The lady is a tramp!

Drag queen extraordinaire Lady Bunny frowns on fashion, praises Barbara Eden and disses Dubya

by MATTHEW HAYS

Drag aficionados have been abuzz with the big news from this year's Divers/Cité line-up. Attending this year's festivities will be Lady Bunny, one of the trailblazers of New York's cross-dressing scene. Lady Bunny founded Wigstock, the legendary drag festival held in Manhattan every year, and created her own trademarked routine of singing and dancing fused with stand-up comedy. Bunny will perform her one-(wo)man show at Jello Bar for Montreal's pride celebrations. The Mirror caught up with her at her Manhattan home.

Mirror: Do you have any fashion tips for the new season?

Lady Bunny: Actually, I think fashion itself has gone out of fashion. In today's shaky economy, who the hell can afford to buy a $500 belt which will be out of style in a year? The world is falling apart. Why not donate the $500 to some organization like moveon.org that's trying to stop the monster George Bush?

I think the grunge trend really exposed the emperor's new clothes. I know a hairdresser who was paid a fortune and told to just make the models' hair look like they've done it themselves at a major designer's runway show. Nowadays, with knockoffs of most luxury goods readily available on Canal Street in New York, I think fashion has been exposed for what it truly is: overpriced bullshit! But I do admit to being blown away by the Courreges shop on a recent trip to Paris. It was all red crushed vinyl with white and Lucite accents. Pretty major.

M: How has the drag scene changed since you started Wigstock?

LB: New York has become so expensive that fun, crazy artist and musician types can no longer afford to live or move here. As a result, the new crop of drag queens are a bore, compared to the incredible talents which sprang from the N.Y. scene of the '80s and '90s, like Deee-Lite and RuPaul and Hedwig and the Angry Inch. It makes Wigstock a little more difficult, because I just don't see many exciting new queens. Thank God a few of us old ones are still kicking!

I dream of Bunny

M: You've said that Barbara Eden has been a major influence...

LB: I love Barbara Eden for her looks. I never really intentionally tried to look like her, but some people see a resemblance. I also am told that I resemble Dusty Springfield, and though I'm a fan of her music, I never meant to ape her style. I basically just like big hair and lotsa make-up and eyelashes!

M: What do you think of drag kings?

LB: I grew up in Chattanooga, Tennessee watching incredible drag kings who would lip-synch to the contemporary disco/R&B hits and dance the house down. The crowd would go nuts because these "guys" could really dance and they were so butch that even I found them sexy. I love New York drag king comedian Murray Hill but there are not a lot of others that I've seen that are that entertaining. Part of it is that when you are dressing up as a woman, you are adding things - wigs, costumes, feather boas, jewellery, and so on - but for a woman to look like a man she has to take away things - strap her boobs down, tuck her hair away and cut if off and remove make-up. And we all know that women's clothes, especially stage wear, are more exciting than men's.

M: Our government has just passed coast-to-coast legislation legalizing same-sex marriage. Why do you think this issue has proven even more contentious in America than here?

LB: It's funny, because Americans have joked about Canada for years as being slow. But you are speeding past us in terms of progressive policies like this gay marriage one, as are Spain and the Netherlands. I guess that is because we have an idiot for president who is trying to turn back the hands of time on everything from gay rights to abortion rights. But personally, I don't think gay marriage is very important. It's selfish of American gays to focus on marriage when people are dying needlessly in Iraq - paid for by our tax dollars. But since I'm not religious, I don't value marriage since it's a religious institution. I know that there are legal implications like inheritance which go with marriage as a legal institution, but these are not at the top of my list since I'm single!

M: What's on your wish list when you visit Montreal?

LB: How about a donkey-dicked, uncut, French stud? Of course, I love the dark ones that have a little Moroccan in them. I've had a little Moroccan in me as well! You know me, always trying to foster better relations between Americans and Muslims!

At Jello Bar (151 Ontario E.) at midnight on Thursday, July 28, $12, $15 at the door, and with DJ Disciple at La Grande Danse on sunday, July 31, 4 p.m.