We had the good fortune of connecting with Dale Guy Madison and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Dale, can you share a quote or affirmation with us?
As a black kid growing up in the 60s, I had so many dreams to do so many things. I wanted to be an actor, a model, a dancer, an artist, and a fashion designer. I wanted to live in Hollywood; I wanted to make a difference in people’s lives. My father put me out of his home in 1976 when he learned I was gay. My dreams of going to college disappeared for 30 years. I went after other dreams and became an actor, artist, model, dancer, and television host, yet when I look back over the past 30 years of my life; the one thing I regretted was not going to college in 1976. To paraphrase lyrics from DREAMGIRLS:

“I needed a dream to make me strong. Who could believe they could ever come true? Mama said I am special. She said I’ve got to prove I am just as good. I’m even better than…”

My real dream was to go to college and in 2006 I did just that. Everything I have ever accomplished in life always involved educating people along the way. Even my theater companies focused on educational theater. I have been a strong supporter that entertainment can educate. I wrote my life story DREAMBOY: My Life as a QVC Host & Other Greatest Hits and received my BA when I turned 50 years old. My memoir highlighted how the “arts” saved my life at so many crucial events along the way.
I felt I had achieved all my dreams. Then as I was preparing my master’s thesis and read the statistics of suicide and bullying for LGBTQ students, I knew my mission was not over. I wrote a second book designed to address the struggles that LGBTQ adolescents still go through every day coming out of the closet. That book was called “Sissy Sammy in the Land of WeHo nine-double-O- sixty-nine.” I wanted to be able to inspire them the way my teachers motivated me to go after my dreams.

I was also inspired by the success of The Supremes. I was so honored and blessed to have met Mary Wilson, one of the founding members of the Motown singing group. She once said at the induction of The Supremes at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame”

“Dreams do come true, sometimes you just have to keep dreaming, Dare to Dream!”

I have never forgotten that.

Can we talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
In 1976 I graduated from Northwestern High School in Baltimore, Maryland. Besides being an honor student, I was voted “Most Spirited” out of my senior class. Just four months prior to graduation, my father after discovering I was gay and asked me to move out of the family home. Dreams of going to NYU and studying acting seemed to fly out of the window, but I never looked back.
Determined to become a performer, I taught myself how to sew and started my own modeling troupe. Later I joined a company of local actors doing pregnancy prevention theater and eventually co-founded, Actors Against Drugs. We became successful in doing live presentations in schools and various organizations demonstrating the dangers of substance abuse. I was not only the co-founder and performer but I designed all the costumes. We secured a contract with the Social Security Administration that ended up being an internally televised broadcast to their entire national staff of over 3000 employees. This led to us being approached by the Baltimore City Health Department to create short theater presentations on HIV testing and awareness during the height of the AIDS epidemic. This led to productions funded by Johns Hopkins Hospital & University to reach more audiences.

I left Baltimore in 1991 to become a host on the QVC Network. I was one of the first employees of the company who sought and received domestic partnership benefits for my partner. What I was most proud of during that time was my idea to create Afrocentric programming. My all-African-themed shopping hour, Destination: Africa was extremely successful in the world of television shopping. I even interviewed a real African Princess. I also launched my own line of handmade dolls that sold out in five minutes. Suddenly I was a nationally recognized doll designer and traveled the country promoting African art. When my contract ended in 1994, I returned to Baltimore and opened my own store called A.N.D.=art-n-design, the first Afro-Centric Gay-themed gift store (some say in the country!)

In 1995 I was awarded a Maryland State Council Artist Award for my one-man play, FREEda SLAVE: Mask of a Diva. The show addressed all the societal masks we wear as Black gay men who choose drag as an art expression. After winning a playwriting award in 1999, I took the show to Los Angeles and it won the critic’s pick of the week in Backstage West.

I enrolled in college at the age of 47, During my senior year I decided to produce a short film. Actually, it was a video promotion, DREAMBOY: My Life as a QVC Host & Other Hits, is based on my memoir of the same name and it won the Best LGBT Film Award at the 2008 San Diego Black Film Festival (SDBFF) My second film featured a then unknown Shangela from RuPaul’s Drag Race in The Panty Man and was nominated as Best Short in the 2009 Pan African Film Festival (PAFF).

My experience of being a homeless gay teen lead to my giving back by working 5 years at the LA LGBT Center where again I used art to empower and educate young men of color about issues of self-esteem and sexuality.

I started my own company called “DAMNGOODMAN Productions.” The next project I produced “Life After QVC” was a 25-minute, vérité-styled docu-comedy that takes a comedic trip down memory lane, chronicling my rise as a popular pitchman on the new shopping network in the early 1990s to the unexpected turn of paying the bills as a drag queen. My latest film project is called “The Boy Who Played With Dolls” an animated documentary short featured as part of an intergenerational film project between myself and a young transgender animation artist.

I love film making so I was super psyched when I was asked by the Outfest Film Festival (one of the largest gay film festivals in the country) in 2007 to host a night of spoken word poetry called Sabor con Fusion. That led to me being the Voice of God for Outfest events from 20012-2016 and happily returned in 2023. As a voice actor, I am now producing an audio project of my original children’s stories scheduled to be released in the fall of 2023 entitled: Dale’s Tales: How God Created Butterflies & Other African American Stories.

Currently, I am pitching a television series based on my life called “My Life in 3 Easy Payments.” It is the story of a shopping host who is a drag queen and his 2 best friends. I describe it as a black “Wonder Years’ meets “This is Us” with a touch of “Pose.”

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
I am a vegetarian and love meeting up with friends to try out new spots that have great plant-based food. When my east coast friends and family visit I have a routine:

An early morning walk on one of our beautiful beaches. My favorite is Dockweiler State Beach, but when I feel touristy, I will go to Venice Beach for people-watching. When it is about group events, I adore Sunday Fundays at Will Rogers Beach which we lovingly call, Ginger Rogers Beach.

Brunch at one of my favorite spots, “My2 Cents” in Mid-Wilshire (A great documentary about the owner is on Hulu)
I also love “Sage Restaurant” with 2 locations, one in Culver City and one in Silverlake.

I recently discovered “The Grain Cafe” with locations in both Venice and Midtown.

I love shopping for anything LEOPARD print. That can mean thrift stores or any of my favorite clothing stores from Macy’s to Melrose Place and any online Google search.

I never tire of our amazing museums. The Academy Museum is my ultimate favorite with all the amazing movie trivia but I adore MOCA and The Getty just for sheer ambiance and beauty.

A great way to close out a visit to LA night is for one of the wonderful Broadway shows to come to Ahmanson or Pantages.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
I want to dedicate my shout-out to the memory of Mary Wilson, founding member of The Supremes. She honored me by publicly recommending my memoir when it came out over 10 years ago.

Website: daleguymadison.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/daleguymadison/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dale-madison-b783b97/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/daleguymadison. & https://twitter.com/damngoodman

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/damngoodman.

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@damngoodman/featured

Other: imdb.me/daleguymadison

Image Credits
Jeremey Lucido, Rafael Sanchez, Michael Moore, Greg Day, Lenny Conner/Lucky Virgo Photography

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