathing.

[everyone raises their hand]

Rosanny: [singing] Talking laughing loving breathing fighting —

Riese: Fighting.

[everyone raises their hand]

Riese: Fucking.

[everyone raises their hand]

Riese: Crying.

[everyone raises their hand except Leo]

Riese: Drinking.

[everyone raises their hand and Jacqueline raises a hand SUPER high]

Rosanny: I’m just gonna leave my hand up ‘cause it just seems like —

Riese: Writing.

[everyone raises their hand]

Rosanny: Ooh, ’sup, bitches.

Riese: Uh, winning.

[everyone raises their hand]

Rosanny: Yeah, we all have our wins, you know —

Riese: But like you, like you win a game, a contest, an election.

Jacqueline: I — You throw a, something, you throw a frisbee at me in the pool and I catch it, and that is —

Riese: That is a win. and that is winning.

Carly: That’s a win.

Leo: That took like nine takes, but yes —

Riese: Uh, losing.

[everyone raises their hand except Arienne]

Jacqueline: Did you not raise your hand?

Riese: She never loses.

Rosanny: Dani, Dani never loses. Dani always wins.

Arienne: I don’t lose. What do you mean?

Rosanny: Wow.

Riese: And then, kissing. Kissing thinking dreaming you guys all did that right?

Jacqueline: I don’t think Finley thinks a lot.

Arienne: I second that.

Riese: You did have a big raise for drinking though.

Jacqueline: Yeah, yes, I do drink a lot.

Rosanny: I think Finely thinks a lot.

Jacqueline: Yeah, I think maybe I think too much.

Rosanny: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Jacqueline: Hand up.

Carly: Let’s talk more about your characters, as we’re talking about them already. So anyway, you guys all play characters. And they’re really great. And I just want to talk about them and like kind of how you approach, like embodying the character, and like what you love about your character, and like, what about you is in your character, and I’m just gonna say “character” a few more times.

Arienne: So, Dani, Dani Núñez, is this very — I have a list of adjectives that I say all the time — she’s powerful, calculating, hardworking, she’s just, she she works her father’s PR company and, and kind of raised into this family that she just works really hard and work is basically her life. But she carries on this relationship with Sophie, who she loves very much. And one day something kind of happens that just changes her mind, like kind of turns her world upside down. Like what she thought was her passion in life is no longer a passion, she kind of just questions everything, really, and, and decides to shift things. But that’s all I’m gonna say about that. Um —

Riese: What do you relate to about her?

Arienne: Oh so much. I think when when, when, when putting this character together, Marja was like, I really want this to be like the most seamless experience for you, stepping into these shoes. Dani definitely does not know how to process emotions or talk about them, and that’s very much me. So that was difficult. Even the idea that I, that I couldn’t process my emotions as Dani, I was processing that as Ari and that was a mindfuck. So, so that was a lot of fun. I do work out every single day like Dani, sorry. Yeah, I don’t know, go from pretty close to her. We’re pretty similar, we’re pals.

Leo: Micah, is he’s an adjunct professor of social work. Again, I was studying that, and it’s especially important to me that we show Asian folks in TV who aren’t in STEM, you know? [audience member woos] Hey. All right. So he’s an adjunct professor, he lives with Dani and Sophie, and you know, friendship is very important to him. I think that’s probably one of the most important values he has, is friendship. But we kind of see him branch out into dating, and relationships. He does not have a strong history with that. Dating, you know, dating as a trans person can be really hard. Dating itself is hard, but dating as a trans person, as a trans man of color, in LA, there aren’t always wins. And so we see a little bit of that. You know, I will say I appreciate that his whole storyline doesn’t really revolve around him being trans, there’s not a big coming out story, there’s not a whole lot of tragedy, and there’s, he — I mean, he does holds very many social privileges, and so he’s in a different space, but he finds, you know, that he can be happy, that he finds he can have joy and relationships and that, you know, opening yourself up to loving someone and being loved by someone isn’t always necessarily as sad or as scary as we think it might be. I mean, it’s definitely scary, scary as fuck, but he pushes that boundary.

Rosanny: Sophie is a producer on The Alice Show, she works for Alice. Their — I’d say like their goal is to make sure that they’re creating content that’s representative of queer life and being as diverse and, and also relatable on TV, a mission that Alice has throughout the show that she’s really trying her hardest to fight to get on there. And, and she’s in a relationship with Dani and you see their ups and downs. You see what it’s like to be in a relationship with someone for many years and that’s, that’s hard. But also you see all the love and the passion in there and yeah, you see them go through a lot.

Jacqueline: Finley is — she sort of has some wild-card energy. She’s a work in progress. Lot of fun, very loyal to her friends. This right here, Sophie’s my best friend. Also love these two. You see Finley sort of deal with her queer identity and her religious upbringing and sort of reckon with that as an adult, which I’ve never seen on TV. And yeah, I think it’s, I think it’s really important. I grew up Catholic and if this character had been on TV, I think it would have been like really helpful to see. That’s sort of how I relate.

Carly: Awesome. What are you most excited for, for fans of the show to, to like take away from the new show? Like what are, what are you excited for people to see and kind of come away from it with?

Arienne: Oh, gosh. For me, it’s so exciting that there are so many people of different ages and such diversity within our show. Two of my favorite characters are Angie and Sophie, our youngest characters on the show. And — and to see — like to be a, an 11-year-old watching the show and to see someone that’s close to your age and then kind of go through their stuff, like deal with their daily things, is is really exciting, and I don’t think I’ve really ever seen it on TV so I’m — I love that we have like different ages throughout the show and a kind of a voice for everybody, it feels like. Yeah.

Carly: That’s that’s super exciting about it. That’s one of my favorite things about it.

Arienne: I’m so pumped. And also those two, they’re so great. They’re so so good.

Leo: I’m just really excited to see such a diverse range of queer identified folks. I mean, I think for me, other than maybe Tales in the City, queerness as an umbrella as a, as a wider term, I don’t think has been explored as in depth as I think we’ve been trying to do. And there’s no one way to be queer. There’s no like a right way or like a wrong way, I mean, like, these characters are living their best lives as 20-somethings, and it’s a celebration of it, of joy and of friendship and there is some — going to be heartache, and there are going to be sad moments, but it’s not, you know, when you have a predominantly straight cis show and there’s like one queer character, and they get all the shit. They get the coming out, they get, you know, the sad bullying — and these are, these are real stories that people are telling, but these are not the only stories that we have on our show. So we’re showing a range, we’re showing that there’s so many experiences out there. I’m very excited for that.

Rosanny: I’m excited for the boobs. [audience laughter] I’m excited —

Jacqueline: You had a good answer like a week ago about the OG, and that is going to be both of our answers ‘cause we have the same answer.

Rosanny: Oh. Yeah, I was just thinking that. Yeah, I’m excited for people to see the OGs interact with the new cast. And like, um, I was thinking about this a lot yesterday, about how there’s no — in life, there’s actually like no one coming-of-age story. You know, I feel like on TV a lot, you see the coming of age stories like, okay, you see someone turning 16 or you know, they’re going through something, or you know, turning 30 or, you know, so on so on. But every day we’re getting older and we’re learning something new about ourselves. And I think what’s amazing about this show is that you get to see the OGs and the new cast learning about themselves every day, but in the same world, in the same environment, and they’re all growing and learning from each other together. And that’s something that’s so interesting because that’s real life, that’s what happens. And yeah, and that’s really exciting, I’m, I’m so excited for people to see that.

Jacqueline: Ditto.

Rosanny: Cool.

Riese: So another question that we ask guests on our podcast is which two characters they would like to read fanfic about. But you can answer, you can pick people from the new one, or the old one, any combination. Just to remind you fanfic is like, sexy. It’s not like I want to like see Helena run a meeting, you know?

Carly: I would love to see Helena run a meeting. That sounds great.

Riese: That is porn for some people.

Arienne: This is so weird, ‘cause you’re asking us to like perv our our co-workers.

Jacqueline: So I’m gonna talk about you guys. Um, I actually would love to see the previous relationship that happened between you two [indicating Leo and Arienne] —

Rosanny: Yeah!

Leo: Oh yeah, we’re exes.

Carly: Ooooh.

Leo: That’s kind of a small detail we missed, that we’re exes.

Arienne: No no, when you were coming on it was definitely said. It was definitely said.

Carly: It was in the bio.

Leo: Okay, I’m so sorry. I was totally listening.

Arienne: I think. Yeah, I feel like there’s gonna be good amount of — ‘cause there’s not much that’s that’s spoken about about us. I think there might be a good amount of stuff. But I’m honestly excited to see what happens with that. I want to know what people say about Bette Porter

Carly: Bette Porter, the name on everybody’s lips. [audience laughter] You know I hear she’s running for mayor.

Arienne: I thought that was Alice, is the name on everybody’s lips, is it not?

Carly: It is, that is the tagline of her talk show.

Leo: Can I just admit that I used to write fanfiction?

[audience applause]

Riese: Yes, you can.

Rosanny: That’s my favorite thing about youuuuu.

Carly: Hell yeah.

Leo: I used to write it, I still read it — not about our show, ‘cause I just can’t —

Carly: What were you writing fanfic about?

Riese: Is it Harry Potter fanfic?

Rosanny: I can’t wait ‘till you tell everybody —

Leo: I wrote a lot of Swan Queen fanfiction.

[audience screams]

Carly: Fuck yeah.

Arienne: I thought it was Twilight.

Jacqueline: Like sexy fanfic?

Leo: I did — I wrote a Twilight fan fiction once and I lost it and I’m really sad because it was the best I’ve ever written —

Rosanny: No, I wanna read it.

Leo: — if I do say so myself.

Jacqueline: Like sexy fanfic?

Leo: No, because I was always too scared. And like on a real note, and on a real note, I eventually linked my fanfiction to my, like social media. And I was like, I’m aware of the fact of being like [audience inaudible] — I know, it was too brave, it was too brave. On a real note, I was very aware of being like a guy writing like, you know, women’s stories, and even if I am, even, you know, being trans, there’s still a male gaze that I think is just implicit. And so I did not do that. And I was really scared. I was afraid of sex, writing sex. But look at the show I’m on. [audience laughter] So I used to write a lot. I don’t know. I told I told Freddy to be ready ‘cause the fanfiction’s gonna be coming out and it’s his choice whether to read it, but it’s gonna be there. Are you all gonna read it? When it comes out?

Rosanny: Your fanfiction?

Jacqueline: Well, maybe.

Rosanny: Your Twilight? Oh I’m waiting for it.

Leo: I told you it’s gone.

Rosanny: Publish.

Leo: Are you gonna be reading —

Carly: There’s definitely gonna be fanfic about the show. That’s gonna happen for sure.

Arienne: Is there any that you both want to read?

Carly: I don’t think I’ve ever answered it. I think we keep talking about it and I’ve never — I said I would answer later. I don’t know.

Riese: Well, I’ve only read one work of fanfic in my entire life.

Leo: Really?

Carly: Really? That’s —

Riese: And it was about Shane and Jenny —

Arienne: Yeah!

[audience laughs]

Carly: Here we go.

Riese: I thought it was great. I was like, “Oh, I get this now, this is why people like this you know, this is funny. I like that.”

Carly: It’s funny?

Leo: It’s funny.

Riese: I don’t know.

Carly: This is hilarious.

Riese: People are very good at it.

Carly: At writing fanfiction?

Riese: Yeah, really get into characters, you know?

Arienne: They get really creative, that’s for sure.

Riese: Really into characters. Yeah. Yeah, but you guys will probably all be in, in fanfic. So —

Carly: Yeah, just like in the next few weeks, it’s gonna happen.

Rosanny: I’m excited. That’s cool.

Carly: Yeah, get those Google Alerts ready. That’s gonna happen.

Riese: Besides fanfic, is there anything that you are like nervous about that’s coming — like, your lives are about to change a little bit. Is there anything — like what are your feelings around that?

Jacqueline: It scares me a little bit to, um, not potentially be able to walk into queer spaces anymore. Like not be able to go to gay bars and have fun without being recognized just ‘cause there’s such a huge queer audience for this particular show. So that makes me a little nervous.

Riese: And some very huge billboards.

Jacqueline: Huh?

Riese: And some huge billboards as well, around the town.

Jacqueline: Yeah.

Rosanny: I’m going like, hey, who wants to buy me a drink? Hey, what up y’all! Just accomplished stuff! [audience laughter/applause] Let’s get it! I’m kidding, I will be also scared a little bit, but —

Jacqueline: I’m going with you, that sounds amazing. As long as we’re in it together —

Rosanny: If we’re together, it’s fine.

Jacqueline: If I don’t gotta pay for a drink, I mean —

Rosanny: [inaudible]

Leo: I feel like I already kind of assume queer space is going to be very different. I think what strikes me — and maybe it’s just like, my own ego, growing ego — is like, “Am I gonna be able to go to like a Chipotle and just eat?”

Jacqueline: Take it to go, baby.

Riese: Postmates.

Carly: Postmates.

Arienne: Yeah.

Leo: Or like to a Target or something? Like —

Carly: Beyoncé went to Target. We’ve seen the photos.

Rosanny: Yay!

Riese: Right exactly — you’ve seen the photos — 

Leo: Yeah, but like I would also —

Carly: Yeah, but like there’s just the one photo.

Leo: I would also say —

Carly: I just can’t believe Beyoncé went to Target. I’m still not over that.

Arienne: What they’re saying is there will be photos of you at Target so just prepare yourself for that.

Jacqueline: You should just wear a red polo and then people will stop you for the wrong reason and then you’ll find totally under the radar.

Carly: I made that mistake once.

Leo: It’s my side job.

Arienne: So did I! And it was horrible!

Carly: It was terrible.

Leo: I will say — I know there’s no way to really prepare for it — I would hope that if someone — I mean, unless I’m like in the bathroom — I would hope like folks feel welcome to say that they appreciate the show. I mean, that’s — I’m okay with that, and I am excited for that, because I know like what this show meant for other folks and I know what certain shows mean to me.

Arienne: I definitely agree with that. I’m — I agree with those I’m a little nervous to not be able to dress like a bum like I do usually, I do not look anything like this when you see me in the street, I’m usually in workout clothes, and, and, and my hair is in a messy bun, so the idea that I, that I maybe can’t look like that in the street feels a little funny to me.

Rosanny: I think we’ll be alright.

Jacqueline: I don’t think anybody’s going to be taking photos of us.

Arienne: I’m excited. I’m excited for people to express how much they love the show and to like, to tell us how it made them feel. We kind of got a taste of that at Pride, when went to Pride in New York City, and people were just coming up to our float telling us how the show affected them so much and like affected their coming out and that, that’s the best, that’s the best thing you can ask for.

Carly: That’s so cool. Yeah, most of the guests on the podcast when we ask their L-Word origin story, I would say most of them are like, “Oh, the show like made me gay.” Which is obviously not what they mean, but you know, like, it was like a very important part of their coming out process. And I think that’s kind of incredible.

Riese: Yeah, it’s a very [inaudible] —

Carly: And I think it’s gonna just happen again for another generation, which is very cool.

Arienne: Exactly. We’re like a younger generation, kind of, kind of ushering in a new group of people to be like, “Hey, I’m, I’m coming out,” I’m proud to say that’s like so exciting to me.

Leo: When you said that, the whole charade — this is like those, those — like
Chuck ‘E’ Cheese. Anyone?

Arienne: Yeah.

Leo: You know those bulldozers where they just keep brushing you, you know, you put coins in and they keep going?

Arienne: Yes.

Leo: Like we’re continuing — it’s like a cycle, you know? [something happens on stage] Thank you everyone. Thank you.

Arienne: That was cute.

Carly: That was an incredible analogy.

Jacqueline: Why Chuck E Cheese? Why not any other —

Carly: You could have said Dave and Busters. One of my favorite places.

Riese: Major Magics.

Carly: What?

Riese: Major Magics? No one?

Carly: I don’t know what that is.

Riese: Major Magics. It was it was like Chuck E Cheese.

Carly: Is that a Michigan thing, what is that?

Leo: That’s not a Michigan thing.

Riese: But it wasn’t like in Ann Arbor, you had to like go an hour out of town or whatever for it. I don’t know. No one knows Major Magics.

Carly: No, no one does.

Riese: All right. Thank you.

Carly: Just humoring you.

Riese: It was bad. Just to make this about me.

Carly: Riese how do you feel about the show? Your role on the show?

Riese: I think my part is really good. And I can’t wait for, uh, my cameo. Yeah.

Carly: So as you know, we do our podcast, we’ve been recapping The L Word from the beginning, the original series. We’re up to almost halfway through season three right now —

Riese: So shit’s getting real bad.

Carly: It’s getting, woo, it’s gettin intense, um, but —

Riese: Really bad.

Carly: — it’s a whole thing. Um, but we’re going to take a little break as we usher in a new generation, and we’re going to have a Gen Q podcast that’s going to recap all eight episodes, and we want to introduce you to the hosts of that show.

Riese: Let’s introduce the new hosts of our Gen Q podcast, Drew Gregory and Analyssa Lopez.

Carly: Come on up.

[audience applause]

Carly: Okay, so instead of hearing our voices every week, for the next eight weeks you’ll be hearing these voices every week. And then we will pick back up with what we’ve been doing, which is just trudging through our youth. As we continue to age, irreversibly.

Riese: Endless march towards death.

Carly: Yeah. Honestly, watching the old show is making me feel older than anything I’ve ever done.

Riese: Have you tried — well, sometimes I look in the mirror and then I feel even older.

Carly: I believe our new hosts have a question for the cast.

Analyssa: As we talked about earlier, Bette Porter is currently running for mayor of Los Angeles. Does she have your guys’s votes, and why?

Arienne: I’m gonna say a hard no.

[audience laughs/reacts]

Jacqueline: What?

Rosanny: Qué?

Leo: That’s gonna be all over Twitter.

Arienne: I’m just kidding, of course I’m gonna vote for Bette, come on.

Riese: And why? What do you think she could do for the city?

Arienne: She — oh boy.

Rosanny: You’re on her campaign.

Arienne: On no. She, she could do a lot, she could do lot.

Jacqueline: Can I step in here?

Arienne: Burning house. Thank you.

Jacqueline: Yeah, just Bette Porter’s campaign manager over there —

Leo: No big deal.

Jacqueline: — at a loss for words. Bette Porter is stopping homelessness in this city and attacking the real opioid problem that is affecting our city. She’s building housing. It’s very exciting progress. Porter.

[audience applause]

Leo: Wow.

Rosanny: Yeah, she’s got my vote. I would say, she’s also biracial. And that’s important to see in the queer community, queer women of color, people of color in the community, and really talking about things that are important and specific to different people.

Leo: My answer is yes. I completely agree. It’s important to see queer people of color, queer women of color in positions of power and yeah, she has a plan for addressing homelessness in the city and the opiate crisis, Big Pharma. And I mean, she listens. I mean, you know how many politicians listen?

Riese: You guys are great.

Drew Gregory: Yeah, great answers, yeah.

Riese: Those are really good answers. Yeah, I’m gonna vote. I’m gonna probably vote for Bette Porter also.

Drew: If only.

Leo: I’m just so excited.

Carly: I really wish that Jennifer Beals would just run for mayor.

Riese: Yeah.

Carly: I would vote for her.

Jacqueline: I cannot confirm or deny that statement.

Carly: Big round of applause for our new Gen Q hosts, Drew and Analyssa, thank you both so much. You’re gonna be hearing a lot more from them in the coming weeks.

Riese: Yes. And for everyone listening to this podcast when we air it —

Carly: Yes.

Riese: — that means that this is, this podcast is airing on Monday, this upcoming Monday, but this week, the Gen Q podcast is going to go up on Thursday.

[audience applause]

Carly: Wow, everyone likes Thursday a lot better.

Riese: Yeah. Do you guys really want to wait ’till Thursday?

Carly: I mean, I think —

Riese: Karen wants us to wait ’till Thursday.

Carly: Karen wants us to wait ’till Thursday. You guys, our producer and editor that we always talk about, we call her Karen but her name is actually Lauren, is here. [audience applause] She’s right there. She’s the best. Hey buddy. Okay, awesome.

Riese: Our final thing.

Carly: As our final thing, as you may know, we end every episode with a segment we call “l words,” where we all think of an l word and then we say the l word at the same time.

Riese: It’s because the show was called The L Word.

Carly: Exactly. It’s topical.

Riese: Yeah. And we love the alphabet.

Carly: I’m terrible at this.

Riese: Yeah, Carly is really bad at it.

Carly: Every week, I just can never get it together.

Riese: There’s like so many words.

Carly: I’m going to start bringing a dictionary to your house when we record

Riese: Okay. Well, I mean, I have one, but —

Carly: Oh. You’ve never offered me the dictionary.

Riese: Yeah, ‘cause I’m just like, “come on Carly, think harder.” You know. There’s thousands of them. But you know what there’s not thousands of?

Carly: What?

Riese: Q words.

Carly: Interesting. Tell me more.

Riese: I don’t know. What if we — what if instead of all of us trying to say an l word at the same time, we all said a q word at the same time?

Carly: Woah. I think that’s a great idea.

Riese: No one’s allowed to say queer.

[audience laughter]

Carly: Everyone now has to think of a new answer.

Riese: And then we’re going to count to three, then we all say them at the same time. It’s kind of silly that we — like it doesn’t really make sense to do this.

Carly: We always — we do it and we say it at the same time, and then we all say them again, so we can hear what the other person said. It’s wildly inefficient.

Riese: Yeah. Right. Like lesbianism. [audience laughter] Okay. Let’s do it.

Rosanny: Wait, can we do it? And then everyone in the audience do it too?

Riese: Yes.

Carly: Yeah.

Riese: And then every single audience member can tell us —

Carly: And then we’ll go around and everyone will tell us and we probably won’t repeat words at all.

Riese: It’ll be like queen, queen, queen, queen, queen. Quiz. So now those are out.

Carly: Stop giving away all the words!

Riese: Sorry. Okay are you guys ready?

Carly: One. Two. Three.

[everyone on stage says a q word at once]

[scattered laughter]

Riese: Let’s start — what did you say?

Someone: What did you say?

Carly: Did someone say “queef”? I thought I heard that, was that not true?

Riese: I certainly did not say —

Rosanny: That’s okay.

Jacqueline: Queefing is normal and healthy.

Rosanny: It’s healthy.

Riese: If it happens to you don’t be embarrassed, it’s totally normal.

Rosanny: It’s responsive. It’s responsive.

Carly: Okay, what was yours?

Jacqueline: I said quirky.

Carly: Cute.

Rosanny: I said quick-witted.

Carly. Oooooh.

Riese: You guys are writing a dating profile.

Rosanny: I know.

Carly: This is great. Leo?

Leo: Quintessential.

Carly: Damn, these are all good words.

Riese: Leo’s the smartest person on the stage.

Jacqueline: It’s true. [sheepishly] I said queef.

[Rosanny screams; audience makes noise and also applauds]

Carly: I was right all along. I knew it.

Rosanny: You did!

Carly: I knew it.

Rosanny: I see you.

Jacqueline: I couldn’t think of any other words.

Carly: I can hear stuff. Riese, what did you say?

Riese: Uh, I said quiz bowl.

Carly: Quiz bowl?

Riese: Thank you. Quiz bowl, it’s like, it’s like —

Rosanny: Can you use it in a sentence?

Riese: “I was on the quiz bowl team in high school.”

Carly: Isn’t that two words? That’s never stopped us before.

Riese: Yes. But Gaby said “lighting tea lights” last episode.

Carly: That’s true.

Riese: That’s three words.

Carly: That’s ridic — that was ridiculous. That should’ve been disqualified. As if this whole concept isn’t utterly insane. Um, I said quail, like the little bird.

Riese: That’s cute.

Carly: Thank you. I’ve just been thinking a lot about baby Yoda in the past few days. He’s so cute. I don’t care about Star Wars at all, but like that got me to care a little bit.

Riese: Yeah, that’d be a cute little stuffed animal.

Carly: Are there any cute tiny puppets on Gen Q?

Jacqueline: There are.

Carly: Ah, sh — really?

Leo: There’s one of Jacq.

Jacqueline: What?

Arienne: On Alice’s show. On that bookshelf, there’s like some —

Rosanny: There’s some really cool stuff, stuffed vaginas,

Jacqueline: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Some fallopian tubes —

Riese: Wait, you know what else is on, on the set of Alice’s show. Someone took an Autostraddle t-shirt and made it into a pillow —

Carly: And it is one of the pillows on her set.

Rosanny: Really? So cool.

: What does it say?

Riese: Girl — I like girls —

Carly: Girls just wanna do girls?

Rosanny: Yes yes yes yes yes.

Carly: So that’s a shirt also, if anyone needs it.

Riese: Yeah, store.Autostraddle.com. Um, yeah, that was, that was a t-shirt, an Autostraddle t-shirt, that someone turned into a pillow on Alice’s show. So we’re expecting our sales to skyrocket. [laughter]

Carly: Through the roof!

Riese: We are also selling Bette 2020 merch as well. Yeah, it’s real cute. We will give them you guys for free. ‘Cause you’re famous.

Carly: Wow. That’s so nice of us.

Riese: It is. We’re great. We’re really nice.Well, now that we’ve established how nice me and you are —

Carly: We’re great.

Riese: Uh, thank you guys so much for doing this with us.

[audience applause]

Carly: Thank you so much for putting up with us and being here and being so wonderful. Thank you beautiful audience members for coming out on a day that started very rainy. [audience applauds] But you did it, you left your house, which is amazing, I’m very proud of all of you.

Riese: Yes.

Carly: And thank you to Showtime [audience woos], the reason we’re all here tonight. And what else. Right after this ends, there’s a reception right where you were coming in before, there is more drinks, and there’s food, it’s gonna be awesome.

Riese: And it’s all free.

Carly: It’s free. Have fun.

Jacqueline: Can we end with the audience saying their q word?

Rosanny: Yeah. Good idea.

Riese: Are you ready? We’re gonna hold our mics.

Carly: Yeah. Wait, we’re going to hold out our mics and I’ll count it. Ready?

Audience member: [yells something inaudible]

Riese: Smartest — new smartest person.

Carly: New smartest person award. Okay. One, two, three!

[audience members all yell a q word; it sounds like chaos]

Carly: Okay, one by one, what did you all say?

Riese: They all said “queef.”

[audience laughs]

Carly: Thank you all so much!

Riese: Thank you!

[audience applause]

Carly: We’ll see you outside! Go! Get out of here!

[outro music that evokes The L Word theme song, but isn’t, plays]