Over brunch in New York City, Ted Allen, Kyan Douglas, Thom Filicia, Carson Kressley, and Jai Rodriguez take on everything from Falcon Studios to Quakers with cable.

Kyan on meeting a fan:
“I was talking to [my mother] and a guy comes up and touches my arm. I’m like, ‘Hold on Mom.’ He said, ‘I just wanted to let you know, I love the show, got a great tip from you last week.’”

Ted on gays on television:
“Just seeing us get a show with real gay people on the air is exciting for all of us.”

The Fab 5 on getting along:
Advocate: You haven’t had a chance to have any infighting yet?
Ted: Actually we just despise each other.
Jai: The success is really relative...
[Carson pretends to jab something at Ted.]
Carson: [fake-sincere]: I am so sorry.
Ted: You son of a bitch!
Carson: Hold on, let me get my fork. [Pretends to jab at him again]
Ted: Carson did stab me with a corkscrew.
Carson: I did.
Ted: He says it was my fault, but I believe it was intentional. He stabbed me with a corkscrew. Blood ran down my face. Fortunately we got it all on film.

Carson and Ted on being banned in Tulsa:
Ted: It was so exciting because we’ve been so busy. To hear that there is an outside world at all was stunning.
Advocate: A friendly outside world.
Ted:Yeah, a real friendly outside world. They banned us in Tulsa, though. Did you hear? It really hurts to be excluded by such a fabulous city.
Carson: I’m going to make a T-shirt that says, “Banned in Tulsa.”
Ted: Seriously, our peeps in Tulsa must be bummed out. I hope they’re calling up the network, saying, “I want my Queer Eye.”
Thom: What happened? They’re just not getting it?
Ted: The Tulsa affiliate declined to run us—actually, they aired it at 2:30 a.m.
Carson: Do you know what they showed in our place? Coach. That hurts.
Ted: Free Tulsa! That should be our campaign. We love our peeps in Tulsa.

The Fab 5 on jockstraps and cleanliness:
Advocate: There’s nothing explicit [in the show]. Friends is more sexually explicit and out there. Will & Grace has Grace in a threesome.
Ted: Well, we did braise a jockstrap, you have to admit.
Carson: That’s good times.
Thom: But jockstraps do not qualify as sex. I know that surprises you.
Kyan: Besides, what’s so unnatural about that? You find a dirty jockstrap. What do you do? Of course you boil it.
Carson: Make it clean and puritanical.
Thom: Amish.
Kyan: Our Quakers love us. We’re big with the Quakers. It’s all about cleanliness.
Ted: Yeah, we’re huge amongst the Pennsylvania Dutch.
Carson: Those of them that have cable, yes.
Advocate: Which is very few.
Kyan: Both of them.

Thom on demographics:
“I think the most bizarre thing for me is the understanding that NBC was putting a lot behind it. And understanding also that the demographic they were going for was women and gay men or gays in general. It made sense to me. And I thought it was going to be…because I had seen the product, I knew it was a good product; I was very confident it was going to do well within a certain demographic goal. But I had no concept it would be interesting to young high school kids.”

The Fab 5 on the difference between Queer Eye and other reality shows:
Advocate: It’s not like some other reality shows where everyone thinks, Oh, I could be a star if I was just on something.
Jai: I never thought that.
Kyan: I think that’s pretty common.
Advocate: [to Jai]: As an actor? As an actor you demand to be a star. You have to be a star.
Kyan: I don’t know that necessarily everyone would want to do it. But I think everyone has the thought, I could do that. That would be cake.
Carson: When I saw them eating those reindeer eyeballs on Fear Factor, I was like, ew.
Thom: When they offered me the position on the show, I said to them, ‘Well, I know I’ll be able to do really great things with the products and the interiors. That’s something I’m very confident about because it’s something I’m very passionate about.
Carson: But I’m not eating any lamb testicles.
Thom: Exactly. But I’m not eating one lamb testicle.

Kyan and Carson on the illusion of television:
Carson: I love all the people coming up to me in the park and saying, “Wow, you’re much shorter in real life.” Well, thanks! Thanks! “You look shorter and younger.” OK, well, that’s 50-50. I’ll take that.
Kyan: The first time we watched an episode, I think all of us were like, “OK, I have to have my nose done.”

The Fab 5 on their crew:
Advocate: Is it a well-dressed crew? Have you guys spruced them up?
Carson: We totally have.
Kyan: They are all over it. They ask, “That product in the hair, how is that supposed to work?” One day Carson and I had done some manscaping on one of the straight guys.
Carson: Contouring.
Kyan: Clippered down his body hair just a little bit. It wasn’t a full-on shave. Just a little.
Carson: Man-topiary.
Thom: He was so freaked out.
Ted: He was so freaked out, he was like a deer in headlights.

Carson on sandals:
“When straight guys start using phrases like “open-toed,” we know we’re changing the world one sandal at a time.”

The Fab 5 on straights in society:
Advocate: Before you’d done the show, had you ever - I mean, obviously you had met straight people, but perhaps you didn’t know they were straight. Had you ever really met any straight people?
Carson: I’d never actually spoken to a straight person before.
Kyan: Actually, my mother and father were straight.
Ted: It’s a shocking discovery for a lot of us, but there is a world outside of Chelsea. Some of my best friends are straight. And there’s nothing wrong with them.
Carson: As long as they act gay in public, I’m fine with it.
Ted: As long as they don’t talk about it and shove it in my face, I really don’t mind.

Carson on New York:
“It’s such a melting pot of gays and straights and black and white and Chinese and everybody. If I may quote Missy Elliott, ‘White boy, black boy, Chinese, Puerto Rican boy.’ So many different types of people here that when you’ve lived here for long, you develop a whole group of friends that is not about straight and gay but who’s cool.”

Jai and Ted on bonding:
Jai: [The show’s] just to make men look better for themselves, so if you take it from that angle, who doesn’t want to look better for themselves? It’s not trying to make them look like us. And once they get over that, they’re like, “Oh, you’re not trying to make me look like the guy walking down Eighth Avenue; you’re trying to make me look better as me.” Once they embrace that, it’s amazing to see how much they open up, which is why the last day of shooting they’re kind of sentimental and choked up to see us go because suddenly they’ve been able to share so much more of themselves with men than they ever have before, and now they have to say goodbye. You develop that bond.
Ted: That’s one of the things that I think makes it different from every other show. Every show has a different story. Each guy has a totally different narrative arc. And everything we do for him is specifically tailored to him and what can be done to take him and make him better. Hence the name “make-better show.”

The Fab 5 on being diplomatic:
Ted: The show is just like the service journalism you see in magazines like [The Advocate] We have to be funny. And we certainly try to be funny. But at the heart of the show there has to be genuinely useful content, actual information.
Thom: But also that’s what I do. When I’m with my clients in a very different situation doing a very different type of design, it’s the same thing. Sometimes you have to be very diplomatic about their ideas and have fun with it, and make it entertaining, and have them enjoy the process. It’s the same thing that we’re doing on the show.
Carson: We’re really in a missionary position.

The Fab 5 on sticking to standards:
Kyan: We recently got a call for Carson from this line that wanted to dress all of us for the rest of the season...
Carson: Oh, yeah.
Kyan: We’re like…um, no.
Jai: It was a T-shirt and jeans kind of company.

The Fab 5 on what parents should teach their kids:
Kyan: As far as the grooming goes, if I’m introducing someone to skin care, I really hope they’ll take what I’ve given them and use that for a long time. And if somebody doesn’t have a lot of money and isn’t going to go spend a lot of money on skin care, I would rather find a great product line that’s maybe a little less expensive that they would actually go out and spend the money on rather than pulling a resource that’s great but super expensive just because it’s there.
Carson: There’s a fine line between bad skin and bad credit. It’s a hard choice.
Kyan: Always go for bad credit.
Ted: Thrifty is such an ugly word, but sometimes we have to practice it.
Carson: Bad credit you can clear up. Bad skin leaves scars.

Jai on what culture is really about:
Jai: [Episode] 12 for me was so much easier because culture is not what I do for a living. For me it includes all the things of what I’m passionate about, but the range and possibilities are so wide; it’s a little bit of everything. Now I’ve gotten a little more accustomed to really asking the right questions. At first, I didn’t know what to ask to find out what they were lacking culturally. But I’m not going to send someone to the opera if that’s not what they’re interested in. That’s ridiculous.
Carson: In the beginning, he was just asking them how much they weighed.

Carson on why there are five of them:
“It’s amazing how people can neglect certain aspects of their lives. Some guys don’t have filthy homes; they have really tragic clothes. Some guys have nice clothes but are really neglectful of their skin. Because there are five of us and we all have our own areas, we really bring balance to their lives.”

The Fab 5 on confidence and editing:
Thom: I’m at a point where I certainly want the people who live in these spaces to come home and be really, really excited about what they have. But at the same time, I also have a little bit of confidence that if they don’t love it at first, I can encourage them that there was a real legitimate reason, and it’s truly a good idea and aesthetically pleasing, and you may not agree immediately - you have to live with it a little bit. That may be the one thing I did differently on [episode] number 12.
Ted: I think we also have complete confidence that we have a license to come on the first day to your house and tear it to pieces, and no one is going to hurt us.
Advocate: At first you were worried about being too rude?
Ted: We’re not polite anymore. It’s like a SWAT team. We did a Sicilian cop who lived on Staten Island who was a little uncomfortable around us at the beginning. You could tell he wasn’t used to having five gay men sort of fondle him.
Jai: I kind of liked him because I walked in and he was like, “Zanna! Yo, what’s up, Zanna?” I was like, I have an in, I have an in.
Ted: He had seen Jai’s show. But I don’t think he’d spent a lot of time hanging around gay men. And he was clearly nervous at the beginning. That was one of the coolest episodes for me because you could see him totally get comfortable with us in the very first few hours. By the end we’re like his best friends.
Carson: I was licking his arm at Lord & Taylor.
Ted: Yeah.
Carson: They edited it out. Can you believe it?
Kyan: They edited it out?
Carson: Yeah.
Ted: No way.
Carson: The lick that changed the world has been edited.

The Fab 5 on Queer Eye for the Gay Guy:
Jai: A lot of guys say, “When are you going to do Queer Eye for the Gay Guy?”
Advocate: That’s not as funny.
Jai: I’m like, “Well, you never know.”
Ted: We could walk into a boys’ strip club and say, “What are you doing in that gold lame thong? It’s all wrong for you.”

Thom on his trial period:
“I was hired on a Thursday and started shooting on a Monday at, like, 6 o’clock. When you hire someone to work for your company, there’s a three-month trial period where you see how it goes. With a television show you figure the first two episodes are probably going to be trial period.”

Ted and Carson on keeping up appearances:
Ted: The great thing about this when you’re not acting is that you almost can’t make a mistake because we were all hired to be the people we are. So all you’ve got to do is try and be natural, show up and do your thing, and be as funny...
Carson: Keep putting the operation off.

Jai on expanding his options:
Jai: It’s very intimidating for an actor. But for me, my goal is just to get hooked onto a really great show that is scripted that lets me do my thing.
Carson: You know where they’re very welcoming to gay actors? Falcon Video.
Ted: It’s true. They’re so open.
Jai: I’m a huge fan. I’m not a big fan of Bel Ami, but Falcon, if you want me, [picks up tape recorder and whispers] call me.

The Fab 5 on stereotypes:
Carson: We always get the stuff about us engendering every gay stereotype. And one thing: Hi, it’s a reality show. We’re not cartoonish and we’re not pretending to be supergay or superstraight or whatever. We’re just being ourselves, and I’m not going to make any excuses for who I am, and I don’t think any of these guys are either.
Jai: It’s rude, because you’re commenting on who we are as people. We’re not playing a role.
Kyan: Just to play devil’s advocate, even if we are embracing a stereotype that gay guys are effeminate or whatever, so what? A gay guy can be effeminate. It’s OK. If somebody has a problem with it, they need to lighten up, and they need to open up their minds.

The Fab 5 on setting standards:
Ted: So far the response has been so staggeringly positive, and if it turns out that there are going to be a couple people who don’t like the show, whatever. That’s fine. You’re entitled to your opinion. As far as backlash, you know what? Bring it on. We’re OK, we can take it. We’re not going to be worried about negativity. We’re going to keep doing our thing and doing the best job we can and I think let people respond the way they want to respond.
Kyan: This whole stereotype issue may force the gay community to look at our own homophobia.
Carson: Exactly.
Kyan: I’m all for guys being butch and guys being men. I identify with that and appreciate that. But if I’m going to stab my gay brother in the back who isn’t butch and who maybe acts a little bit more effeminate, what good is that?
Thom: It’s part of the deal. I have straight friends who are more effeminate than my gay friends.
Kyan: If being gay is only OK if you’re straight-acting, why are we letting them set the standard?
Carson: We’re being homophobic.
Ted: Being gay is such a huge diverse mix of types of people. Let’s not forget it’s the drag queens who started the whole liberation movement in the first place. We have to honor those...
Carson: Snaps for the drag queens who paved the way. [He snaps his fingers, and they all join in].
Ted: Snaps for Stonewall.
Carson: Snapping. Furious snapping.

The Fab 5 on being themselves:
Carson: We’re being ourselves. And there’s nothing more liberating and more confidence building and also more flattering than being yourself. If you listen to the feedback and they say, “You’re too this” or “You’re too that.” I’m beautiful, damn it, if I may quote Bette Midler in Uncanny Alliance. You know what? God made us all to be a certain way, there’s nothing wrong with it, and the only time it’s bad is when you’re not being yourself. That’s the worst thing you could do.
Ted: I think people like the fact the five of us are…I actually think we don’t really fit types that much. We’re all very different from one another and very sort of regular. I think we’re fabulous in a way, but I think we’re regular in a way.
Carson: We’re very accessible. Everybody knows someone like us. We’re gay guys who have certain talents.

The Fab 5 on the Boy Scouts:
Ted: We should also point out to the Boy Scouts of America that several of us are very high-ranking Boy Scouts. I’m a Life Scout.
Kyan: I’m a Life Scout as well.
Thom: I was a Boy Scout. I had my architecture badge, thank you very much.
Ted: The Boy Scouts made us gay. The Boy Scouts made us gay. Thank you.
Thom: I had a great time. I loved the Boy Scouts.

Jai on The Facts of Life:
Jai: I had a huge thing for learning and always wanted to try stuff that was new and interesting and different at a very early age.
Carson: Like man-to-man sex.
Jai: I didn’t try that until I was like 19. So that was crazy; I waited a long time. But I found that I liked to be involved and tried to be the best at everything, which meant I had my hand in everything at the same time...
Ted: And everyone.
Jai: I was spreading myself so thin at such an early age...
Ted: I like where this is going.
Jai: See? [As everyone starts laughing] Just so you know: that’s exactly what life is like on the set. Normally it’s Thom.
Ted: Let’s tickle him; let’s tickle him. [Ted and Thom tickle Jai.]
Carson: You remember Facts of Life? We’re Fags of Life.

Kyan on his first time:
Kyan: I remember very distinctly this one particular day. I don’t have very many memories of childhood, but this is one that stands out. Playing on the jungle gym and stuff, and I’d seen this guy walking towards me. He was probably like 19 or 18.
Advocate: So he was a man, an adult.
Kyan: He was an adult. But he was young and beautiful and he had this fly feathered hair and it was feathered, and I was just like…I don’t know who that person was, it was just a random guy. But I remember making a conscious decision, I want to have my hair like that. My sister told me, “Well, you have to train your hair to do that.” So that is when I started futzing with my hair.

The Fab 5 on America’s reaction:
Thom: I agree with that. But it’s not so much what programs are on television or what we do on television. It’s really about the audience and what they’re capable of and willing to watch. You’re only as good as your audience. You’re only as good as your client, depending on what business you’re in. The thing is, right now we’re working together really well and we have a strong team behind us that’s producing and editing really well. Right now for some reason America is really acting positively to it. And they’re ready for it, for whatever reason. Maybe it’s because of the war. Maybe it’s because they’re OK with gay people. Who knows what it is? But they’re reacting well to it, and that’s the most powerful part of this whole situation. People are watching it and responding to it in a positive way.
Carson: And maybe in the future it won’t be such a novelty that it’s five gay guys. It’s just five talented people. And that would be the greatest thing if those labels come down. You know Thom, the great interior designer, and it’s not about Queer Eye for the Straight Guy, us not being a novelty. It’s great to be a pioneer.