This is how you make an entrance

September 20, 2019 1:53 PM

Billy Porter offers a master class in making an entrance...a little Friday pick-me-up (literally)!
posted by agatha_magatha (37 comments total)

Rip Taylor Richard Simmons
posted by robbyrobs at 2:16 PM on September 20, 2019 [4 favorites]

My favorite parts were the disco roller skates and the golden angel wings.
posted by Bee'sWing at 2:42 PM on September 20, 2019 [4 favorites]

Whenever Rip Taylor made an entrance, all I could think about what those poor people who had to sit there with glitter down the backs of their shirt for the rest of the performance.
posted by bonehead at 3:09 PM on September 20, 2019 [3 favorites]

That was DELICIOUS!
posted by MissySedai at 3:27 PM on September 20, 2019

Whenever Rip Taylor made an entrance, all I could think about what those poor people who had to sit there with glitter down the backs of their shirt for the rest of the performance.

Heh. I'm sure that glitter was going to be there for much longer, inexplicably appearing on an eyelash, forehead, or other body part months after the fact. All I could think was, "It's Big Bird Liberace."

But Billy Porter, I mean come on. We're not religious, but if we were to have a corner dedicated to a patron saint in our living room, it would probably be some kind of Billy Porter shrine.
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 3:33 PM on September 20, 2019 [12 favorites]

Kirsten Dunst is a good sport.
posted by schadenfrau at 3:50 PM on September 20, 2019 [7 favorites]

*An* entrance?
posted by The Underpants Monster at 4:01 PM on September 20, 2019 [6 favorites]

So great <3
posted by PistachioRoux at 4:05 PM on September 20, 2019 [1 favorite]

schadenfrau, She didn't have a lot of choices. I hope she gets invited back so that she gets her time to be interviewed.
posted by Nancy Lebovitz at 4:39 PM on September 20, 2019 [1 favorite]

I'm pretty disappointed in James Corden. Late Night Shows are serious? Did this host not know who Billy Porter is? There were a dozen good ways to handle such a surprise. This was not it.
posted by bilabial at 4:48 PM on September 20, 2019

I assumed Corden was in on it.
posted by bunderful at 5:44 PM on September 20, 2019 [18 favorites]

Beautiful!!
posted by Secretariat at 5:49 PM on September 20, 2019

If you watch the entire video it’s quite clear it’s a bit. I liked it!
posted by ephemerista at 5:49 PM on September 20, 2019 [2 favorites]

Did this host not know who Billy Porter is?

I can assure you Corden knows who Porter is because he wishes he was one tenth that goddamn fabulous, and even one-fifth the singer.
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 6:04 PM on September 20, 2019 [8 favorites]

I can say without hyperbole that Ricky's entrance in Better Off Dead is the greatest entrance in the history of civilization.
posted by kirkaracha at 6:06 PM on September 20, 2019 [3 favorites]

i was a little 'wait, what?' on pose this season with pray tell saying he was afraid to face his feminine side (and not knowing how to walk in heels ... lol seeing his shoes here) and i just realized it's because i'm used to billy porter the actor being so fully Billy Porter. what a man!!! that dress is a dream!
posted by gaybobbie at 6:32 PM on September 20, 2019 [4 favorites]

I'd say this is entirely made-up beforehand and James Corden sells it even better than Billy Porter does.
posted by Lipstick Thespian at 6:37 PM on September 20, 2019 [12 favorites]

Oh to be clear this is all completely staged / produced. The writers just did a shitty job of setting up Kirsten Dunst for her segment (which I assume came next). They kind of made her into an unwilling wet blanket, but she goes along with it gamely, which is a pretty Kirsten Dunst thing to do.
posted by schadenfrau at 6:48 PM on September 20, 2019 [7 favorites]

Oh to be clear this is all completely staged / produced.

Oh, absolutely.

That completely comes through in the Richard Simmons/Letterman bit as well, but the whole conceit of that bit is basically: "Men shouldn't behave like this/I'm deeply uncomfortable with your flamboyance," which is gross, as opposed to underlying conceit of the Corden bit, which is "Let's celebrate this," which is then taken to an absurd level.

It's just that James Corden bothers me, but YMMV.
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 8:01 PM on September 20, 2019 [2 favorites]

I'm sure that glitter was going to be there for much longer, inexplicably appearing on an eyelash, forehead, or other body part months after the fact.

It's not for no reason that I call glitter "the herpes of craft supplies".
posted by hippybear at 8:07 PM on September 20, 2019 [12 favorites]

Now if only it was an ironclad requirement for all latenight talkshow guests and hosts to perform this every Friday. The song & roller skating, not the "oh heavens no" crap. Get your ass down there and work it Corden!
posted by twentyfeetof tacos at 8:25 PM on September 20, 2019 [2 favorites]

It was pretty clear when Corden hosted the Tonys this year that he knows and loves Billy Porter.
posted by gladly at 9:53 PM on September 20, 2019 [9 favorites]

If he was in on it, playing the punishment and banishment of black men for laughs really is a giant problem for me. I got to the point where Ms Dunst said she didn’t feel good about being the only guest for that episode. At that point it was very much not clear that Corden was ‘in on it’ and I wondered how his production crew had managed to not spill the beans about the two hot guys who were there to carry Billy Porter.
posted by bilabial at 11:02 PM on September 20, 2019 [1 favorite]

I'm pretty disappointed in James Corden. Late Night Shows are serious? Did this host not know who Billy Porter is? There were a dozen good ways to handle such a surprise. This was not it.

Um... take a look at James Corden and Billy Porter at the Tonys? In other words, this entire piece was a setup and James and Kirsten were both in on it.

Edit. See other comments above ^^
posted by greenhornet at 1:13 AM on September 21, 2019 [5 favorites]

How can anyone imagine you can even do something like this without having it planned in the smallest detail? And Kirsten Dunst was in on it, too. They are actors, they act.

Nevertheless, it had me crying from laughter. Thanks <3
posted by mumimor at 1:39 AM on September 21, 2019 [9 favorites]

Any time there is glitter on a stage, there is also a stage manager hyperventilating into a paper bag.
posted by seanmpuckett at 5:12 AM on September 21, 2019 [8 favorites]

The fact that the music's going on the whole time means that the staff is in on it. The fact that the staff is in on it means the host is, because they largely run the show. They don't do "surprises" or "pranks" on live national TV.

This was fun, though!
posted by explosion at 5:15 AM on September 21, 2019 [4 favorites]

"Who is Kristen Dunst?"
"Not Kristen. Kirsten."
"ok, Kirsten Dunst. Who is she?"
"She was Justine in Melancholia"
"......"
"Spiderman 2002's girlfriend"
"......"
"She was on James Corden's show when Billy Porter/"
"/oh my god! I just love her!"
posted by otherchaz at 6:19 AM on September 21, 2019 [4 favorites]

If you've ever wondered "what if Breaking Bad was about Amway" then you should watch Kirsten Dunst's new show On Becoming A God In Central Florida. It is really really good and she is amazing in it.
posted by Sauce Trough at 3:16 PM on September 21, 2019 [4 favorites]

There's no question this was staged but it was still so wonderful. Billy Porter is a joy. I loved how much this escalated (the rollerskaters!) and Porter looked amazing. Everyone deserves that ability to wear clothes that well.

(When he came out the second time and was handing out the roses, what was up with that one dude who was like "ew, no" and kind of turned away from Porter. Who turns down a rose from Billy Porter?)
posted by darksong at 5:30 PM on September 21, 2019 [2 favorites]

Nobody I want to know!
posted by tobascodagama at 6:56 PM on September 21, 2019

I never watched Pose, but I was listening to Pop Culture Happy Hour one day and they suddenly started gushing over the alternate universe where Billy Porter was cast as the Genie in Disney's live action Aladdin instead of Will Smith.

Now I understand what they were talking about.
posted by neuracnu at 7:57 PM on September 21, 2019 [2 favorites]

Y’all that couldn’t have been more obviously staged if they had a Greek chorus behind the couch narrating the action as it occurred.
posted by winna at 3:47 AM on September 22, 2019 [5 favorites]

Did they not? I'm sure I spotted at least one.
posted by flabdablet at 7:05 AM on September 22, 2019 [2 favorites]

Billy Porter wakes up in a cold sweat. "The Greek chorus! Damn, I knew I was forgetting something!"
posted by tobascodagama at 9:11 AM on September 22, 2019 [11 favorites]

I was frankly also uncomfortable watching a black man being "kicked off" a talk show even though I absolutely positively knew it was a bit and a setup for something more. Especially since this bit didn't made a whit of sense for Cordon's persona -- he's a superfan always ready to jump in to a musical number and literally play along, not a stickler for the classic talk show formula controlled by the host. (Remember the fuss about how he is rare for not sitting behind a desk to interview guests?)

Why didn't they stick closer to the stereotypes they're sending up? Cordon could have instead gently chided Porter with just a little tsk tsk, and Porter could have overreacted by stomping off in a huff vowing never to return to this stupid stuffy talk show...only to reemerge just the way he did with his musical number. With Cordon delightedly trying to strap on roller skates and join in.

Anyhoo, I loooooved Billy's rendition of "I will survive," and I want a full-length version of that production number. SO JOYFUL.
posted by desuetude at 8:30 AM on September 23, 2019 [2 favorites]

Billy Porter's Emmy acceptance speech from Sunday is probably relevant here:

“James Baldwin said ‘Took many years of vomiting up all the filth that I had been taught about myself, and halfway believed, before I could walk around this Earth like I had the right to be here’,” he quoted, adding, “I have the right, you have the right, we all have the right!”
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 3:12 PM on September 24, 2019 [2 favorites]