Bill Streeter wiped a stream of golden-brown grease from his chin as he pulled his maroon minivan out of a KFC parking lot in Bloomington and turned toward Chicago. He popped a cassette adapter attached to an iPod into his tape deck, and for the rest of his trip alternated between stored tunes and podcasts–downloadable radio programs he subscribes to via Real Simple Syndication (RSS), media aggregation software often referred to as “TiVo for the Web.” Ninety miles south of town, he tuned in to one of his favorite shows: Yeast Radio, an hour-long daily podcast hosted by a gay Chicago-based performance artist named Richard Bluestein.
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The self-proclaimed “shock jock with no cock,” Madge is apt to refer to the vice president as “Penis Cheney” and secretary of state Condoleezza Rice as a “cunt-faced whore bull dyke bitch.” She calls liposuction “thigh abortion” and makes promises to potential advertisers like “If you sponsor me, I’ll lick your balls.” Add F-bomb attacks on the U.S. military’s use of white phosphorus in Iraq, comparisons of Enron executives to serial rapists, a flamboyant roster of out-and-proud guests, and vivid descriptions of the bloated host’s gassy constitution and stool samples and you have some of Madge’s more radio-friendly witticisms.
Streeter–a 38-year-old father, air force veteran, and son of a Baptist minister–doesn’t necessarily fit into what one might assume is the niche demographic for a show with a cross-dressing, openly gay, politically radical host, but he’s one of Madge’s most loyal listeners. “Who wouldn’t love her?” Streeter asks. “She’s a complete original. I love the irreverence of her comedy. Her sheer outrageousness takes the edge off the monotony of my day.”
“I sought out drugs,” he says. “I remember in high school phys ed class when the drug expert came in and showed the poster of all the different pills that we shouldn’t take if we were offered them. I just kept thinking, ‘I want one of those, and that, and that!’ So finally I got some pot and then I escaped. My drug problem lasted until I returned from Amsterdam, crashed and burned.”
The film has yet to be released, but the band manager character gradually evolved into Bluestein’s preferred online persona. “I had a lot of problems in my personal life from spilling all this shit on the Internet,” he says. “It damaged some relationships and it became very difficult to be truthful. And when I wasn’t truthful, I’d just become depressed. The Madge thing is perfect, because I can fictionalize my life.”
Art accompanying story in printed newspaper (not available in this archive): photo/Jim Newberry.
