Mini KISS, a famous KISS tribute band, have been all over TV, movies and tours as the "hottest littlest band in the world."

In full makeup and arena rock glamour, the group of little people is known for unleashing electrifying KISS-inspired shows and appearances.

I spoke with Arturo Knight, who is the Paul Stanley of Mini Kiss.

Mini KISS has played and appeared with the legendary KISS band members - including a spot in the 2010 Super Bowl commercial for Dr. Pepper, and made a name for themselves on TV, in movies and on tour.

Mini KISS will play the Key West Theater on Sunday, May 18 at 8 p.m.

Tickets: thekeywesttheater.com/e/?event=914393

Gwen Filosa Media Key West is now on Substack.

Follow for coverage of Key West news, culture and assorted shenanigans: gwenfilosa.substack.com

To support us, leave a good review, subscribe to this podcast and share our work. Send story ideas, news tips and warm wishes: gwenfilosa@gmail.com

Thank you!

www.minikisses.com

www.thekeywesttheater.com

I chat with singer-songwriter Freedy Johnston, a master storyteller and celebrated artist, about my favorite songs of his - "Bad Reputation" and "The Mortician's Daughter," finding much more happiness as we grow older, and his plans to make his first ever trip to Key West, Florida for a special concert at the Tropic Cinema on Saturday, Feb. 15, 2025.

7:30 p.m. show

Ticket info: www.tropiccinema.com/single-film/?title=An%20Evening%20with%20Freedy%20Johnston

Gwen chats with singer-songwriter Debbie Gibson, who made music history in the 1980s as a 16-year-old pop superstar and went on to keep making music, star on Broadway and now produces films.

For more than 35 years, Debbie Gibson has been a force: a singer, songwriter, producer, musician, actor, and entrepreneur.

She's been famous since she was a kid. Gibson took the music business by storm when she hit the Billboard Pop Charts at 16 with her song “Only In My Dreams.”

Debbie became the youngest artist ever to write, produce and perform a No. 1 hit song - “Foolish Beat" - on the Billboard Hot 100 and entered the Guinness Book of World Records. She remains the youngest female to hold that record. Oh and less than a year later, she did it again with “Lost in Your Eyes," which she wrote and produced.

We close out this season with Sarah Koenig, the host and co-creator of the heaviest hitter of podcasts, Serial.

Sure, her reporting helped overturn a murder conviction by revealing how it was based on questionable evidence, she won a Peabody and reinvented the podcast with Serial.

But did you know we also palled around while working as rookie reporters in snowy New Hampshire back in the late 1990s? Yeah, this doesn't get as much attention in the news reports.

We talk about the deep dive Serial took into the Adnan Syed case. Watching him leave a courthouse a free man. Whether "true crime" fandom is a good thing. And attending the best dang wedding in Concord, New Hampshire.

Thanks to everyone at The Studios of Key West for your partnership on We're Not Finished, which was produced by Kevin Assam.

Artist, muralist and educator Ernest Shaw Jr. talks about being inspired by his hometown of Baltimore, documenting the Black/Africanist experience, spending time in Key West as an artist in residence at The Studios of Key West, and works that left me speechless, like Crossing Gods.

Comedian Charly Esturilho and I talk shop, South Florida life and why his gigs include going into drug rehabs to perform for people in recovery.

Gwen Filosa is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist based in Key West. She is also a regular performer at Comedy Key West.

This episode features two Key West artists who recently made big art news and who know the daily grind needed to succeed on this expensive island.

Tory Mata recently won a prestigious 2022 South Florida Cultural Consortium Visual and Media Artists grant that includes $15,000 and an exhibition at a Miami museum. We talk about how she finds inspiration on the roadside - there was a rusted fender in the desert one time and changing directions in art.

Jobie Jacomine, who performs as drag queen Puddin Tain, hosted the wildly successful Queer Keys fundraiser at the Key West Theater recently and has quickly become a popular performer at 801 Cabaret on Duval St. We talk about his New Orleans roots, queer stuff and the hustle needed to pay island rent.

I make this podcast with The Studios of Key West, a leading arts institute in South Florida and producer Kevin Assam, a writer and artist in Key West.

Christa Hunt created Key West Burlesque 17 years ago. She shares about the new season, how to burlesque the Harry Potter franchise and the Gurly Burly Burlesque Show on Sept. 8, which I'm co-hosting btw. Key West is a really small town.

Cori Convertito is the curator and historian for the Key West Art and Historical Society. We talk about the Writers in Paradise lecture coming up at Comedy Key West on Sept. 15. The list of writers who have lived on the island include Tennessee Williams, Wallace Stevens, Elizabeth Bishop, Judy Blume, a longtime resident who runs Books & Books at The Studios of Key West, and the fella who wrote Farewell to Arms and The Sun Also Rises.

This podcast is presented in partnership with The Studios of Key West, a leading art institute in South Florida, at 533 Eaton St., and produced by Kevin Assam. For a list of events and more programming like this, visit tskw.org.

This episode is all about Jordan Peele's latest film Nope. I was knocked out by this spectacle and pronounced it Peele's best work yet. But I have lots of questions about what exactly is going on in Nope.

So I invited two guests.

Rene Rodriguez, an award-winning writer teaches at the University of Miami and runs the Bill Cosford Cinema for the UM School of Communication. We chatted about the significance of Nope, how it was shot with Imax cameras and whether it's too long.

Runi Goyal is a former board member of the nonprofit Tropic Cinema in Key West. She now lives in Hawaii but she saw Nope while in Boston, after I asked her to be on the podcast. That is dedication to film.

This podcast is presented in partnership with The Studios of Key West, a leading arts institute in South Florida, and produced by Kevin Assam.