BOY IN A DRESS

[CULTURE] Do not miss your chance to see Out There's La JohnJoseph's return to the London stage 

Photograph by: Martin Perry

We are very proud to announce that our multi-talented Berlin based culture correspondent, the inimitable LA JohnJoseph will be laying soul bear once again on the London stage once again bringing together all three of his solo memoir shows I Happen To Like New York, Underclass Hero and Notorious Beauty in what promises to be a must-see series of illuminating, entertaining and moving performances. 

Autobiographical, political, raucous and accidentally profound, Boy in a Dress (link to Oval House website) details the life thus far, of one third-gendered, fallen Catholic, ex-fashion model from the wrong side of the tracks as she moves from the council estates of Bootle to the strip clubs of San Francisco, via Penny Arcade’s living room. 

Embracing themes as apparently diverse as Catholicism and drag, public sexuality and body dysmorphia, La JohnJoseph brings together an outrageous but heartfelt slew of true-life tales presented as monologues, and studded with reworkings of iconic songs from wide ranging artists such as Leonard Cohen, Justin Vivian Bond and Cole Porter. 

His three week ‘retrospectacle’ starts on Tuesday 14th February until Saturday 3rd March at Ovalhouse Theatre, Kennington Oval, London SE11 5SW.

Evening programme: I Happen To Like New York and Underclass Hero 

Saturday Matinees: Notorious Beauty 

Boy in a Dress is presented as a part of Ovalhouse's If only... season. This is the second season of diverse and thought provoking work programmed by Ovalhouse’s new Directors of Theatre; Rachel Briscoe and Rebecca Atkinson-Lord. If only... is performance driven by an ambition for complexity; a search for something to believe in; a desire for someone somewhere to do something surprising.  

Written and performed by La JohnJoseph with Anna Lewenhaupt
Ovalhouse Downstairs: Tuesday 14 February – Saturday 3 March 
Dates and Times: Tuesday-Saturdays 8:00 pm, Saturday Matinees 2:30pm
Ticket Prices: Adult: £14, Equity, BECTU, Under 26: £10, Concessions: £7

SPOTLIGHT: CLIFTON

[CULTURE] Paul Alexander from The Ones tell us why Clifton is a performer that once seen, will never be forgotten.

And It Begins. What I would like to think of as a new sound, a new path in music, and a new way to mix all the familiar elements we have all heard endlessly. All the same elements that keep getting recycled from song to song and artist to artist because, let’s face it, there is nothing new under the sun. And so it begins: a fresh interpretation on the idea of what all those elements, and what music, can sound like.

Clifton: And It Begins.
Take a distant choir of male voices singing over a marching band. The familiar sound of a Carnival Big Top combined with the oddly urban placement of a rap artist you might encounter while roller-skating on Venice Beach. The tinker tonk sounds of a wind up Nickelodeon; the chants of a Pagan ceremony. Add in the comfortable essence of Simon and Garfunkle with the powerful voice of Big Brother. Lay it on a Timbalandstyle crazy beat or some New Romantic sincerity or even a Motown-interpreted groove. Imagine, if you will, the sounds you might hear if your dreams were singing. A feeling that gets you not in the front of the head, but somewhere deeper inside it. That gets you in the place where the spirit rests.

Clifton’s music does this. It seems to be innate to who he is. A natural-born artist
who observes the world he is in and then can blend all the bits into one strong
musical debut. A trip on mescaline you wish you had taken back in 1980. The music on the starship to Mars all rolled into one fantastic 11-song experience.

Clifton is a Maryland native who now lives in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn, New York. There he lives the life of a struggling artist. Working when he can to pay to make the art that is his passion.

And It Begins stands to lead us in a new direction from what is normally expected to come from a young Black American artist. Seeing him live, each song became
performance pieces with the aid of visual images including film, extreme costumes,
and dancers both dancing and just dramatically moving slowly. All the elements seeming to perfectly punctuate the complexity of the music, creating an experience unlike most might have had previously and dare I say I have had ever.

As well as being a solo artist, he is also a third of the most original performance trio to come along in years, enSubtitles. It all starts making sense. When it finally seems new, it will be Clifton.

‘And It Begins’ by Clifton is available to purchase on iTunes

You can read about Clifton (and some fabulous portraits of him by photographer Nathan Lee Bush and more talented queer artists from across the globe in Issue 3: The Art Issue. Click here to buy a copy today.

SKINNYFAT DVD RELEASE

Following its highly-buzzed premiere at Frameline 2010 and festival screenings in Austin, Seattle, Norway, Rio, Jakarta and beyond, the comic short Skinnyfat returns to San Francisco for a special screening and DVD release. To mark the occasion we asked the film’s Director/Writer Andy Bydalek to tell us more about the film and his experience of bringing it to the screen. 
 
"Skinnyfat is a short comedy about two skinny gay guys who think they’re overweight and go on an increasingly insane quest to trim down. At first glance, it can be seen as a silly satire about efforts to reclaim the six pack abs of youth. But there’s a lot going on underneath the surface: internalized judgments, friendship dynamics, aging, the complexities of dating, the connection between women's and men's body issues, the gulf between gay social groups, etc.

I wrote Skinnyfat following a series of jokes I had made with Jayson Jaynes about our own concerns with our midsections. Body image is such a huge issue for many gays, and I thought it would be great to put a comedic spin on it. Plus, I knew someone had to capture Jayson's amazing presence on film!  

The original intent was a very low-fi, 10-12 minute short that would be shot over a couple of weekends using my old video camera. Jayson would play Chaz, and I would play Davy.  But soon the script and the production grew into something much larger, and the next thing we knew we were working with an HD crew and a full cast. And thank god... no one could have played these characters better than the folks we found.  Evan Johnson, who plays Davy, was a particularly great find.

Skinnyfat's reputation grew faster than a hipster's beer gut, and the film went on to become one of the most buzzed-about films at San Francisco's venerable Frameline Festival in 2010. Online tickets sold out in less than four days, making it the second fastest selling program in the entire festival.  It has since screened across the US and as far as Rio, Oslo and Jakarta; and it continues its run with the DVD launch party in SF and a spotlight screening at this year's Stanford University LGBTQ Short Film Festival.

I am very proud of the unexpected success and social impact Skinnyfat has had. At every screening I’ve attended, audience members – usually heavier-set men – have thanked me. It’s been very touching. In talking with these folks, I realized the power of making a film about body and relationship issues: it isn’t just about my voice or my assessment of the situation, it’s about starting a conversation... giving people a chance to laugh at something that may have pained them, and showing audiences they are not alone in their insecurities and fear of rejection."  

– Andy Bydalek, Writer-Director of Skinnyfat
 

The Official Skinnyfat DVD release party ‘Lookout, Your Starr is Skinnyfat!’ will take place on Tuesday, Sep 20, 2011, from 8pm at the Lookout bar, 3600 16th St. San Francisco CA 94114. Entry is FREE

The event will include a screening of the brand new Purge Version of Skinnyfat, T-shirt and DVD giveaways, entertainment from drag sensation Hysterica, and a rare big-screen presentation of the feature film The Rise and Fall of Jeremy Starr (with Jarrad Webster, aka Suppositori Spelling). Limited Edition Signed DVDs will be available for $15.
skinnyfatmovie.com

QUEER ART IN THE BIG SMOKE

BY MARTIN PERRY

It's a good time for queer art in London, with two very different shows for you aficionados out there: HUNG, an exhibition of edgy erotic photography, drawings and video put together by the talented, young queer artist/curator Stuart Sandford at the Horse Hospital, and TRADEMARK/SCENE: A-Listers, Heros and Heroines at La Galleriea - a collection of new paintings by artist Mark Wardel, featuring portraits of gay icons including Grace Jones, Boy George and Out There's very own Paul Burston.

HUNG is a fascinating look into Stuart's up-front obsession with all things homoerotic, bringing together work by queer art stalwarts like as Bruce La Bruce with a crop of new international talent and raft of artists in between. All of whom deal with issues surrounding sex and men in their own way.

Notable examples include a series of small photographs by Jesse Finley Reed of young men whose bare flesh have been painted to resemble ripped, muscular torsos; that have the confusing effect of making the photographs themselves seem like paintings, plus a wonderful series of prints of naked boys in various states on undress printed onto newspaper by New York based Russian artist Slava Mogutin. And not to mention a couple of mixed media, poster sized pieces by Brian Kenny on vintage American shooting-target paper. But the highlight for me was the striking black and white 'Pin-up' by one of my all-time favourite artists, Paul Mpagi Sepuya. (Look out for our exclusive interview with Paul in Issue 2, out in just a few weeks).

The dungeonesque Horse Hospital seems a fitting venue for such an orgiastic collection. If you like your art gritty and queer and you're in need of an artistic or erotic pick-me-up during these damp cold dark days, then this exhibition is definitely worth a detour to Russell Square. Although it includes some 30 odd individual pieces by 11 artists, it's small enough to whizz around in your lunch hour or on your way home from work.

HUNG runs until 30th October at The Horse Hospital Colonnade, Bloomsbury, London WC1N 1JD.

At the other end of the spectrum, and decidedly more glam Trademark/Scene is the latest collection of paintings by the established Liverpudlian artist Mark Wardel, famed for his work for the original legendary Trade flyers and QX covers. Mark's sharp graphical style is instantly recognisable to any of us old enough to remember clubbing in London in the 90s. The show runs from the 1st to the 7th November at La Galleria, 30 Opera Arcade, Pall Mall, London, SW1Y 4UY trademarkart.com