GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE August 13
eveningsout
New Orleans glam-country duo to appear in two Ohio cafés
Pete and Paul with their
signature guns.
by Jeff Woodard
Cleveland-Drawing such endearing analogies as "the gay Everly Brothers" and "a homocore reincarnation of Simon and Garfunkel," Pistol Pete and Popgun Paul have been steadily climbing the summit of the big time for the past six years.
The New Orleans duo has become accustomed to taking its act on the road in the eastern U.S. Now the Big Easy boys are
The Welcome to
showcasing their irony, Pete and Paul use extended metalow-tech, high-energy, glam-country blues on a grander scale.
Pistol Pete and Popgun Paul-a.k.a. Pete Sturman and Paul Cowgill-will make their Ohio debut next weekend as part of their maiden cross-country adventure. They will give 9 p.m. performances in Columbus on Friday, Aug. 20, at Victoria's Midnight Café, 251 W. 5th Ave., and in Cleveland on Saturday, Aug. 21, at Red Star Café, 11604 Detroit Ave.
The two first crossed paths in New Orleans in 1993. They clicked immediately: Pete, the punk folkie with a master's degree; Paul, a regular
MICK VOVERS on the streets of "N'awlins" noted for his days as a teenage drag queen and Pentecostal church pianist. Before long, Sturman's guitar acumen, Cowgill's prowess on the piano and their combined vocals began to attract attention.
"Paul and I are such good friends and have such respect for each other," says Sturman. "There's a magical bond that happens and people feel it."
The princes of perversity, the queens of
GAS STATION
16016 Hilliard Ave Lakewood Ohio 44107 (216)228-4300 (216)228-0811
Brake Service Front or Rear most cars
$59.95
Includes Turning Drums Or Rotors Repack Wheel Bearings •Lubricate and Clean Caliper Slides Metallic Pads May Be Extra
♡ With Coupon Only
Oil Change Special $18.95
most cars
Rotate Tires⚫ Inspect Brakes at No Cost With Coupon Only, Not valid with any other offers.
CITGO
Air Conditioning
Recharge $48.00
• Check Freon
• Check Compressor • Check Belts
• Check High & Lowside PFI • Freon Additional if Needed With Coupon Only
Not valid wloth any other offers.
John R. O'Connor, LISW ACSW of D.L. Dunkle and Associates Practicing in Two Locations!
17 Cedar Road,
5 S. Main Street
Clev
Ohlo
Suite 204
Oberlin, Ohio
44074
216-229-2100 800-938-9973
phors, original double-entendres and recycled cliches in taking on some of life's most daunting questions with rare, refreshing, emotional candor. Sturman acknowledges the influence of the familiar gay duo Romanovsky and Phillips-but he tempers the comparison.
"People who hear us realize we're different. It's a different decade. We're a '90s sound," Sturman says.
Pete and Paul's 1998 release Fine Red Wine is their first on CD. Their debut effort Superfag came out (so to speak) on cassette in 1995.
Fine Red Wine is interspersed with a few socially conscious numbers, including “Jesus Loves the Little Faeries" ("wherever they may be, inside you or inside me") and "What If God Was a Homo?” (“It'd be so fun to be a priest/You could preach the gospel in drag/ And on Fridays you could still have meat.") Sturman denies, though, that he and
Cowgill are out to push political agendas---or anyone's buttons.
"Our job is to entertain. We sing pop songs for a more enlightened time," notes Sturman. And they sing them for everyone. "If someone wants to hear a good song and you're playing one, who cares if you're gayor what gender you're singing to," says Sturman.
Fine Red Wine intoxicates with a variety of finely aged originals, from the entertainingly absurd "Can't Do a Thing" (a tale of the worst of bad-hair days) and the whimsical "Mailman's Waltz" to the tell-it-like-it-is "Never Be Straight" and the classic lament "Anything but Love."
If queer folk music with a rock 'n' roll attitude is your glass of wine, Pistol Pete and Popgun Paul will please your palate. ✓
Jeff Woodard is a Chronicle contributing writer living in Cleveland.
Out costume designer is role model for actors
by Eric Resnick
Cleveland-"The stereotype that most effeminate men in theatre are gay is not true," says longtime Cleveland costume designer Daniel C. Allen. "They are mostly bi."
But Allen says his being so out in that environment puts him in a unique position to help many who are questioning their sexual orientation.
"Around here, many are in transition," he said, "moving from gay to becoming [more out as] gay, or gay to becoming straight."
"I have had so many actors try to get closer to me," he said. "They start by asking questions like 'What is it like?' " Some, he said, have even tried to leave him gifts.
As a costume designer, Allen has encountered some homophobia around the theatre. Costume designers have to take intimate measurements and often see people in various stages of undress. Allen says there are heterosexual men that are uncomfortable with him for a while.
"I have run into straight men that think I want them," Allen said. "These men express discomfort, at first, until I win their confidence."
Allen says for these men, he may give them the tape measure and teach them how to measure their own inseams until they realize he's really only interested in costumes.
Allen says women are completely different. "Women are so comfortable," he said. "They treat me like one of the girls."
Allen tells a story of how he and two other men were in the women's dressing room at a performance.
"Someone opened the door and yelled 'All guys out!'," he remembered. "The other two left, but I stayed and the women just started to strip. It made no difference that I was there."
Allen, 37, has been a professional designer for seven years and is currently employed by Cuyahoga Community College as the wardrobe manager of the theatre department. He also works for local theatres. Additionally, he paints backdrops and works on
sets.
A veteran of the stage, Allen has worked as a model and actor. The self-described "Tri-C poster boy," Allen's face has been on promotional posters for Cuyahoga Community College and he has made small appearances in independent films. He also dresses models for commercials. His clients include both male and female exotic dancers, and models working for national advertisers including Ford and Cadillac.
Allen says the only people he won't dress are brides and drag queens.
"Brides are too difficult to work with," he
ERIC RESNICK
Daniel Allen adjusts an actor's Costume
says, "and I hope nobody takes this personally-but with respect to drag queens, you just can't make Marilyn Monroe out of Johnny Cash."
Allen is proud that his talents and personality are well-suited to the theatre. "Producers seem to like the 'gay theatre quality,' and I can do it on a shoestring budget," he bragged. "I like to create the characters from natural people," he said.
In his current production, Measure for Measure, that includes costuming actors to play nuns, drawing from his experience as a student in Catholic school.
Measure for Measure is a modern adaptation of the classic by William Shakespeare performed by Cleveland Public Theatre outdoors in the courtyard of the Cuyahoga County Archives building as part of its outdoor Shakespeare series.
The play is set in Vienna at a time when fornication is illegal, creating plenty of opportunity for scandal not unlike modern tabloid headlines. Allen says his biggest challenge with this show was to make the costumes of the already adapted characters modern.
Measure for Measure opened on Friday, August 6 and runs through Saturday, August 28. The Cuyahoga County Archives is at 2905 Franklin Ave., in Cleveland's Ohio City neighborhood. For reservations, contact Cleveland Public Theatre at 216631-2727.
T