| With a song in their hearts >> The Kinsey Sicks discuss
the story behind their
Which may sound odd, coming from Schatz, the former lawyer who gave up his day job to write, sing and joke about it in drag as part of the cult phenom The Kinsey Sicks, who perform their Dragapella all over North America. But he explains his drag remark pretty well. “Drag is a vehicle. We are primarily a singing and comedy group. We worry a lot more about keeping the music and comedy fresh. We’re not trying to pass as real women. We’re not trying to do Cher or Madonna. Each of our characters come from our own personalities.” And it seems their personalities have paid off. Since first forming in ’93, the group have expanded their public appearances, travelled extensively with the act, got stellar reviews when they opened off-Broadway (even the New York Times raved) and secured a second summer playing for several months in gay resort haven Provincetown.
It began, as Schatz and fellow Sicks member Irwin Keller recall, at a Bette Midler concert in San Francisco on New Year’s Eve ’93. “It just sort of happened,” says Schatz. “I was then executive director of the National Gay and Lesbian Medical Association. So all this respectable stuff would kind of eat at me. So periodically I would have to organize drag excursions with friends to unlikely places, like high-end restaurants or airports. Then I got eight tickets to the Bette Midler concert.” But Schatz and company were in for a surprise: expecting a veritable gay brigade to be in attendance at the Midler concert, they found they were the only ones in drag there. “We were the only drag queens there, apart from Bette. Everywhere we went, we got tremendous applause. And this woman came up to us and said she was a promoter and asked us if we’d sing somewhere. We said we don’t sing. But on our way home we started singing and decided we sounded really good. So we stayed up until three in the morning, singing.” So the stars were born. Now, three CDs and countless live appearances later, the troupe is making their Just for Laughs debut. “Yes,” confirms Schatz, “This is our virgin Just for Laughs experience. And we haven’t had a virgin experience in a long time.” Dragapella involves the four men getting into character, as four distinct female characters, and then belting out hit songs-with their own versions of the lyrics. References run far and wide, everything from AZT to Celine Dion to Osama bin Laden. But don’t look for this troupe to trash political correctness. Though they’re certainly not what one would refer to as pc, they nonetheless aren’t out to be mean for the sake of a few laughs. “We’re willing to offend in certain ways but not others,” says Keller. “We’re tapping into the naughty thoughts that people have but might not be willing to express, but we’re not willing to be hurtful.”
But how does the troupe know when they’ve crossed a line? “We know because when it happens at rehearsal or a scripting session, the other three go, ‘Oooooooooh,’” explains Keller. “And we debate. We talk about it a lot.” “There are things we won’t do,” says Schatz. “Though people who watch the show are shocked to find that out. Yes, we do have limits. Particularly as a drag group, it’s important for us to stay away from misogyny. We tend to stay away from the type of humour that Andrew Dice-Clay embraced. We won’t attack the downtrodden. But we might attack the uptrodden. If I wanted to be mean and nasty, I would have remained a lawyer.” Now,
after turning a drag outing into a late night of singing into a hobby
into a full-time gig, what’s the most surprising thing about finding
oneself in the phenom that has become Dragapella? “Sometimes,”
says Keller, “We’ll look out at an audience and size them
up. And we’ll think, ‘Oh, we’re in trouble tonight.’
We did a show at a casino in Reno. Most of the audience were septuagenarian
and octogenarian gamblers who were there for the buffet and slot machines.
We thought they were going to hate it. But the little old ladies came
out after and said, ‘We love you!’” “It’s amazing how many people with discretionary income and questionable taste there are out there!” Dragapella will perform Sunday, July 14 as part of Queer Comics at 7pm and 9:30pm at Club Soda. Their full-length show plays on Wednesday, July 17 at 9:30pm, Thursday, July 18 and Friday, July 19 at 7pm and Saturday, July 20 at 3pm at the Centaur >> Stage Listings |
“Drag
is not really what we’re about,” says Ben Schatz, one quarter
of the singing men-in-dresses quartet The Kinsey Sicks. And he’s
saying it poker-faced. No kidding.