I always love it when famous people come out of the nerd closet. Considering how proudly eccentric RuPaul is, I guess I shouldnât have been surprised to hear that the legendary drag queen finds inspiration from any number of myriad quirky sources. But I found his recent interview with Marc Maron eye-opening all the same.
Speaking in the latest episode of the comedian and expert conversationalistâs WTF podcast, RuPaul (full name: RuPaul Andre Charles) opened up about many of the artists and teachers that have informed his lengthy career atop the drag queen circuit. He learned a lot from divas, David Bowie, explicitly queer artists, and punk musicians, of course.
But thatâs to be expected from someone who started his career doing genderfuck performances in the Georgia club scene in the late eighties and early nineties. The two things RuPaul highlighted I found most surprising were the British comedy troupe Monty Python and the 1999 sci-fi classic The Matrix.
Watching reruns of Monty Pythonâs Flying Circus on TV as a kid, RuPaul explained to Maron, was one of the first experiences that showed him how male artists could produce excellent and thoroughly entertaining work by bucking any number of gender expectations given how often John Cleese and company dressed up as old British ladies for their act. Well, that and just being amazing comedians obviously.
RuPaul isnât just a fan of the The Matrix, however. At this point in his life, it sounds like the movie has come to inform his entire world view. Take this particularly poignant moment mid-way through the interview when Maron asks him about some of his musical inspirations, emphasis mine:
Rupaul: âŚWhen I was about 13, 14â13, I would carry a magic marker with me everywhere I went so I could write the word âBowieâ on everything that wasnât mine. (Laughs). Obsessed!
Marc Maron: He was it, right?
RuPaul: Obsessed. Obsessed!
Maron: Monty Python and Bowie. Wouldnât have ever assumed.
RuPaul: It wasnât a stretch at all. SoâŚbut, itâs funny. Once I did get into dragâŚand there were different levels. I started with gender f-wordâI wonât say the other word, but it was gender f-word, which is a genre of drag.
Maron: Genderfuck?
RuPaul: Uh-huh. Itâs like what Monty Python did, but this was with more of a punk, social, you knowâŚsmeared lipstick and combat boots and ripped up clothes. Like: yeah, give âem the finger.
Maron: who were the big definers of that?
RuPaul: Well The Coquettes from San FranciscoâŚand, uhâŚand actually the whole punk movement was like: well, how far can we go with screwing up the Matrix and what weâre supposed to do.
Maron: Well it seems to me that, in a lot of drag, comedy is essential. That thereâs a comedy to it, that thereâs a comedy to the attitude, to the performance. That self-referential, what you were talking about before: that you can present yourself in a certain way and then mock it from within is a comedic disposition.
RuPaul: Exactly. Once you take that journey and say, âOk, Iâm gonna take the red pill,â then youâre on your way to understanding, really understanding what it is weâre doing here. And what it is weâre doing here is not taking yourself too seriously.
In fact, at the Northside School for Performing Arts, my teacherâacting teacher thereâhe told me the best advice Iâd ever gotten from anybody ever and since. He said: âRu, donât take life too f-ing seriously.â That is the key to navigating this lifeâdonât take it too seriously. Thatâs when the party begins.
So if you take that red pill and you start your journey, youâre going to discover, like Dorothyââall roads lead to Oz!ââthat you get up close, you look behind the curtain, and you go: youâre the wizard?
Maron: (Chuckles) The little guy?
RuPaul: Yeah! And then you get to know the wizard and you go: âOk, so everything was all in my head. I imagined this whole thing?â Yes. And thatâs wherein lies the party. Thatâs where you can really have some fun. The only thing you have to watch out for is other people who feel threatened by your party.
What would Ru do? Take the red pill, it sounds like.
I donât know about you, but that certainly helps me understand how the guy became the supermodel of the world
To contact the author of this post, write to [email protected] or find him on Twitter at @YannickLeJacq
