Strange Fruit #60: Keith McGill Directs Comedy on Sex in Middle Age; Trans Leaders on Katie Couric

Louisville comedian Keith McGill has been one of our favorite people since he was first on the show last year to talk about his work in a local production of TopDog/Underdog. That play explored themes of black masculinity through the fractured relationship of two brothers struggling with instability and poverty. Now McGill is working on another local production, this time as the director, vastly different in tone.Sex Again is a comedy by Louisville playwright Heidi Saunders that looks at sexuality during middle age. We spoke to Keith this week, in part, because we wondered how a gay black man approaches work about the waning marriages of straight white folks, and what made him want to direct the piece. "I really think it has a lot to say to everyone," he explains. "There's a lot of truth in the play." Sex Again plays through January 18 at The Vault 1031, one of Louisville's newest performance spaces, on South 6th Street in Old Louisville. Reservations can be made at [email protected] or (502) 592-4218. Keith also sat in on our Juicy Fruit segment this week, in which we just had to take on the Katie Couric segment that's been making the rounds this week. Trans activists LaVerne Cox and Carmen Carrera appeared on a segment of Katie, to talk about their work, but the conversation got a little awkward when Couric turned the conversation toward which surgeries Carrera has had. Carrera declined to discuss it, saying she'd rather talk about her career. "I want to focus on that rather than what's 'down here,' because I think that that's been spoken about so many times, you know? Like in other interviews with other trans people, they always focus on either the transition or the genitalia. And I feel like there are more to trans people than just that." After a commercial break the show returned, and LaVerne Cox joined the discussion. Couric asked her about Carrera's response to the surgery question, leading to this amazing response that's been echoing around the internet ever since.