When Miss Coco Peru began her career, she did so with a mission of using her art to make the world a better and safer place for younger LGBTQ people.
She has not wavered from that credo since her first theater performances in New York in the early ’90s. She has uplifted audiences across generations with her razor-sharp wit and the observational power of a diamond cutter. People routinely leave her shows in a state of catharsis.
Coco singlehandedly forged a space for her unique brand of artistry, changing the conversation about what drag performance could be long before the idea entered the mainstream. She continually fuses art and activism while keeping the tenor personal and heartfelt, always going back to the roots that connect us all.
She is a trailblazer to be sure. As her friend and colleague Kelly Mantle put it, “Her face is on the Mount Rushmore of drag — and she was there when they built it.” And Lily Tomlin calls her “one of the last great storytellers.”
In spite of her longevity and a new generation of fans who have discovered her on YouTube, Coco’s ability to carry out her mission — one started during the time AIDS was still ravaging our community — is not just undiminished but more emboldened than ever before.
In a time where the LGBTQ community again finds itself the subject of ridicule and hate, she is not content to relax into legend status and stand on the sidelines. Using anger as inspiration, she is hitting the road once again, poised and prepared to fight back in the best way she knows how.
This will come as no surprise to the initiated. For the rest, it is an opportunity to see the world finally catching up to the innovation Coco set in motion when she began her drag journey.
She will make her overdue New Jersey debut on Aug. 29 performing her greatest hits show Have You Heard? at Paradise nightclub in Asbury Park. She will then cross over to Brooklyn to present Fucq This Sh!t, an evening of entirely new material, on Sept. 5-6 at 3 Dollar Bill in East Williamsburg.
This means it’s possible for area fans to get a double dose of Coco.
When we last caught up with her in early 2021, she was — like most of us — trying to figure out which way to turn after the worst of the pandemic was behind us. During lockdown she pushed past her comfort zone to make a series of unadorned YouTube videos (Coco’s Thoughts While in Solitude) and entertained fans live from home through a series of livestreamed performances (Casa Coco).
She made time to speak to us while summering in Spain about what fans can expect from her forthcoming performances, processing grief, and how so much that was old is new again — for better and for worse.
The title of your new show seems to naturally follow that of your previous one, Bitter, Bothered, and Beyond. Is this deliberate? I hope so!
Coco Peru: Well, the title is obviously a reflection of how I feel right now. I originally joked that I was going to call this show Fucq This Sh!t, but in my mind, I was trying to come up with a clever and more “appropriate” title, and then it hit me that nothing seems appropriate right now, and so Fucq This Sh!t suddenly seemed like the perfect title. So, yes, I guess it naturally follows the previous show’s title and my progression to being even more bitter, bothered, and beyond.
What was the catalyst for the new show? There is certainly an abundance of choices!
CP: I hadn’t planned on writing this show, but Varla Jean Merman told me that now, given what our community is facing, our audiences need us, and I realized, too, that I need my audience.
Also, while I was on a small tour recently, I had so many people come up to me afterward and offer really beautiful personal stories and thoughts about how they appreciated me, and so I felt like I needed to address stuff and let them know in this new show how much I appreciate them.
I saw Bitter, Bothered, and Beyond twice. It’s one of the most significant pieces of theater I have ever seen — certainly the most significant piece of LGBTQ theater I’ve ever seen, bar none, since The Normal Heart. I’d compare its power to The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe except you don’t play a cast of characters and it’s tighter in scope. You left no cards on the table!
CP: Thank you for those kind words. I’m so damaged it’s often hard for me to take in a compliment, but I’m learning at 60 years old to accept compliments and to just say thank you. So, thank you!
In this [new] show, I’m also being very direct, perhaps even more so, but that’s the freedom of being an aged drag queen! Also, I’ve rewritten a couple of older monologues for this show that seem to resonate again given the times, so that’s really wild — to feel that what’s old is new again.
You’re presenting an earlier show called Have You Heard? in Asbury Park at Paradise nightclub and then performing the new show in Brooklyn at 3 Dollar Bill a week later, meaning those in our area can see two totally different Coco Peru shows back-to-back. How do you choose which shows to present in which cities?
CP: Have You Heard? is my “best of” show, and that is a show I prefer to do in venues and cities I’ve not worked in before. My other shows have some serious and quiet moments, so I need to feel out a place before I feel comfortable taking that kind of more theatrical show into a space that may not be conducive to that material.
You lost your mother, Helen, not long ago. She figures prominently in your work, so much so that your fans feel they know her. What have you learned about processing grief? Has this informed your work?
CP: I address some of that in this new show, hopefully in a humorous way. I miss my mom terribly and her dementia was at times hilarious and at times harrowing, as anyone knows who has had to deal with it. I’m fortunate that I had her so long, and having met so many queer people who were rejected by their parents, I know how lucky I was to have two parents who not only accepted me but celebrated me.
You’ve talked about your ambivalence regarding the popularity of [RuPaul’s] Drag Race. You talk about it in your theater performances as well. However, I imagine with the status you’ve earned — especially with so many young queens raising you up and promoting you to their fans and followers — that there must surely be a place for what you do theatrically to be broadcast or streamed. Is there any chance of that in the foreseeable future?
“in my last show I remarked on how us older drag queens are tired of being asked the question, “When are you going to be a guest judge or mentor on Drag Race?”
CP: I don’t ever remember saying that I was ambivalent to Drag Race!
I should be more clear — I’m thinking of your comments on how the show has given rise to many armchair experts who view drag in a narrow lens. I know you’ve heard from the peanut gallery yourself.
CP: Well, in my last show I remarked on how us older drag queens are tired of being asked the question, “When are you going to be a guest judge or mentor on Drag Race?” and I suggested that people stop asking us that question because it’s never going to happen. How many seasons has that show been on? If it hasn’t happened yet, I don’t see it happening ever.
It’s an uncomfortable question, because anytime we speak about the show we must choose our words carefully so that we don’t come across as negative, and honestly, it’s tiring and boring.
The producers included photos of me twice on the show, and I thought that was great and I appreciated the acknowledgment.
Drag Race is a cultural phenomenon, and I have always shown my support to Ru, the producers, and to so many of my talented friends who have been on the show. I’ve watched the careers of Bob the Drag Queen, Jinkx Monsoon, BenDeLaCrème, Alaska, Willam, Alyssa Edwards, Delta Work, Trixie Mattel, Latrice Royale and Bianca Del Rio, plus so many more, explode in the most wonderful ways. I understand why the questions about Drag Race were initially asked, but after so many years, and considering I’ve had a 35-year career outside of that show, it’s curious that with almost every interview I do I am still expected to answer questions about a show I’m not a part of. And that’s not me being negative toward the show, but I think what that says is that there are so few queer shows, especially for drag artists, that people feel like that’s the show we older queens need to constantly comment on.
I’d rather have the conversation as to why there are so few queer shows in Hollywood.
That’s a good point.
CP: Having said that, I think it’s great that young people now have the Internet to create their art outside of the often queerphobic and money-driven Hollywood system.
I should also say I’m a big fan of the Boulet Brothers, and I am so happy that Murray Hill has a new show [King of Drag] focusing on drag kings. I have loved drag kings forever and have always believed they deserve more attention.
As far as my own shows being recorded, I don’t see that happening. I’d be open to it, but I love knowing that my audience is seeing something live and they’ll have the memory of it. Also, I’m 60 now and I’m not as hungry as I once was, and I feel like my focus belongs to the fans who come out to see me — they’ve given me my career and have kept a roof over my head all these years.
Like Judy Gold, I often have to address the fact that people are behaving like they’re sitting at home watching a TV show and don’t seem to think that I can hear them.
I am one of many who can practically quote your YouTube video on theater etiquette verbatim. It really does astonish me as well how standards have slipped. Recently I saw Judy Gold look at someone in the front of her audience talking loudly and say, “Oh, this is your living room now, I see…” I feel like it’s so much worse than that, and it’s even worse at pop music concerts where security brutalizes you and people sing along, carry on, talk over what’s performed. Do you think it’s symptomatic of society degrading as a whole? Do you think the pandemic has played a part?
CP: I have no idea, but I hate it!
Like Judy Gold, I often have to address the fact that people are behaving like they’re sitting at home watching a TV show and don’t seem to think that I can hear them.
What’s even more frustrating is that when I address them, they seem to think it’s funny, rather than feel embarrassed or apologetic. I work my ass off preparing my shows, and my stories are autobiographical, so there’s a vulnerable element to what I do, so I take it really personal when there’s a needy asshole in the audience, and because I often perform in places where booze is served, it’s even worse.
I’ve given up trying to figure it out, I just have no patience for it. I’ll give a disruptive person a second chance, but after that, I have them removed. I’m too old to deal with that shit. It’s selfish and disrespectful to me and to the rest of the audience and their experience.
Obviously, you hit a Coco nerve!
Well, readers should be forewarned that they’ll get summarily called out and read if they talk over your show or otherwise behave foolishly.
CP: Well, that’s part of the problem — they want to get “read,” and so I don’t even want to give that to them, because it just encourages them to behave badly. So, I’d rather give them a warning and then have them removed.
If I have to, I’ll also put a curse on them, so there’s that!
I believe you identify as an HSP, or highly sensitive person, as I do. We HSPs tend to notice one another, yet it’s a trait that’s not often discussed, even in the world of behavioral health. Is there anything about the trait you wish more people understood? It can be such a cross to bear, yet in your case it must be so integral to your identity as a storyteller with a strong affinity for detail and emotion.
CP: Well, I am highly sensitive to noise, so I wish the world was quieter. Like, I never need to hear you have a conversation on speakerphone or listen to you watch YouTube videos in public. I have to carry ear plugs with me at all times.
I’m also highly sensitive to any kind of injustice. I just feel things to the point where I feel as if I have a hole in my chest and it just aches. Unfortunately, my responses to it aren’t always appropriate, and I take pills now.
Honestly, I don’t know if I’m a highly sensitive person or I’m just fucked up, but either way it’s both a blessing and a curse! I think this latest show Fucq This Sh!t celebrates that highly sensitive, fucked up, inappropriate part of me!
To quote Fran Lebowitz, “What has really been lost in American culture is connoisseurship: the ability to tell the difference between what’s genuinely good and what’s mediocre.” I imagine that this is something that you can relate to. What inspires you to keep going when so much mediocrity is celebrated? It must be demoralizing from time to time — yet you never stray from your formula of finding nuggets of beauty in unlikely places and shining a light on them for your audience.
CP: First of all, the world needs more Frans. I need more Frans!
Having said that, whenever I feel demoralized or compare myself to others, my husband asks me, “Why did you create Coco Peru?” And that question brings me right back to 1990 when I was inspired by the AIDS activism in my city and creating Coco, and my mission was to leave a better world for future LGBTQ people. It’s a bit corny, perhaps, but I do believe that a strong foundation and that clarity keeps me focused on what’s important.
Is this what has led you to keep going in spite of talking about retiring years ago? I hope so. We need your wisdom, humor, and insight more than ever!
CP: I really did believe that I would be retired by now, but then the pandemic happened, and I wrote Bitter, Bothered, and Beyond and it just seems like every time I’m ready to retire, something happens that pulls me back in. So, I’ve accepted that I may never fully retire, but I am going to eventually slow down.
Is there any chance we’ll get a sequel at some point to “Show Me Your Pride”? It’s your only single release, but you sure made it count.
CP: No, when I was asked to do that, I didn’t want to at first because I’m not a pop singer, but I did it to challenge myself and move beyond my fear of doing something that was out of my comfort level. I did it. Do I need to do it again? No. However, I’ve learned never to say never.
Well, it’s such a great Pride anthem. It brings to mind everything you stand for in a fabulous way.
CP: Well, I still get messages from young people who say that the song helped them in their coming-out process, or helped with their depression, or helped them feel less isolated because of where they lived and so, for those reasons, I’m happy I did it.
One interviewer likened seeing you perform to going to church. I would say it’s like a papal visit when you come through town. I’m not being facetious in the least. Thank you for what you do. It’s damn important.
CP: I’ve actually had religious leaders of different faiths say that to me. It’s a great compliment.
The first time I ever heard that was early in my career in NYC — this butch lesbian would come to my show every week because she said it was her church. Perhaps I didn’t need to mention that she was a butch lesbian, but I loved that a butch lesbian felt that way about me, especially in the early ’90s when gay men and women didn’t always mix.
I’ve always had a really soft spot for butch dykes! Dykes on Bikes? Heaven!
For show tickets visit: ParadiseNJ.com, 3DollarBillBK.com.
