Johnny f’ing Blazes, people!  Ze gave me a real trip down memory lane with this one.  Makes me feel old just thinking about that first show.

Tell us about your first Femme Show
I performed in the very first Femme Show ever– in the basement of the UCC church in JP.  I performed “New Dawn”, a reverse striptease that I had been ready to create for a while and has since served me well, and a dance piece called “Inversation”, which was only performed those two nights.  I was fresh out of Oberlin, and still very interested in creating esoteric works that involved “serious dance,” as my mother calls it.  The piece was an improvisational dance score that I created with a jazz clarinetist who was very into experimenting with the noises he could get out of his instrument.  I think he is the only heterosexual, cisgendered man to have ever performed in The Femme Show.   We created a recording of my voice saying self-critical phrases about my dancing and my gender.  They were fed through a computer program and would happen at certain times during the piece, although I never knew which phrase would come up.  I wore a black petticoat (it was The Year of the Petticoat) and a short red satin dress with my fauxhawk.  I thought the piece was hilarious, but the audience was mostly silent– except for Maggie, who also found it hilarious.  I guess you had to be a dancer to appreciate jokes like “Retrograde!” and “You might want to try inverting that…”

What have you been up to since October?
Taking the world by storm!  I’ve performed in Arizona, New York, Vermont, Maine and Massachusetts; joined forces with The Theater Offensive, The Tranny Roadshow, TraniWreck, Intro to Anatomy; started a line of drag puppets and upcycled chic accoutrements; taught classes and workshops, given massages and watched all of Dexter with my housemate Madge of Honor/M. Hanora.

Why do you think the Femme Show is important?
The Femme Show is a group of radical queers who are committed to redefining femininity in a way that refuses to cooperate with the existing power structures, while remaining true to our hearts and desires.  It gives voice to queers who want to both celebrate femininity as well as question its current status in our society and the ways in which it is enacted.  It is this blend of joyful celebration and piercing inquiry that makes The Femme Show unique and important: we are on the edge of the ever-expanding boundaries of gender and we advance the conversation through humor, insight and sex appeal.

What are you most excited about for the Femme Show in 2010?
I am excited to get the chance to perform “Dancer’s Nightmare” with Gigi again!  I’ve always wanted to perform a pas de deux, and I think this one is the perfect piece for me!  I think it’s another one of those pieces that’s way funnier if you’re a dancer, but I love it because it really tests my physical boundaries as a clown and puts my character Jonathan into a very specific situation where he gets to interact with someone else.  Plus, Gigi and I have so much fun prepping for it, every time!

What is your favorite thing to do onstage? Least favorite?
Yikes!  That’s a lot harder to answer than I thought… I guess the answer is that my most favorite thing to do is to perform a well-timed clowning piece, like “Check One Please” or “Dancer’s Nightmare” or the blue-and-pink-scarf piece that I just made for Bent Wit Cabaret.  Performing pieces like that, that catch the audience off guard and get them both laughing and thinking– that’s when I feel the most satisfied and proud.  Although I have to say, nothing beats making $30 bucks in tips from lip-synching in a sparkly thong while feeding whipped cream to audience members…

Least favorite thing… stepping into a puddle of liquid that another performer has left behind without warning.  Yes, I’m looking at you Frieda Fries, you and your dairy obsession…

Sweet or savory?
Each in its place.  The real question is “Sweet or salty?”– my answer to which is: “Both.”  Chocolate covered pretzels, M&Ms in movie popcorn, ice cream and potato chips and beer…

www.johnnyblazes.com

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