Johnny Blazes

Seems it was just yesterday I was pestering you to take me on a date… And now suddenly a month has passed since I was at IDKE!  My excuse for not updating you sooner is a good one: I’ve been wrapped up in The Theater Offensive’s Out on the Edge Festival, which I hope you attended.  I was in a whirlwind of being inspired by Joey Arias, Sherry Vine, Tim Miller, Kate Bornstein and numerous other queer theater artists.  But—that’s over now, and I owe you an accounting of my time at IDKE!  Here it is:

I arrived in Tucson Thursday evening after a full day of travel.  United Airlines, bless their souls, have made an exuberant science out of charging their passengers for every detail of service.  I was even offered a seat further forward in the plane—for $15.  I declined.  A sleep-deprived drag king met me at the airport and drove me and two members of San Francisco’s CHUBB to Hotel Arizona, where I met up with my long-lost twin Goldie Peacock.  Goldie was sitting in bed drinking coffee, watching TV.  I climbed into the bed next to theirs and we spent the next two hours debating whether to go to the Meet N Greet, search for chocolate, or pass out.  Passing out won, by default, at 9 pm.

Goldie and Johnny at the pool

Which meant that we were chipper and ready to go at 6 am the next morning!   To be fair, 6 am in Tucson is 9 am in New England, so that’s not too outrageous.  Goldie went for some yoga-by-the-pool while I got ready for tech rehearsal.  I spent the whole morning in the beautiful Fox Theater watching the tech run, and then running through my piece.  By the time I got back to Hotel AZ, the workshops were mostly over.  I had lunch with Goldie, and then we decided that the wisest spenditure of our time would be poolside, soaking in our entire winter’s dose of Vitamin D.  The other folks in the pool were from the Royal Renegades, based in Columbus, OH.  They too understand the value of sunshine when you can get it.

Pre-Dragdom

After the pool we fabuloused ourselves up for that night’s show, Dragdom.  Dragdom is the first-come-first-serve variety show that is always held on the Friday of IDKE.  Goldie got dressed in their fagette finest, and I put on a genderfuck pre-show outfit.  Most people I talked to didn’t recognize me—amazing what wigs can do, eh?  And what a glorious thing—to be walking around outside at night with no sleeves in October!

As we were waiting to sign up for the show, I saw someone wearing a “HOMOHIO” shirt, and went up to compliment them.  Turns out this person was JAC Stringer (stage name Jac McFaggin), who is the gay-for-pay at the Multicutural Resource Center at Oberlin College, my alma mater!  And, it turns out that JAC was already a fan of mine!  We got very giggly and excited and made fast friends, especially sharing glitter and mirror space “backstage”—ie, in a tent outside on the concrete driveway.

Kitty Victorian, JAC McFaggin, Johnny Blazes backstage at Dragdom

Also ran into Kitty Victorian, with whom I’ve shared the stage in Baltimore with the Femme Show.  Her divine stage presence was a highlight of every show at IDKE.  She is one of the very few “classic” burlesque dancers that keeps my interest throughout and impresses me every time with her poise, elegance and charisma.  And you know I don’t do lip service. This lady is gorgeous!

Goldie rocked the stage, bringing fierce fag fabulosity, their glitter matched only perhaps by the talents of Aiden Justice, another fag prince.  I did Cry Me a River, and destroyed my most beautiful wedding dress to date.  It was an odd-feeling show to me: the audience was far from the stage, they were a bit tired and not super-loud.  It’s hard for an audience to maintain energy for that long of a show, filled with performers you don’t necessarily know.  But they were loving nonetheless!  Goldie received endless, well-deserved compliments on their performance—well-deserved not only because they were fierce, but also because it was their birthday!  At midnight, Goldie turned 24.  We wanted to celebrate by going to a burlesque show, but we were so hungry, that instead we ended up eating enormous salads at this incredible 24-hour coffee and organic sandwich shop.  As we were leaving around 1 am, the barista played this video for Goldie on the bar’s computer.

Saturday morning, Goldie headed to a hip-hop dance class, and I went to a discussion on queer kink.  The discussion ended up revolving around inclusion and exotification/eroticization of identities, a topic I was encouraged to think more about by Lady Clara’s piece in the Femme Show this fall, when she mentioned being eroticized for her size.  After the discussion, I met up with Goldie again for luncheon and a keynote address by Kate Bornstein.  Kate was dressed like Starbuck from Battlestar Galactica, and seemed to be in awe of the drag performers she was addressing, who were of course in awe of her.  Her talk was uplifting, as ever, and reminded us that we are Drag Royalty.

After the keynote, I soaked up a quick hour of sunshine by the pool before getting ready for the Showcase.  The Showcase is the IDKE show that is typically held on Saturday, and performers are required to submit proposals before the conference.  Preference is typically given to larger group numbers, due to the scope of the venue, and in order to include the greatest number of people.  The organizers also strive to get a representation of as many cities as possible.  I didn’t get to watch much of the first half of the show, since the stage manager wanted us backstage four numbers before our own, but I am very grateful that I got to see the opening number by Boys R Us.  They did a large group number using projections and simple, evocative choreography to comment on immigration.  The theme of this year’s conference was “No Borders”, a phrase that resonates with genderfuckers internationally, and holds special significance in Arizona, where the “border” is a daily reality.  I chided Dante, one of the lead organizers, when I got backstage for making me cry during their number and running my makeup.  (It’s not true, my makeup didn’t run, although I did cry.  But it’s only fair: Dante had admitted to me earlier in the day that my piece had made him tear up during the tech run.)

As I stepped out onto the stage at the Fox Theater, I felt something I hadn’t realized I missed.  I love performing in clubs, I love being able to physically touch my audience members, the intimacy of a cabaret where I can leap off the stage or pull someone up onto it—but there is a vastly magical feeling in performing on a large stage in a traditional theater.  The heat of the lights, the sense of depth when you look out into the house.  I haven’t been on a big stage since I used to do what my mother calls “serious performance”—modern dance, classical singing, straight theater.  Stepping out onto that stage, I felt completely at home.  The vastness of the stage and cyc behind me seemed to signify the vastness of the unknown world that my character had wandered into, and contrasted with the intimacy of the two boxes to which my movement was limited.  In those three minutes of performance, I felt the most alive I have felt in a long time.  If nothing else, I want to thank each person who donated to send me to IDKE for those three minutes, for they have changed my outlook and fueled my determination to succeed.  I was reminded that this is indeed my calling, and that there is no home for me, no life for me but on a stage, reminding people to laugh and be amazed by the world we have created for ourselves.

Goldie Peacock, Kate Bornstein and Johnny Blazes in their Sunday brunch best!

After the show, Goldie and I only made it through about an hour of after-party before crashing.  We woke up on Sunday just in time to throw on some fabulous and head over to the Tucson Art Museum for brunch.

Johnny, Goldie, Julius Kaiser and Kyramh

There were some fantastic performances happening on an outdoor stage, highlights being a local AcroYoga troupe, and a local dance troupe that combined vogueing with intense hip hop.  We got to say goodbye to new friends, notably Kyramh and Julius Kaiser, whose piercing performance during the Showcase was another highlight for me.  I was wearing Melsen’s Super Tranny shirt, without knowing that next year’s theme is “Gender Justice”—everyone thought I was advertising the superhero theme for IDKE XII in Baltimore 2010!

The rest of the afternoon I spent catching up with the gorgeous Caitlin Rose, a circus friend from Oberlin, and seeing a bit of Tucson with Goldie.  That evening I packed and readied for the long day of travel ahead, dreading the cold but looking forward to being in my beautiful home in the city where so many of my friends and fans are!

I am so grateful to the folks who made this trip possible, with special thanks to Mel O’Drama and to Goldie’s lovely sponsors who paid for our housing.  The opportunity to share my art (and contact info!) with performers from around the world was invaluable, and has truly reignited me in my quest to sustain myself through art and to en-lighten humanity with laughter and passion.  Thank you all.

For more pictures check out Facebook, or for the live version of what happened, you can look at my Twitter log from Oct 22-25.