A student from South Korea (Kimmi Chi played by Kim Chi – RuPaul’s Drag Race  Season 8) transfers to an American school and runs afoul a “The Plastics,” a drag-queen girl gang featuring Willam (recently in A Star Is Born), Laganja Estranja (RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 6) and Peaches Christ.

I recently spoke by phone with Peaches, who had just arrived in Denver as part of a small tour of Mean Gays. We talked about finding a home in Los Angeles for her shows, how chaos is a natural part of them and how she responds to the popularity of drag today.

You’ve been doing film parodies in San Francisco for years. What made you decide the time was right to starting bringing them not just to Los Angeles, but other parts of the country?

I had been traveling with them for a while, but really not consistently. I needed to find the right venues and the right producers and the cities where I felt we had the most potential for a market. I set my sights on Seattle and Portland first and then Los Angeles. LA, while close, was a big challenge in terms of finding the right home for us. I was blown away by the Montalban. It’s right in Hollywood and it’s so theatrical. Once those connections were made, we were able to plan ahead and make the Peaches shows more of a regular thing.

Do you think Hollywood takes itself too seriously and wouldn’t respond to parodies of movies?

I was really expecting us to have to warm them up. My impression was Hollywood would turn their noses up on my mess of a theatrical production, which in San Francisco is what makes it charming. San Francisco really embraces the struggle of trying to put on these big shows without much rehearsal and limited resources. 

But it was just the opposite. LA was so supportive. I wondered if the audience is full of people who have to be flawless every day that to come to see a really messy, irreverent, the walls are falling over, but these drag queens keep going show wouldn’t fit. I find they actually love it.

Mean Girls has spawned a musical and now your show, Mean Gays. What makes that property ripe for both a musical telling and your own parody?

It wasn’t popular when it came out. [North America gross of just over $86 million.] Many movies came out the year Mean Girls did, but few have been seen as many times as it has. Being the age that I am, I have to go to my younger friends and ask “what are your favorite films you watch all the time, that you quote?” I grew up in the 70s and 80s. My nostalgia films are Poltergeist and Goonies. It’s interesting to go to young people, but it does frustrate me that young queers aren’t being mentored the way I was. I was mentored about Judy Garland and Whatever Happened to Baby Jane, in that way I’m an old queen. That being said, I don’t know what some of the more contemporary movies are. But when I get told over 100 times, it’s clear people are obsessed with Mean Girls.

When you write these parodies, do you have specific queens in mind?

I won’t pursue a show until I have an idea that I am inspired enough. I was a fan of Kim Chi’s makeup and a fan of her on the show. But I didn’t feel she was a theatre queen. She was doing a roast and she got up there and killed it. She was such a viciously funny witty bitch. This girl knows comedy and she knows how to play an audience. If Kim Chi wouldn’t have done the show, I would have had another idea. For me casting is crucial.

Has the success of Drag Race opened up more doors for you and your shows?

Absolutely. The popularity of drag is unprecedented. I’m not naive enough to think it will last forever. I remember going to DragCon the first year and it was massive. I was walking around with Coco Peru, we were featured as legends, which is a hilarious way of not calling us old. I asked her if she was bitter seeing all these girls have lines down the street.  Both of us agreed that if you told us there would someday be a convention for drag fans, we would have never believed it. We’re glad we lasted long enough to see this happen and we’ve all reaped the rewards in some way.

Looking at lists of the most important or famous drag queens, it seems as though if you weren’t on Drag Race you don’t find a place in the top 25-30 queens. Is that good for drag to only be focused on the young and the new?

I think that will change. We’ve already started to see that in a way. It’s all going to come down to what you can actually produce. A lot of the queens became successful on the show and if they aren’t able to produce or have something to offer they fade. As far as my legacy, I don’t worry too much about it. When history is laid out I think we’ll be properly respected. Coco Peru is on Will & Grace. What drag race gal is on that show? I made a feature film with Natasha Lyonne. [All About Evil (2010) – Peaches wrote, directed and produced the film in addition to acting in it.] To stay alive in this business they are going to have to be pretty amazing or they aren’t going to last. I’ve lasted.

If you’re in San Francisco this weekend, Peaches Christ will debut a new show, First Wives Fight Club starring Raja, Brook Lynn Hytes, Ginger Minj and, of course, Peaches Christ. The show will come to Los Angeles. Dates have yet to be announced.

All photos courtesy of Peaches Christ Productions.

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So it was inevitable that a parody of his films would soon follow. Peaches Christ, one of the best-known drag queens out of San Francisco, has regularly done parodies of major films. 9 to 5, The Witches of Eastwick, The Silence of the Lambs and Grey Gardens are just a few of the films that have found themselves in her creative crosshairs. Now Burton’s Beetlejuice is getting the Peaches Christ drag treatment. The show is being performed Saturday night at The Montalban Theatre in Hollywood and it stars the season six winner of RuPaul’s Drag Race, Bianca Del Rio.

I spoke to Bianca (whose real name is Roy Haylock), who had just returned from doing shows in Australia, about her participation in the show.

With all your own projects going on all over the world, what most inspired you to be part of Sheetlejuice?

The main reason is I adore Peaches Christ. I’ve known of Peaches pre-internet days. I knew of Peaches, Jackie Beat, Coco Peru and Lady Bunny from back in the day because they would tour and travel. I was a huge fan for many years. It wasn’t until Drag Race that our worlds collided. We were at some benefit or comedy show in San Francisco and met for the first time. She’s been doing these amazing shows and asked if I would be interested. She asked about Baby Jane, which was our first collaboration. And then Beetlejuice. Jinkx Monsoon [Season 5 Winner] thought Beetlejuice would be a great fit. I asked, “Why do you think I’d be right?” She said, “It’s a hateful old ghost that scares the fuck out of everybody.” Peaches thought it was a great idea.

 As a character, however, Betelgeuse is not a mean as you, the “Queen of Mean” with a “Rolodex of Hate” can be.

I think the fabulous thing, the way it works well for me, is Peaches writes and gets the whole script together. By the time I get to it, we don’t have much time to make the magic happen. I work best under pressure and she caters each show to each person’s personality. We’re dealing with the storyline of the film, but despite the fact I’m being Betelgeuse, I’m probably the last ghost you’d want. Everyone’s camp level is even higher than usual. I’m not just chewing scenery. I don’t have to; they are helping me eat it. It’s like Beetlejuice on steroids with heels. It’s Peaches’ brilliant mind to take something so loved by people and make them love it even more.

What do you get out of being in a show like that that is different than what you get from your own shows?

What’s become my normal routine is traveling by myself and doing my own show, which is all I’ve ever wanted to do. I started in theatre, but by doing solo shows I miss out on performing with other people. I will never be cast as Mother Theresa or Maria in West Side Story. It’s knowing your strengths and lending it to a script of a really funny situation. All the pressure isn’t on me this time. It’s like going home and working with people who make it fun for me. It keeps it spicy.

Since you are known for your sharp wit and forked tongue, I’m assuming that’s where some of the parody component comes in?

What’s funny and it’s something that I think being a now 42-year-old drag queen and having worked in bars from twenty until 37-38 when Drag Race happened, you are in a bar and you are doing a bingo in the afternoon on a Monday where no one gives a shit you are there. We are talking 1996-1997 when doing drag was taboo. It was challenging and that’s where the quips and the hate came through. It was me trying to get through 2 hours of fucking bingo or some ass contest. When you are fearless it kind of helps. I was too dumb and young to realize what I was doing.

Because of the way Drag Race is presented, you are going to get recognized whether you are in drag or not. What challenges do you deal with in having enough time between being Bianca and being Roy?

I think people expect and want everything and in a world of social media even if you are posting something about your own life, they have to correct me. They know more about me than I know sometimes. If I’m at an airport and someone comes up and says, “Read me” I think, “Do you know how stupid you sound? I don’t know you. I will take a picture but are you really that fucking crazy? Luckily by just being honest with them it works out well. I think because I don’t believe the insanity of it, that it helps me in general. It’s physically impossible to be on all the time. But out of those awkward situations some of the best material comes.

Russian-American novelist Vladimir Nabokov (Lolita) said, “Satire is a lesson, parody is a game.” If you were to apply his comparison to drag and life, what would it be?

Oh wow. I would say that drag is a lesson and life is a game for me. With drag I can control it and with drag I have an instant reaction with people. There’s something about being in a wig. Out of it I’m a hateful fag. With it, I’m hysterical. It’s fascinating the interest people have in you and since Drag Race, the interest straight people have. In the 90s even the gays hated drag queens. Drag Race changed it. I think that life for me has just been a little different, but I think I have it figured out. At least the drag thing. I don’t have Louis Vuitton luggage. I don’t live in a penthouse. I’m working harder now more than ever. Life is what catches you and says, “What the fuck is going on?” That kind of stuff I find more challenging.

The post Drag Race Winner Bianca Del Rio Stars in a Drag Parody of “Beetlejuice” appeared first on Cultural Attaché.

Friday:

Brad Mehldau and Chris Tile at The Theatre at the Ace Hotel (Season opening event for CAP UCLA). Check out my interview with Brad about collaboration elsewhere on these pages)

Avishai Cohen Quartet at the bluewhale (also Saturday night) Check out my interview with Avishai elsewhere on these pages.

Saturday:

Big Night at the Kirk Douglas Theatre (Opening night) a new comedy by Paul Rudnick (“In and Out”)

Amadeus Live at the Valley Performing Arts Center (live accompaniment of Mozart’s beautiful music performed here by the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra)

Coco Peru’s Taming of the Tension at the Renberg Theater (Saturday and Sunday)

All weekend:

Of course, you can always try to go see a little musical called Hamilton at the Pantages Theatre…if you can get tickets. (If you can, you should. It really is that good.)

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