If you are reading this blog it means you have an interest or curiosity of things that are LGBQT related. The Brini Maxwell Show is part of our history. Brini was a ground breaking performer that was way ahead of her/his time.
It took me 2 or 3 shows before I realized the high camp reality of what I was watching. Ben Sander plays Brini perfectly!
Brini Maxwell is a retro-inspired domestic goddess whose YouTube channel is a library of household "how-to" tips and advice... like a Martha Stewart. The pilot for the original Brini Maxwell Show debuted on Manhattan Neighborhood Network on January 1, 1998. The show aired for five years featuring tips, recipes, entertaining ideas, craft projects, home renovation and interior design schemes. The premise for the show was Maxwell lived in an apartment that she redecorated every week.
Do yourself a favor and watch a few shows via the web.
Created and performed by Ben Sander, The Brini Maxwell Show aired on public access cable television. Sabrina “Brini” Maxwell is the drag persona of Ben Sander, described as the "prototypical, pre-feminist, 1960s homemaker." Maxwell has also been described as a composite of Doris Day, Mary Tyler Moore, Auntie Mame, That Girl, and Donna Reed; the character came to prominence in the late '90s as the host of her eponymous television show on public access in Manhattan, and later on the national cable television Style Network.
Google search "The Brini Maxwell Show"
Comments
If I Hadn't Seen Your Blog
I don't think I would have picked up on Brini being a crossdresser for quite a while. I watched the clip and a couple of others on YouTube and "she" plays the role so perfectly that you just don't realise that it's OTT until some little detail reaches out and grabs you and you think....Duh?
OMG
Why have I never seen this show? It is brilliant! The humor is so subtle and never sinks to tawdry double-entendre.
I see Ben's background was design, so he has all the skills, but so much better expressed by a woman from that era!
There is a story in this for me. Watch this space!
Maryanne
Exactly!
I agree; very subtle. I think Brini paved the way for the visibility of other non-mainstream characters on TV. I wonder why something similar has not been tried recently.
I could envision a series like "The Trials & Tribulations" (by Teddy) becoming a pilot.
Donna
Indeed
There are a couple of Starbucks ads on UK TV at the moment that feature a F2M character and their fight to be called by the name that the want and not their old one (in gender)
I wonder how these would go down in the US given the present administration?
Samantha