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PHOTO_ROBERT LALIBERTÉ A<br />
205024<br />
NEWSMAKERS_MONTREAL’S GAY VILLAGE<br />
Village, not a Ghetto<br />
Some pretty amazing stand-up comics have come out<br />
of Montreal over the years and one of the best is <strong>le</strong>gendary<br />
drag queen (and <strong>Fugues</strong> columnist) Mado La<br />
Motte, so-cal<strong>le</strong>d because patrons at Pood<strong>le</strong>s’ nightclub<br />
on The Main in Montreal way back in 1987<br />
thought she was so ugly they dubbed her “The Mutt.”<br />
Thus, Mado ‘La Motte’ was born.<br />
“She looks like a clown!” my six-year-old brother Skye told me as he<br />
pointed to Mado at his first Gay Pride parade in Montreal over a<br />
decade ago. When I told Mado about it afterwards, she replied, “He’s<br />
right, I am a clown!”<br />
Mado – a.k.a. former UQÀM theatre student Luc Provost, who quit<br />
university two credits shy of a bachelor’s degree – got her start as a<br />
shooter bitch and cigarette girl at Pood<strong>le</strong>s and Club Lézard. The rest,<br />
as they say, is history (or in Mado’s case, Herstory).<br />
“When young children walk past Cabaret Mado they always point to<br />
Mado’s statue,” Luc told me once. “One time a child said, ‘Look at the<br />
clown!’ And his mother explained, ‘No, that’s a drag queen.’ But children<br />
are the first to recognize what drag queens really are. We are<br />
clowns.”<br />
And none of them is funnier than Mado. The French-speaking Mado<br />
is lightning-quick on her feet and absolutely slayed the mostly anglophone<br />
audience with her deliberately butchered English at her 11th<br />
annual Drag Race at the Montreal Fringe Festival last summer. I was<br />
a judge at the drag races that year and Mado – b<strong>le</strong>ss her heart, the<br />
tramp – redubbed me “Richie Bitch.”<br />
Mado is back this summer with her 12TH ANNUAL DRAG RACE<br />
and it is bar-none the most popular, best-attended event at the Montreal<br />
Fringe Festival, which this year runs from June 4-24. Over<br />
60,000 theatre-lovers are expected to attend over 700 performances<br />
(French and English) by more than 500 theatre, comedy, dance,<br />
music and visual artists.<br />
//////////// 090 FUGUES.COM JUIN 2012<br />
Here are my choice picks for this year’s edition:<br />
DRAG RACES / LA COURSE EN DRAG A dozen drag queens<br />
to ce<strong>le</strong>brate a dozen years! Mado Lamotte hosts this knock down,<br />
drag-out batt<strong>le</strong> roya<strong>le</strong> pitting Montreal’s best known professional<br />
drag queens against a bevy of FRINGE Beauties in a series of skilltesting<br />
obstac<strong>le</strong>s at the Fringe Parck at Parc des Amériques (Central<br />
Box Office, Outdoor Stage, Beer Tent) on The Main. June 16 at 4<br />
pm. 120 minutes. Free admission.<br />
FUCKING STEPHEN HARPER: HOW I SEXUALLY AS-<br />
SAULTED THE 22ND PRIME MINISTER OF CANADA<br />
AND SAVED DEMOCRACY Written by Rob Sa<strong>le</strong>rno, who is also<br />
a news journalist for Xtra. Promo for this play – which got raves in<br />
Winnipeg and Victoria – reads, “We’ve all heard journalist Rob<br />
Sa<strong>le</strong>rno ‘sexually assaulted’ Stephen Harper. Now hear Sa<strong>le</strong>rno’s<br />
side of the story at this signing of his tell-all memoir, which<br />
Mac<strong>le</strong>an’s calls ‘an hilarious ta<strong>le</strong> of Canadian politics and what<br />
Stephen Harper’s balls feel like.’” At Petit Campus (57 Prince Arthur<br />
E), June 18-24. Runs 60 minutes. $10.<br />
GOD IS A SCOTTISH DRAG QUEEN Written and directed by<br />
Mike Delamont, CanWestNews says of this Victoria Fringe Best Solo<br />
Show winner, “A Cross Between Dame Edna and Billy Connolly with<br />
a dollop of Eddie Izzard.” What’s it about? God, Dressed in a floral<br />
power suit, skewers everything from Bieber to the Pope. This show<br />
has sold out all of its Canadian performances to date. At Cabaret du<br />
Mi<strong>le</strong>-End (5240 Parc Ave.), June 16-24. Runs 75 minutes. $10.<br />
IF LOOKS CAN KILL...THEY WILL! I love the “kids” of Montreal’s<br />
terrific Glam Gam Productions crew who’ve long been putting<br />
on funny, sassy, racy shows – often with eye-popping nudity – at<br />
Montreal’s Café Cléopâtre. Well, they’re back with a new comedy/<br />
musical theatre/cabret show. Their promo reasds, “Ever since<br />
polyamorous lovers Sarah, Michael and Julie invited members of<br />
their Glamily over for a bur<strong>le</strong>sque dinner party cabaret, tensions<br />
have been rising on set… as has the body count! Help sexy Sherlock<br />
Homo and Dr. Hotson solve this mysterious case!” Written, choreographed<br />
and directed by Glam Gam Productions, June 8-16 at Café<br />
Cléopâtre (1230 St-Laurent). Runs 105 minutes. $10.<br />
HIPPOLYTOS Euripides’ play about desire starring the hugely-ta<strong>le</strong>nted<br />
Antonio Bavaro in drag (you may know Antonio’s drag alterego<br />
Connie Lingua performing at queer nights like POMPe<br />
Thursdays at the Katakombes co-op on The Main, or for his widelyacclaimed<br />
performance in Hedwig & The Angry Inch at last summer’s<br />
Fringe fest). Written by Euripides, translated by Carina de<br />
K<strong>le</strong>rk, Lynn Kozak and McGill Classics, and directed by Carina de<br />
K<strong>le</strong>rk and Lynn Kozak, the promo reads, “Hippolytos doesn’t like<br />
sex, or the sex-goddess Aphrodite. But he’s about to <strong>le</strong>arn you don’t<br />
mess with that goddess. Come see this all-new English version of Euripides’<br />
play about desire, set in a club with original techno music. If<br />
you go out clubbing with Aphrodite, who will you fall for?” At Le