I don't like the term drag queen because
when I was coming of age drag queen was
a disparaging remark now the term drag
queen has taken on a different kind of
meaning it's not as disparaging I guess
you tell me
my name is John Emerson also known as
lip-sync and I am 64 years old I was
born in 1955 on April 24th to say
birthday is Barbra Streisand well I am
Bobby Hondo and I am 25 years old
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I can't go on with the scene I'm too
happy so the middle you mind if I say a
few words thank you
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I'm super honored and happy to be with
you today you know I've been such an
admirer of yours for so long and I've
gotten to get to see a couple of your
works and so it's really a pleasure to
be with you today I came to New York in
2011 it was about 16 years old and I was
just a student and actually to me to be
honest
drag was like something I shied away
from I remember having a friend saying
please please come and do drag with me
down and at a bar and I had side that be
the lowest me no that would be the
lowest moment in my career I ever did
drag because my god-given talent is
dance movement is really where my strong
suit is the one act that I'm known for
right now is I do he's I walk on these
oversized champagne bottles on pointe
shoes and platforms and like pumps so
that's one thing
yeah on you know like what tiptoeing
across them well I had a similar
experience similar but very different
I saw drag shows in Jackson Mississippi
at the local gay bar
and I enjoyed it but I thought oh no
that's not for me I would be a low point
like you said and the first time I saw a
drag show it at the gay bar in
Mississippi it really scared me and I
didn't go back for over a year and I
know that I was seeing my own future and
it frightened me and then I saw it was
either in Time magazine or Newsweek this
would have been in the 70s when people
still read magazines there was an
article about Charles Ludlum and the
ridiculous theatrical company and they
were doing Camille and he was playing
Camille and his chest hair was showing
on the top of his dress and that was a
big deal and I thought when I wait a
second
you can get in Time magazine oh but
you've got to get to New York to do that
it's not gonna happen in Mississippi and
Mississippi drag was stigmatized but in
New York that was considered theater was
considered art
I wanted to be slick I wanted to be very
professional however my first ever
public lip synching probably was pretty
messy it was at a place called Club 57
which was the precursor to the pyramid
Club it was in a basement of a Polish
Church and if you were a member you got
a newsletter each month telling you what
was going on and in the newsletter one
month that said if you want to be in
John sex's show acts a live art vol 4
let him know and call this phone number
and that number was his home number I
call the number and I said I want to be
in the show left a message for him and
weeks went by I didn't hear from him and
then he called me the day before the
show and he said I want you to be in the
show you're gonna be in the show right
and I said but you didn't get back to me
and he said oh but I need you well I
hadn't planned anything so I had to
throw it together
throw together a couple of looks learned
a couple of numbers that I was kind of
familiar with already and I did it well
that was the summer of 1980
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and I went to Paris and I went to a club
that's still there and the piggle
district it's called me Shu mich oh you
and at me Shu that waiter comes he takes
your order and boat arrives and 30
minutes later the waiter is on stage and
drag as Liza Minnelli or Edith Piaf
Josephine Baker z0 Mayer lip-syncing and
I thought okay well now you know
Charles Ludlum and Plus this you know
that could lead to something so that's
when I really started seriously think
about lip-syncing getting to see people
like you I mean you brought drag to so
many interesting places like I think the
first time I ever saw you do that runway
show I thought wait please drop drag can
you be like that you can do that you
know the way that I had seen it growing
up
was being like in my small local town
car it was like really boring kind of
stuff you know then I heard like a drag
queen do pair of catwalk shows like wait
Wow what do you mean and that you know
help me shape my creativity and where I
could possibly take it
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he was so like astute to a situation
like this and he kind of told me you
know you need to go to New York you need
to go to New York and you need to go to
Greenwich Village because I'm guaranteed
we'll find yourself there and you will
blossom from this and don't worry about
it
but keep going I went back Texas
finished school and it was hard I mean
having to deal with AIDS I'm going to
high school I became oh my gosh it was
abusing substances like left and right
if my family didn't understand me no
friends could understand me I didn't
understand that I would become like this
crazy nut so I needed to come to New
York to you know to save myself to be
standing here with you today and so when
I got to New York
I got the proper care I was able to meet
like-minded people I had to go find out
find and seek people
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who could give me the knowledge to help
me understand my life where I came from
where I could go and all that kind of
stuff and so that's why I was really
fortunate and lucky that all the queens
in town young old all came together and
have helped rehabilitate you know one of
their own and and I hope just as much I
mean oh I'm so lucky for for it I feel
like this is like super blessed so in a
way that guy in Seattle the director of
the valley saved her life
yes I know yeah and I never I never
understood what he meant by it until
like almost a decade later
you know like of him being like you
gotta go to Greenwich Village you've
gotta go to New York and that was hard
as hard it was a hard journey to get to
New York and and what not 16 but I
figured hey I mean I heard he got I've
already got the worst of the worst might
as well could only be up from here and I
had really also great parents you know
who are super supportive as much as they
could be where do they live
back in Texas Exes yeah we're in Texas
El Paso
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I was crazy obsessed with the history of
it and I learned so much from drug I
don't know why I guess just because they
were outwardly feminine people so that's
what that's just I needed that kind of
knowledge
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I don't know my kind of timeline on what
I understand the drag history to be is
that you know before we Brewster you
couldn't even dress up as a girl who
couldn't dress up as a boy you couldn't
be anyone else cuz he was a part of that
after Stonewall like that post done
luckily who was changing all the city
ordinances cuz it was a time to be
illegal it was it was there was a time
when when it was illegal to be in drag
or to be gay in public and then then you
came along and then switched the whole
game up with a whole bunch of other
people by that creating like these crazy
characters and having these super
developed acts I mean I quote the thing
that you do for dial M for model or you
know taboos like psycho three like I
think like gee you guys worked it out
back then I mean it was like nothing
ever before and it would usher in kind
of what we know drag now and that's why
I've been able to progress in my career
because I've had people like you to look
up to and to take it somewhere different
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in the early 80s I decided that I was
marching the gay pride parade and I
don't know what it's like now at the end
of the parade but back then if you
wanted to March you know just to get at
the end of the parade and it was a large
group of people and just people that
wanted to be in it and I got a lump in
my throat I remember doing that and then
in 1989 I was asked to be a judge from
the parade so I said on a stand in front
of the the big library on Fifth Avenue
at 42nd Street and did my job as a judge
and then in 92 I was asked to be in the
parade and that was a lot of fun to be
in a convertible going down Fifth Avenue
and like yes like that well this year I
was a spectator
I went to watch some about half the
first half-hour of the big parade and I
got that lump in my throat again as I
got being at the end of the parade and
the early eighties but there was a
euphoria around the whole event I
thought and I did it go to the other
parade which they call it they're
calling it a queer liberation march and
that started at 9:30 in the morning in
front of his don't wall Inn and I walked
from there all the way to 28th Street
with the group and that was wonderful
too because it felt not so much like a
parade and felt more like a political
protest and with the current
administration that we have which seemed
so contradictory you know the president
will tweet that he's Pro gay in
acknowledged gays and yet he's making
policies that seem to be
anti-transgender an anti gay so what is
he thinking who knows and because we
don't know what he's thinking and it
youth there are moments when you think
other things are going to be better but
then you think other things are not
going to be better
I agree though I feel like this is the
perfect time for us to mobilize and to
unite and to get these things passed to
protect our rights we know it can be
done because Brewster did and he kind of
gave us the right to do for future
generations to just roam free and drag
and that was a big victory for us and I
urge people to go out there and take
right for yourself and for others
because it is a time when you have the
world listening to us and willing to
make change
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