My newest character is named Melania Trump. You may have heard of her. I created her after a suggestion from a comedy club manager one night. I got off the stage at Joe Conklin’s show at Parx Casino and he said, “You have to do Melania”. I’m good at taking direction so 10 months later here I am at Pride holding a sign that says, “I also cried on election night” and having gay men scream at me, “Get that Melania realness, queen!”
One of the most fun parts is no one knew if I was a man in drag. One woman looked at my crotch and shouted, “Damn, you have it tucked forever.” I never bothered to explain – why ruin all the fun?
A few people came up to me, held my hand and looked into my eyes, “I cried, too.” They needed empathy and I gave that back to them. “When I get out of that white box of shit we all have parade!”
Everything that Pride stands for – freedom, expression, diversity – is under attack in this country. The one small thing I can do as an actor and comedian is to give people a brief moment to laugh. It’s perhaps divine retribution that the orange man leading the charge against our rights has a wife who always looks like she’d rather be anywhere else but with her husband.
