or not, some
people have
➤ LADY BUNNY, from p.18
been looking my way lately and it is tempting,
but I’m at an age where the juices aren’t fl owing
like they used to.
And as much as I bitch about social media,
it was a lifesaver for me and many others because
it could connect us. I mean, it should be
critiqued and a lot of people on there who you’re
conversing with daily have a profi le picture of
a cat. You never met them and you never will.
And they’re not gonna bring you any soup when
you’re sick. So are you ignoring the people in
your life who might bring you soup, and who
you would bring soup to? That’s not too smart
in my view, but I’ve clearly been around eons
before social media and the internet were a
thing.
Tell me about “Oh Come All Ye Hateful!”
Can you explain the title?
Well, sometimes I get a little bit sick of drag
queens who are all about rainbows and lollipops,
because my character is a twisted, often
raunchy nut. I’m not trying to be a role model,
I’m trying to make people laugh. And yes, my
humor is often vulgar. But if you think about it,
what isn’t hateful these days? Some friends like
to joke that when someone comes up and says
“hello” we reply, “That’s hate speech!” … Meaning
that it’s killing every illusion that we thought
we might be able to muster, by exposing everything
from our contour to our razor bumps.
I understand that the fi rst batch of shows
sold out so you added more. Was it a surprise
they sold out so quickly?
Why should that be a surprise? Look, people
are ready to go out and have some fun. There’s
lots of new stuff in this show, but I also deliver
some Christmas classics. The reason I like doing
Christmas shows is that it’s the opposite of
the wholesome religious Christmas. So I’m able
to goof on that. I’m one of those gays who knows
that religion is often used against my people as
an excuse for bigotry. So I’m not one to seriously
uphold religious traditions. In fact, my favorite
holiday is Thanksgiving because there’s no religion
attached to it.
You perform musical parodies, like “Rudolpho
the Uncut Reindeer.” Do you write all
your own lyrics?
I write a lot of them. I worked with Beryl Mendelbaum
and Divine Grace, both very talented
writers. But there are also some spoken bits like
a demented version of “‘Twas the Night Before
Christmas,” a very funny year-end roundup,
and some surprise deliveries, which I can’t say
or it won’t be a surprise. Not that I only parody
Christmas songs. There are a few pop parodies
too, because people are gonna slit their wrists
if they hear too many Christmas songs. I am
butchering these songs and turning them into
twisted tales which are quite fi lthy. I am very
naughty this year!
The late 1980s and early 1990s was a particularly
fertile time for queer nightlife in
NYC. Do you have any fun memories of that
Lady Bunny said she is not trying to be a role model — she wants to make people laugh.
time?
We were paid to go to football stadium sized
clubs like the Roxy, Tunnel, and Palladium, to
hang out, meet guys, and hand out free drink
tickets. With Amanda Lepore and RuPaul and
Kevin Aviance and all — it was a different experience
back then. Now nightlife is much more
related to bars. I’m a big girl and my scale is not
really suited to a smaller venue. I need room to
twirl around.
I’m not gonna dress up in fi ve wigs to go sit
with people at the corner bar who just got off
work. I miss that old club scene, when we were
like, Louis Vega and David Morales and Frankie
Knuckles are spinning tonight and we’re dressing
up and going to fi ve, six clubs and make a
real night out of it. I miss the glamour, which is
not to say that there aren’t glamorous special
events today. The Glam awards are coming up,
with Bob The Drag Queen hosting. But there
are no more of those megaclubs. I’m a clubby
person. It took a long time for me to become
comfortable doing the cabaret scene, cuz I’m
used to the mayhem.
I have a program from the 1991 Wigstock,
the year it was in Union Square. You wrote
this clever think piece on respecting the
earth and asking folks not to litter or step
on the lawn with their high heels. Does this
STEVEN MENENDEZ
ring a bell?
Oh, yes. That was one of the conditions under
which we got to use the park. It had been a
needle park… and then fancy condo buildings
were built and the new neighbors cleaned it up.
That year there was a drag queen very bitter
about not being booked, and to retaliate, she
showed up in drag and a megaphone and trampled
all the fl owers surrounding a statue. Just
to get back at me. And the crowd immediately
took up a collection, with no urging from me,
for the several hundred dollars needed to fi x it.
That was quite extraordinary.
How do you feel about performing in front
of a live audience, with all the news reports
of a possible winter surge and new variants
like Omicron?
I love what I do and it’s the risk I’m willing to
take. I’m up on stage with no mask in a room
with sold-out audiences. But I’m a little distant
from them and they’re vaxxed and there’s good
ventilation. I want to do this as safely as possible
for me and for the audience. I wanna spread
my infectious humor, not Omicron.
OH COME ALL YE HATEFUL! | Laurie
Beechman Theatre (West Bank Café) | 407 West
42nd St. | Dec. 9 (9:30 p.m.), Dec. 11 (9 p.m.),
Dec. 22 (6:30 and 9 p.m.), Dec. 23 (6:30 and 9
p.m.) | Spincyclenyc.com | $26-$35
GayCityNews.com | December 16 - December 29, 2021 19
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