Perhaps some of you remember those nights at Backstreet when you went for a different reason than the unspoken, drunken unknowing we all remember. Do you ever reminisce going upstairs and laughing your ass off from watching and hearing Lady Bunny’s outrageous visual and audio performance? Starting her career from Atlanta, the Bunny is returning to perform at Burkhart’s on October 13 & October 14 2012. Since then, she has been busy from roasting Pamela Anderson, hosting opening numbers for Carrie Bradshaw to dance to, to appearing on Will & Grace, and so much more.
As a boy originating from a small town in Tennessee, what prompted your career in the Atlanta drag-scene?
I love my mom but she was no glamourpuss! So when I first encountered drag queens like Tasha Khan, Adrian Sanchez and Mr. Della Reese at Chattanooga’s Go-Go Club I was completely hooked. I’d never seen such magical “women” before and was immediately drawn to them. We got the gay magazines from Atlanta in Chattanooga and so I was a fan of the big queens like Lily White, Charlie Brown, Hot Chocolate and Dina Jacobs long before I ever got a chance to see them perform. I just had dinner with Dina in Houston. To me, these girls will always be superstars.
So, where does your specific sense of style come from?
I don’t kid myself that I am a fashion plate who can wear any style. But I have decent legs so I usually wear minis. I also like bold prints and sparkly fabrics–who wants to see a drag queen in a demure Laura Ashley print?
How did the inspiration originate for your organization of the annual outdoor drag festival known as “Woodstock?”
When I left Atlanta for New York, my home club was the Pyramid. I was blown away by the amount of talent there and thought that it could surely reach a larger audience. So we left the club and got a permit for a nearby park and threw an all-day festival. The first one wasn’t all that, but we eventually got the hang of it and it ran for over 20 years.
What is the best form of advice you can give to future generations of aspiring drag queens?
Do something unique! If you want someone to fly you around the country to perform and all you do is lip-synch to Rihanna, they’ve already got 10 of those queens in every city. But if you put your own twist on it, you stand out.
Do you have any current projects or upcoming plans in the works?
Yes! I’m working on some original music. And I’ve just done a YouTube video which parodies the Scissor Sister’s “Let’s Have a KiKi “called “Let’s Have a Kai Kai” about drag on drag love. It will be on my next DVD coming soon.
You utilize a lot of creative methodologies in your blog to get your point across. Materials can include social satire on “media mongers” such as Chris Crocker as you plead with the audience in an over-the-top tone of “Leave Mitt Romney Alone!” As if you rearrange the letters in “Romney,” it translates to “R Money.” How did your wicked, unorthodox sense of humor develop?
My blog is very schizophrenic. Sometimes it’s cornball humor and sometimes it’s very political and serious. People don’t always expect drag queens to be political but let’s not forget that it was the queens and transsexuals who started Stonewall, which gave birth to this country’s gay rights movement. Drag queens think outside the box and when much of our TV news is based on lies and/or covering the wrong stories, I like to give an opinion which is not watered down. Unlike the news, I don’t have corporate sponsors to worry about pleasing. Even the liberal news MSNBC is owned by GE. GE is a war profiteer so MSNBC soft-pedals these wars we shouldn’t be in. And GE also pays about 7% of their 35% corporate tax rate and they want to keep it that way. So unfortunately, MSNBC is not really all that liberal.
I noticed that on your website (LadyBunny.Net), you promote a DVD which highlights the progression of your career titled “Rated X (for X-tra retarded)”. Could this title possibly reflect a satire on the social pattern that such celebrities utilize in order to promote their career further such as in the case of Paris Hilton, Justin Beiber, and Katy Perry?
I’m not known for my political correctness. But at the time I put that video out, retarded was not as taboo a word as it has become. I wouldn’t use that word again in a title. It might offend Bubba D. Licious.
So we’re dying to know the answer to the age-old riddle: Which came first? The Bunny or the Gaga?
Actually, it was The Lady Chablis! Or the Lady Shabby, as I like to call her. Honestly, “Lady” is a name that many drag queens use so I can’t claim it. And there was also Lady Miss Kier from Deee-Lite.
For More on the Bunny: Visit LadyBunny.Net – Don’t Forget to Sign Up for her “She-Mail.” You can find Lady Bunny performing at Burkhart’s on October 13th and 14th.
