Tarot Card Artist and Singer Paul Ybarra: "Jan Brady Is My Spirit Animal"

Show Notes

Dennis visits the gothic-style and possibly haunted Hollywood apartment of Paul Ybarra, a singer and visual artist who has recently started creating tarot card illustrations featuring pop culture figures like Liza Minnelli, Mr. Rogers, Sonny Bono, Josephine Baker, Liberace, The Ronettes, Divine, Al Parker, Leona Helmsley, Joyce DeWitt and Miss Coco Peru...and then posting them on Instagram as @hauntedhollywood. He talks about his creative process, how he matches the tarot characters to the celebrities, the different media he uses, his goal of making them look as though Jan Brady created them and buying his first deck of tarot cards at a Barnes and Noble at 14. He also talks about growing up Catholic in a progressive, New Age community in Oregon, having an identical twin brother, getting chastised for being effeminate as a kid, his lifelong obsession with Donna Summer and his fetish for straight jackets. He also discusses his passion for singing, his three EPs that are streaming on Spotify and covering artists he loves like Fleetwood Mac, Donna Summer, Blondie and Oasis. Other topics include: lusting after Telly Savalas, being strange and weird, the wondrousness of wigs, buying crazy stuff on ebay like Sarah Vaughn's last license plate and his dream of being a cult figure, "like Dawn Davenport from Female Trouble but without the murders." www.phantomofhollywood.com