Full Circle with Justin Vivian Bond

During the week, I went to go see cabaret singer (and soon-to-be legend) Mx. Justin Vivian Bond at the Redcat theatre in Los Angeles. When I lived in New York I used to go see a wicked cabaret act called Kiki and Herb. It was a rage-filled affair. But amazing in its anger. Justin played Kiki, an 80 year old washed up cabaret singer. V has since mellowed (V instead of any gender identifying pronoun)and turned into an amazing cabaret singer, called the best of a generation by The New Yorker.

Well, I wish I could have said I knew V was coming to town. But I didn't. And apparently, it was a last minute sort of booking. But I went because my best friend Alanna's mother, Sid, suggested it. She had read about V in the LA Times, suggested to Alanna that they go and then suggested that I come with. When Alanna called me and asked me if I wanted to go see Justin Bond, I screamed on the phone and said yes immediately.

It was the best $27 dollars I had spent in a while. If you want to read reviews of the show, go online. I just want to talk about the crowd for a second.

I said to Alanna that these are the artsy, cultured, moneyed gays that I want to know. These are not the gays that you see at the Abbey on a Sunday afternoon. These are the folks to go to LACMA on the weekends. These are the folks who go to the bowl to see Pink Martini and the Greek to see Rufus Wainwright or Adele. These are the descendants of the individuals who built our culture on the coattails of Oscar Wilde and Noel Coward and Tennessee Williams. These are the brilliant self-creations.

The show was amazing. Full of wit and cutting commentary. Full of the celebrity sightings that Alanna and I appreciate: Tegan from Tegan and Sara and Sandra Bernhard. This is the theatre I like to see. And as I said to Alanna afterwards, this is the experience I was cultivated to appreciate because of what her family exposed me to as a child. So to see this show with Sid was really a full circle experience. My taste and appreciation for art was shaped by hanging out in Alanna's house as a kid. It was okay to be a 16 year old who went to a screening of a film based on Sandra Bernhard's one woman show WITHOUT YOU I'M NOTHING. It was okay to embrace the fact that I was an artist.

And V's show reminded me so much of my time in New York. And that it shouldn't just be a nostalgic thing: when I was a young 20 something in New York and cool. But it should be a reminder to embrace myself and my voice, the individual I came into the world as. And that anyone who thinks that's strange in a judgmental way isn't someone I need to spend much time with. Sounds like an affirmation I would make as a teenager. But sometimes, even us older gals need to be reminded of that. Thanks, V.