DAVID LACHAPELLE

To be or not to be

Onstage Ellen DeGeneres seems torn between her lesbian fans and a desire to be mainstream

by Michelle Tomko

I suppose any skill is like riding a bicycle. However, if you haven't ridden in seven years, you shouldn't begin with the Tour de France, or start pedaling when you don't know where you are going.

Famed comedian and lesbian icon Ellen DeGeneres appeared at big venues in Columbus, Cincinnati, and Cleveland last weekend to peddle her stand-up wares. This is her first tour after seven years of TV and movies.

She is a natural. You can see in her eyes, she loves what she does. She hit all the marks. But the performance was flat, and left you with that disappointed feeling of a teenager at a concert of the band you worship, after camping out for tickets, and they don't even play your favorite song.

The show also seemed laced with contradictions between her old innocent stuff, a vain attempt to be more edgy and raw, and a dash of lesbianism tossed in. DeGeneres seems to be torn between the lesbian heroine worship she reluctantly embraces, and the reality of trying to fill seats in a straight world.

This conflict must also contribute to her reticence to do interviews. When the Gay People's Chronicle approached her media contact, Brad Slater, for this story he said, "Believe me. Ellen is doing no press."

Surprisingly, though, the artist was quoted in the May 18 Cleveland Plain Dealer saying, "I felt like my sexuality had overshadowed my talent, and people forgot that I'm a comedian, and that's all I am. I'm not a political person."

Is that true? Is that possible? Can someone lead a march on Washington and not be a political person two weeks later? What should we expect from our queer celebrities? Do we have a right to ask them to fall on their own sword and say things like, "Hey, I'm not really in love with Tom Cruise," for example? Do we expect too much? These are

questions that every LGBT ticket buyer needs to ask themselves before flashing the green. DeGeneres' strength is in appearing to be that innocent, wide-eyed girl next door. When she first was doing the talk show circuit, she told a story about a West Coast adventure of trying to save a dog running on a freeway, which turned out to be a coyote. Her May 18 show in Cleveland included a story that climaxed with her blowing up an inflatable doll on the edge of a freeway. Evolution or exploitation?

In fact, a lot of the material didn't even seem like DeGeneres wrote it. She seemed uncomfortable saying it. Material about yelling at store managers and police officers had a watered-down Andrew Dice Clay tone. It lacked that smart, quick irony of "classic Ellen," and took the easy, more Alanis Morrisette "ironic" way out.

Then there is the whole lesbian angle, which was dismissed first off in a simple yet effective "interpretive dance" which let the comedienne's physical humor shine with a Martin Short "I must say” flair.

"Great, you heard about that," said DeGeneres about her coming out, before she began the number.

We heard little on the star's sexual orientation after that. She talked about a variety of topics from bugs to videotaping sex.

However, you wouldn't notice any inequities in the show from observing the audience. Although the house in Cleveland was less than full, the exuberant cult welcomed their hero with a standing ovation the minute she walked out onstage. She is loved. The laughter never stopped, and very few people left before the question and answer period following the performance.

Embarrassingly for Cleveland, the Q&A portion of the show was Q&A in name only. Few audience members asked legitimate questions, and the strongest was a man who simply

wanted to know which episode of her TV show is her favorite. Others simply wanted to hug, shake hands, get autographs and plug friends who were singers and writers, in a tasteless display of greed. Shame on you, Cleveland.

PAT HUGHES

Μαν 26 2000