Stage Whisper
Whisper in the Wings Episode 652
(upbeat music) - Welcome back in everyone to a fantastic new whisper in the Winxram stage whisper. We have such a great show in store for you today. We're so excited that this group is returning to New York but also returning on to our show and we are so excited to be welcoming back. The producer making this happen. Of course, I'm speaking about Dan Karkoska. We had such a great time speaking with him last year about this group and we are speaking, of course, about the Contents Nouveau and they're starring in Dirt, Sex and Passion. And it's happening two shows only Sunday, October 6th and 6 p.m. and 8.30 p.m. at Joe's Pub. Tickets and more information are available at publictheatre.org and I have to say tickets are available while they last. This is such a fantastic group, such a well-known group with a brilliant following and we can't wait to bring you more information about this new vehicle that they've got. So let's not waste any more time. Let's welcome in our guest Dan. So good to see you. - Hello. - Welcome back to Whisper in the Winxram stage. - Thank you, thank you, I'm so glad to be back. - I'm so happy you're here and you're bringing us once again the legendary Cockettes with the new Dirt, Sex, Passion. Can you start by telling us a little bit about not only the show, but the Cockettes themselves for anyone who doesn't know about them? - Well, yes. I mean, the Cockettes got their start in the late 60s. As a matter of fact, the Summer of Love, that's when they first, the original Cockettes, the OG, if you want to go with that. And they started on Christmas on me, I'm sorry, on New Year's Eve at the Palace Theatre in North Beach. It was a theater that showed kind of cult films and they had these midnight showings and they talked to owners Sebastian into letting them go on and do this high kick and this little light drag show thing at midnight to celebrate. And that was the beginning. It went well. And then they just started doing their own thing. They were led by this one individual named Hibiscus who was obsessed with 1930s, Busby Berkeley musicals and all that Hollywood glamour. And so the Cockettes would make their own kind of hybrid shows. I mean, you saw the same kind of thing in the 90s where people were doing Brady Bunch type, you know, spoofs or, you know, or Scooby-Doo gang or the Poseidon Adventure type stuff like that. Well, that's what they were doing, but they were doing with the 1930s movies, the Joan Crawford movies, all the movies they saw growing up as kids. And so they created these crazy homages with these wonderfully written songs. And then of course, basically they were a bunch of hippies doing lots of drugs, having lots of sex. They pretty much were doing gender bending before gender bending was even a concept. Glitterbeards came from the Cockettes. Before the Cockettes drag was female impersonation, it was looking like a lady. How close can you look? And the Cockettes just threw it on the blender and kind of created the concept of genderfuck. And so that's kind of where they came from. They had lots of shows. They, you know, of course, legendarily, a lot of celebrities started seeing them and they got popular. They, John Waters and Devine came over and we're in lots of the shows. And Mink stole lots of that crew from the East Coast came over to the West Coast to be with the hippies and just get into this happening, so to speak. And that lasted about three or four years near that end. They came to New York. Rex Reed saw them in San Francisco and raved about them to New York. All the holy pulley. Oh my gosh, you have to see the Cockettes there. The newest thing in theater. And basically what happened was the Cockettes showed up, the party really hard and flopped hard, the opening night really hard in front of like all these famous celebrities and, you know, people in the know of New York. And it was kind of like a giant resounding flop. I was told scrumbly, of course, the person who is in our show still still going at it after all these years, he said that basically, you know, they just showed up and party too hard, but they got their shit together. They finished their run. But yeah, it was a legendary flop of giant proportions, especially in the New York world. And so that was what we came back on. You know, of course, last year was we were gonna make up for that. And we did with a totally sold out show at Joe's Pub and people freaked out during the show. It was a pleasure to watch from the back. So, but you know, the Cockettes only lasted three or four years. Those kind of things usually do. And they all went and did their own things. Sylvester, who was a Cockette, went on to do disco and became like a legendary disco person, Queen. And then you had scrumbly who kept on doing different seats, was in a group called the gestures and this, that, and the other. And then around 2002, the documentary came out, which basically focused on the Cockettes and brought them back into the fray. And then Russell Blackwood with the thrill peddlers here in San Francisco met scrumbly and was a major fanboy and like totally fanboyed off on scrumbly. And that led to them resurrecting Pearl's of a Shanghai here in San Francisco. It was a giant, giant, giant hit here. And that just led to more revivals. And then gentrification led to them losing their space. And that led to me. And I was doing shows with this other person who was associated with that era, Bambi Lake. And then we just started combining the shows since there were thrill peddlers and Cockettes who needed to perform and needed to be on stage. And then that led to the 50th anniversary show. And then that led to where I am now. So that's kind of like a, in a nutshell, that's kind of like the Cockettes. - I love that. What a story about a fantastic group. Let's talk about this upcoming show, Dirt, Sex and Passion. - Dirt, Sex, Passion. - How many little bit about this? 'Cause you said it's a new vehicle for this group. So what can we expect? What's new about it? - Basically, what we did was we went through what we've been doing is we've been taking the music out of the old musicals. Some of them have not aged as well as others. And the thing is, within all those songs, there were like these amazing little nuggets we wanted to bring out. And so that's why we brought them to the, because in my opinion, a lot of the stories Scrumbly wrote, Irving Berlin could have written or other people of that era who were probably gay and kind of wrote coded. And Scrumbly and his associates, they were gay and they let it out. And the lyrics are much more overt. So anyway, we are bringing these shows back together and creating musical reviews. I think that was my point and I got lost on that. And so anyway, we had done several shows using a lot and we decided this time to kind of do a deep dive and go in and find some stuff that had not been done before. We kept a lot of our favorite songs and the ones that were coming like the super classics. We kept all of those. And then we just went through and did a deep dive and brought in a lot of different kinds of music. So people will see, if they've even seen several older shows, they'll see, again, they'll see some of the few songs they really want to see like crab on Uranus, which is like, we can't take that one out because everybody loves that one. And, but there'll be other ones that we brought on, including some of the performers' numbers. We added, we're bringing back, we're bringing two new performers in Erica Richardson and Carl Linkhart. Carl Linkhart was part of The Angels of Light, which was a spin-off of the cockettes from the early '70s. And Carl has been doing my shows for like 15, 16 years, drag shows, any kind of show. He's a prolific writer, artist, all this kind of stuff. And he brings the weird when he performs in a really brilliant way. And he has a song that we've added, which is based on his opera of suddenly last summer, which is a Tennessee Williams play that the movie version had Montgomery Cliff and Catherine Hepburn. Well, he does kind of Catherine Hepburn and does this kind of like jazz riff song. It's pretty amazing. So we just put together all this matte, one of our other performers is brought in one of their songs. And so we brought a lot of interesting new aspects to it. And I think people have really been responding well to it. We even have a medley where the cockettes take you around the world. So, you know, in so many, you know, in 69 ways, but it'll be fun, it'll be naughty. And yeah, it's just, you know, again, celebrating the songwriting skills that came out of this group of people that really only together, you know, three or four years, it just shows you how those things can happen sometimes. And so yeah, that's basically in that show how we are putting it together and what they can expect. I love that. See, this sounds like so much fun to me. So as you're getting ready, I mean, we are just under a month away from the show getting out here. What has it been like developing the piece and getting it up on its feet? Well, it's rehearsal, rehearsal, rehearsal, trim, trim, trim, try a few new things, scrumbly, scrumbly loves to add things. That's kind of one of his things. Well, we can add a little number here. We can add a little something here. And so, you know, at this point, we're at the point where like the pot is full, it's a full bubble. We're doing our rehearsals and just figuring out where we want to make little cuts here and there to create that perfect 75 minute, you know, dish that's going to like be savory and humorous, biting, naughty, everything we want to have in our little like soup of performance and talent going on. So yes, we're really at a good point right now. - That is wonderful. They hear that sounds like so much fun. - It is. - So with this iconic group, with this great new show you're putting together, is there a message or thought you're hoping that audiences take away from this? - Well, one of our major things, of course, is the basically the tenant of like free to be you and me, which was something I grew up on as a show, a show that I saw as a kid and was very reverberated with my generation big time, but that's something that goes beyond all. But it's acceptance of everybody, acceptance of every sexuality, actually every preference, you know, everybody, you know, we're all pink on the inside. So why not just accept us all and accept the giant, you know, cornucopia of differences that we all can share together. But and also really one of the things, you know, it's tough times these days. And of the people who are in our cast are involved with like, you know, political things and this, that and the other. And you know, we talk about it and it's like, well, why do we come and do this? Why do we come here and sing these silly songs about crabs on your anus and all these other kinds of things that we sing about everything? And it's because one of the best things you can do in the world and one of the best things you can do can solve a lot of problems is laughter and love. And if we can spread laughter and love and give everybody, you know, 90 minutes of just sitting back and having a good time, you know, that's almost like a therapy section in lots of ways. I feel like that. I mean, I go to a play or a musical or something like that. And it is kind of a therapy, a whiskey away. And so that's why that's, I know that several of the people, that's why they come. It's tough for them to like kind of like shake everything off the other day. But when they do, it means so much more to them and it means more to us and that's what we're out there presenting. - I love that. That is, that is a great sales pitch, if you will. You know, to get- - Thank you. - Because it sounds like so much fun. And that leads to my next question, which of course is you've got the two shows only on October six, six and eight, 30, 10. - Yes. - Who are you hoping have access to this show? - You know, we have been, you know, it's interesting having to promote across the country because you don't really know, you know, you're set up and everything. But as I've gone through, basically, I'm focusing on, well, of course, everybody. But I really want to focus on people who have people who are in the college world, who are younger, who are coming up. I found out last time when we were in New York, we had a large group of people that had come from the colleges and were really intrigued and excited about what the Cockettes' message was and what their history was. We had, after our screening, after our shows, and in New York last year, we had a screening of the 2020 show. We have a highlights about a 75 minute reel from that. And the original Cockettes movie Sebastian directed called Tricia's Wedding. We showed those and we were surprised we got there and that theater was packed with people and a lot of it was kids of, you know, the college age kids who were really excited about what we were doing. So I hope to attract them. Also, of course, our fellow underground people in New York because, I mean, you know, fellow undergrounders come and see what we're doing 'cause this is literally popping up, bubbling up, still bubbling up from the underground of San Francisco. And then, of course, theater lovers and musical lovers because, like I said, you know, these are songs that people who love musicals, who love standards, who go out to piano bars and hear these songs and everything. You know, you know, when you go to those piano bars, everybody sings like the regular songs and all of a sudden, somebody sings this really witty cold porter song or something, it's kind of like that. It's like these really funny, witty songs that, you know, so I think, you know, we just have a lot going on and it's really excited about where it's going. (upbeat music) - Well, for the second part of our interview, we love giving our listeners a chance to get to know our guests a little bit more, pick your brain if you will. And, of course, we've had the distinct honor of having you here before. So I want to change up that first question and ask. - No, oh my God. - Because you came into the performing arts. - I think about that a lot. It was my mother and my grandmother. I was taken to lots of movies and theater as a kid growing up. And then I think about, you know, I was always intrigued. For me, I keep thinking about this and it was like, I've kind of thought like, oh, certain people can go to Broadway, certain people can go to L.A., certain people can work on movies, certain people can work on movies, but that's not me. I'm just going to watch movies and enjoy them. And I didn't realize, no, it can be anybody. It can be you too. And so that slowly dawned on me, but I could always tell there was like that inner shoho just bubbling on the outside. Like in high school, I didn't join drama, but I knew the drama teacher and she would cast me into their plays and I would have a small roles and everything. I think she knew something. And then, of course, I was always obsessed with it. But, you know, coming to San Francisco was really a lot of it because I had all that percolating. I had everything to be a DJ, to be a party promoter, to be a producer and everything. It was all going in there. I've worked in the film industry. I'd write as a production coordinator. All these things I had done, but I really hadn't found my niche yet, right? Then I get to New York, I mean, not New York, but well, kind of San Francisco. Yeah, it comes to the big city where the art, that you get immersed in the arts and the art people and you start going where you're attracted. And the film industry, what it really wasn't happening in San Francisco. And I moved into a household drag queens. And so I was being used as a male prop. And I was like the zombie and I was the postal delivery guy or the Secret Service agent along in the drag show. And that just led my charm to the underground and the talent going on there. And then that led to me, what it create my own shows. And I did one dress and drag, that's not my bag. So I decided to be a DJ and get drag queens to host and I'd produce. And that led to this, that and the other. And I got involved with this group called Under the Golden Gate where we interviewed people for Under the Ground, like an entertainment tonight kind of thing. But for San Francisco, we did over a thousand videos in over five years. And you know, I've created game shows and talk shows and blah, blah, blah, blah. And then all of a sudden I got this opportunity to, you know, I was doing drag shows, hosting drag shows, everything. But there's an opportunity to produce shows for Bambi Lake who was a Chantuse punk rock performer poet. And she had had been followed on hard times and it was a comeback and that was a giant hit. And then that just all of a sudden brought me into the world of theater. And that just hit all the buttons and ever since then. I kind of learned in life, you kind of follow the hints or the clues life gives you, you know, the opportunities that gives you. If you take those, you follow through or they go. And that's where it's led. And I'm, you know, and it makes me so excited to even think that I'm now producing shows for the stage and the set and the other. Because again, as a little kid, I just thought I'd just keep watching them and enjoying them. But now that I'm actually part of them and be part of that world is super exciting. I love it. Still, I have a lot, you know, we have still lots planned ahead. So it's a super exciting trip to be on. I love that. That is an amazing journey into the performing art, into the theater, you know, this is fantastic. Yeah, you know, the first thing I ever going to see was pro Bailey and Hello Dolly when I was a kid. And I think that might have like clicked something I had because you keep like, oh, I want to do something like that. That looks interesting. I actually want to springboard off of that into my favorite question to ask guests, which is what is your favorite theater memory? Oh my gosh. I mean, there were so many great theater memories, you know, because like I said, well, Hello Dolly was definitely one of them. I remember like getting my church group to save money to go see the you'll Brenner and the king and I when it when it came through and everything. And I remember when they very first started doing, started doing those people were getting lying beforehand and get the $20 tickets. They pulled the lottery and I got to go see rent on the first row center stage and just that they're and cried the whole time. You know, it was just all there are so many of them. And you know, it can still go on just recently. I've been able to go see some some shows I've never seen on stage before and me and my my my my boyfriend went out to out towards Napaway and they had like a community theater there and we went and saw Torque song trilogy. It was the new version that they retooled called Torque song. But you know, number one, he had never seen anything like that. And I don't I don't see them. I hadn't seen the play before. And just to be sitting there in that little small theater with that stage so close up to you and you're sitting there and that whole ending comes up with the mom and the son or having this confrontation. You feel like you're actually eavesdropping on them. And it's so personal and it's so amazing. It just takes you away. And so recently that's the one that blew me away because it was a fantastic production of that show. And the the the the person that the performed Arnold was fantastic and the mother everybody. It was such a good show. But you know, it's interesting how you never know where it's going to be that's going to take you away. It could be a big Broadway show or it could be, you know, going to see a little thing out in Napa where the community theater, but again, the magic of theater. Amen to that. Amen. That is those are wonderful. Thank you so much for sharing those. Those are all my pleasure as we wrap things up. I would love to know, do you have any other productions or projects coming on the pipeline? We might be able to plug for you. You know, here in San Francisco, I'm doing lots of stuff in New York, not so much accepting, you know, going to be a lovely tourist, the time that I'm I'm not performing I'm not performing myself, but you know, we we as the cockettes new vote. I believe a lot, at least for me, especially. It's about getting the word out. And so we're looking at at yonder goals and and fields. And right now we're talking with people in London. And I've tried. I'm still trying to get the people's attention at Sydney Pride, but they keep on partying too hard. So it's hard to get their attention. But you know, we're just thinking about different pride events and different areas of the world that we want to take it. I have connections in Texas, Austin, maybe South by Southwest and this that and the other. And of course, we'd love to come back to New York and make it a regular thing. But it's it's about it's about getting the word out there. You know, I always have this and I'm starting to play in my head. This idea about doing a Broadway show about the beginning of the cockette and having it being the very first night and having it all being kind of like the Muppet show, where it's on the stage and backstage at the same time. But you know, that's all in my head too. So, you know, we're just having we're just making plans and really just excited about learning New York. And that's kind of where we're putting them on a lot of our energy. But yes, there's lots of plotting and planning going on. I love the I can't wait to see where the cockettes go next going global. This is amazing. A great reason for our final question, which, of course, is if our listeners like more information about the cockettes Nouveau in dirt, sex, passion, or about you, maybe they'd like to reach out to you. How can they do so? Well, the best way to follow the cockettes Nouveau is on Instagram at cockettes Nouveau, one word. If they want to follow my exploits and everything that I'm doing, because I also do stuff at the cannabis industry here in San Francisco. I produce and create and run this bongo bingo, drag cannabis bingo. I'm always coming up with new kind of shows to do. You mix the drag and the bingo and the shows. It's in the weed. But you can follow me at DJ Dank SF, because that's my moniker. My moniker here in San Francisco is DJ Dank. You can follow me at Dan Carcosca, K-A-R, K-O-S, K-A on Facebook. And yeah, that's the best way to follow us. Wonderful. Well, Dan, it is always so wonderful to get to speak with you, especially when we get to talk about the cockettes. So this has been so wonderful. I am so excited about this. You better believe that I will be there with Bell's ringing. I'm so excited to be mine. So thank you so much for taking the time to speak with me today. Well, thank you for giving me a call and let me chat. It's been really fun. It's gone so quickly. My guest today has been an incredible artist. The producer, Dan Carcosca, who joined us to talk about the cockettes and the cockettes nouveau in their upcoming show, Durk Sex Passion. Two shows only, this is happening Sunday, October 6 at 6 p.m. and 8.30 p.m. at Joe's Pub. And you can get your tickets and more information by visiting publictheatre.org. We also have some contact information for our guests, which we'll be posting in our episode description, as well as on our social media posts. But you better head over to publictheatre.org now. Get your tickets. They're going to go. They're going fast. And you do not want to miss this. I know I'm going to be there. So let's make it a stage whisper net out of the theatre. Again, the show is the cockettes nouveau in Durk Sex Passion, happening Sunday, October 6 at 6 p.m. and 8.30 p.m. And we want to add for our American listeners that election day is November 5. Make sure you are registered to vote. Have a plan to cast your ballot and do your democratic duty. You can find out how and where you can register and vote by visiting vote.gov. The future demands that we fight for it now. So until next time, I'm Andrew Cortez, reminding you to turn off your cell phones, unwrap your candies, and keep talking about the theatre. In a stage whisper. Thank you. [MUSIC PLAYING] If you like what you hear, please leave a five-star review, like and subscribe. You can also find us on Facebook and Instagram @stagewhisperpod. And feel free to reach out to us with your comments and personal stories at stagewhisperpod@gmail.com. And be sure to check out our website for all things stage whisper and theatre. You'll be able to find merchandise, tours, tickets, and more. Simply visit stagewhisperpod.com. Our theme song is "Maniac" by Jazzar. Other music on this episode provided by Jazzar and Billy Murray. You can also become a patron of our show by logging on to patreon.com/stagewhisperpod. There you will find all the information about our backstage pass as well as our tip jar. Thank you so much for your generosity. We could not do this show without you. [MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING] ♫ Don't make me down