It’s been quite some time since my last dinner interview.

That will thankfully change in the coming week when I put up my brunch interview with cartoonist Ben Claassen III. I met Ben in Baltimore and he told me all about his artistic work. More on that when I put the article up, but in the meantime enjoy Ben’s preview cartoon.

The travel plans page has been updated to include an upcoming trip I’m taking in July to Florida. I’ll be in Miami from July 18-20 and Key West from July 20-22. If you live in either place and want to sit down to dinner for an interview, please get in touch.

On a trip to Key West last year for my 31st birthday (I’m getting old), I had an enjoyable lunch with funambulist Will Soto. Funambulism is a fancy word for rope-walking, and Will had some great stories to share about his work performing tightrope routines for tourists. You can learn about that work by reading my interview with Will.

My interview with former gay-for-pay porn star Malachi Marx is still generating comments almost two years after I sat down to lunch with him.

I wouldn’t normally post an update on this or other comments — mostly because my site gets nothing but spam comments talking about the Zune or offering advice on the best way to lose weight or do more nefarious things. But an anonymous poster has chimed in, claiming to be a former employee of Randy Blue.

Randy Blue is the gay porn company that Malachi worked for. Scroll to the bottom of the interview for the comment from by “Anony Mouse” (I see what you did there), which sheds a little more light on life behind-the-scenes in the porn industry.

Next month I’ll be in Chicago for a long weekend and am looking for people in the Windy City interested in having dinner with a stranger.

I’ll be there from April 13 through the afternoon of April 17. Though I’ll be working for some of the trip — yes, I have a day job — I should have time for an interview or two. If you’ve got a good story to tell and want a free meal, click here to organize a dinner.

It’s always interesting (at least to me) to find out what past interviewees are up to these days. While I’ve taken a hiatus from doing “Where Are They Now?” podcasts — mostly out of sheer laziness — I still occasionally get email updates from some strangers.

Case in point: Cecil Baldwin. The New York City-based actor and I are still in touch. I had lunch with him in August 2009, when he told me about his ambition of joining a theater group called the New York Futurists. When I had a follow-up phone interview with him in September 2011 Cecil was thrilled to tell me that he’d finally succeeded in winning a place with the group.

Now he needs your money.

The group is currently fundraising to produce “You Are In An Open Field,” which they describe as a hip-hop musical about video games. As a fat little teenager I used to love playing NES while stuffing my face with chocolate, so a video game musical gets my attention. Check out the New York Futurists’ fundraising page for more information.

After reading about Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley signing a bill legalizing gay marriage earlier this week, I remembered a Sunday dinner interview I had last year with Patrick Walker — a DC-based pastor who has fought against gay marriage.

Read my interview with Patrick to learn more about his stance on the issue and his reasons for opposing gay marriage. Disagree or agree with him, he certainly had plenty to say on the issue. I remember transcribing the interview a few days later, the conversation about gay marriage took up almost a half hour. Mercifully for you, dear Internet person, I condensed that down significantly for the article.

It’s been a while since I put up a new dinner interview, but here’s the first one of 2012: my dinner with marketing communications executive Rozanne Weissman in Washington, DC.

Rozanne told me how she got into public relations and her earlier career as a journalist. She also had plenty to say about her work volunteering for a local organization that provides a playgroup for homeless children. To top it off, she shared details of a class she used to teach revealing the best tricks for gatecrashing parties.

Read on to discover all about Rozanne.

Readers of this site living near Tysons Corner, Virginia, have a chance to check out a play directed by one of my former interviewees, magician Michael Chamberlin. However, time is running out because the play’s last night is this Sunday, February 26.

Michael sent me a link to 1st Stage Theatre which is hosting “Almost, Maine” — a play he’s directing. In addition to being a magician, Michael told me when we met in November 2009 that his other passion is being a stage director.

Here’s the play’s description from the theatre’s website: “Northern lights play with the affairs of mortals in the small snowy town of Almost, Maine, where hearts are made of slate and love comes in bags. The residents fall in and out of love, wounding and healing with often unexpected and comic results. For anyone who’s ever loved, lost or had a crush, these nine tales are a breath of whimsical warmth for winter hearts.”

Based off the reviews posted on the 1st Stage Theatre website  the play is a hit with critics. Hoping to get a chance to check it out myself this weekend.

This weekend is President’s Day in the United States, which means lots of scholarly assessments of the country’s leaders and…all right, no. It just involves getting a three-day weekend and seeing a bunch of television adverts where men dressed like George Washington and Abraham Lincoln offer holiday deals.

Fittingly, one of my former interviewees is an Abraham Lincoln impersonator (he even did a television advertisement as Honest Abe for a car shop). Spend some of your downtime this weekend to read about Michael Krebs’ life as Lincoln.

In the immortal words of Mr. Lincoln — albeit as portrayed in Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure — please use the holiday to “be excellent to each other.”

If you’ve ever wanted to see Cuban singing sensation Margarita Pracatan taking to the stage and wowing people with her unique vocal talents, now’s your chance.

Margarita will be performing live Friday, March 23 at New York’s Beechman Theatre. Apparently for the cost of a $15 ticket with a $15 drink/food minimum (well worth it, by the way) you’ll get a mixture of Margarita’s take on life and love, along with the chance to hear various hits from her catalog of cover versions both old and news.

If you’ve never heard of Margarita, then shame on you. Fix that immediately by checking out my interview her — linked above — and then get a sample of what’s in store at the show by watching her perform Lionel Richie’s “Hello” and performing a duet crooning ABBA’s “Take A Chance On Me.”

Thanks to another former dining stranger Winston Gieseke for the heads-up on the show. You should also give my interview with Winston a read, he was great company at a slightly boozy meal in July 2010.