UK COMEDY
UK Cabaret comedy page this time features the language of Shakespeare no less! It was The Bard himself who first coined the phrase ‘Dragging the Dress’. Mark Ritchie writes about Drag, even including his own experiences as a professional cross-dresser.
Although the term ’Drag’ is said to date back the late 1500’s, it began to be in common usage in the Victorian Music Hall theatre, during the late 19th century. Early comedy performed in drag was often the work of ‘Comedy Grotesques’, who hammed it up and went with the flow.
Later the likes of Arthur Lucan, AKA Old Mother Riley and Norman Evans, performing his over the garden wall sketch’s, were hugely successful during the great days of variety.
There has always been a popular misconception that Comedy Drag was the exclusive domain of gay performers. This was made ever more confusing, through no fault of his own, by the late great Sir Stanley Baxter. Here we saw a married man, performing regularly in Drag, on TV at least, who only ‘came out’ very late in his life, after spending much of his career while being Gay was still illegal.
The great Danny La Rue did not favour the whole label of ‘Drag Act’. He preferred the term ‘female impersonator’. I remember chatting to Danny once in Blackpool, at a party, when he has stopped to ask if I was ok, after he had just trodden heavily on my foot in a crowded bar room. Danny knew his worth in the comedy world and he was simply the best!
As for my own experiences in a frock, I appeared twice in separate productions of Cinderella as an Ugly Sister. I found the whole business of make-up and heavy and elaborate costumes completely exhausting, especially during days when there were three performances.
Nowadays, the fabulous Ce Ce Monsoon. A subscriber to this publication, is out there being musically and comedically fabulous and there are many other ‘notable’ comedy cross-dressers, such as Ceri Dupree and the recently emerging Dazzling Diamonds act, who we hope to be including review details of going forward.
The last mention really must go towards Paul O’Grady. Now sadly no longer with us, I knew Paul slightly and when I spotted him coming into a showbiz event many years ago, dressed as Paul of course, I noticed that he had not been harangued by the autograph hunters. I sidled over and reminded him how lucky he was to walk around anonymously. He replied in that distinctive voice of his ;’I’ll be alright, as long as I keep my ‘f—— gob shut’!
We are on the lookout for comedians and comedy people who would like to become guest writers on this page. Just e-mail mark.ritchie@ukcabaret.com
