Rage Monthly Magazine

Chef Paul McCullough grew up in New Jersey with an interesting family dynamic that made him the culinary master that he is today. McCullough explains, “I guess I am the product of a ‘fisherman father’ and a ‘casserole queen’ for a mother (laughs). My dad would take me out on these fantastic fishing adventures.

 

I was this little scrawny kid on a boat catching these big ol’ fish. He would filet them. He was such an expert. Then he would cook us amazing fish that night.” Paul continues, “My mom was the ‘casserole queen.’ They divorced when I was five. She was all about making food on a budget and whatever was the easiest fastest way to get healthy food on the table. So combined, my childhood consisted of learning cooking with a great combination of casseroles and really amazing high-end food.”

 

Paul’s first dreams and ambitions were much more of the theatrical than the culinary kind. He elaborates, “As a kid, I performed in a lot of plays and really enjoyed it.” In 1990 McCullough moved to New York and graduated from the American Musical and Dramatic Academy. Paul explains, “After graduation, I thought something amazing and miraculous would happen, like a big wand would come down and I would get this hit Broadway show, TV commercial or movie.

 

But it really doesn’t happen like that. I didn’t like the struggle and I didn’t like the unpredictability of not knowing when the next job was going to come in.

 

After four years of trying to make it in New York, Paul decided at 24 years old to move to Los Angeles. “When I first arrived in L.A., I made dinner for this guy I was dating and he got a phone call during dinner from this rich, retired doctor looking for a chef. I met with him and was really honest. I said, ‘You know, I didn’t go to culinary school, but I’m a really good cook.’

 

So he said, ‘Let’s see how it goes!’ It went really well… he liked me, his dogs liked me and the food was really good.” Paul got a great education not only by teaching himself how to cook, but while working in the doctor’s home, he learned many other things that would help him in the future.

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The gift of laughter is a precious one. Lily Tomlin has been giving audiences throughout the world many reasons to smile and laugh during her over 40-year career in show business. Whether it is her characters of comedy on television’s Laugh-In, her numerous films such as Nine To Five and Big Business filled with many hilarious moments or her live stage performances including the acclaimed Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe, Tomlin is definitely a queen of comedy.

 

The Rage Monthly spoke with Lily Tomlin as she was preparing to perform for the very first time in the city of sin…otherwise known as Las Vegas on November 10 through November 18.

 

Lily Tomlin: Yeah, it is. I’ve never played Vegas. I did a show years ago in 1981. I had a special and it won an Emmy. It was called Lily: Sold Out about going to Vegas for the money but I didn’t really play Vegas. I shot the special there at Caesar’s. The showroom was dark during the Christmas week or something and we were able to go in there and shoot.

LT: I always do characters so…the show is hopefully funny and a little bit over the top or wacky, but the kind of thing I’ve always done. On a literal level, you’ll see a lot of playing cards with my characters on them. So, when I perform, literally when I perform I wouldn’t have time to do a full deck. But on a content and aesthetic level, I’d be kind of not playing with a full deck. Just fooling around and having as much fun as I can…without being too…not being too in earnest like Ernestine (laughter).

 

LT: No, I’m making it to play in that showroom. Some bits I might be doing maybe in a different frame or a different essence but certain things I’m adding to the show are meant to be just for that showroom.

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You might not be able to put a name to the voice—not yet anyway. But all of that is about to change. Pop music fans are soon destined not only to recognize, but to revel in the gorgeous voice and emotional intensity of Chris Willis, a performer who has been thrilling dance music aficionados, DJs and club denizens for the better part of this decade.

 

Beginning with his vocal performances on the debut album, Just a Little More Love, by superstar DJ David Guetta in 2004, Willis has increasingly made a name for himself as that rare male vocal sensation in a world normally populated with divas and sirens of the opposite gender. 

 

Perhaps it’s because Willis has such a deep understanding of the emotional landscape of the dance floor—his voice is an affecting instrument that speaks directly to the hearts of the love-seeking dance habitués—both gay and straight, who populate clubs around the world hoping to find, in the ecstasy of the musical moment, that special someone with whom they can escape all space and time.

 

The transcendental world of gospel music is where Willis first got his start, and it’s the spiritual and technical training learned from numerous live performances and recordings—including his own debut album Chris Willis—that has made him such a revered virtuoso in the dance world. It’s that inexplicable sensitivity that emanates from Willis’ open heart that first caught Guetta’s ear on their first fateful meeting. The pair’s partnership now spans four albums.

 

Willis is in stellar company as part of Guetta’s all-star roster of guest vocalists on the DJ’s recently released fourth album, One Love, which also features Akon, Ne-Yo and Estelle, not to mention two of the summer’s biggest pop-dance hits, “I Gotta Feeling” by The Black Eyed Peas and “When Love Takes Over” with Kelly Rowland. With his profile justifiably raised by being involved in such a superstar project, it’s inevitable that the world will soon get a chance to delight in the latest chapter in Willis’ ever-evolving musical career—his long-awaited second album, the pop opus he’s been destined to make all these years.

 

 Here, the singer talks about his musical journey from hardship to triumph, his take on the state of dance music today, and the gay pride moment that he will never forget.

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