Wayne Wright is Benidorm’s longest serving British Drag Queen, better known as Miss Levi. I got the opportunity for a chinwag with Wayne about how Miss Levi was born, what she’s like, what she’s up to and her future. (more…)
Category: Interview
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INTERVIEW: Warwick Naked Rowers
It’s a warm, sunny day in August when I am admitted to the plush inner sanctum of the Groucho Club in Soho. I am here to interview Angus Malcolm, the photographer and mastermind behind the incredibly successful Warwick Rowing Club Naked Calendar, now in its fourth year.
Waiting for me at a table in the corner is Angus himself and an arrestingly beautiful young man, tall, blond and blue eyed, who is introduced to me as Laurence, one of the stars of the coming year’s Naked Calendar from the Warwickshire Rowers. Unfortunately not naked on this occasion, his well-nigh perfect physique is easily evident beneath the simple blue jeans and white t-shirt that he is wearing.
Trying not to drool too obviously, I turn my attention to Angus and ask him how the calendar came about and how he became involved.
“Well, I was actually a writer and producer in TV and film and I used to work in the health and charity sector. In 2008 I felt like doing something different. Having always had a keen interest in photography, I started photographing men. I was approached by a guy on the website modelmayhem and found out he was part of rowing team. At the shoot I asked him if the club had ever thought of doing a charity calendar. As it turned out, he said that they had been actually thinking very seriously about it, so our meeting was quite serendipitous really. Initially the calendar was produced simply to fund the club, but by Year 3 it had started making significant amounts of money, which meant that we could start giving to charity. It was in year 2 that we started targeting the gay market, which lead us in year 3 to make a film of the making of the calendar. Our immediate concern at that time was how to stop it being pirated, and making it a charity project was a way of guilt tripping people into not pirating the film. So in the end the calendar raised funds for the club, and the video was for charity. That’s about to change now though. Instead of donating to other charities, we are in the process of creating our own. Basically all the money now goes into a kitty, which we draw on for charitable objects of this new programme which we are looking at called Sports Allies. Essentially net profits will be spent on the club or on Sports Allies.”
Moving on to the calendar itself, I mentioned the fact that the photos, particularly in the new 2014 edition, often seem to involve a lot of movement. Was it difficult keeping the photos G rated?
“It’s a f**king nightmare!” exclaimed Angus. “If you look at the images in years one and two, you will find that all the photos are very static. It’s really Calendar Girls with balls, if you like, but now we’re much more adventurous and doing shots with lots of movement in them, which makes it far more difficult, particularly if you are shooting more than one rower at a time. I shoot 365 gigabytes of images and it can take ages to get that one where nothing is seen. It’s often a case of doing the shot over and over again, and directing them to lift a leg a little higher or something like that.”
I asked if some of the guys were any harder to hide than others (well you would, wouldn’t you?).
“Bluntly, yes. And sometimes it really is a case of saying to someone, just go and stand behind that hedge.”
The film is even more difficult and youtube banned one of their videos, which is why they gave up on youtube altogether. As I’ve had cause to mention before the US can be quite draconian about (particularly male) nudity, and the Rowers have also had problems with their facebook page. Paradoxically, though, they have had lots of interest from the US, where they find it quirky that these guys are naked. Angus believes, and I agree with him, that these large corporations, like youtube and facebook globally have too much control and are imposing a mid-West culture on the rest of us.
However the American market is huge and people actually flew in from Texas for the live shoot they did last year, which again raised more money for their charitable causes.
The photos certainly have a great sense of fun about them; sexy, but family friendly, and undoubtedly homoerotic. The guys look as if they are enjoying themselves enormously, and all look completely unselfconscious about being naked together. I asked Laurence if this was actually the case.
Laurence speaks with a quiet confidence that is very attractive. “Oh yes. We all get on really well. When you train together as long as we do, you do become close. You have to if you’re going to spend 8 hours in a boat together in tight lycra. Getting naked is all part of the bonding process.”
How was it getting your kit off for the first time?
“I had no qualms, but some of the newer guys did at first. However after half an hour everyone is just fine. Angus is really good at making people feel comfortable, and of course we shoot around the boat house so we are also in a familiar environment. Not to mention that the calendar has been going 4 years now, so the more experienced members make it easier for the newer ones.”
I asked if there were any gay members on the team.
“Yes,” said Laurence, “but it really isn’t an issue. Not in the least. Certainly for me, I’m used to open showers. I went to a boys’ boarding school. Showering and getting naked with the other guys seems the most natural thing in the world to me. And, incidentally, everyone in the team is aware of the support we get from the gay community and we really appreciate it.”
Angus cuts in, “We actually wanted to play on that ambiguity. The boys are having fun. It’s not sexual fun. But it’s fun none the less. Of course there is a homoerotic charge in a group of gorgeous athletes being together naked. It’s there, and it would be silly to ignore it.”
Last year the proceeds of the film went to the Ben Cohen StandUp Foundation, and the club will continue to give to the Foundation till the end of this year. I asked why the Ben Cohen Foundation, and had any of the team any personal experience of being bullied.
Angus. “Not that anyone actually revealed, but they immediately saw that Ben’s journey had been similar to theirs. That was the reason why they chose to give money to his charity. It was a combination of nudity and a stance around homophobia, and the guys felt they were making a much more visceral commitment than perhaps even Ben himself. By being completely naked, they were saying, “We don’t care who looks and who enjoys this and we are making a stand and saying we support the gay community.” We had lots of letters and many of the stories came in particular from older men, who wished that something like this had been around when they were young and how much it meant to them. And the guys in the team found that particularly moving.”
Laurence. “I see it as very important that we straight guys are seen to be standing up and supporting you. I’ve seen “gay” used quite regularly in a pejorative sense – and that’s the most that I witnessed personally, but I think it’s wrong. I’ve also read plenty of moving stories that have been sent to us, one being from a guy in the police force who nearly lost his job because of being gay and him telling us how much he appreciated what we were doing,” and that seemed a good place to wind things up.
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INTERVIEW | English Gay Youth Twice As Likely To Smoke and Drink
With the news today published by BMJ that gay youth in England are twice as likely to smoke and drink more hazardously than their heterosexual peers we speak with one of the authors of the study by UCL, Dr. Joanna Semlyen.
TGUK: Why in your opinion LGBs are more likely to smoke firstly – and secondly, perhaps more worryingly more likely to drink and to hazardous levels?
DJS: There are several reasons why LGB young people may be more likely to smoke tobacco and drink alcohol hazardously and we do not, as yet, due to lack of research, have definitive evidence as to what the reasons are, however, we suspect that the impact of homophobia and heterosexism within society, in addition to the possible experience of homophobic bullying whilst at school, may lead to what we call ‘minority stress’ or in increased low self esteem which young people then perhaps seek to alleviate with smoking and/or alcohol. We also know that LGB people tend to socialise in the places where they can be with each other, which is almost always places where alcohol and cigarettes are freely available, like bars and clubs.
This situation may be being exacerbated by a growing concern that LGB people are targeted, for example, by the tobacco industry. There may also be other reasons we do not know and a large longitudinal study (with a heterosexual control group and repeated follow-ups) might allow us to study the antecedents of smoking and drinking in young LGB people.
TGUK: Do you think this might be linked with the fact that LGBTs are more likely to suffer from mental health issues?
DS: Because no data on transgender identity was collected in this study, I can only comment on LGB participants in this study. I think that the experience of homophobia and heterosexism should not be underestimated and, along with the stress of coming out (often repeatedly throughout one’s life), may well account for why we see greater incidence of mental health issues in LGB people. The problem is, we don’t have any data yet on the causes of smoking and hazardous alcohol drinking in LGB young people, followed repeatedly over time.
TGUK: Do you think the government or the health service is doing enough to interface with young LGBTs?
DS: As a researcher and LGBT Health Psychologist, I would like to see the routine collection of sexual orientation data within population based health and well-being studies and as part of the NHS’ own routine identity data collection.
This would allow us to accurately determine the health inequalities being experienced by this group and, by virtue of being included, would go a long way to indicate to LGBT people that their health is being considered. LGB people want to be counted in surveys. Indeed we noted the question in this study had a very low refusal rate.
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INTERVIEW | Andrew Trott-Barn
What the world needs now is makeovers, sweet makeovers – ITV’s Daybreak teams Jane McDonald, she of Camp On High and celebrity hair stylist Andrew Trott-Barn to give Star Treatment.
Morning TV is about to get a little camper, yes I know what I just said, as openly gay celebrity hair stylist Andrew Trott-Barn and Jane McDonald unleash their Northern charms to the nation, whilst giving under-appreciated workers of the UK the Star Treatment. ATB has even fingered the locks of Vivienne Westwood no less…
We caught up with the stylist to get the goss from the set.
On the show: The camp-o-metre was off the scale, To work, play and even sing the odd sing song together with Jane Mcdonald every day was amazing! She’s funny, hilarious and a little bit cheeky too. Every gay man’s dream!! Proper northern banter.
Do we need star treatment? The show isn’t about flaws, It’s about making the best out of someone, giving them confidence, advice and making them Red-Carpet-Ready. Making them feel like a star for the day.
Another ANTM? Don’t get me wrong some of the transformations do draw a comparison to ANTM.
I’d never work again! Being a Celebrity hairdresser you get to know a lot of stories and gossip. It would be career suicide to share any of it!! Everyone has issues big or small, as long as you have friends and family around you who love you unconditionally that’s all that matters.
I would love to: makeover/under Katie Price. Lose some of those extensions; I think she would look great with shorter hair.
My Husband, son and family mean the world to me, I wake up everyday and feel lucky to having such a great home life and family unit around me. All my close friends are just like my family, in fact they are my family too.
I had a brain tumor removed almost 4 years ago. Going through something like that really makes you get your life in order and concentrate on the things that make you genuinely happy. Live life to the max!
If you’re not happy then do something about it. Anything is possible if your put your mind to it. I’m busy with work, I’m a husband, a father, a brother and a best friend.
‘Your here for a good time, not a long time’..
‘Dance like nobody’s watching , sing like like nobody’s listening and f**k like your being filmed! Lol x
I couldn’t live without my husband Michael (and our 4dogs). I always come home to smile and a waggy tail.
Something people are always surprised (never actually) to learn is that I speak my mind at the most inappropriate times. If I have an opinion I just have to say it! Even if I’m wrong! #awkward #stubborn
Getting Poltical… Sochi Olympics, I think what is happening in Russia is just plain wrong. Being anti-gay isn’t going to help anyone, You can’t discuss, write or even talk about being gay or having gay issues. I think as a nation we should maybe stand up for what we believe, unfortunately if we were in Russia we wouldn’t even be having this interview!
Follow Andrew Trott-Barn on Twitter
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INTERVIEW: Simon Morley – The Original Penis Puppeteer
Let’s be honest, we have all had a little feel “down there”, but some people have taken this to the extreme which has led to lots of hilarity, world tours, a hugely successful career and one of the most original and well received shows in recent memory.
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INTERVIEW | Queen of the BONK BUSTER Rebecca Chance
If you don’t know who Rebecca Chance is yet, all you need to know is that she is the author where camp knows no limits. Move over Jilly Cooper and Jackie Collins, RC is the Queen of the Bonk Buster.
had the pleasure of talking to Ms. Chance last year, just after the release of her book Bad Angels, which was my guilty pleasure of the winter season. Read the review here.
As she answered the phone to me, I heard her laughing, asking what she found funny, she told me she had been watching the Olivia Newton-John and John Travolta Christmas video on a loop and couldn’t stop rewinding it to the line dancing bit. Her cackling makes me love her instantly.
No stranger to adding a bit of man on man action to her books, I asked her about it,
‘I’m bringing my editor along for the ride,’ Chance giggles, ‘She’s kind of got stabilisers on, little training wheels, on at the moment, she says as long as it’s “tender and sensitive” and I’m like ‘yeah…’ she giggles. ‘I mean I’ve been watching gay porn for 20 years… Catch up with the rest of us…’
As for gay friends, Chance has over 30 of them, where as she collected them all from?
‘All over the world, It’s fantastic I’m a sailor with a wife in every port, it means I don’t have to hang out with straight men very much, it’s not that I don’t like them, it’s just that I don’t have a lot in common with them, most of my readers are women, gay men and one straight man called Brian – and I know him.’
After just after speaking for 7 minutes and 39 seconds I can already see why she has attracted so much gay male attention.
I ask her if she’d be all right at the dinner table if we all started to talk cock;
‘Oh darling,’ she quips, ‘that’s just at the cocktail stage!’
What does Chance love about writing bonkbusters?
‘I was born to write these things, I can put all these things that are normally hard to get into books: I can be funny, I can write about sex, I can do social commentary.
‘I’m quietly bringing on my sexual political agenda, which is that you don’t have to be really pretty to have a great time in bed, you have the right to be happy whether you’re gay or straight or whatever colour you are – and I’m doing in a way that you don’t realise I’m doing it most of time.
‘You’re gonna come out the other end (of the book) thinking “oh wasn’t that a lovely gay couple it’s so lovely that they’re in love” – you won’t realised I’ve messed with your prejudices a bit, like an evil elf working at a meta level… I love it.’
Her new book is called Killer Queens, a story about Chloe Rose, who is about marry a charming, sensitive loving… prince. Her life isn’t all fairytale though – her sister-in-law to be, is spiteful and the rest of his family looks down on her.
Within 30 pages, the first rompy sex scene happens and you won’t look at bananas in the same way again. Oh yes and there’s some man o man action too. Perfect for a summer read.
I ask her about her mornings, what can’t she get up without?
“Prosecco, coffee and Solpadine.”
There’s no arguing this lady knows her audience.
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INTERVIEW | Zoe Lyons The Pop up Comic
Funny woman Zoe Lyons is about to embark on her show Pop Up Comic at Edinburgh Fringe and we sit down to talk about what makes her tick and why she thinks Sir Gerald Howarth is a fool and why she loves Wanda Sykes.
So what can an audience expect for your Fringe Show?
One hundred exotic dancers and a massive fireworks finale where I reveal the meaning of life through the art of expressive dance. Will that is what I was planning and then I looked at my budget and and have scaled it back to one stand up with roughly 59 minutes of material. There will be tales of misadventure in the land of television and how I ended up being jealous of a dog in a wheel chair. If I win the lottery between now and August I might bring back the fireworks idea. I am in a small room so it would be spectacular.
Do you enjoy doing Fringe
Enjoy…..mmmm? Bits of it I love, I really enjoy doing my show every day, that is my “happy place”. It is great to catch up with people and see people’s shows and discover new comics. I will always go and search out something a bit different, something I wouldn’t ordinarily go to. I always think the Fringe would be much better if it was two weeks long, I have never really enjoyed the last week, I get home sick and miss my dog….. Oh and the wife.
What’s the one thing people are surprised to learn about you?
I am a bit socially awkward. I think it is because I have spent so long in my own company over the last few years I have become a bit hermit like. I give very poor small talk, genuinely I bore myself at parties, the life and soul of a party does not in any way emanate from me.
What’s the route of all comedy?
There is a high brow and low brow answer to this question and both are equally true in my eyes. Comedy comes in some ways from truth, tragedy and perspective and sometimes it comes from farting accidentally when you cough.
Progressive or Agressive?
Well idiots like Howarth who stand blindly in the way of progress make me feel aggressive so I guess I am both.
What do you think Sir Gerald Howarth meant by that)
I am guessing that in his eyes homosexuals who are standing up for equality are dangerously aggressive! He would prefer it if we shut up and went away. He seems concerned that by allowing same sex marriage the flood gates will be opened for these (imagined) aggressive gays to make even more demands on the government. He has described the legalisation of gay marriage “as a stepping stone to something further”. One can only guess as to what he has imagined our ” aggressive demands” would be? The right to marry my gay teddy bear? Everyone has to be gay for a day? The man is a fool.
As a lesbian what’s the one question that people ask, that annoys
” So, which one of you is the man?” I think it is obvious lack of physiological awareness that really annoys me about this particular enquiry.
Any LGBT Heroes, Icons and Idols ?
I love Wanda Sykes, brilliant comedian, out, proud and very very funny.
What you like to see happen to the LGBT community in 5, 10, 15 years time?
Within 5 years the first same sex marriages will have taken place and in 10 years time people will wonder what all the fuss was about and in 15 years time I want all those who opposed same sex marriage on the grounds that it would undermine marriage, end society and cause global warming to apologies.
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INTERVIEW | Diana Vickers
Diana Vickers is instantly identifiable by her unique singing voice and style, from her early days back on X-Factor when she sang the hell out of that last “Yoooouuu” on the Mariah Carey cover to her amazingly catchy first single “Once.” She’s been hailed as a fashionista with her own clothing line and the Theatregoer’s Newcomer of the year… and then she vanished.
Now she’s back, having spent most of her hiatus writing and recording songs for her new forthcoming album her current single Cinderella was out Yesterday and has been stuck in my head for weeks! I managed to grab a few minutes of her time on the phone, despite some technical errors at the start, to get to low down on her new music.
TGUK: So your new single is called Cinderella, tell me about it.
Diana Vickers: Cinderella, I think it was, well it was the first song I wrote for the album I’ve had for nearly three years now. I wrote it with Miranda Cooper who’s part of this big writing group called Xenomania. She’s written all the Girls Aloud songs and I worked with her to write the album and this producer called Donkey Boy wrote the song and I guess it’s just a really feel good pop song. And I guess it’s just a modern take on Cinderella and this time would lose her shoes for Prince Charming.
TGUK: I have been listening to the song on repeat since I first heard it.
DV: Amazing oh it love that
TGUK :So I’m really excited about the album, did you write a lot of the songs on the album?
DV: Yeah I wrote everything I’ve been so hands on this album, it’s like my baby. I’ve been so involved. Y’know me and Miranda together have totally directed the whole sound of it. This has been my whole project and I’m so so proud of how it’s gone. I’m so pleased with it and really confident with it yeah.
TGUK: How long have you been working on the album?
DV: It must have taken me really about two and half years, I think maybe a just over a year to write all the songs and then of course you need to find all the right producers and we kinda carried on writing until we had nothing else to write about me and Miranda. So it’s taken a while yeah.
TGUK: How would you describe the sound of the album?
DV: I think it’s a lot more compared to my first album, I really look back and I feel my first album should really have been more of a development album. I was still finding out who I was as an artist and really experimenting with my sound and I really feel like I’ve got there. I think that it’s a lot more sophisticated, and a lot more mature and a bit more sexier and cooler than the first album. Y’know a lot of inspirations I was listening to a lot of 80’s music y’know like Cyndi Lauper and Madonna and Blondie and I guess like a lot of Kylie inspired me and this other artist called Annie. And yeah the music really reflects all those inspirations.
TGUK: Where are you going to be going to promote the release and what gigs will you be playing?
VD: I did a radio tour last week and going round the radio stations and obviously doing all the TVs and what-not. Y’know I’m performing at G-A-Y over the end of the year which is gonna be amazing so I can’t wait to do that. I’m supporting Olly Murs at the moment so I’m supporting him at some summer shows. I’m playing Tea in the Park Festival and V festival and the I’ve just shot my second music video yesterday so that will be out very soon and hopefully doing a tour later on when the album comes out yeah.
TGUK: So you’ve just filmed your second video, just to quickly talk about the first video. Where was that filmed?
DV: It was filmed somewhere just outside of London. It was in this big beautiful manor house and it was just amazing. It was breathtaking. When I got there I was ‘like wow all this amazing house just for me’ and my video. It was really cool, it was a really good video to shoot. The guy in it was my friend and it we were having a laugh with it, running around this big manor house and I got to jump in a pool with a fancy dress on yeah it was loads of fun.
TGUK: So I was gonna ask is the boy in it someone that you knew or someone that you hired?DV: It was someone that I knew, it was my good friend Jacub and he stepped to the plate so that was really sweet of him.
TGUK: So you didn’t have to pay a stranger to snog you.
DV: Ha, no no.
TGUK: So I’m going talk briefly about X-Factor as it’s just started again, does that seem like a lifetime ago?
DV: It about was five years ago; it does feel so long ago. Cuz this single’s out I have to get back into the swing of it and people are asking me about it and it just feels so long ago and people are always like how did you feel this. And I was so young and as time goes by I’m really starting find it really hard to speak about my emotions because I honestly can’t remember how I was feeling back then.
TGUK: Now my first thought of Diana Vickers is your first single ‘Once’ which was written by Cathy Dennis and Eg White, have you had a chance to work with them since?
DV: So well I actually had a couple of written session with Eg White and y’know, he’s so great but it just didn’t gel. I’ve worked with a few people on this album and I worked with a lot of lot of people at first and was writing with many different people but what I was just coming back to Miranda Cooper. And what we had was a really great writing connection and I was just like this is what works for me and just went with that.
TGUK: Now there was a fabulous ruffle dress in your video and some amazing shoes that you claimed you would get rid of for this guy (it’s in the lyrics, it was a joke…) are things like your clothing line for Very.co.uk something that will have to take a backseat while you’re doing the new album?
DV: Maybe, I’d love to go back and do something like that again. To be honest when I kinda took myself away and took some time I wanted to get out of the limelight a little and I took myself away I didn’t wanna be doing anything I just wanted to concentrate on my music and just kind of being young and having a bit of fun and getting out that but. But if that offer kind of came up again then I would definitely consider it.
TGUK: So the single is out now and you’ll be releasing the album….?
DV: The album’s gonna be in September, I think may the 15th but I’m not sure but definitely in September.
TGUK: Will you have another single before then?
DV: Yeah I’m gonna have single I’ve just shot my music video yesterday (at the time of the interview) for that so that’s gonna be coming out very soon.
Diana Vickers’ Single Cinderella out now through So Recordings.
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INTERVIEW: Dusty Limits
Award-winning vocalist, director and compere Dusty Limits has been at the forefront of the London cabaret scene for over a decade.
He has performed all over the world, from London to New York, Amsterdam to Berlin, and has shared the stage with many of the most exciting performers in the ‘new cabaret’ scene. Described as ‘the Trailblazer’, he was one of Time Out magazine’s ten cover stars for their special edition on cabaret. He is the director and resident host of the stunning Black Cat Cabaret every Friday at the Café de Paris.
The cabaret star and dangerous drinker is soon to be seen presenting a one-hour show at The Soho Theatre celebrating the big things: life, death, sex, drugs, but mostly singing. Wickedly comic and bracingly honest, Post-Mortem is a self-penned musical obituary, charting a life lived badly. The show incorporates songs from each of Dusty’s previous solo shows, plus some brand new offerings, strung together by implausible reminiscences and barbed observations. The show was a huge success at the 2012 Edinburgh Fringe and was shortlisted for the inaugural Time Out & Soho Theatre (TO&ST) Award.
I caught up with Dusty to talk obituaries, cabaret and Spiegeltents.
Can you tell us a bit about ‘Post Mortem’?
We were planning last year’s Fringe show and thinking about how to get our work out to new audiences, and the idea of an obituary came to me – a kind of edited highlights of a life, told through songs. So we took some songs from each of the previous solo shows I’d done and smashed them all together to see what emerged. In planning it I had to write my own obituary, so we could put the songs in the right order, and I highly recommend that as an exercise. It’s both humbling and inspiring and certainly focuses the mind. This version of Post-Mortem is updated and reworked; one song in particular, Dear Mr Cardinal, about a certain Scottish cardinal with a penchant for mouthing off against gay marriage, has had to be very extensively updated. It’s now my favourite part of the show.
You’ve covered such an eclectic range of artists in the past. What can we expect to hear in Post Mortem?
Just as eclectic as ever: Hollander, Bowie, Joni Mitchell, Stephen Merritt, Cole Porter, David Wilcox, a bit of gospel, plus quite a few original numbers… everything except Kurt Weill. My MD, the brilliant Michael Roulston, pointed out that it’s very strange for us not to have a single Kurt Weill song. Next year’s show will be all Weill!
There’s a huge element of darkness to your work which I absolutely love. What inspires you to work comedy with themes such as self-harm, death and the pointlessness of love?
When I started out I realised that trying to copy other comics was pointless. I could only write the stuff that made me laugh personally and hope other people laughed too. As it happens, those dark subjects are the ones that make me laugh. It’s why I love the Tiger Lillies. I’ve suffered from depression most of my adult life, and learnt to find the humour in it, probably as a coping mechanism. I was a very morbid child.
You’re very much at the forefront of the recent cabaret revival. For those not initiated into the scene, what can they expect from 21st Century cabaret?
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it now – this age of cabaret in London is up there with 19th century Paris, Berlin in the 20s and 30s and New York in the 50s. I think what makes this current scene so exciting is the breadth of skills on display – from amazing circus to clowning to puppetry to opera etc etc etc. What’s more, the people who make true London cabaret are committed to it as a form in itself. They’re not just musical theatre singers in between theatre jobs. I love (good) musical theatre, but I’d much rather go see Bourgeois and Maurice sing original stuff than sit through someone belting out Being Alive or I Dreamed A Dream…
You perform at some great venues including The Café de Paris and the famous Spiegeltent. Do you ever feel the ghost of Marlene at your shoulder?
Absolutely. She whispers in my ear occasionally. Mostly trash-talk. It’s actually quite weird to be on stage and realise you’re standing where Dietrich/Coward/Garland stood.
Do you have any hot tips for us of any up and coming cabaret stars we should look out for?
I won’t single out individuals, but I will say – get yourself down to the Double R Club. That’s where cabaret turns go to do the kinds of acts that they just can’t do in mainstream venues. It’s niche – all the acts are inspired by the works of David Lynch – but it’s very exciting.
Finally, where do you get your amazing wardrobe from?
It’s sort of cobbled together, to be honest. I’m fond of a cock feather trim. I absolutely hate shopping, so I tend to buy bits and pieces online and then sew them together clumsily. A lot of pricked fingers go into that trimming. I bleed for my audience.
Post Mortem runs from the 9th to the 13th of July at The Soho Theatre
Book here tickets: http://www.sohotheatre.com/whats-on/dusty-limits-post-mortem
Read more about Dusty here:http://www.dustylimits.com/Dusty_Limits/Home.html
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INTERVIEW | Pam Ann is plane filthy
Catching up with our favourite trolley dolly while she is on tour in America, Domenico Sansalone talks to her about everything from safe sex, opening for Cher and her new show at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane in December.
CREDIT: Pr Supplied The Gay UK: I have a funny story actually, once when I was flying back from Mykonos to London and you were on the same flight and the attendants were falling all over you it was an Easy Jet flight but they loved you. Does that happen a lot?
Pam Ann: Well I had a f**king smacking hangover because I had come straight from the f**king club and I had these big glasses on right? Yeah I was f**king against the visor against the window. I will never forget that c**t of a flight. He gave me a bottle of water that is as much as they could give me.TGUK: Well it is Easy Jet you have to pay for everything…
PA: Well no, she gave it to me for free, that was like champagne on BA. But yeah it happens. It happens a lot in Europe and Australia. I fly a lot on Jet Blue, but once you get into middle America, say on Delta, you can go to hell, you can f**k off! They don’t know who I am. They don’t care who I am. I get fisted on those flights! They don’t give a f**k. They lose my bag, they roll their eyes, they throw abuse at me and I am treated like everyone else, so I know what it is like.TGUK: Amazing! Do you ever notice that flight attendants get nervous when they recognise you and feel like they need to give you better service?
PA: When I am sitting there and they are about to give the safety presentation they know. When they stand in the aisle about to give the safety demo and they kind of freak out when I am sitting right next to them, sometimes they crack up laughing but cause I look at them and take everything in.
CREDIT: Pr Supplied TGUK: I read somewhere that you said the whole Pam Ann character was created when you were drunk. But you also said that it was the gays that created you, could you elaborate on how the gays created you?
PA: They didn’t create Pam Ann; they created my whole f**king life and my existence. That’s why I have not got married. I have not had kids. I am a f**king gay man, 99 per cent of my friends are gay so they can take responsibility for everything. My vocabulary is gay, I speak gay, everything is gay. I f**k like a gay so you know, I say they created my whole existence and Pam Ann. It’s their fault so they can take responsibility.
CREDIT: Pr Supplied TGUK: We’ll own that! We’re responsible for unleashing Pam Ann on the world. I think that’s something to be proud of…
PA: When I get put into a straight world I start talking about felching and fisting and straight people look at me horrified. They are completely freaked out and when I am in the company of my gays it is just a normal conversation. There are no gasps of horror. You know “Oh, he grinded my arsehole last night” is just a lunch conversation. But in the straight world that is like porn, you know? Thankfully I live in a very open minded gay community. I am very privileged.TGUK: I saw you at the Bloomsbury Theatre last year and I say that 99.9 per cent of the audience was gay men and then the other 0.1 per cent was female flight attendants…
PA: Annoying s**t faced flight attendants that need their f**king mouths stitched up. Everyone was so into it in the audience, it was just such a good atmosphere and vibe in that room.TGUK: You are in the US touring right now. Do you notice a difference in the audiences in the States and the UK?
PA: Oh f**k no, they are hysterical here. I mean just see Seattle, that audience was f**king insane. It was on par with shitfaced Glaswegians. No conservative f**king people in Seattle I tell you.TGUK: Well you know, marijuana is legal there now, right? Gay marriage and pot in the same election.
PA: I mean they are all bohemian f**ked up people up there. That’s why I love them in Seattle. I mean I am going to really great places. In LA they have a bit of a chip on their shoulders, they are a little bit like, prove it. So they can be a little bit more reserved in LA because they all think that they should be on the stage and not me.TGUK: You have some competition in LA?
PA: A lot, and they all look kinda f**ked up. You don’t know whether they are laughing or they just looking at you straight on cause they’ve got so much plastic surgery.TGUK: Do you ever change your jokes to localise them for whatever area you are in?
PA: Absolutely, the first hour is improvised about them. That is why the show is 2.5 hours. It’s like a hijack situation! So it is all tailored to them, to every place I go. That’s the best part of my show and what I enjoy the most is winding them up.TGUK: I was watching a documentary on Joan Rivers and there is one scene where she is in Middle America and someone gets offended and talks back to her and she kicks them out of the room. A lot of what you say is outrageous, have you ever had an incident like that?
PA: Oh f**k yeah. I mean 24 people walked out of my show in Nottingham. To me, that is the kudos, thank you. Goodbye! It’s too much for some of these straight people. I don’t care. Leave. Please leave, you are not nailed to the armrest, you can go. I say that sometimes you can go at any point that you like because I mean really I couldn’t give a flying f**k.TGUK: It’s really impressive just being on stage for two and a half hours. Do you ever get nervous about forgetting anything or is it just so natural now that you don’t even think about it?
PA: I feel so sorry for people that have to sit through it for two and a half hours. I really do. For me, two hours is probably when I am really on a roll. If you come to a show and its 1.5 hours then I really hate you. Right. So gauge this. If I am on for half an hour, I’m dying. If I am on for an hour, I could be restricted to that time because of the venue. If I’m on for an hour a half I’m not really that into you as an audience and I am on for two hours, we were really into each other. If I am for two and a half hours, I want to f**k your arsehole. So it all depends.TGUK: There should be a little chart in the programme that you provide with that for your shows…
PA: There should. You know in Seattle, we had two hours. It was rocking; it was amazing. You see I always get nervous, I always think that they might not come. There are times when I have had stage fright and it always stays with you, it never leaves. Like Bill Cosby said once, when you go to an audience and you trust each other, that’s when all the doors open in your head and you think, where the f**k did that come from? You know? But if you come out and you’re nervous, then the doors shut and you go on autopilot.TGUK: What gigs are you most nervous about?
PA: It is most nerve racking when it means a lot to you. Say the London Palladium which a f**ked up one night. Then the second night, I made sure I didn’t. It’s a mindset, sometimes the expectation is really high that you get nervous but you need to learn how to deal with expectation. That’s why a lot of people never go far because the expectation is too high and it takes them too much out of their comfort zone. So I think nerves come but when you break that barrier, you can build on that. Corporate events f**king scare the living daylight out of my arse. And I hate to do them. I hate doing them, that’s why it costs so much money, because I do not want to do them. So it is very hard to get me to do anything corporate. Booking comedy in an environment they see at the Bloomsbury Theatre and they say I want that and you put that into a hotel ball room with a bunch of corporate people that are mainly heterosexual and they ask “why didn’t it work?”! You know its like, Meryl Lynch asked me to do a gig and this gay guy who was obviously organizing it get on his knees. And the big boss hated me and I ended up running out and they didn’t want to pay because thy were like, “that wasn’t funny” and I’m like, “you c**ts.” I mean nobody wanted to laugh because they were all watching the bosses because they all didn’t want to laugh at something that could be seen a racist in their eyes. So, you’re dealing with that. I pushed the boundaries so if I do corporate events and they say can you tailor it so it is not so this or that, I say yes. But once a raving f**king sailor from the suburbs of Australia… I can be a lady sure. But it’s in your nature; you can’t change a tiger’s spots can you?TGUK: What was it like working with Cher?
PA: Well that was, if you’re talking nerves that was the ultimate nerve racking experience of my life. I wanted someone to actually push me down some stairs. I was already on the stage. I wanted someone to push me down and break all my bones in my body so I didn’t have to go on. I need that extreme excuse, I was just like so scared, I paced so much my dancer said I wore a hole in the dressing room. I was beside myself scared of that. I used to run compulsively, excessively over my lines. I used to cross them off like I was in a prison cell. Nerve racking, I mean nerve racking. There were 14,500 people in the arena supporting Cher, a gay icon, no one knew who the f**k I was. I was club act from Bromptons, I mean really, don’t forget your roots. Seriously I said to a guy yesterday about agents and managers. He said my agency is grindmyarsehole.com. GMA. Because the biggest gigs I’ve got are with Elton John and Cher were all done from people seeing me at Bromptons or Two Brewers. Just go work in a f**king club. That’s where you get the jobs, you’re not going to get that at an agency.TGUK: You’re in the US right now but are you planning to come back to the UK to do any shows over here?
PA: Yes I am about to book the Drury Lane. Hot news. It’s huge, I want to do two shows. I’ve booked the 15th of December and I am hoping to book the 8th as well. I am bringing the global alliance back. I’m bringing all the old characters and new characters back. So it’s going to be called “Plane Filthy”. And that hot news off the press, I’ve not told anyone. Its not 100 per cent signed off yet, but you can leak it.TGUK: Finally, one last question as we know you are about to go on stage. The Gay UK is launching our new safe sex campaign. Can you give some tips on safe sex?
PA: Well to be honest with you, I understand promiscuity because I am promiscuous and have been in the past a lot. I have been unsafe and had unprotected sex so I am no f**king angel. So, for me it’s been trial and error. Sexually transmitted diseases are scary and I have no easy answers so just try and make a f**king effort to do it. I’m not going to say I’m so safe because I have not been, but I am really safe think promiscuity comes from low self-esteem. I’ve had unsafe sex because I have had low self-esteem and self worth so I didn’t care. Because I have done cocaine there is that element of I don’t really care even if I die, I don’t care right now. Once you start to build and work on yourself and go to the gym, get a healthy diet, is when you are going to start to take care of yourself sexually. If I had a cock I would have died in the 80’s. Unfortunately I would have because I would have been a dirty whore. And that’s just the reality of it… I’m not doing really great for your campaign am I? -
INTERVIEW: Katrina Leskanich
Meet Katrina Leskanich, yes tis she, winner of Eurovision ’97, lead singer of the band that brought us ‘Walking On Sunshine’ and now author (with her trusty dog Peggy Lee). Lewis Fellows catches up with one of the most iconic voices of the 80s and 90s. (more…)