I first saw Kentucky Fried Woman at an International Drag King Community Extravaganza conference in 2002 and many years subsequent. She’s always been a tour de force of queer fat femme love, community leadership and great performance. I’ve never seen a troupe, group or solo performance that she was in that was anything less than superb. We’ve become good friends over the last couple of years and when I got a call for performers for her new monthly show at Velvet* in Oakland, CA… well, it was hard to deny a $200 bargain fare from Philadelphia to Oakland for a subsidized vacation.
The show was TV Show Theme Songs. The Jeffersons theme, Charles in Charge, Six Feet Under, The Golden Girls, Facts of Life and a few others were highlighted. I co-femmeceed the show.
Kentucky Fried Woman married her two loves of Dallas and the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders in a burlesque extravaganza that included a kick line AND tassel twirling.
Thanks to my mom being in the audience, I have video! Here’s my number.
I did the True Blood theme song and married my two loves of morality vampires and Paula Deen.
I also have video of my FemmeCast promo from the show here, as well. What you should know is that right before this segment we had a commercial break (Penny Whistle & Lance Armstar did several commercials, this one was Mr. Clean featuring a dirty pig and a farmer with a knife).
The KFW show is thematic and every single first Friday of the month until the end of the year. I was totally sad to miss the Muppets Take Oakland theme show, but it’s the day before the Fat Girl Flea Market. I have to say a big thanks to KFW for having me at this show, though, because this trip to California was really restorative for me, both as a performer and a human being.
*The management of Velvet has been taken over by the inimitable Christine De La Rosa. It is truly becoming a community space under her leadership and you should consider going there for the free wifi and community space Monday-Wed, and on the weekends for their extremely hot patronage.
I loved Velvet so much that I went back on Sunday night to spend that historic End of the L Word Forever Thank God night with Zuleikha and Gina De Vries. I was overwhelmed by how packed it was and HOW HOT all of the queers were. I mean. Oakland, where were all these hotties when I was a baby gay and living in the Bay Area? I tried to take a clandestine photo of the audience (only half of which I could get from my angle) but mostly failed.
Oh my god, I was totally bouncing up and down in my Aeron chair clapping at the end of your piece! I’m such a dork.
And YOU are awesome. Yay for your Mom and her video camera and for fat girls in corsets eating cupcakes on stage.