MIKE JEKNAVORIAN National Interviews

PENNY ARCADE

Penny Arcade, one of New York’s preeminent nightlife queens, and a Warhol alumni, stops by Miami on her 40-city international tour to perform her New York-centric one-woman show, Longing Lasts Longer

PHOTOGRAPH BY STEVEN MENENDEZ

By Mike Jeknavorian

Where did you grow up?  In New Britain, Connecticut, in the 1950s, when it was known as the hardware capitol of the world.  When’s the last time you went back there?  On September 29th, 2018, for the 50th high school reunion, for high school years that I didn’t attend!  Do you miss anything about the town?  I miss what New Britain was before Paul Manafort Sr. destroyed the town with so-called “urban renewal.”  Of all the venues that are gone in NYC, which one do you miss the most?  The Bottom Line.  Who’s your favorite Warhol superstar?  It’s a tie between Taylor Mead and Ondine.  Since you’ve toured extensively in Europe, what’s your favorite place there?  The island of Formentera, Baleraric Islands, Spain.

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This is a faithful reprint of Taylor Mead On Amphetamine and In Europe: Excerpts from the Anonymous Diary of a New York Youth. Volume Three. Last printed in 1968. Taylor Mead Beat poet, Andy Warhol Superstar, artist and star of film and stage. This volume contains Taylor’s poetry, rantings and musings from the 1960’s.

What will you do with your down time when you’re in South Florida?  I intend to show my collaborator’s wife, Marina, all the sights.  It’s her first visit here.  Other than your own plays, what’s your favorite play?  Anything by Tennessee Williams.  Which one of your old jobs least prepared you for what you do now?  Being a social worker in back-woods Maine.  How did you come up with your name?  I named myself Penny Arcade coming down from LSD at age 17.  It stuck.  If God were to take you tomorrow, how would you like to be remembered?  For my kindness and action in compassion.  What do you want to live long enough to see?  For my 11 and 13-year-old friends, Gandan and Diesel, to grow up to be 21!

Will you ever retire?  Actresses like me never retire.  What’s the weirdest question that a fan’s asked you?  “What are you really like?”  What celebrity did you act like a “fan” around?  Liza Minnelli.  I was completely tongue-tied.  What’s the last thing that you looked at online?  An “enlarged heart portal.”  It came up on my chest x-ray.  What’s the best place that you’ve visited?  The best…?  Every place has something ‘best’ about it.  There is no best place.  What’s something that you learned in life only when you got older?  That the only approval that really matters is my own approval of myself.  What did you learn from your parents?  How to work hard.  What’s your current state-of-mind?  Enlightened.

What were you doing before we spoke?  Thinking of getting out of bed.  What’s your idea of perfect happiness?  Swimming in the clean, clear, beautiful ocean.  What’s your greatest fear?  Pain, sickness and immobility.  Living or dead, who’s the greatest political figure in America?  Vito Marcantonio, the first-born Italian-American representative from New York’s 18thdistrict, who put the word ‘service’ into public service.  Who’s your favorite performer?  Tammy Faye Starlight and Bina Sharif.  What’s your best characteristic?  Enthusiasm.  How do you enjoy spending your time?  Walking around.  I’m a flaneuse.  What celebrity do you have a crush on?  Hmm…?  I don’t have crushes on people that I do not personally know.

PHOTOGRAPH BY STEVEN MENENDEZ

Who do you admire?  Noam Chomski.  If you could bring one person back from the dead, who would it be?  James Baldwin.  Where would you go in a time machine?  To 1910.  I’d go to New York City and around the world.  What would your last meal be?  Sushi and an ice cream sundae with hot fudge.  What do you worry about?  Money, for old age, and for arthritis.  What are you afraid of?  Serial blood-lust murderers.  If you were a musical instrument, what would you be?  A viola.  Are you more like a sheep or a wolf?  A wolf.  Who depends on you?  People who no one else will help.  Who are you closest with?  Steve Zehentner, my best friend and collaborator of 26 years.  What would your autobiography be called?  The Broken Genius Girl Must Be Sacrificed.

What music do you listen to when you’re upset?  Old R&B, like Solomon Burke, old blues, and doo-wop.  What’s on your bucket list?  Singing a concert of my original songs and my favorite covers.  What’s your greatest regret in life?  That I didn’t honor my heart’s desires in my teens and 20s and 30s.  I thought that I needed ‘proof’ to follow them.  What’s something secretive about you that people don’t know?  Pretty much everything!  I only share what makes me the same as others, not what makes me different.  But, ok.  One thing is, I’m very timid.  Where can we see you?  My website has my schedule, and my Facebook page is totally open—I run it like a magazine or a diary.  You can also see me at the Live Arts Lab at Miami Dade College this Thursday to Saturday!

MIKE JEKNAVORIAN Local Interviews

LADY FANCY

As she and her merry band of gospel singers are about to debut their long-running gospel show at The Pub, Lady Fancy discusses her tireless work ethic, including working right up to the lunch of her own funeral

Where did you grow up?  In Indiana.  How long have you lived in South Florida?  For 17 years.  Why did you move here?  For the weather, but mostly because South Florida is such a gay-friendly place.  What part of South Florida do you live in?  In Oakland Park.  What do you like most about living here?  The winters.  If you’ve ever lived in Indiana, you could relate (laughs).  What South Florida venue do you miss that’s gone, and why?  Costello’s (it was called the Gin Mill when we first moved here).  It was small, nice and we made a lot of friends there.  Where do you hang out in South Florida?  We’re pretty much home bodies now, but it looks like I’ll be hanging out at The Pub a lot more often.

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The Happy Goodman Family, is a Southern gospel group that was founded in the 1940s by Howard “Happy” Goodman and performed together for several decades.  The Happy Goodmans achieved significant popularity in the 1960s.  In 1968, they won the first Grammy Award to be awarded for a gospel album by a gospel group.

What’s your claim-to-fame?  I guess that would have to be The Gospel Jubilee Show.  How did you come up with your name?  I was given that name because of Nancy Ross.  We were getting ready to do our first show, and I didn’t have a name yet.  So someone said, “Nancy and Fancy,” but I don’t remember who stuck the “Lady” part in front of it.  What was your first gig, ever?  It was in Bob (Nancy Ross) and Paul’s back yard.  What was your first gig in South Florida?  It was at Monkey Business Bar.  What’s the strangest thing that’s happened to you onstage?  I took one step too far to the right once, and I fell of the stage.  Talk about humbling.

If you could only do one anymore—play the piano or MC—which would you choose, and why?  That would have to be, play the piano.  It’s always been my favorite thing to do.  Which one of your old jobs least prepared you for what you do now?  I don’t have an “old job.”  I’ve been a hairdresser since I was 17.  It’s been a long time (laughs).  Will you ever retire?  My standard answer to that is that I’ll be working up until the lunch of my funeral.  What celebrity did you act like a “fan” around?  Liza Minnelli.  What’s the best place that you’ve visited, and why?  New York City, because Ron and I got married there.  It’s just a wonderful, exciting and magical place.

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What’s something that you learned in life only when you got older?  To forgive and forget.  Life is too short to hang on to so much stuff that is over and done with.  What’s your best characteristic?  My sense of humor.  At least I think so, but I may be the only one.  How do you enjoy spending your time?  With my husband and our dogs.  What celebrity do you have a crush on?  There are too many to name.  If you could bring one person back from the dead, who would it be, and why?  I’d bring back my best friend, Denise.  She was a drag queen trapped in a woman’s body.  We could finish each other’s sentences.  Where would you go in a time machine, and why?  I’d go to the 1940s because of the music, the clothes and the cars.

What would your last meal be?  That’s easy—pizza!  What do you worry about?  Being left alone after you’ve lost a partner.  If you were a musical instrument, what would you be, and why?  The piano, just because it’s my favorite.  Are you more like a sheep or a wolf?  A sheep.  Who are you closest with?  Ron, my husband.  What would your autobiography be called?  Oh What a Journey.  What music do you listen to when you’re upset?  Gospel music.  What’s on your bucket list?  To have my face pulled back up to where it used to be (laughs).  What’s something that you never told anyone else?  Well I certainly can’t tell it now in this interview (laughs).  Where can we see you?  At The Pub!