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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (Aug. 21, 2009)
W W W JU STO U T C O M AUGUST 21 2009 PERFORM ANCE S is s /b o f SUBMITTED J « 1 2 8 comes bock -with style Before taking their drag terrorist troupe show to the Big Apple, Sissyboy graces ^ the Holocene stage one more time ^TUESDAYS SUZANNE & MISS MYLAR KARAOKE WITH A GONG! SCANDALS 1125 SW STARK ST • PORTLAND www.scandalspdx.com 's ATOMIC 1 9 6 0 ’s HOLLYWOOD LOUNGE Coffee Food By AMANDA WALDROUPE Mark “Zebra” Thomas and Devan M c Grath swear that Sissyboy’s special August 29 shows at Holocene won’t be as offensive as their old shows. “It will still be offensive,” M cGrath says. “Absolutely,” Thomas affirms. “I t’s going to be offensive in a smart way.” “I t’s not white washed,” M cGrath says. “I t’s just racist enough,”Thomas quips. During a Sunday afternoon chat, Thomas and M cGrath talk excitedly when describing Sissyboy’s upcoming Portland performances (at 8 and 11 p.m.), the first live shows the in famous drag terrorist troupe has put on since amicably disbanding in October 2007— and they don’t spare the superlatives when com paring it to older shows. The most singing. The most dancing. The most live music. Crazy dance numbers. “The best show we’ve ever written,” Thomas says. Not wanting to divulge every detail, Thomas and M cGrath tell Just Out the bare bones o f the show, called “Sissyboy Washes Up.” Perhaps invoking The Pirates of Penzance—but with a gender-fucked twist, of course— Sissyboy will play the parts of Port land pirates sailing into New York, Thomas says, to take over the city’s performance art scene. “We go on a metaphysical journey through the subconscious of a New York performance artist in search of the essence o f art, basically,” M cGrath says. “We sail inside a performance artist’s mind and learn about art,”Thomas explains. “There’s lots of nudity,”Thomas adds. “Not all that nudity,” M cGrath responds. “Sh!” Thomas shoots back. “Lots o f nu dity,” he assures me. The excited tenor Thomas and M cGrath use to describe the upcoming show does not reflect how they feel when talking about Sissyboy’s breakup. A t times reflective, and other times more critical of what Sissyboy was, Thomas and M cGrath say the act had simply run its course. “After three years o f doing an original show a month, every month at Holocene, we got totally burnt out,"Thomas admits. “O ur shows were deteriorating in quality,” M cGrath says. And each member has truly gone his separate way. “As soon as it was over, it was like, whoa, I want to go to college,” says Thomas, who went to graduate school to become a special ed teacher. M cG rath moved to Chicago to attend film school. And Lee Kyle—aka “Splendora”— now lives in New York City (which makes putting on an NYC show a whole lot easier, Thomas concedes). Sissyboy probably would not have gotten back together. But Kyle pushed for a reunion after witnessing how surprisingly “watered down” the east coast scene appeared upon his Cocktails Specialising in natural fiber and north'friendly designer men's underwear. inv as io nc af e. co m Get brands like: Baskit, C-IN2, Cocksox, DT, Elite, Gia, Gigo, JM, Go Softwear, (Moto in (fruii dviww? Joe Synder, N2N, Otter, Rufskm, WildmanT, Damal Webster, ♦ more. Get Briefed! Grown in 6«nd, Ortfon
