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[0:00] Jess Rothschild: Ah, yes, tea. In this episode, we're taking a peek behind the curtain of some of the legendary parties Fire Island is known for. The Morning Party, the Friday Night Underwear Party, and of course, the Pines Party. Welcome back to Finding Fire Island. I'm your host Jess, and this is Episode 4, TEA. Let's gather Matt Rogers, Joel Kim Booster, and Margaret Cho for a roundtable discussion on the daily ritual of tea.

[0:32] Matt Rogers: So basically, you get into whatever cute little outfit you can scrounge together. I always like to turn a look at tea. And you get in your unit, your little Fire Island pod, and you sort of make your way down the boardwalk. And, you know, you're welcomed by the sights and sounds of dozens and dozens, maybe even hundreds of queer people rocking it out at the boardwalk. Tea is when we begin the formalities of the night, where the start of the evening is. It's still during the day. And then if you're drinking, it's kind of what you're sort of coming to from your hangover. You're just getting out of brunch. It's almost like a revelry. It's like the call to arms. If you're like me, you have one or nine of those planner's punches, and you act an absolute fool.

And one of these days I will learn to not get completely blocked out at tea, but not anytime soon. I mean, tea is sort of where you go to be seen and to see everybody on the island. You know, Fire Island, you're seeing the same people over and over again all throughout the week. And tea is sort of where you go to mix and mingle with everybody. It's more than just like a happy hour at a bar. It is this like communal experience where you go, you see friends, you meet new people. It is the sort of ritualistic end to every Fire Island day or beginning to every Fire Island night.

[2:00] Joel Kim Booster: The tea dance originated on Sunday afternoons in Cherry Grove in the mid-50s and eventually in the Pines at the Blue Whale in 1966. It was illegal at that time for Manhattan bars to, quote, knowingly sell alcohol to homosexuals. To avoid attention, afternoon tea dances were held outside the city on Fire Island. The tea dance has since been replicated all over the world, including Provincetown, Miami, and San Francisco. As discussed last episode, there was a no-touching and no same-sex dancing law, and raids were extremely common. Folks got around this by line dancing, as seen in the 1970 film The Boys in the Band. People usually think of gay or queer parties happening fairly late at night, but tea has always taken place from around 5 to 7 p.m. People typically go home after tea and cook dinner, which can be pretty hilarious after partying.

[2:53] Ben Rimalower: For the longest time, I couldn't figure out what high tea, low tea, middle tea was, but then it turned out it was about elevation. High tea was because it was higher on the deck at the pavilion. Low tea is what I really love. It's at the Blue Whale, and it's just a whole scene. It's where generally, quote-unquote, everybody's going to be there most nights, certainly on the weekend, certainly Friday at low tea. You can gauge, oh, you know, which are my friends that are going to be here for the week. It had so many rules that I never quite grasped completely, but there was high tea. There was low tea. There were the people who went in just a Speedo and a cigarette. There were people who were more caftan-oriented, but it was the place to hang out and especially to cruise, you know, and because what was fun was people would cruise as individuals, but more likely in groups of friends, so you could dish everyone within a 50-foot radius.

[3:52] Paul Rudnick: This is screenwriter Paul Rudnick. I do remember every year, every summer, there would often be sort of an it boy. There'd be somebody who you had no idea who he was, what he did for a living. He might have been a corporate attorney from Washington. He might have been a hooker, but oh my god, everyone knew who you were talking about. Did you see the guy with the eyelashes? Did you see the guy in the ripped tank top? Everyone knew. That's one of the things I love about New York in general, but it was more intense on Fire Island, the way you could gossip extremely intimately about people you had never met and never would and didn't know their names, but you still knew what they liked to do in bed, and you knew who their friends were, and you knew what plastic surgery they'd had done, and you knew what gym they worked out in, certainly, so it was just gossip central, and tea was the sort of nexus of that.

[4:44] Jess Rothschild: While DJs like Roy Thode, Michael Jorba, and Robbie Leslie defined the musical landscape in the 70s, 80s, and 90s, the new millennium brought three major changes to the island. The death of John White, a new Pines owner, Eric Von Kirstner, and the phenomenon of DJ Lina Bradford. Lina identified as trans from a very young age, began her career as a trained dancer, and was connecting with audiences around the globe before landing in the Pines. Lina's DJ presence is really a form of performance art. Before embarking on what would become a 10-year DJ residency in the Pines, Lina was pretty skeptical of the state of Fire Island in the late 90s. Fire Island at that time was just, like, people pulled out.

You know, it was not a place that is what it is now or when I was there, and there most definitely wasn't any women of color or this experience out there at all. Most importantly, really, any color at all. It was very whitewash, honey, like these walls. That's how it was. Pines owner John White died in 2004 and gave the keys to his kingdom to a new owner, Eric Von Kirstner. Eric had a whole new vision for nightlife, which included the demolition and rebuilding of the pavilion and a slew of marketing toward a new generation of young people to the Pines.

[6:12] Lina Bradford: Eric was literally at the bedside getting the turnover of the papers. Oh, yes, honey, he was like, you know what? It's a new day. The emperor has passed on, you know, and anyone who knew, you know, that man, he was very, you know, the walls are white. Not all gays are welcome, honey. No blacks, no Jews, no gays, like the song. Yeah, very that. I mean, and I'm sure he was kicking in his grave to see this bitch go out there and reign for 10 years. Like that's a kick. Literally the whatchamacallit, the dust wasn't even really over the grave by the time that I had started there. And then not even two weeks of me doing that gig. There's lines down the block to get up into my gig. In 2005, she was invited out for a weekend DJ gig, and it quickly snowballed after just one week with raw musical talent and mentors like Frankie Knuckles and Junior Vasquez. Lina's success as a DJ was preordained.

[7:30] Lina Bradford: They wanted to have the first ever high tea. There was never a high tea. There was only ever at the original pavilion. There would be like a cassette player playing like on a tape for people to listen to a little music after low tea had finished just before they would go home and have dinner and figure out what they were going to do. But there was no party up there. There was no high tea. It did not exist. So that's where I come in. We think that you would be great for us creating this high tea situation. I was like, oh, okay. All right. Well, that sounds interesting. And I said, well, listen, you know, I'm in San Tropez in Sardinia every summer. So how's this going to work? Like, how's this going to work? And I just said, you know what? There's a reason why I've been asked to do this. So I was like, all right, I'll figure out and see what this is like.

[8:47] Lina Bradford: I remember I went the day before my gig. They had put me up in the hotel. And I just remember being like, my God, there's a lot of white guys here. I was literally the only Coco girl there. And also, like I said, at the same time, if these weren't the gays that weren't coming to the Fierce Club that I was spinning at, I didn't know them. And they probably didn't know me. The crowd was so moved by Lina's authenticity, spiritual essence and exquisite taste in music that they got to know her instantly. Lina was embraced by those who had been there in the 80s and 90s because she quickly proved to keep the essence of the music they loved while turning it on its head with rare remixes and a deep infusion of soul.

As for the young kids coming to the island for the first time, they would be exposed to genres of music that no other DJ was spinning at the time in the city. She was quickly asked to run not just high tea, but the entire evening of music across multiple venues.

[9:32] Lina Bradford: I think I probably only did three or four Lina's lounges at this time. And they asked me, they're like, do you want to do low tea and then do Lina's lounge and then do pavilion? I was doing all three Friday, Saturday and Sunday. I then ended up moving out to the island, taking over, which became the penthouse became and it was called the Pucci Lounge. And I had it all decorated in Pucci fabric and blah, blah, blah. And I had, oh, honey, I took that shit over. And it was like, wait, what happened? Like what? And it was magical. It was magical. It was so new and fresh. And this was like their Princess Diana that had to come to the island or their Roth moment. It was I mean, it was insane. Like looking back at it now, I'm like, damn, bitch, like I went into infiltrate and I didn't even know what the fuck I was doing, but I was having a good time.

Next thing you know, the buzz is out like, oh, my God, Lina's got a residency. She's on the island. So then you start seeing all the colorful people coming in and they're like, I've never been to Fire Island, but if Lina's out there, she's turning to like we're hearing she's turning it. We want to go out.

[10:14] Lina Bradford: Prior to her residency, Lina had actually performed just one time on the island with her best friend and sister in New York Nightlife, the iconic trailblazer Candice Kane. Candice and I did a show in the Grove and then we ran in our heels on the boardwalk through the meat rack. We didn't know how it worked, girl. We did not know how it worked. It was a long time ago. This is like early 90s. We were both in matching gingham outfits and we had two gigs. We had one in the Pines and then we had one in the Grove. We're like, we didn't know about a water taxi. We didn't know about any of that. And we're like, well, let's hightail it, girl. We've got an hour to get there. Oh, my God. I can't believe I just remembered that. I've got photos, girl. I've got photos.

[11:59] Lina Bradford: In 2015, the Huffington Post published an article featuring the final summer of her residency. It was titled The Cult of DJ Lina. It read to an outsider who has no context of Fire Island in this DJ and her relationship with the island and its people. The energy in this space and at this hour would seem borderline suspicious and cultish. A cult with Lina as the goddess, creating a soundscape for her followers that creates such love, light and joy. By the end of season one, they had to shut down my lounge. They would be chanting my name, go Lina, go Lina. It caved in. So they had to rebuild it. And then they were also revamping the pavilion. Ever the showgirl, she never wore the same look twice and documented her outfits every day on Facebook and Instagram.

[12:10] Daniel Nardiccio: While Lena was reigning in the Pines, I was about to embark on my legacy over in Cherry Grove. My Friday Night Underwear Party has been the longest-running weekly party for over 20 years. In the 90s, I was steeped in Manhattan nightlife culture, running parties at The Slide and The Slipper Room. One December evening, I was looking at old party advertisements and saw something about an underwear party. Inspiration struck.

[13:23] Daniel Nardiccio: This was the end of the 90s in the city. Just two years later, my Underwear Party began its reign on Fire Island in Cherry Grove, finding a permanent home at the Ice Palace. I was asked why I never tried it in the Pines. I learned a lot from doing this, which is the Pines boys; the less you give them a little bit, they're kind of all right with it. They don't really want to be treated really well. I try to treat people really well, but I used to have performers like Lady Gaga, and sometimes they'd come out and be like, oh, God, how long is she going to go on? We had performers like Julie Atlas Muse and crazy stuff. They didn't want any of that. It's like, make me pay the most amount of money. Give me the least amount, and I will be yours forever. There's like a masochism. So I learned that lesson. And now you'll never see a performance again at the Underwear Party.

[14:31] Brian Moylan: During one of those summers, I worked the door of the Underwear Party. OK, so one summer I got laid off in May right before the summer was about to happen, and my share was paid for. I was friends with Daniel Nardiccio, who ran the Underwear Party, and he didn't have anybody. I was like, girl, I ain't got no job. Just hire me. I'll do it for the summer. I could be out here every weekend. And it was great. I met everybody. Everybody would see me, and then I'd be at tea on Friday afternoon. They'd be like, oh, girl, you're going to be at the door tonight? I'd be like, yeah, see you there. And then I would let cute boys I was flirting with in. They gave me a little position so everybody knew who I was.

[15:08] Brian Moylan: So it'd be really busy at the beginning of the night. I'd be getting everybody and taking their money, stamping them, you know, whatever. And then at a certain point, it would really slow down once everybody was in the party. But Daniel would have me sit and wait for stragglers, but I wouldn't have much to do. And then guys would start leaving. So this was my trick: I would sit at the door behind my table, and as every guy left, I'd go, I love you. I love you. I love you. And like one out of ten, they would stop and start talking to me. And then I would like make out with them a little and like send them on their way.

[15:42] Brian Moylan: So that was my trick. And then there was another guy who worked the door. I don't remember his name, but he was this enormous black dude, six foot five, like 400 pounds. He was a retired firefighter in Long Island. And he was this big black dude. And he loved the littlest whitest twinks you could find anywhere in the world. And his trick was at the end of the night. So you had to be in your underwear, so you had no pockets. So the queens would put their money like in their underwear. And so they'd go through the night, they get wasted, they'd go to the back room. And then when they want to misbehave, they'd like pull their underwear down to get the business end out, and their money would fall on the floor.

[16:24] Brian Moylan: And so this guy would wait for the lights to come on, and he would go into the back room, and there would be hundreds of dollars on the floor, hovered in Jesus and John Waters know what? Oh my, girl, she would make like twice as much as she was. Daniel was paying her, like picking up the bills on the floor at the Underwear Party. So yeah, it was like the best job I ever had. It was easy. It was stupid. I mean, I don't even know how much Daniel paid me. He'd just come up at the end of the night and give me like a lot of cash. And then around late August, early September, I was like, oh, girl, I better find a job.

[17:08] Daniel Nardiccio: The Underwear Party has now been canonized in Joel Kim Booster's film Fire Island. I was curious if I knew that it was going to be part of the script, that they were going to recreate the Ice Palace and that they would even recreate my flyer. Well, I was upset about it, to be honest, only because they kept coming out and doing location scouting, and people were telling me that they were talking to the Ice Palace or to different people about the Underwear Party. And they would say, we should talk to Daniel. And then all of a sudden, a costume designer would contact me and say, hey, we want to know, are guys allowed to wear shirts? I'd be like, well, I'd like to talk to the producers if you're replicating my event. It'd be like me naming my party Fox Searchlight. You'd have a problem with that. Or if I start naming parties Fox Searchlight presents, you'd have an issue with that.

[17:58] Daniel Nardiccio: So they copied everything and never contacted me. I just didn't want it to turn out that they made it look like some Berlin backroom sex-heavy dungeon, dark. I wanted them to really show what it is. And I was really afraid. It tends to be when there's something sexual in nature, everyone has to go in the dark angle when they show it. So I decided to take a let's wait and see attitude. And I did. And I was really, really pleased. I thought it was great. And I ran into Joel Kim Booster at a bunch of parties that week. We actually now text occasionally about stuff because I just think he's the sweetest guy ever. And I said to him, I was really nervous. And I said, well, I wasn't going to get upset until I saw it. And God, thank God I didn't. If I'd made this thing, they might have cut it out. Right? But what I loved about it the most was the quote that he says, which I put on the flyer, which is he said, it's the party where everyone is invited.

[18:46] Daniel Nardiccio: And me and my guys that work for me, we were so pleased about that because that's the truth. You know, people that don't go to it, they'll tell me, oh, I always heard you had to show your dick at the door. And if it's not big enough, you can't get in. What? Some of the people coming don't even have dicks or had dicks in the past or, you know, whatever. It's like it's open to everyone. It's just what's going to be nice or leave.

[19:15] Daniel Nardiccio: Remember how I spoke of performers at the Underwear Party? So one summer, I decided this was like 2008, 2009. I was going to have a performer at the Underwear Party at like one o'clock, two o'clock. So it would be like New York cabaret people, the same people that you'd see in like nightclubs in New York. And at the time, Bridget Everett was kind of like up and coming. She's had a hit show at Joe's Pub. She has a hit show on HBO. She's like a big deal. But back then she was just this like big, loud singer girl who would like take her tits out and like cabaret.

[19:53] Daniel Nardiccio: So she performed. It would be like one that was like when the performance ended. That was also the signal that the back room was open. So like, you know, everyone partying in the main room, there'd be a performance, and then everyone would go to the back room, and like the main room would be empty. And so I was in the main room. It was empty. Bridget, after a set, she's getting drunk. She's like, where is everybody? Why did this party empty out? Where is everybody? And I was like, oh, everyone's in the back room, like fucking. She's like, really? And I was like, yeah, she's like, I want to see this. And so she like goes to the back room, but not only goes to the back room, she like takes the microphone, which is like plugged in, goes to the back room, and she's like doing a number while these guys are trying to like fuck in the back room.

[20:43] Daniel Nardiccio: And she is in nothing but panties, and she's like trying to rub it on dudes. And she's going pussy, vagina, pussy, vagina, over and over again, screaming into the mic. You could hear it in the whole venue. And these faggots were, yes, they were pissed. And it was like so funny because they take their sex so seriously. And then you have Bridget coming in here fucking with them. And it was just the most brilliant thing I've ever seen in my life.

[21:08] Daniel Nardiccio: After Tea and the Weekly Underwear Party, we ramp up to what is the most anticipated event of the summer in the Pines, the Pines Party. The Pines Party started in 1999, but was somewhat preceded by the GMHC Mourning Party, which ran from 1983 to 1990. The Mourning Party was the Pines' response to the AIDS epidemic. It was an annual benefit for the gay men's health crisis. The Mourning Party was notable because it was a day party from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on the beach with the biggest DJs of the time, like Michael Jorba. The Mourning Party raised $450,000 at its height before abruptly ending in controversy due to a number of drug overdoses.

[22:08] Daniel Nardiccio: And so in 1999, the annual Pines Party was born. Rather than a day event like the Mourning Party, this would be an all-night event from 10 p.m. to sunrise. I think the Pines Party is one of the best things I've ever attended. The Life Ball in Vienna was the best thing I've ever attended party-wise. It was insanity. The Pines Party is second to that, but the Pines Party is magic. It, to me, is an example of what happens when community comes together. Admittedly, we're all high off our, you know, we're off our faces on something of most people there. Everyone's dancing, the little tents. It creates like Mortville. You know the John Waters movies? Yeah. You know, Desperate Living, Mortville. All the freaks were living in Mortville. It's like Mortville on the beach.

[22:46] Daniel Nardiccio: I've had so many wonderful nights walking back to the Grove on the beach during the Pines Party. And, you know, I take Molly once a year, Pines Party night pretty much, right? That's my night. I went over with my staff, the Underwear Party guys. We're on the water taxi, and they gave me one, and it made me want to vomit. It's so gross, right? But I took it, and then we walked up to the party, and we walked in, and there were these things shooting plumes of smoke up into the air right as you were walking in the door, and it hit me. And I was just like, what the fuck? And it was incredible. So my take on it is one of the best things you can do with your money.

[23:22] Daniel Nardiccio: I found a review for the very first Pines Party in 1999. It reads, a fabled tent city complete with breathtaking lighting effects, a double stage, a casino, and a dance floor the size of a football field rose out of the stands. For three days, hundreds of volunteers worked feverishly under a sky of threatening clouds while an angry sea pushed closer and closer, lapping at the very beach the party celebrated. That evening, the Pines Party came to life, raising half a million dollars for the community. It will remain the most talked about party Fire Island has ever seen until next year.

[24:03] Joel Kim Booster: The high for me is always, always, always like staying late enough to see the sunrise over the ocean at Pines Party. And I've had experiences where it's been raining even when it's like raining and the weather is shitty. There's something so, I don't know, irresistible and magical about like.

[24:21] Pixie Aventura: Being there for that moment, being there at the end of that party and looking around and suddenly seeing all of these faces that for the entire night were sort of shrouded in darkness and like on the dance floor, and suddenly seeing them all in the light of day can be really beautiful and it can also be really scary depending on how many drugs you've done and how many drugs the other people have done. You can sort of see the wear and tear on the faces by that point in the night, in the morning, but there is something really magical about that.

[25:36] Pixie Aventura: Which Pines parties have you performed at? You know, there was like Return to Wonderland, like what were the things? Yeah, so okay, let's go back. So I have done Yellow Brick Road, Lost Boys, Time Machine, Peter Pan, which was Lost Boys, Bacchanal, and Return to Wonderland, so six in total. And what is the halftime show like? So it's when the DJs are switching because there's two DJ sets, but at first it was just kind of like they just put up dancers and they did something, but now there's a whole storyline that we're creating and some people remember it, some people will remember the next day when they see the video on their phone. So there's this enormous circus setup on the beach and then you see this laser light show of the highest quality that you would see at a rock concert or whatever, you know, intense. I mean, people on boats must be like, what the fuck is going on on Fire Island?

[26:31] Ben Rimalower: I happened to meet with Ben Rimalower just two days after he returned home from the Pines party. It's this intense techno music, I mean it's very electronic. I would never have sought that music out, but it really does get inside your bloodstream. I mean, like you just, it's like this, but it's very metallic. I mean, you feel a little bit like any second they could hit a certain tone and we would all like turn counterclockwise and walk into the ocean. It's just so hypnotic. And then every year there's a theme, and so this year was Return to Wonderland because I guess they've done Alice in Wonderland before. So, you know, everybody's, I'm a slutty Alice, I'm a slutty queen of hearts, I'm a sweet old D and tweedle cum, you know, it's like all that, you know.

And you know they're circuit party guys, so it's all the Fire Island Pines boys at their pinesiest and then just these fucking guys that go to circuit parties everywhere in the world, you know, so they all have like 12 packs and like crazy biceps and asses like, you know, two cantaloupes and they're all dressed in just like the slivers of fabric, you know, so it's very sexy but very intimidating and intense. Everybody's drinking, you know, almost everybody's drinking and so many people are on all kinds of drugs and there's so much sex going on and you just see like, you know, in the middle of the midway people just like on their knees giving somebody else a blow job, you know, people just eating each other's asses like in a tent in front of everyone.

I mean, it's like all happening along with like weird old people that like own businesses or homes in the Pines, like, you know, just walking around schmoozing with the other people from like the homeowners association. You know, it's such an interesting strange event.

[28:17] Katherine Grainger: And while yes, the Pines party is mostly an all-male affair, I have been to the party multiple times. I had been years ago before without like being in the VIP section and all of that, and it was mayhem because, you know, women in the Pines at a party like that, it's not really for us and you get clobbered. Like these guys are big, they're high, you just get clobbered. But we went, we dressed up, we went all in and dancing on the platforms over the ocean while the moon is up, it was incredible. In fact, it was so good that I lost my shoes. I still do not know what happened to my shoes that night, so I walked home from the Pines party at five or six in the morning barefoot. Thank god it was on the beach. Usually an opera singer sings something, you know, the national anthem or something, America the Beautiful at sunrise, and then it ends and then there's more parties and these people go all day and all week.

[29:30] Katherine Grainger: I tried to make it. I even drank some of those monster energy drinks, which were diminishing returns. You know, the first one I got was good for an hour, then I was like really crashing. I had another one that gave me like maybe 20 minutes before I crashed. I was like, I'm gonna have a heart attack if I do this. It's funny, so many of the memories I have of what drugs feel like, I realized it was like, oh no, no, no, that's what 5 a.m. feels like. I don't actually need to be on drugs. The bad part of drugs, a lot of it was actually just the crash of it being 5, exhaustion, you know, exhaustion.

[30:06] Jess Rothschild: It's interesting, so I've interviewed maybe 20 people for this project. We'll say a quarter of them revealed to me during the interview that they are actually sober. Is this just a case of where there's a lot of gay plus partying equals a lot of sobriety?

[30:15] Jeanette Cincotta: Absolutely. So any of the huge party towns have thriving sobriety or sober communities. The amount of people that I've met on Fire Island who are sober is, I mean, it's the majority of people that I know whom I'm friends with. There are 12-step meetings on the beach, there's another 12-step meeting which meets every night at the firehouse at 6 p.m. So it's nice because it sort of rounds out your day. A lot of us love to party, so even though we're sober, we love having fun, we love laughing, we love yelling at drag shows. And, you know, in order to do that and still feel okay for me, I like to go to a meeting every day.

[31:01] Jeanette Cincotta: Along with Brian Moylan and Ben Rimalower, shared their experiences as sober people in this high-octane party environment. So by the time I got to Fire Island, I'd been sober for a long time, maybe like 8-10 years, I guess. So I was long sober, but I was running this nightlife magazine. I always liked to party, so I was used to being in like nightclubs and spaces where there's lots of drinking and drugs and was abstaining from them. And in Fire Island, there would be lots of sober houses where it was like guys who were all in AA and they were all in a house together. And people would always be like, don't you want to be in a sober house? And I'd be like, sober house sounds boring. It's like no one passed out trying to cook dinner in your house, snooze.

And I always found that being around people, if they were really drunk, I would kind of get like a contact high and like they didn't care what's happening and so I wouldn't care what they thought about me and I knew they were going to forget it, so I just behaved like a crazy person.

[32:01] Jeanette Cincotta: So I was getting kind of the same thing in Fire Island, which was like the complete loss of inhibitions but without having to do the drugs. And so I got to remember it all. Whatever, but there would be a certain point in the evening where I was like, oh my god, you people have done way too much cocaine and you're talking about nonsense, like I'm going to bed. So that would be kind of annoying and like sometimes it would be like, you know, you'd come home from tea and everyone would be obliterated and just be like, oh my god, can't we just eat a fucking meal together and get it together? So I was there for like all of my 30s and then like as I got closer and closer to 40, it's like I had some other friends who became sober. We weren't going out as much. It was nice to kind of have a foot in both worlds because I feel like, yeah, if I was there during my drinking and drugging days, I don't know that I would have survived.

[33:04] Brian Moylan: Everybody who knows me knows, oh, Karen's an old-fashioned girl. She'll smoke some weed and drink some rosé because I say to them, don't do anything that starts with a letter. No G, no K, no, you know, you want to do a little molly? Okay, have a good time because I've seen some boys who are really in terrible, terrible shape. It was not uncommon every summer for at least one boy to die in a hot tub because he's taking G and then the high temperatures, they don't know it's not a good combination.

[33:12] Brian Moylan: You know that I've been lucky in a similar way to how my experience has been in sobriety. Being around people that are drinking is in that I was never a follower in my intake. I was with my family at my brother's graduation from Harvard and I ran out across the street to a bar, sat by myself chugging Sauvignon Blancs and then ran back into the graduation saying, oh, I had to go to the bathroom. You know, I would always do the socially inappropriate thing because I needed my fix, whether it was cigarettes, alcohol, or drugs. Being out with friends and everybody going home to get ready for work and me being like, nah, I gotta find drugs. I gotta do coke tonight. I, you know what, let's, I want to roll.

Who has got molly? I gotta find molly, texting people, waking them up, being like, dude, can you have a dealer for molly because my guy doesn't have any. You know, like I was always sort of that version of the drunk. I was never inspired by what other people were doing and I think that served me in the sense that in sobriety, seeing other people drinking or taking drugs has never, you know, or smoking cigarettes has never made me want to do the thing.

[34:14] Brian Moylan: And also I've always hated dancing and my kind of music has always been mostly like old school show tunes or even, you know, 80s pop or disco or whatever, but not the music that was current in the 90s or ever since in my adult life. So like even in my partiest partying days of taking all those drugs, even taking all those drugs on Fire Island, everybody would be out at the pavilion taking their shirts off on the dance floor. I was back at the house listening to Bette Midler and Diana Ross. You know, maybe I would like try to find sex or whatever, but I wasn't, I never wanted to be out at the club really. My experience being on Fire Island sober has not been any different, you know, and also there are sober communities.

[35:04] Jeanette Cincotta: Jeanette introduced me to her friend Julia Sanderson, who after years of renting finally bought a house in Cherry Grove. The first time I actually signed a lease for a share house, it was within, I think it may have even been weeks of when I decided to stop drinking. And I remember thinking, holy shit, like what have I done? How am I, can't, you know, going out there? Because part of the thing is it's such a drinking world and that was such a part of my experience there for many years. But what happened as a result of that is that I actually ended up connecting with a lot of people who also don't drink. And I think more than kind of shutting me off from what the place had to offer, I feel like my social thing actually expanded exponentially with much deeper friendships and friendships that I carry throughout the year.

It's not just sort of a summer moment, so that actually was a big shift in my social world, but in a very, what I think to be a very good and positive way. It sort of had the opposite effect of what I thought was going to happen, like how am I going to do this? Well, the thing is, is that you can party and be sober. Like it doesn't mean the party has left, actually it just means the party has just begun.

[36:14] Margaret Cho: For me, being sober is really about partying, like partying with the celebration of life. It's not about partying with substances or alcohol or whatever, it's about just celebrating. I think like for a lot of queer people, alcohol and drugs...

[36:32] Matt Rogers: I forgot to say, I was cleansing, I quit drinking, smoking, and I became a vegan and I was also celibate for four years. So by the time I got onto the island, I was all of those things. I was living a different life prior to the island. So getting on the island, like in the first week or two, I was asked to be in a threesome with these two guys. And I'm like, what the hell? Like, where am I? I was like, is this my cookie jar? Girl, I'm not even fronting. That island became my sexual nuance. I found myself sexually. It was everything. And also just a testament to who I am, how I make people feel comfortable. You know, our first time at the rodeo, my first time at the rodeo, but we're all gigging and vibing.

It was everything. So then there's that. Over the course of speaking to people, I would ask them to share their most memorable, most wild experiences from these parties on the island. So here are several unfiltered stories from Matt Rogers, Margaret Cho, Joel Kim Booster, Lina Bradford, Brian Moylan, and Ben Rimalower.

[37:56] Joel Kim Booster: I mean, can I be completely candid? The high highs are when you and all your friends are on the same page about a particular activity and roll up to said activity in numbers. You know what I mean? And then, you know, immediately getting there and sort of losing each other at the event, but reteaming at the end, you know, arriving in numbers, splitting up for very different experiences, but leaving together. Or if you're going to leave not with them, at least you, you know, scored some trade. You know what I'm saying? For some reason, this is crazy to look back at, but I had any man and every man that I wanted on that island. Like to the point where it became a game to me. People would always make this reference.

You ever watch True Blood? Remember the character named Melinda? She was the one who would just conjure sexual energy and orgies. People would say that when they would come to Lina's Lounge. And it was true. Guys would just be like, and I would literally have the pick of the litter and I would be like, you, you, you and you. And boom, I would have these beautiful sex orgies at my home afterwards. It was absolutely beautiful. And it became synonymous with Lina's Lounge that the Kiki Lounge, which was what it was called at my house. It was a separate outdoor area that was closed in and I had created, it was very genie's bottle, very Moroccan. And it had its own Facebook page, but no photos were ever, ever allowed.

Just a photo of the decor, but anything that went on or went down, no one ever had a phone in there. There were special fruits that were resonated and fermented in liquor. Like it was, it was Caligula. It was Caligula.

[39:36] Brian Moylan: I had a house I was staying at and underneath my quarters were like a really small bed that fit one person. They could stay, like it was another like little guest room. So my two friends came to the island to visit me and they were staying in that little room. And they're like two sisters, you know, two gay guys who would never hook up because they're basically sisters. You know, like we have like the people that we fuck and the people in the queer community, we have people that are our sisters. They were such sisters. Was this Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang? No, no. These are, these are Queens past. Queens long gone another way. But they had already been rejected from an all nude party at that one house that looks like the Taj Mahal.

You know, it's like a very beautiful white building that has all of the Belvedere. Yeah, they were rejected from the Belvedere because they were too ugly. So then they walked along Tuna Walk and they found two other gentlemen who did not find them ugly. So they brought them back to the little room under my room. And they both were trying to give blowjobs, but really to their respective tricks, but not make eye contact or for God forbid bodily contact where their sister across the room, which was basically two feet away. And so they're back to back trying to suck dick, but not look at the other, you know, because that would just ruin it if you saw your sister in the midst of doing this. And I think they touched elbows and they both screamed.

[41:06] Matt Rogers: Wow. I mean, I would say like the most insane thing is like, I've been to 200 plus orgy, 200 plus person orgy on the island. And there is nothing like watching a bunch of guys get railed as the sun is coming up over the ocean. I mean, I keep returning to the sun coming up over the ocean, but that's like whether it's a party or an orgy or just like you and the guy you met last night taking a walk on the beach at sunrise. Like the beauty and the nature of it all is so captivating and magnetic. The amount of sex and sex acts that I've seen on that island in public in front of an audience is sort of wild. I don't know what it is about Fire Island that unlocks people's inhibitions a little bit. You know, suddenly, I think a lot of people who are really buttoned up year round go there and are like, yeah, sure, I'll get railed in public in front of all of my friends.

[42:41] Margaret Cho: You know, I think one of my very first acid trips was on Fire Island. We just sat on the beach and took a tab and like let the, you know, tides roll in as it were. And outside of the positive experience, there was also a time I ate ass on the beach and then got really sick. So it's not a place you want to eat ass and get some sort of ass eating related disease on the beach at, you know what I mean? It's so funny because you're like, wow, I've never felt so alive. And then I've never felt so dead, like in the span of 48 hours. So yeah, you know, I'm out there being a full gay man on that beach. And that comes with its maladies and successes.

[43:32] Paul Rudnick: This is my favorite Fire Island story I'm gonna tell you. So like one night, it was a Saturday. And I'd been out at the sip and twirl. I was flirting with some boys. And you know, someone comes up and was like, oh, let's go back to our hot tub because it always starts in the hot tub. And so we went back to their hot tub. It was like a little make out slap and tickle in the hot tub. So we left and go back to my place. But there was somebody like sharing, you know, my roommate was passed out in his bed. And so there was nowhere to go. It's like 536 in the morning at this point. And so we go out to one of the boardwalks like leading up to the beach. And I was like, let's just fuck right here. Like why not?

Sun's coming up gorgeous. So we're like in it deep in it, pants around our legs and some older gentleman got to be like 6570 is off just woke up and is walking the dog in the morning and I see him coming down the boardwalk and I'm like, oh shit. And I like bend over to like pull up my pants and he goes, Oh, it's Fire Island. Have fun. And just like kept walking. And that was what I loved about it was that like gay rules applied. Everybody knew the score. No one wanted to keep you from having your fun. Yeah, it was just always the best.

[44:56] Margaret Cho: I was doing my show Patty Issues there in 2013. I was doing the show on Friday night and they give me the hotel room like Wednesday, Thursday, Friday night or something. And then I would always try to ask them for an extra night. And then if they wouldn't get it, I would try to find some other place to stay because of course, I never wanted to go home. And this one time I was there and it was a cruise during July and it was really crazy and they didn't have any extra rooms available at all to give me. And I had these friends who were staying with friends of theirs who had like a mansion with just all these guest rooms like lined up empty along the pool in their beautiful backyard. And I'd been hanging out with them having lunch by the pool all day long and I knew I'd charm the pants off them.

And we were all going out that night and I was like, I'm sure I'll be able to get an invitation. Then they slept in and decided to skip dinner and would see us later at the pavilion dancing. So I was like, Oh, God, I have to go dancing. But I still didn't have a place to stay that night. And I was asking my friend, can you just ask them? We just text them back and ask if it's okay if I stay over. He was like, you can't put me in that position. If they come out dancing, you'll have the conversation. I was like, well, and I let the last fairy go waiting for them to come out dancing. And they didn't come out dancing. And I was like, well, you know what? Listen, come on two shoes. I was like, get on that dance floor.

Get on Grindr. You got to find somebody to sleep with tonight. I was like, look, I might not always be able to find the guy that I would like to sleep with, but I'm sure I can find someone. So I'm out on the dance floor. I'm on Grindr. Nothing. I'm so exhausted. I was sober already. It's fucking 330 in the morning. I'm like, I just want to go to bed. I don't have a bed. I'm on Grindr. Like, I just cannot get laid to save my life. Lowering my standards, lowering my standards. Nobody. Now I'm sitting on the bench in the harbor, just like cruising guys on the walk. Nobody wants me. And I'm just like, Oh, my God, am I gonna sleep on the beach? Is that even legal? Finally, this guy on Grindr, this gorgeous silver fox flirting with me.

Why don't you come over? I go to his house. It's this beautiful house on the bay with this fabulous back deck. We get in the pool. It was very warm. It was a heated pool in the middle of the summer. We're hooking up in the pool. It's like magical. We're like lying there. He's asking me what I do about my show. Oh, my God. He was at this private, fabulous dinner party. His friend's 50th. They hired Patti LuPone to sing and she sang Over the Rainbow. I'm like, she never sang Over the Rainbow. He's like, here, it's on my phone. He like texts me this video of Patti singing Over the Rainbow. I'm like, this is my gay nirvana. I'm like, God, isn't it funny how things all work out? He's like, well, listen, I really wish I could invite you to stay.

But this housemates blah blah blah blah blah, I have to ask you to leave. What? I can't believe it. I go back out. I'm like, I'm gonna die. I'm so fucking tired now. I'm truly gonna die. And so I go back to the house, my friend's friend's house where we were all hanging out all day. And I just like try the front gate. It's unlocked. I go out by the pool sliding door into one of the guest rooms. No one's in there. I sleep on top of the blankets. I set my alarm. I wake up early. I wipe down the basin where I washed my face, you know, and I sneak out. And no one knows until this minute.

[47:08] Matt Rogers: For one minute there. I did think the punchline of this story was that silver fox. Yeah, was Andy Cohen. I don't think Andy Cohen needs to sleep in my tired ass, but that's very kind.

[47:32] Jess Rothschild: Thanks for listening to Finding Fire Island. Check out findingfireisland.com for all the tea and definitely follow me on Instagram at JessXNYC. Be sure to subscribe wherever you listen today so you don't miss any episodes. Next, we're heading to the invasion, the annual July 4 event, which commemorates the historic day in 1976, in which the outsider culture of Cherry Grove finally invaded the glass mansions and cocktails of the pines. And then every year, the crowds got bigger in the pines. Now there are thousands. John White, who hated the invasion, started selling tables for people to sit while he hated the invasion while he threatened me. See you next time on Finding Fire Island.