Back in London for the first time in three years, one of the original queens of the New York drag scene, Sherry Vine will be performing exclusively at the Royal Vauxhall Tavern with friend Charlie Hides. Jason Reid stopped EVERYTHING this week to talk to Sherry direct from the Big Apple…
Hey Sherry, so as well as being in town to attend the MAC party with Joey Arias you’re also making your RVT debut with Charlie Hides. You must be super excited? How did you two become friends?
YES! Very excited. We connected initially through the Internet, about two years ago. We then chatted on the phone and really hit it off. When I was last over in London I saw his show and then this summer we ended up spending a couple of weeks together on the Atlantis Cruise.
I bet that was fun…
Oh honey, he has so many good stories. We’d sit around the buffet and just cackle!
I imagine most of them are unprintable though…. So, as well as becoming good pals you’re also a fan of his work I hear?
Totally! The first time I watched his videos on YouTube I wrote something along the lines of “you are fucking rocking my world.” He’s just so talented and creative.
You’re both well known for your parodies. For you, what makes for the perfect parody?
Mine tend to be silly and kinda dirty. I think fart sounds are HILARIOUS, whereas other people don’t. That’s just my humour. I never make fun of the artist though, it’s just stupid things that pop into my brain.
Is it important to you for your parodies to reflect pop culture?
Well, yeah, kinda. The reason I’m always parodying current music is because I work the club scene. And now that so many acts are doing parodies, it’s important to stick your flag in a song first. But recently I’ve been pushing myself to do songs that are not as current, so that I can cater to different audiences, such as on the cruises.
“How am I gonna keep this going? Am I doing what I’m supposed to be doing?”
Moving on, a few weeks ago I interviewed BenDeLaCreme from RuPaul’s Drag Race and during the interview she cited you as one of her inspirations. How do you feel when you hear artists that have broken through say that?
It’s very flattering and in all sincerity it makes me feel good, and not in a ‘pat myself on the back’ way. Things have been a little difficult here recently because of Drag Race. They’re my friends and I fucking love them, but the club scene work has kind of dried up for people like myself and Jackie (Beat), because they only want Drag Race girls. And that’s fine. However there are moments when I question myself: ‘How am I gonna keep this going? “Am I doing what I’m supposed to be doing?” So to hear something like that is really nice.
I’m not one for gossip [laughs] but there were rumours circulating about you going on Drag Race…
[laughs] There was a rumour that they were going to do a season of queens that have been around for a long time. Honey, that’d be awesome: the season of the seasoned queen! I’d do that in a heartbeat. They could get Jackie Beat, Varla Jean Merman, Coco Peru and Charlie – he’s American.
It would make for a great show. Your career has spanned twenty two years and you’ve been lucky enough to do so much in that time. If you could relive one of those years, which year would you chose?
I’d go back to 1996. I was in a show with Justin Vivian Bond called Charlie: Charlie’s Angels but we worked for Charlie Manson instead. It was a huge hit and a really fun time in my life. I WAS FIVE!!
In drag years? [both laugh] Finally, what do you consider to be the most important quality to posses as a drag performer?
To be original. And I’m not saying doing parodies is necessarily being original, but the way I do them is. It’s fine to be inspired by someone but don’t copy them. The most successful artists take something and make it their own. For example, Bianca Del Rio is the Don Rickles of drag. There are lots of queens that can read but no one does it the way she does. And there are hundreds of queens that do Cher but no one does Cher like Charlie Hides does.
• Sherry Vine will be at The RVT (372 Kennington Lane, Vauxhall, SE11 5HY) on Sunday 16th November with Charlie Hides TV, 5.30pm. £6.
