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
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