Newspaper Page Text
SOUTHERN VOICE
OCTOBER 7/1993
Dyke on Fire
Continued from page 25
Crawford on the cover of Vanity Fair? Fuck
that. Kiss a lesbian, k.d. Me! I volunteer! Kiss
me!”
DeLaria returned home to Boston recently
from Great Britain, where she did 34 sold-out
performances, appeared on TV five times and
picked up the prestigious Edinburgh Critics
Award for Comedy. On Oct 9, she is bringing
her “Muff Diva” act to the Variety Playhouse
in Atlanta.
DeLaria is a well-known in Atlanta, one of
her favorite spots, because of her uproarious
work as the emcee of Pride in 1991 and 1992.
The second time around, a small stink ensued
when she was asked to tone down the language
in her act (this is, after all, the woman who, at
the March on Washington, described Hillary
Clinton as a “First Lady we can fuck”) and
refused.
Breaking the lavender ceiling in the enter
tainment world is something she wasn’t think
ing about 11 years ago when she walked out on
a stage in San Francisco and talked about being
queer.
“When I made that decision, I didn’t think
about it as a career move. In 1982, when you
talk about being gay on stage, you don’t think
you’re going to get on the ‘Tonight Show.’ I
didn’t think it was gonna happen in January of
this year. Suddenly, I walk out on the ‘ Arsenio
Hall Show,’ and I kill. I do great. The whole
fucking industry’s buzzing about me.”
According to DeLaria, that particular per
formance changed the face of comedy and
opened doors for other openly gay comedians,
most notably Scott Thompson from “Kids in
the Hall” and Kate Clinton.
DeLaria has since signed with APA, one of
the major talent agencies in the world. She has
been featured on CNN and ABC’s “20/20”and
will host an upcoming Comedy Central special
for National Coming Out Day. She’s negotiat
ing a recording contract with Sire Records, and
a possible television series is in the planning
stages with TV-guru Fred Silverman. Then there
is her off-Broadway run next year. Oh, and talk
of a movie.
“There’s like a face lift that’s going on,”
DeLaria says. “[Gay comedians] are not being
ghettoized so much. It’s unusual for me to ac
cept this Comedy Central thing because I don’t
want us to be ghettoized, like “Def Comedy
Jam” for black comics. Silly me—I think that
black comics should be on any bill. And I think
that gay comics should be on any bill. But in
this particular instance, it’s going to be a cel
ebration of National Coming Out Day, and 1
think that’s a great way to celebrate it, so I went
for it”
DeLaria sums up her current one-woman
show, “Muff Diva,” as “Just me, doing my
thing—being wild, being crazy...trying to gel
laid.” Cracking jokes, singing jazz or swinging
a double-headed dildo around on stage, DeLaria
wants to change the way straight people view
homosexuality. That’s a goal she says she ac
complishes just by performing.
“How many straight people actually see a
happy, positive, smiling, friendly gay or les
bian? The media controls what they see. They
go to the March on Washington, and they only
show the images they want you to see. [Seeing
me] gives straight people an opportunity to say
‘Wow, she thinks just like we do, she laughs
just like we do, she talks like we do, she loves
like we do.’ You can really change people’s
minds if you make them laugh.”
At 35, DeLaria says she’s experiencing her
sexual peak. What should we expect when she
hits her career peak?
“There’s nothing less about what I’ve been
doing for 11 years than what I’m about to do—
films, TV series and all that,” she says. “If
anything, it’s gonna be much more watered
down than things I’ve been doing in the past. I
just kind of follow the dictates of my taste and
try to be true to my integrity and my commu
nity.
“I have a charmed life. Now, if I could just
get laid.. .If I could just get that Jodie Foster to
sit on my face, everything would be set.”