The Belle of the ‘ball: - Red, Hot and Ru
by COLIN MURPHY -- Senior Staff Writer
04-21-2005

Hairball 9 will be held at The Pageant, 6161 Delmar in University City. Doors open at 7 p.m. with the show kicking off at 8 p.m. Tickets are $25. For more information check out www.stlhairball.org

Much like the iconic Norma Desmond in Sunset Boulevard, RuPaul considers his reemergence to the spotlight after a five year hiatus more of a return and not a comeback. The self described "Queen of All Media," who released his fourth album "RuPaul-Red Hot" last year, will strut into St. Louis as the belle of Hairball 9 at the Pageant on Delmar, May 1.

Hairball, the brainchild of Bouffant Daddy salon owner Jeff Noble, benefits Saint Martha’s Hall, an emergency center for battered women and their children. Noble is better known as Mona Desmond, the glamstastic former Miss Gay Missouri with the punk rock edge who plays ringmaster to the elaborate variety show staged by local stylists and fashion designers that has quickly become a destination event here in the Lou.

At seven feet tall in heels, RuPaul skyrocketed to international fame with the release of the CD "Supermodel of the World," which was followed by roles in several movies, "The RuPaul Show" on VH1, many high profile endorsement deals (including a beauty contract with M.A.C Cosmetics), a best-selling autobiography and fund raising worldwide for people living with HIV/AIDS.

The Vital VOICE recently chatted it up with the hardest working drag queen in show business in a recent telephone interview that found the 44-year-old gay icon ready to take the world by storm.

CM: You took five years off to reconnect with both yourself and family. A lot of celebrities would be afraid to do that because fame can be fickle. How was that experience?

R: Some people would be afraid to take that time off. I’d be afraid to not take that time off. I had to just for myself. I know what’s important. I know what’s important in here and what’s important is that I am happy and that I’m healthy and that I feel good about myself and my work and if it means taking time away from show business to do that then that’s what I must do. And you know I’ve been at this for several hundred years so I know better. I know that you have to go inside and then reemerge. Bears do it.

CM: You’re new CD "Red Hot" is great. Is it harder to market to the masses through your own label?

R: You know my goal with this album wasn’t to promote to the masses. My goal was to promote to the people who were interested in me. And in terms of energy I didn’t want to sort of cast a wide net in hopes of capturing the interest of the whole world. My hope was to get it to people who wanted it, get it to people who are interested in it. So trying to sort of recruit new fans or listeners and all that stuff, I didn’t want to fool with any of that. My goal was to make a fantastic record that I was really proud of and that I love and then get it to the people who want to hear it from me — want to hear my music. And I think we did a good job with that. I think with the Internet and with my own Web site and through the avenues that are available to me today, I think we did well with that.

CM: You also have three dolls coming out this summer that sound like great fun. They’re called the "first ever tranny fashion dolls." Could you talk about that project?

R: Integrity Toys approached me about the doll about six or seven months ago and it actually took me about a month to get back to them because I was on the road. I’d been approached to do dolls for many years, as far back as 10 years ago and I was never impressed with the companies who approached me so it never happened. And when I got the offer from Integrity it took me a while to actually go in and look at what it is they do and when I finally did, after a month of the offer being on the table, I was very impressed with the quality of their work and the attention to detail and the packaging. I thought, "Wow, this is really special and really unique." So I jumped on it and thought this is exactly where I want to be.

CM: I have to ask: Who do you see the RuPaul doll hooking up with, G.I. Joe or Malibu Ken?

R: Well I think probably G.I Joe only because G.I. Joe is more devoted to his own ideals even though G.I. Joe is probably Republican which wouldn’t gel well with me. I think that Malibu Ken is probably too frivolous and too self-centered.

CM: What was more difficult, being accepted as a gay man or being accepted as a female impersonator?

R: I think being accepted as a gay man, which is still a challenge for me. I was just thinking about this this morning during an interview. A lot of the famous people that I’ve met, they’re cordial and nice, but there’s also an underlying theme in their behavior around me that makes me feel like I’ve done something to them or that — they’re very cautious with me. And inevitably I have to have this talk with myself where I say, "Ru, this has nothing to do with you." It has to do with the way people grow up and the way people are taught from very early on in their life that boys who play with girls’ things are not to be trusted, are pagan, satanic and evil. And basically that’s what we’re taught from childhood.

I mean even if you look at all the Disney cartoons, the male villains are sort of effeminate, affected men. And even the female villains are effeminate, affected men. So we grow up with this distrust of male, feminine energy and that’s where I’m getting that from. But it’s kind of f***ed up though because I have to process all this negative energy coming my way. It’s very easy for people to accept me in drag because then I present myself in this non-threatening, almost caricature, cartoonish way. But as soon as I’m just me as a man people are afraid.

CM: Switching gears, the conservative political climate is pervasive right now. Were you active in last year’s election?

R: Absolutely, absolutely. In fact that was one of the catalysts to get me back into the public eye so to speak. I figured my hibernation and my time of just having barbecues and being a good uncle and taking it easy had to come to an end because it was time for me to get back out there and to be a presence in the world for young people and for myself because I was sorely missed. And quite frankly, no one else is doing what I do, no one was representing, no one was speaking for the people who dance to the beat of a different drum.

CM: Do you sense the gay community is becoming more united with all that’s going on?

R: I don’t. I don’t. You know we talked about effeminate men earlier — a lot of the discrimination I’ve experienced from being a feminine man has come from the gay community. And the same used to be true in the black community where if you seemed to be very ghetto; sort of upwardly mobile black people would shun you, because you represented everything that they’re trying to get away from. Well, that turned around in the black community. Now if you can be as ghetto as you want to be then you earn the respect of the black community. I suspect that at one point that will happen in the gay community where you can be as "nelly" as you can imagine and that’s how you would gain the respect of the gay community. That would be quite something.

CM: Harvey Fierstein said something very similar that most of the discrimination he’s faced was from the gay community. Do you think that comes from a place of some form of self hatred?

R: Absolutely, absolutely. You know, it’s something to do with our nature as humans on this planet. In the book "Animal Farm" George Orwell talks about it. When you’ve been oppressed and rise up somewhat, it’s very hard to not behave in the way you’ve been taught by your oppressor.

You can e-mail Colin Murphy at colin_murphy@sbcglobal.net

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