THEGAYUK

Tag: Postcards From P Town

  • INTERVIEW | Dina Martina, “There was a time when I enjoyed gentlemen callers, but that time is done and we all die alone”

    The incomparable and hysterically funny Dina Martina has described herself as a tragic singer, horrible dancer and surreal raconteur. Trust me she is all of those and more, but ever since she first exposed her bizarre performances to a startled world back in Seattle’s Center on Contemporary Art in 1989 she has accumulated legions of devoted fans who have dubbed her “magically warped”, “hilariously unfortunate” and “utter genius”. She is in her own words totally ‘off the charts’.

    Absolutely packed with ludicrous song, horrifying stories and overburdened costumes, Dina Martina’s shows are impossible to adequately describe, other than that they’ve become synonymous with jaw-dropping pathos and mind-blowing comedy. On her first trip to London ‘Time Out’ hailed her as ‘divinely funny’ and audiences have demanded she come back to the UK every year since. This unique and unpredictable performer is very much an acquired taste, but it’s one that we at THEGAYUK love to indulge in, so we were thrilled (and a tad apprehensive) when the great lady agreed to take tea with us as the summer drew to a close.

    Thank you for taking Tea with me this afternoon Miss Martina, could you describe exactly where we are and what you are wearing for our readers?
    Thank you. We’re in my suite at the Hampton Inn La Guardia and because this is a print interview, I am wearing jeans and a camisole. The camisole is from Victoria’s Big & Tall Secret.

    How did you spend your summer this year?
    I spent my summer performing in Ptown (Provincetown, Massachusetts), which is so full of tradition and heritages. It’s the first place the Pilgrims stopped in the US, but they moved on to Plymouth ’cause nobody goes there so parking’s real easy. Ptown is also the nest egg of American Theatre, so it’s crawling with celebrities. On any given day, you could be eating sandwiches with Joan Collins or disco dancing with Fatty Arbuckle and the Pointer Sisters.

    You are back in Provincetown for your 10th season, what keeps bringing you back?
    First off, two words: saltwater taffy and award-winning fudge! Second off, it’s such a charming little finger of land, it’ll steal your heart and your soul. A lot of the locals say Ptown’s best-kept secret is the great white sharks, but I think it’s the ticks. Oh, and the biting flies are always a perineum favourite.

    You are quite unlike any other entertainer we have ever seen, how would you describe your own performances?
    My mother told me if you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all – so I don’t. But what I will say is that if you come to my show, you may or may not see the following: white carriages under the stars, live violin dubstep routines, shivering girls in short skirts and high heels, one of those old, beat-up school buses with chickens on it, and an elevator that only goes down.

    Many poor scribes (like me) fail to do you justice, what is your favourite review?
    I can’t pinpoint a specific review, but there are press quotes that stand out: “As graceful as a Coke machine moving about on a hand truck”, “She looks like Liza Minnelli and Liz Taylor hit with a brick” and “Dina comes from an alternate reality where female superstars resemble walrus prostitutes”.

    After the show the other night many of the ladies and young men were talking about your unique fashion sense, do you have any tips that you could pass on?
    For myself, I enjoy a snug fit to better showcase my ballpark figure. I find that if it fits like sausage casing, you feel more alive. Vive la tourniquet!

    When you go home at night is there anyone else there to keep you company besides Phoebe your daughter?
    One night, a few years back, there was a woman who was standing in the corner of my bedroom, but she left through the window when I turned my lamp on. Other than that, I’m just in love with Show Business. Of course, there was a time when I enjoyed gentlemen callers, but that time is done and we all die alone.

    Why is it that of all the awards you have won, your movies that are part of your show have never ever been nominated for an Oscar?
    I’m guessing it’s just a clerical error, but I can’t say for sure. Thank you for mentioning it, though.

    As you write all your own songs (or ‘alter’ others) do you have a new album out?
    Yes, I have a new just-released, soon-to-be-finished album titled Dina Martina: Haunted by Maritime Tragedies. I’m so proud of “Maritime Trads” because it’s got a real pan-Asian vibe; more so than my 3 previous albums (Dina Martina: Street of Dreams/Blunt Force Trauma, Dina Martina: Anthem of a Fur Trader’s Wife, and the Christian rock album, Dina Martina Deuterockin’ Me).

    You’ve appeared at Soho Theatre in London 3 times now, if your British fans nominated you to be the next Queen, would you stay and accept?
    Those are some mighty sensible shoes to fill. I think I’d rather start small, like Court Jester, and work my way up. There’s less dissension in the ranks when you’re promoted from within.

    Will you come back across the pond and see us again soon?
    Nothing would pleasure me more.

    N.B. those Press Quotes are 100% real…..

    www.dinamartina.com

  • INTERVIEW | Kate Clinton, The First Lady Of Comedy

    Every summer for the past 15 years THEGAYUK’s British/American movie critic Roger Walker-Dack has hot tailed it to spend his entire summer in Provincetown on the tip of Cape Cod.

    A lot has changed since the first Brits landed there when the Mayflower docked in 1602. They only stayed five weeks then before sailing on to their final destination at Plymouth Rock, and they really don’t know what they missed. This captivating beautiful small seaside town has been an artist’s colony, a Portuguese haven, and now it is an enchanting gay mecca that each summer sees the all-year round population of less than 3000 swell to over 60000 people.

    In a series we are calling POSTCARDS FROM P.TOWN, Roger Walker-Dack will introduce some of the people and things that create the magic that make this such a ‘must see’ destination for gay people from all over the world.

    Kate Clinton describes herself as a faith-based, tax-paying, America-loving political humorist and family entertainer. She is also one of the funniest and quick-witted lesbian comics with her no-holds barred, often-controversial take, on all the hot button topics of the day. Now in her third decade of performing, the woman is seemingly unstoppable with TV appearances ranging from ‘The Rachel Maddow Show’ to ‘The L Word’, several off-Broadway shows, countless sold-out nationwide tours, movies, radio, MC‘ing events and even doing a turn at The Gay Games in Chicago one year. She has worked with some of the greatest performers of her time from Lily Tomlin to Oprah Winfrey. Her summer show is one of the first dates I put in my diary when I arrive here in P.Town. I’ve sat in her audience at least once a year for the past 15 years, and have also exchanged the odd quip or two as we passed each other at Joe’s Coffee Shop, but now she is taking time out of her busy schedule to give her first ever UK magazine interview to The Gay UK:

    RWD: You shocked me one year by revealing in your show that you were once a schoolteacher.
    KC: Yes, I taught English in High School for years but I always wanted to try my hand at Stand Up Comedy. In March 1981, after I only had just ‘come out’, a friend booked me into a local gay club in Syracuse New York. To my great relief it was a huge success, although it did help that all my friends had turned up to support me. However two weeks later I did the same show at a Women’s Club in Boston where they had no idea of who I was. And the same lines that had slayed them before, now just died an instant death, and from the back of the room a voice shouted out in a broad South End accent ‘you’re on your own now dahling!’ And I was.

    RWD: Did that floor you?
    KC: (laugh) No. I knew from Teaching just to go on regardless. So I did, and got through it.

    RWD: How long did you juggle both careers?
    KC: Actually I didn’t. My partner at the time said after my first show ‘I don’t know how to tell you this, but you have to do it again.’ So I immediately gave up teaching and went into performing fulltime and she became my manager. Then another good friend who used to perform in a band booked me for a first summer season touring the North West in a red camper van called Ruby, playing one nighters in an a varied assortment of small and… how can I put it politely… ‘interesting venues’.

    RWD. Wow! The touring part doesn’t amaze me but the camper van part is too hard to swallow. You are without doubt THE most elegantly-dressed woman in P Town and even when you whizz past on your bike here you look like you are suitably attired to have tea with The Queen…or a queen at least.
    KC: (laughing very loud) I only had a few outfits in those days. But in 1985 I started travelling more and Eastern Airlines had this amazing deal where you could fly to 21 cities for a pittance. The only catch was that you always had to fly through Atlanta, so if you wanted to go from Portland Oregon to Seattle it added 5000 miles to a 173-mile journey.

    1985 was also a turning point for me as the AIDS crisis started to hit hard and I played less lesbian only audiences and began playing more gay audiences along with fund raisers and benefits as well. And then I also went on to do memorials and services for friends that were lost.

    RWD: A very tough time…
    KC: Yes, but I also saw it as a great coming together of our community too, as a way of healing.

    RWD: Have you always been so very political?
    KC: Coming out as a lesbian in those days was in itself considered a political act. After all, some women can’t say the word lesbian… even when their mouth is full of one.

    But on a professional level I feel that we have to deal with a barrage of news and information on a daily basis and I think it is the job of the comic to filter and give it the benefit of a thought that people generally don’t tend to do. I like to contextualize it and to put it in historical context.

    RWD: I find what you do is to articulate something that concerns us all and put a funny spin on it, even topics that are considered very serious. You are unashamedly a fervent and passionate Democrat and so I love the stand you take on every issue as I feel completely in tune with your political beliefs, however I am wondering how they go down with an audience that is a tad more conservative?
    KC: Maybe it’s the teacher in me, but I think it’s all-educational still, and anyway I just presume that we are all in it together.

    RWD: Even though a third of gay people voted for George Bush. Twice?
    KC: That’s still hard to believe, but people do come up to me afterwards and say I’m a Republican BUT I loved your show.

    RWD: And those that don’t?
    KC: When they find it too tough to take, like when I was including pieces on the Iraq war, I simply pretended that all the people who walked out during my performance had just gone to the bathroom and so I carried on. And anyway, I’m a moderate lesbian, I only hold grudges for six generations.

    RWD: (laugh) But do you ever censor yourself thinking you may be going too far?
    KC: I don’t deliberately set out to provoke outrage. If I am confident in any piece and feel good about it, then I will do it.

    RWD: P Town is not just the place you perform. It is also very much home for you and your partner.
    KC: I came here first in 1984 and performed for a week. The next year I did two and so on, and I very quickly fell in love with the place. I started to think why am I going back to Upstate NY when this is the place to be all summer. I love all the natural beauty of the town, and the way that people still come here for both that, and also the wonderful sense of community we have here.

    RWD: The thing most baffling about you is why have you never ever performed in the UK? Many of your books and CDs are available on Amazon there and sell very well so I know you have a big British fan base.
    KC: I’ve got very close to it twice but on each occasion I had family emergencies and had to cancel. BUT I am really hoping it‘s going to be 3rd time luck. I do get a lot of Facebook mail from the UK from people who seem to like that my take on the US is quite raw.

    RWD: You would have a great deal of fun giving us your very incisive take on British politics too. I think if you had been born there you would have become one of our great stately Institutions, the sort of person the Queen would have made a Dame.
    KC: Thank you.

    RWD: Here in Provincetown despite all the many changing fads and trends that have occurred over the years you are still here, and obviously having a great deal of fun, and in fact this season you are the ONLY lesbian comic performing. Whilst all the other acts are ‘barking’ on the street trying to entice people in to see the shows, you don’t and yet you play to packed houses every night.
    KC: I think sometimes they come simply because I don’t plaster the beaches with flyers when everyone is simply trying to catch some rays! (laugh) But it’s also a longevity thing, as after all these years I have become part of people’s regular schedule. In the winter I travel a lot around the country: I do workshops, conferences, host award dinners etc. and so many of the people I meet there come to see me when they are on vacation here.

    RWD: Over all these years that you have been performing you have won countless Awards, been lauded with praise from the likes of writer TONY KUSHNER (Angels In America) who called you a ‘political visionary’ and ‘incredibly funny’, and rave reviews from the media such as the NY TIMES whose critic said he was in tears from laughing so much, but I am wondering what your favourite compliment is that you have ever received after a show.
    KC: After a show in Lexington, Kentucky, I was having dinner with the producers and a young woman came up to me and clapped me a good one on the back, and exclaimed, “Kate Clinton! You made me want to f**k again!”

    RWD: (laughing) I am for once speechless.

    Follow Kate Clinton on Facebook

  • INTERVIEW | Well Strung

    Every summer for the past 15 years I’ve hot tailed it to spend my entire summer in Provincetown on the tip of Cape Cod. A lot has changed since the first Brits landed there when the Mayflower docked in 1602. They only stayed five weeks before sailing on to their final destination at Plymouth Rock, and they really don’t know what they missed. This captivating beautiful small seaside town has been an artists colony, a Portuguese haven, and now it is an enchanting gay mecca that each summer sees the all-year round population of less than 3000 swell to over 60000 people.

    In a series we are calling POSTCARDS FROM P.TOWN, I will introduce you to some of the people and things that create the magic that make this such a ‘must see’ destination for gay people from all over the world.

    For the past 3 years when you bike down Commercial Street (the main drag of P Town) at dusk, it’s hard not to notice the dulcet tones coming from a String Quartet playing on the sidewalk outside The Art House to advertise their Show. These are the boys who comprise WELL STRUNG: they are four classically trained musicians who put their own spin on a repetoire of pop and classical music: and they sing too. They also are without doubt the best looking guys on the block, which is more than an added bonus. They have very quickly become a big hit with audiences and when they are not performing in P.Town they are on the road touring, and last year they actually made their London Debut at the Leicester Square Theater.

    In their first ever-exclusive UK magazine interview these four disarmingly charming men who the New York Daily News said were ‘the hottest thing with a bow since Jennifer Lawrence in The Hunger Games’ sat down with TheGayUK to talk about making music, meeting men and lots more.

    First things first guys. How did Well Strung start?
    In the summer of 2010 Chris (Christopher Marchant) was here in P.Town appearing in ‘Naked Boys Singing’ and in between shows he was busking shirtless in the streets and playing his violin and attracting quite a large crowd.

    Yes, I remember him very well.
    And one person who heard him was Mark Cortale, the Artistic Director of The Art House who immediately offered him a Show at the Theater. That initial idea soon went from being a Solo Performance to maybe forming a String Quartet.

    And how did the four of you come together?
    Daniel Shevlin: (Cello) Chris called me and I was in Denver finishing a National Tour of ‘Rent’ and was wanting to move, so I jumped at the chance.

    Edmund Bagnell: (1st Violin) I was based in NY doing mainly musical theater playing Tobias in the first national tour of Sweeney Todd directed by John Doyle, and I wanted a change.

    Trevor Wadleigh: (violist) My career had taken a totally different path and at the time I was actually working in Financial Services, so I was very happy indeed to get back to performing again.

    We had out first ‘staged reading’ within a few months and then later in May 2012 we made our official debut at Joe’s Pub in N Y, and then we were ready to hit the streets of P Town with our first ever summer season.

    How conscious are you of the fact that you all look as hot as hell?
    WS: Well as artists you are always concerned with your appearance as well as your performance but we think we have evolved more since then, so now it’s much less about how we look and much more about how we sound.

    But your name alone is intentionally provocative!
    Well, our instruments are very well tuned. (laugh)

    And you were all shirtless in your first poster.
    Well, sex sells (but we don’t sell sex) and we will admit it did help us get our first few audiences in before we could depend on ‘word of mouth’.

    I remember sitting in the audience that first year and hearing people somewhat in disbelief saying ‘Wow, these boys can really play, and play well.’ But what they related to as well was how you all shared stories of your life in between your playing which really bonded you with this P-Town crowd.
    I think we also opened up the whole potential of listening to classical music to a brand new audience too, which we are so thrilled to continue to do.

    Who decides the balance of pop vs. classics in your show, and is the choice of the program a collective decision?
    We have a whole team that includes Donna Drake our Director, and David Lavinson our arranger, asides from Mark Cortale our Manager, but essentially we all get a say in what we want to play as we think it an important part of us performing is that we too enjoy all the music.

    What immediately strikes me talking to you all is that you are very close to each other. Has that closeness ever led to anything romantic between any of you?
    NO! (laughing)

    And are you all currently single or?
    Two of us are single, one is involved in a relationship and one is in the ‘its complicated ‘ stage.

    Which is which?
    That would be telling. We’ll let you try and work that out for yourself. (laugh)

    What’s your favourite thing about being Well Strung?
    Being able to combine all the things we love: namely playing our instruments, singing and getting to be actors too. We love the fact that we are a very unique group, in fact so different from the norm, that it’s tough describing it adequately to people meeting us for the first time. And most importantly we have a great deal of fun just being together and performing especially with a new audience and winning over new ‘converts’.

    And now in your third Season here in P-Town and putting the ‘sold out‘ signs up nearly every night you perform, it’s clear that visitors and locals alike love you. What do you think about the magic of this very special place that we get to call home each summer?
    It’s the Never Never Land for gay men (and women).

    (laughing) Beautifully put. What happens next for Well-Strung after the summer ends?
    We have a very extensive nationwide tour with our brand new show POPSSICAL which features the music of Beethoven, Ravel, Madonna, U2 and Miley Cyrus that is going to keep us very very busy. (dates & venues on the website) What we love about our work is that we keep discovering new audiences everywhere: young and old, gay and straight. This year we played to kids at Schools and we also performed at the International Mr Leather (IML) Convention in Chicago.

    When you say ‘perform’ at that raunchy venue you mean…?
    (laughing) Just on our instruments. But they were such a lovely crowd, and we had a blast and learned a lot too (ahem).

    And do you ever think about a life after Well Strung?
    NO! (Very empathically). We all feel that there is so much more for us to do and achieve professionally together, and as long as we and our audiences are happy, we will keep developing and creating and playing our hearts out.

    At TheGayUK the first story we ran on P-Town this summer was entitled ‘Everything Old is New Again’ which was about the remarkable fact that there are a whole plethora of both veteran and ancient stars performing here even though some are in their 80’s and beyond. Can you see yourself being in that group in the far distant future?
    (laugh) Only if you promise to hang on to review us then!

    Touché! So what did you think of London when you played there for a week at the Leicester Theatre in the Fall?
    It was our first time and we LOVED everything about the City. Everybody was so welcoming and friendly, and in fact, we had our first ever groupies there, which made us for once actually feel like rock stars! (laugh) The Brits were very generous and even though we were newcomers, by the end of our run we had ‘sold out’ which was very exciting

    And what did you think of British men?
    For some reason, we had this concept of them all being the big rugged types like the Host on TV’s ‘Restaurant Impossible’ and more than a little bit different than the average American gay man.

    I think you mean Robert Irvine who is different, and STRAIGHT!
    (laugh). Well, the Brits we met turned out to be completely different than that, and a very welcome change. Charming, good looking and very fit but not gym-body obsessed like the men in NY, and very hot indeed!

    So you like British men?
    (laugh) What’s not to like?

    And more than ‘like’ even?
    That would be telling, but let’s just say that we are putting a great deal of pressure on our Manager to close the deal that will take us back to London very soon. And not just so that we can perform on the stage!!

    Watch this space for the exclusive news when the next Well Strung London dates are announced. Meanwhile get an another taster of the Boys with their latest video Mozart meets Kelly Clarkson.