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GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE

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August 29, 2008 www.GayPeoplesChronicle.com

eveningsout

Coming out as stand-ups

Vickie Shaw

by Anthony Glassman

Dayton-Nine times out of ten, when a trio of queens are putting on a show that gets written up in an LGBT newspaper, you can be sure that someone is going to wind up lipsyncing "I'm Every Woman."

But when the show is comprised of Michele Balan, Vickie Shaw and Poppy Champlin, it's not drag queens that are taking the stage. Instead, it's the Queer Queens of Qomedy. (It's up for debate if that last word is pronounced "comedy" or "kwomedy." The lack of a U is very confusing.)

Champlin has performed on VH-1, A&E, Lifetime and Comedy Central. Well, every stand-up comedian who has been on television in the last 20 years has been on Comedy Central at some point, but it's still an impressive thing for a lesbian comedian to put on her résumé.

Poppy Champlin

She's also the driving force behind the Queer Queens of Qomedy tour, which is coming to Wiley's in Dayton on September 11 to 14.

She's studied with Second City in Chicago, performed at the closing of the Gay Games, worked on a sitcom, made annual pilgrimages to do a show in Provincetown and at the Dinah Shore Weekend and knocked them dead at sea on R Family Vacations and Atlantis Cruises.

The cruises let her wear her favorite bathing suit, a three-piece.

"You know, the three-piece? Top, bottom and the curtain that goes over the whole thing?" AfterEllen.com quoted one of her bits. "Kids are coming up to me going, 'What time's the puppet show?" "

Champlin is bringing two other massively talented comedians with her.

Vickie Shaw, a yellow rose if ever there was one, is "a Texan by birth and a lesbian

Michele Balan

by Grace. And if you see Grace, tell her I say hi."

At the same time she decided to really pursue her stand-up career, Shaw came out as lesbian.

"I would have come out as a stand-up, but it would have killed my parents," she quips. Her brother, however, was not well pleased with her lesbianism.

"It's a cult! That ho-mo-sex-you-al-it-tee is a cult! They suck you in,” she drawls, recalling his reaction.

"I know," she replied. "Why do you think I joined?"

Of course, coming to the realization that she was queer was not easy for her, either.

"I spent my whole childhood going, 'Oh my God. I may be attracted to women, but I can't be a lesbian. I like Laura Ashley polished cottons! And I throw like a girl! And I cry for no apparent reason all the time!" Continued on page 10

MOCA

MUSEUM OF

CONTEMPORARY ART

CLEVELAND

JUS

IMAGE DETAIL: JORGE PARDO

opening party

friday september 12 fall 08

8501 Carnegie Avenue Cleveland, Ohio 44106 p 216.421.8671

MOCAcleveland.org

Three exhibitions on view September 12-December 28

Jorge Pardo:

HOUSE

Sheila Pree Bright: SUBURBIA

Facing Race