This show is a drag

>> Grae Phillips returns to Montreal to sing it out loud

by MATTHEW HAYS

"My father always wanted me to become a dentist," says Grae Phillips, of family career expectations. Needless to say, some of Phillips' family might be a bit taken aback by his alternate persona, a leggy, sexy chanteuse--one who's downright convincing as a woman.

Phillips will be belting out a series of numbers in his new show, titled Everyone's F***ing But Me, which premieres at this year's Fringe. The gig marks a turning point for Phillips: his first time performing in Montreal, after spending close to a decade working in Manhattan.

Phillips' tale is a pretty odd one. After one singing audition, a director asked Phillips, then a struggling actor in New York's cut-throat theatre community, if he'd ever considered doing drag. "I was a bit horrified," he recalls. Still "a small-c conservative," Phillips contends he was initially uncomfortable with the drag thing--and the gay label. Then married to a woman for eight years, Phillips would often tell interviewers and coworkers that he was in fact straight. Which spawned an awful lot of media attention; Phillips' "double life" led to appearances on Donahue, Sally Jessy Raphael and Geraldo, among many others.

But appearing in chichi clubs as a female impersonator while denying his homosexuality didn't win Phillips a lot of gay fans. He reports receiving oodles of hate mail from people who felt he should be upfront about his orientation. But Phillips dug in his high heels. It all sounds rather surreal: a drag queen who's in the closet?

"It was an odd time," says Phillips, who has since embraced his gayness. "I was trying to assert my masculinity while signing up for hairdressing school. I finally learned to get in touch with myself."

Part of that included a return to his roots, which meant coming back to Montreal and attending Concordia University to study psychology (he eventually switched to computer programming).

And now, it's showtime once more. Even as Phillips plans his glitzy act (numbers include "Condoms Are a Girl's Best Friend"), his rather conflicted personality shines through. "The Fringe people wanted me to spell out 'fucking' in the title, but I wanted to use those stars instead. Swearing makes some people nervous and I don't want to make anyone uncomfortable with this show. Swearing even makes me nervous sometimes."