To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything, The Artist D

The Artist D

Last weekend I was having a day with the girls. That means I stayed home and ate ice cream and watched To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything, Julie Newmar. This fabulous film starred Patrick Swayze, Wesley Snipes and John Leguizamo as drag queens traveling across the country from New York City to Los Angeles. Unless you have lived under a rock for the last decade you probably know what I’m talking about.

The girls.

I saw To Wong Foo when it came out in 1995 and have repeatedly watched it ever since. The frequency of viewing has certainly declined with age. As a young pup in ’95 I probably watched my VHS tape of it twice every Saturday for years. I remember hunkering down in my bedroom with popcorn and a stolen bottle of peach schnapps from my parent’s liquor cabinet. I’d put the volume low so mom and dad wouldn’t know I was being inspired by drag queens on the television screen. For the next hour I would dream of one day moving from small town USA to the big time (aka Los Angeles), finally being crowned Drag Queen of the Year by Miss Julie Newmar herself.

Of course To Wong Foo was completely unrealistic. Priscilla, Queen of the Desert was far better at portraying the reality of the situation, but that’s another story. To Wong Foo was filled with all of the people I wanted to be like. Coco Peru and Joey Arias were in the opening scenes as well as my all time favorite mentor RuPaul. I watched and watched again to inspire myself from the bland place I came from hoping to transform into the fabulousness I knew I was destined for.

What I didn’t know was that hidden in the movie To Wong Foo were glimpses of my future. I didn’t know it then but before my very young sheltered eyes were creatures that would revisit me almost twenty years later to further change my life. As I watched this movie from my past last weekend I happened to see a quick shot of the pageant judges. Suddenly I recognized a face in To Wong Foo . . . I had never noticed before. Next to Lady Bunny was Quentin Crisp!  Over the last year I have studied Quentin Crisp’s work carefully and it has drastically changed the direction of my life.

Quentin Crisp & Lady Bunny in To Wong Foo, like angels in the crowd of my young queer life.

Seeing someone I think highly of now appear in something I saw 18 years earlier is eerie to me. It’s the same feeling I got when I was 17 years old and read my first Salvador Dali book that also changed my life. I realized that in third grade elementary school my art teacher told me I should read the work of Dali. The eerie feeling is the realization that had I heeded her advice my life may have been changed much sooner. Had I watched To Wong Foo in 1995 and researched the full cast I may have found Quentin Crisp’s movies, books and interviews. As a young gay boy in the blank countryside I could have been forever changed had such ideas been allowed to flood my mind. How much time would have been saved? How many events would have been severely altered? Where would I be now?

I don’t really want to know. I have no desire to change the past, but this all does make me want to change the future. Knowing that I missed a critical reference decades earlier that only returned to my life to be reviewed now makes me not want to miss any others. It has filled me with a ravenous desire to take extensive notes on the things I read and see. As I watch a new movie or read another book I take down references to other artists mentioned. Then I look them up and am sent down another literary rabbit hole to gain new perspective of the world.

This is my solid evidence that you should never discount the effect others may have on your life. This is also where we take a moment to respect the effect we unknowingly have on others. As a public figure I know very well that you don’t have to know someone to change their lives. I know that what I put out here today could change a person’s life drastically and I’d never know it. But do you accept the same about yourself? I’ve met far too many people who think they are normal, going along with the flow types of creatures. They don’t think that they could have an effect on others without knowing it. You can! You will! You can change the world by walking down the street. Don’t ever discount your abilities. We’re all a Salvador Dali or Quentin Crisp to somebody. And never stop to take notice of who is around you. They may be someone who could open the flood gates of your mind, changing you forever.

The Artist D is executive editor of Fourculture Magazine. He is also unearthing the underground as host of The Fabulous D Show every Sunday night at 7 PM EST at TheArtistD.com

Tags: change, featured, inspiration, julie newmar, life, quentin crisp, RuPaul, theartistd, to wong foo

Category: Transgender Body & Soul, Transgender Opinion