MIKE JEKNAVORIAN National Interviews

CHARLES BUSCH

Tony Award nominee, Drama Desk Lifetime Achievement honoree and two-time MAC Award winner, Charles Busch, discusses his legendary career—including a chance encounter with Greta Garbo—before returning to the stage in South Florida and Chicago

Where did you grow up?  In New York City.  If you had to live somewhere other than New York, where would it be?  I recently went out to dinner with a great group of people after a show in Birmingham, Alabama.  We had such a fun, campy time, and I realized that it doesn’t really matter where you live if you have a group of dear friends.  I think I may be learning to be less of a New York snob.  What’s your claim-to-fame?  To be considered truly famous, everyone’s mother needs to have heard of you.  But I feel that my forty years of work as an actor, playwright and performer has endeared me to several generations of wonderful people.  How would you like to be remembered?  That I added a little color to an increasingly grey world.  Will you ever retire?  As long as I have energy and a decent memory, I’ll be out there slingin’ the one-liners and tossin’ the hips.  I also still get great pleasure out of writing.  I hope that enthusiasm never wanes.  Who’s your favorite female performer from the 1930s and 1940s?  Judy Garland.  I continually learn about honesty and style from studying her performances.  Who’s your favorite male performer from the 1930s and 1940s?  James Cagney.  He was a dynamic actor and performer. He also reminds me a lot of my father.

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Charles Busch Live at Feinstein’s / 54 Below – $11.99

Who’s your favorite female contemporary performer?  Miley Cyrus.  I’m glad that she’s grown out of her youthful rebellious phase, and I think that she has the talent and charisma to be truly great.  Who’s your favorite male contemporary performer?  I find Bruno Mars very interesting.  What’s your favorite contemporary film?  I’ve seen The Disaster Artist twice this week, and I love it.  What playwright do you admire?  Charles Ludlam and Tennessee Williams.  I worship them both.  Specifically, when I was 17-years-old, I saw Ludlam onstage in Eunuch of the Forbidden City, and I saw at that moment that anything was possible in the theater. What story needs to be told that hasn’t been told yet?  How the lesbian community—particularly, in San Francisco—rallied and took care of gay men during the height of the AIDS crisis in the eighties.  What’s your dream role?  Peter Pan.  Did you ever run into Greta Garbo in New York?  Twice, as a teenager, I saw her striding up the street.  One time I followed her into an empty store, and just being in her presence made me so light-headed that I finally had to run out.  When she was in New York, It was like having a mythical unicorn in our midst…  What politician don’t you like?  They’re too many to list.

What’s your favorite drink?  Jack Daniels with ginger ale.  Or, a chocolate milkshake.  What’s your most treasured possession?  An original seven-foot nineteenth century poster of the great actress Sarah Bernhardt, by the artist Mucha.  I had the small $4.95 print of it in my bedroom as a kid, and now I have the real deal.  Still, if there was a fire, I wouldn’t risk my life trying to save it.  Do you believe in ghosts?  I would like to.  There are so many people I would love to see again.  Either living or dead, who would you like to have lunch with?  The late film director, George Cukor.  What’s the last thing that you looked at online?  A video of a dog befriending a baby deer.  I’m a real sucker for cute animal videos. What’s the best place that you’ve visited, and why?  Locarno, Switzerland.  I was showing a movie of mine at a film festival, and I was overwhelmed by the beauty of the city.  And I was also surrounded by a gorgeous group of gay men who found me fascinating.  Heaven.  What did you learn from your parents?  My mother died when I was seven, so I don’t remember her well.  My father introduced me to the magic of the theater.  And for that, I’ll always be grateful.  What’s your best characteristic?  That I can throw myself into someone else’s fantasy of who they would like to be.

How do you enjoy spending your time?  I’m so lucky that my work is also my great passion.  I just love sitting at the computer working on a script; particularly, the editing and fine tuning.  What celebrity do you have a crush on?  Harry Styles and Mark Ruffalo.  I have very eclectic tastes.  Who do you admire?  All of the people who are out in the cold demonstrating and resisting.  If you could bring one person back from the dead, who would it be, and why?  My Aunt Lillian, who raised me and saved me when I was at a terrible crossroads.  I’d want her to know that things worked out and that all of her hard work and devotion paid off.  Where would you go in a time machine, and why?  To see Judy Garland at Carnegie Hall in 1961.  What would your last meal be?  The ridiculously obscenely expensive caviar that I’ve only read about, and a huge steamed lobster.  What do you worry about?  Losing my mind.  If you were a musical instrument, what would you be?  A small and very stylish old spinet piano, like the one in the movie Casablanca.  It’s a bit old-fashioned, but you can play any tune on it.

PHOTOGRAPH BY MICHAEL CHILDERS

Are you more like a sheep or a wolf?  A wolf.  I hate to say it, but a career of any success does leave some blood on the floor.  Who depends on you, and for what?  My sister, who’s currently living with me.  She had some recent health issues, and for the first time, I’m learning to anticipate someone else’s needs.  Who are you closest with?  My sister, my nephew and a very intense circle of four, maybe five, friends.  I’m very fortunate.  What music do you listen to when you’re upset?  Upbeat stuff, like The Andrews Sisters, The Supremes and Burt Bacharach.  What’s on your bucket list?  I want to make another movie! What’s your greatest regret in life?  I deeply regret a few selfish and insensitive blunders that I’ve made.  But I’d like to think that I’ve learned something from them.  What’s something that you never told anyone else?  That I live for the anecdote and to entertain.  In doing so, I’ve probably told every outrageous and intimate episode of my life to either an individual or an audience. Where can we see you?  I’ll be at Palm Beach Dramaworks on January 12 in West Palm Beach, and at Pride Films and Plays on January 21 and 22 in Chicago.    

MIKE JEKNAVORIAN Local Interviews

MICHAEL TRONN – PART 2

In a two-part exclusive, founding club kid, artist and promoter Michael Tronn tells us why he’d like to travel into the future, and how reanimating evil could help save the world

PHOTOGRAPH BY NATALIE CAROL

What Los Angeles venue do you miss that’s gone?  “Osko’s,” a.k.a., “The Zoo.”  I never made it there, but the film Thank God It’s Friday was shot there, and it looks amazing!  What’s the best event that you produced in Los Angeles, and why?  Halloween at Avalon was incredible.  I transformed the old theater into a haunted house, complete with a castle façade.  We also had gruesome acts of dismemberment in the lobby and dozens of chandeliers made of skeleton bones hanging over the dancefloor.  What opportunity did Miami miss out on?  Developing an industry other than tourism and retail.  The worst offense is the missed opportunity to have The Whitney Museum from New York open a Miami branch.  What project are you the proudest of?  I’d like to think it hasn’t happened yet.  However, I’m very proud of my two major solo art shows in Miami.  How would you like to be remembered?  As a good person who helped heal the world.  Will you ever retire?  That’s unlikely, but I’ll take long sabbaticals to travel and create art.  What’s the last thing that you looked at online?  The Studio 54 book by Ian Schrager.

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David Bethune’s homage to the incredible murals of Miami’s Wynwood district, the largest collection of street art in the United States

What’s the best place that you’ve visited, and why?  Petra, in Jordan.  To have seen firsthand this city from 312 BC, which was carved into a mountain, was awesome and awe-inspiring.  It’s an incredible feat of designing and engineering.  What did you learn from your parents?  Love, tenacity and creativity.  What performer do you admire, and why?  As cheesy as it is to say, the greatest showman of our time is Madonna.
Obviously, it’s not innovative to cite her, but nobody else has so many facets, and nobody else has done it the same way.  Most people don’t see all the hidden meaning—the subconscious—that’s in her art.  This is especially true with the Music album, which is laden with numerical, color, and geometrical symbolism, and the video for “What It Feels Like for a Girl,” where every shot contains a visual riddle about spirituality and Kabbalah.  What are your best characteristics?  Creativity, empathy and spiritual understanding.  How do you enjoy spending your time?  Creating art and literature, plotting my mission out, meditating in the sun, and swimming in the clear ocean when it’s like bathwater.  What celebrity do you have a crush on?  Matt Bomer and James Franco.

Who do you admire, and why?  Everyone who’s courageous enough to be unique who’s brave enough to think both deeply and critically.  Specifically, Jesus, Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Buddha, Albert Einstein, Helen Keller, Rumi and Carl Sagan.  If you could bring one person back from the dead, who would it be, and why?  The worst person in the world—and you can fill in the blank there—and Jesus.  I believe that after we leave this body, we’re able to see ourselves in hindsight clearly.  If I brought back a malevolent spirt, with everything that’s going on in the world right now, he or she could teach all of the prejudiced, hateful, scared-shitless people how wrong being that way is.  And, hopefully, they would listen.  As far as Jesus goes, I’d expect that the bigots who think they’re very “Christian” would deny Jesus if He told them to stop acting that way, which is pathetic and tragic.

PHOTOGRAPH BY MICHAEL TRONN

Where would you go in a time machine, and why?  I’d travel to the future—and I’d go as far as I’d have to go—when there’s peace on earth.  I’d go there because I want to see what I want the world “to be.”  What would your last meal be?  As reprehensible as it is to admit it, I love the taste and texture of fois gras.  I learned about it as a child, way before I knew how it was made. I feel very bad for the geese, but I can’t say that it’s not delicious.  What do you worry about?  How I can be a catalyst to help cure the ignorance of mankind.  If you were a musical instrument, what would you be, and why?  I can’t be just one; I have too many sides.  I’d be the flute, the electric guitar, the Theremin, a giant gong, a crystal singing bowl, an organ, and a sitar.  Are you more like a sheep or a wolf?  I’m a sheep in wolf’s clothing.  I’m soft and sweet on the inside, but I have to be strong on the outside to get things done. Who depends on you, and for what?  My friends and family.  I give them love, support, unconditional loyalty, and I help them make decisions (when they ask for it).

PHOTOGRAPH BY DALE STINE

Who are you closest with?  My immediate family.  What would your autobiography be called?  Probably Fuck Shame.  Strip Fear.  Do you ever put music on when you’re upset?  Yes.  I listen to lots of downtempo electronica, plus, my go-to’s—Pink Floyd’s The Dark Side of The Moon, Tracy Chapman’s New Beginnings, Audioslave, Moby, Deva Premal, meditation music and Creed.  What’s on your bucket list?  To accomplish all of my artistic goals.  That way, I’ll leave a legacy that helps transform mass ignorance and fear into mass understanding, wisdom, acceptance, love and enlightenment for every soul in the entire universe.  Also, I’d like to publish the children’s book that I’ve been working on, which is about the universe.  What’s your greatest regret in life?  That I can’t stay younger, longer.  But it’s not for vanity.  I need more time to accomplish my goal.  Can you tell me something that you never told anyone else?  Maybe one day.  Where can we see you?  At michaeltronn.com and michaeltronnfineart.com.  And, always, at the Bareback Follies at El Tucan.