Seattle Gay News
Pride 2019
FRANK DECARO COVER STORY
MODERN QUILTS PAGE 6
Issue 26, Volume 47, June 28, 2019
MAGIC BOX PAGE 11
STUDIO 54 PHOTOS PAGE 22
SUMMER BOOKS PAGE 26
SGN EXCLUSIVE: Funnyman Frank DeCaro examines drag in his new book
Frank DeCaro (l), Drag book cover (r), and author holding book (below) - photos courtesy of Frank DeCaro
by MK Scott SGN Contributing Writer DRAG: COMBING THROUGH THE BIG WIGS OF SHOW BUSINESS by Frank DeCaro RIZZOLI 256 pages I’ve known about Frank DeCaro for more than a decade as a writer and comedian from the time his show debuted on the Sirius OutQ Gay talk radio channel in 2004 until his last show was broadcast when the Sirius OutQ channel was discontinued in 2016. “Now he has focused his gimlet eye and come out with the encyclopedic tome Drag: Combing Through the Big Wigs of Show Business (featuring a forward by fellow funnyman Bruce Vilanch).” He chatted with me about his latest endeavor via email. MK Scott: Frank, I love the book. You focus on “RuPaul” stars, drag stars of old and drag exposure on film, TV and Broadway to touching tributes to long gone trailblazers. What got you so interested in this book?
Frank DeCaro: Robb Pearlman, a wonderfully creative editor and writer at Rizzoli, came to me five years ago and said, “Someone needs to write a book on drag and I think it should be you.” I wasn’t sure I was the right person at first. But the more I thought about it, the more I realized that I was exactly the right person to write this book. I’ve been a fan of men in dresses since I was a toddler and saw Herman Munster get hit by a bolt of electricity and turn into a cocktail waitress on “The Munsters.” That was in 1966. Since then, I’ve followed
the careers of the finest drag performers and had a front-row seat for a lot of their greatest moments. I really am Drag Hag #1. MK: What I loved was that you actually include transcripts of your interviews.
FD: I wanted to have the drag queens express themselves in their own voices, and I did that wherever possible in the book. The interview process took many forms. Some queens emailed me screen after screen of musi ngs. Courtney Act recorded voice messages while flying to Australia. Charles Busch had me over to his apartment. John “ Ly p s i n k a ” Epperson met me in a park in Chelsea for a chat. Lady Bunny and I stayed on the phone for hours once I finally tracked her down in her hutch. The research was a blast to do. MK: The Northwest thanks you for including our stars, BenDeLaCreme, Dina Martina and the Legendary Darcelle. Tell us about those meetings.
FD: I’m a fan of BenDeLaCreme from “Drag Race” and finally got to see her in Provincetown last summer. That was the first time we’d met. Dina and I know each other for ages. She was a frequent guest on my radio show. As for Darcelle, we spoke by phone and I was dazzled. He had so
much to say and his attitude about being an older performer was very inspiring. I love that he is so close to his family. We finally met in person at the TriBeCa Film Festival not too long ago at the premiere of the Wig documentary in which he appears. I signed a book for him and made him sign my copy of Drag for me. I hope I can do an event at his bar. It would be an honor. MK: Nearly everybody nationally is covered but I was stunned that one well known NW-bred queen turned global superstar – a drag race winner and a superstar, Jinkx Monsoon – [doesn’t appear in the book]. How could she be omitted?
FD: Jinkx is mentioned four times in the book! I would have done a Q&A with her, but I could never manage to get on her radar, no matter how hard I tried – even after we’d met in person in New York. The closest I came to actually interviewing her was when I booked her on my satellite radio show back in the day. The morning of the interview, with no warning, she sent her accompanist instead, so I never did get to chat with her. One of these days! Put in a good word for me! MK: I was also stunned that one other queen was missing from the book – that is Ester Goldberg. Her style is a Jewish dame Edna, who was the first drag
queen to cover the Oscar red carpet and has headlined in Vegas. How could she be omitted? FD: It wasn’t an intentional omission, believe me. But it’s a shanda she’s not in there.
MK: Did you have any favorite queens? Least favorite?
FD: I adore and respect everyone who appears in this book – Varla Jean Merman, Bianca Del Rio, Flotilla DeBarge, all of them. But Dina Martina is my favorite. I find her “ballpark figure” and “tragic” song stylings to be irresistible. MK: What was it like to gather all together for the Wig premiere at Tribeca?
FD: I started going to Wigstock in 1988 when I first moved to New York, and I don’t think I missed going to one after that. It truly was the greatest drag event ever. So the Wig premiere was very moving for me – to see so many of the Wigstock Original Gangsters again – Tabboo!, Linda Simpson, and more – and meet some new faces like the “drag kid,” Desmond is Amazing. He’s 12, I think, and fierce! MK: Who is the Queen, the queeniest of all the drag queens?
FD: RuPaul is the queen of queens. She is officially America’s Drag Queen. As Lady Bunny once said, “RuPaul is so good at being a drag queen, she doesn’t even need to dress in drag.” I’m living for his new talk show, by the way. I think of him as Glinda the Good. Lady Bunny is important, too, but she’s Elphaba. Drag: Combing Through the Big Wigs of Show Business by Frank DeCaro, published by Rizzoli, is now available from booksellers.