“We purchased a fancy, new drag queen bed. The sheets tuck themselves in! Thank you. Good night. Tip your waitress!”
Yes, ladies and germs, the Drag Queens of Comedy are making their way to San Francisco for one night only, at 7 and 10 p.m. on Saturday, March 29, at the Castro Theatre.
Hosted by SF drag superstars, Heklina and Peaches Christ, the event will bring funny girls Miss Coco Peru, Lady Bunny, Shangela, Bianca Del Rio, Pandora Boxx, Sasha Soprano and DWV to the stage. Have this many comedy queens ever shared such a bill?
“Oh, I wasn’t aware any of them were in comedy,” Lady Bunny said. “Heklina is hilarious to look at. I’m kidding! Leave it to [producer] Sasha to really put together a great bunch. On stage, I would say she’s both lovely and talented…just not on the same night.”
Bunny, the bouffanted co-creator of Wigstock, has something to say about ALL of her Drag Queens of Comedy co-stars.
“Peaches Christ—I don’t need to tell San Francisco how legendary she is,” Bunny said. “She has a gold star by her name permanently because she started a petition to name a sewage treatment plant after George W. Bush when he was in office.”
Bianca Del Rio is a contestant on the current season of Logo TV’s “RuPaul’s Drag Race,” and Bunny has worked with her at regular Friday night shows in NYC.
“When America gets a dose of Bianca’s mouth, they’re in for a treat,” Bunny said. “She’s truly one of the funniest queens I’ve ever worked with—definitely not for the politically-correct crowd. She’s misogynistic, homophobic, anti-Semitic, racist—but she is a scream!”
Bunny said inhibitions should be left at the doors of the Castro Theatre.
“Pandora Boxx is kind of like Goldie Hawn. I guess I’m more like Oldie Hawn. People want to come see me to get the experience of what Honey Boo-Boo would be like grown up,” Bunny added.
Viral videos from DWV, made up of dragsters Detox, Willam and Vicky Vox, have helped give that group international stardom. They just got back from sold-out shows in Australia. Bunny has another reason for wanting to share the stage with DWV though.
“Vicky has the unique station of being the only cast member to make me look petite!” Bunny said.
Another of RuPaul’s protégés, Shangela spent a chunk of last year on the mend, but Bunny said she was in amazing form performing during the “Drag Race” season premiere party last month.
“She was in a wheelchair part of the time, but I think that was just for show,” Bunny said.
Over the last two decades, Coco Peru’s one-woman shows have graced theatres across the nation.
“Coco Peru and I are good friends,” Bunny said. “We even shared a man…I had him first.”
While the competitive nature is played up on “Drag Race,” Bunny said the backstage biting is really more like a cartoon where a cat and dog are pals, until they punch a clock, and then get to battling.
“I see the drag community as more sisterly. I’m not saying we don't have egos, and I’m not saying we aren’t competitive. One of my favorite things about Wigstock, the vibe was, everybody is coming together to do what we love. Everybody is different. Not to sound corny, but let’s let everybody shine,” Bunny said.
As of this writing, tickets were almost sold out for the 7 and 10 p.m. shows of Drag Queens of Comedy. Visit TheDragQueensOfComedy.com for tickets and info.
Corey Andrew has been interviewing comedians and writing about comedy for the last decade and a half. He recently published the book, “Laugh Lines: Conversations with Comedians.” Corey was a writer and performer with Midwest sketch troupe, The NonProphets, before moving to the Bay Area with his family several years ago. If you have ideas for future columns about comedy, you can send them to coreywrites@yahoo.com or follow him at twitter.com/coreyshame.
