Seattle Pridefest on Sunday, June 25th at Seattle Center promises to be a great show to enjoy the
heat from Aleksa Manila to Ms Pak Man and the always fabulous Mary Lambert.
Pridefest has always done well with out of town legends in years past from Jackie Beat to
Amanda Lepore and Lady Bunny. This year brings bon-a-fide legend, Joey Arias to the main stage.
My relationship with Arias goes back to 2010, when she was in town for the screening of 'Arias
with a Twist” at SLGFF. I was elated to chat with her about her return to Seattle.
MK Scott: Hey, Joey. Happy Pride!
Joey Arias: Thank you. Yes. Always having pride every single day of my life. And especially, here
we are in June, and the whole world recognizes like here we are all together as one.
MK: Well, I was excited to learn that you’re coming to Seattle again. It’s been a couple of
years since you’ve been to Seattle. So you’re going to come and celebrate Pride with us?
Joey: Yes, I’m so excited. Are you kidding? It’s going to be so wonderful to see all my friends.
Yeah, it’s going to be fantastic.
MK: What do you like most about Seattle?
Joey: I love the people. And I love their honesty. And they’re kind of like be free and celebrate
who they are every day. That’s what I think. It’s amazing, people are so open, and respectful,
and exciting, and actually loving.
MK: And what do you have planned for your Pride Fest performance?
Joey: Well, I’m kind of working on that right now, I’ll double check with the agent, and what
we’d do is a playback, or review new bands or whatever, but I plan to like do something fun, as
usual, and just big a big shout out to Seattle. And I’m glad I’m doing the hostess of gay pride in
Seattle. I can’t believe it. It’s such an honor!
MK: And how is your occasional contributor, Basil (Twist)?
Joey: Great. You know, he’s working all the time, he’s got some projects. He’s either going to
Paris, or back to San Francisco, or in the Midwest working on ballets and operas. He’s doing
The Chocolate Factory, which got, he got a Drama Desk award for his Oompa Loompas.
MK: Oh? He worked on that? That is fabulous!
Joey: Yes, it was amazing.
MK: And are you planning on working together again soon?
Joey: Oh, yeah. There’s something I’m working on, something by the Fall, I hope, at the Public
Theater. I don’t want to say too much about it, but there will be some dazzle and connection in
there. (Chuckle) I just can’t give it away right now because it’s pretty private.
MK: (Chuckle) Right. And how is your husband, Juana?
Joey: Well, he’s in Scotland working on his new film, and he’ll be there actually quite a while
because he’s meeting with film people and so and so, and casting. So he’s there now, so he’s
been pretty busy. And I don’t know what’s going go (on) now, because he’s going to be gone for
a while. So it’s kind of like – yeah – it’s kind of like we don’t know where it’s going to go now,
but, you know, let’s see what happens.
MK: Now, especially with Rupaul’s Drag Race, you know, there’s just like so many drag
shows.
Joey: Mm-hmm.
MK: I think just in the last month or so we’ve had like three or four, you know, during the
whole month, you know. And these are all Rupaul’s Drag Race shows going on tour and
whatever. Are there any of these new queens out there … Do you have any favorites?
Joey: There’s a new queen trying to get on the Rupaul show, and his name, her name is Aquaria.
And she’s young. She’s like 20 years old, I think, and she’s pretty fabulous. I really love her.
And, you know, and I was in Miami with Thorgy Thor and hanging out and talking about
Rupaul’s show, and some of the other queens that had done a Rupaul show. And it’s great
exposure. It makes it better, it makes it more commercial instead of like, the original version
was like more underground and more secretive, you know, like what are we going to get from
this? And now it’s, I think, well, I think it’s great the Rupaul’s Drag Race show has made it very
popular for the public. That’s the drag world.
And so even if these queens don’t do too much, or whatever, I think just being on TV some
people are like excited to be that television personality. You know? And maybe they don’t do
too much except for being on television. Or like somebody like Charles Busch, myself, or Lady
Bunny, Sherry Vine, Raven O Jackie Beat, it goes on and on. It’s a different presentation. Artists
that work their whole lives doing, making productions and shows and this and that, but unless
you’re on RuPaul’s Drag Race people don’t really know about these things. So it’s kind of like it
makes it a little bit harder, but the people who know who we are thrilled and excited, you know,
to have us. And I think we’re lucky enough that we kind of created this iconic image of
ourselves, and you know, we’re kind of above that, so you don’t really need that TV thing. It
would be great but, you know, thank god we’re all working. And having new ideas and new things, and promoting, you know, productions and shows, and giving the public what they really want and something really exciting. And when you meet these new queens they’re also very, you know, they’re like, I’m going to be a legend, I’m going to be a legend. You know?
MK: All right. And I got a serious question for you. For Pride season, under the current
administration …How should we cope?
Joey: Well, how do we cope? We cope with ourselves. We, it’s the same thing as like the
President pulling out of the Paris Agreement. Every state says we are staying in this, and we
don’t give a shit what the fuck Washington’s doing, because Washington now is like a joke, it’s
like a reality show. And the real people are, you know, bonding together, and I think the thing
like pride. It’s about us. It’s about what we’re doing. Now we’re celebrating it and promoting
it. But the President doesn’t want to give us a signal, you know, Pride month as Obama did and
other presidents. It’s sad to see this environment in Washington, D.C., which is, of course,
transformed now into this bizarre, I don’t even know what the word is, just King Trump, all
about Trump. And he’s afraid to like promote, you know, pride month. It’s crazy. It’s insane.
Because at this point it’s like I feel like why do you bother? You’re not going to last long
enough. So as soon as he’s gone the next president will be celebrating us as they did for 60
years. Does that make sense to you?
MK: Absolutely.
Joey: Yeah. So I don’t give a fuck what President Trump does, or if he acknowledges it, well,
then fuck off, see you later, alligator. That’s why no one is going to support you and no one
gives a shit about you. He’s a traitor, he’s a fool. You know, I met him years ago and he was just
a terrible man when I met him.
MK: I spoke to a friend of mine who met him and he basically said he’s a monster.
Joey: Yeah. Yeah. He is.
MK: The burning question. This past year we lost David Bowie, and you and Klaus
famously sang backup for him. What was that experience like?
Joey: Well, you know, growing up, you know, looking at David Bowie, it was like, oh, my god,
I want that. Everything I wanted to be, and everything that was burning inside of me, David was
doing it. And I was like, oh, I’m following him. Following him. And especially, you know,
living in New York there’d be David Bowie sightings. So Klaus and I would, you know, we’d
show up to different events at nightclubs where David liked to hang out. And it was one night at
the Mudd Club that we were there, it was late, it was rather late. And I think it was about 4 in the
morning and we’re getting ready to leave, and someone said I got to say goodnight to David.
And we’re like, David? The famous David Bowie? And they were like, oh, my god!
MK: Oh, my god.
Joey: And then we went up to him and he turned around, and he was like, oh, my god, Klaus, I
don’t believe it, I just got back from Berlin. And they exchanged numbers, and called, and we
met a couple of times. And they had different projects that they were going to work on. And this
wasn’t working out, or the direction, I think, where David wanted it to go. And so at one point
he asked Klaus, do you think Joey would like to join us doing Saturday Night Live? And, of
course, I was asked that question, I said; are you kidding? Of course! And so we met up, and we
spent a week together, and it was amazing. David was so charming, and like a little boy. I mean
we sat very close to each other. Our noses were almost touching each other. And we talked for
hours, hours, hours. And we played, we laughed, we listened to music. We talked about
everything under the sun. And it was amazing. David was just blown away. He was saying;
god, I wish I was doing shows with you. You know, more shows like this, because you guys are
amazing. Because we’re choreographing ourselves, and we’re doing our own thing, and he’s just
like, I’m doing the same thing, you guys are just like on top of it. And we had a ball. A ball. He
was so happy and thrilled. It was one of the highlights of his life. And yeah, it was great, it was
amazing. And we kept in touch over the years. And I think the last time I saw him was, oh,
maybe after Cirque du Soleil, we all went for dinner in Paris. And yeah, it was great. He was
like gagging, it’s like, oh, my god, look at you, Joey! I know! And then there was a six hour day
at Mugler Paris and some of the guests. And we were walking to the Shops with David and
Iman, holding each other, walking down the street, and people were walking by and looking at
us, like, huh? They couldn’t believe it. And we were skipping and laughing. It was great.
MK: Wow! Well, actually, it was so cool that they showed the rerun right after he died,
Saturday Night Live had shown the rerun of you, your performance, which was amazing,
because I had never seen the full performance, and it was just, now we knew exactly, oh, that
was wonderful, yeah, because it was.
Joey: And it’s timeless. You know, you look at it now and it’s like it’s still fresh.
MK: It’s iconic. Totally iconic.
Joey: And I remember telling David, I said; I don’t think we’re going to wear clothes that
people would identify with a certain era in time, but something that’s beyond. And he’s like; this
I like a lot. And then we got these Muglar dressses.
MK: Yes, those dresses were fabulous.
Joey: I mean the viewers really were shocked, but it really made a statement. And that’s why
David wore that Chinese Airline’s steward’s dress also. Just because he was so beyond and
fresh, and this is before drag was accepted and before, you know, aliens were, you know, spying
on earth, it was everything that David believed in, and everything that we believed in. It was
great. It was a great working process together.
MK Thank you so much for chatting with me. And we will definitely look forward to
seeing you next weekend.
Joey: I love Seattle. I love you and thank you.
MK: Thank you, appreciate it.
Hear more of this interview on MK's podcast; podomatic.com/podcasts/itsfab
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