Flotilla DeBarge: Corona and Flo—A Hilarious Tale of Lockdown, Pre- and Post-

By Michael Barbieri***If you want to split a seam laughing and witness a truly classic drag act, you need go no further than Pangea, where Flotilla DeBarge returned to take her audience on a journey into post-Covid life in NYC. Making her entrance spraying Lysol at the audience was just one of the hilarious moments in an evening full of laughs and songs.

Flotilla DeBarge is the fabulously foul-mouthed, no holds barred alter ego of Kevin Joseph, a drag legend who came up with some of the most iconic queens to emerge from the East Village drag scene. Flo was “birthed” at the Pyramid Club, along with many of the best-known drag acts around, including The Lady Bunny, Miss Coco and Lypsinka. She has been seen onscreen in To Wong Foo, Thanks For Everything! Julie Newmar and in the TV miniseries “Angels in America.” She’s appeared on Broadway in The Threepenny Opera and Off-Broadway in her one-woman show, The Flotilla DeBarge Minstrel Show. Most notoriously, she was sued by Star Jones in 2005, when PETA ran an anti-fur ad featuring DeBarge in drag as Jones!

So… after spritzing the audience with disinfectant, DeBarge hit the stage! Asking the technical director for some “defect” on the mic, she went into her opening number; a recitative of the Talking Heads’ “Once in a Lifetime” (Talking Heads, Brian Eno). Talking through the song, with a ton of reverb, the song actually spoke to our pre- and post-Covid world; in particular the lyric “…and you may ask yourself ‘Well, how did I get here?’” And while I feel the number went on a little too long, it was certainly meaningful. At the conclusion of the piece, she commented that the world would never be, as the song says, the “same as it ever was!” Very telling indeed!

Flotilla told us she had actually used her lockdown time creatively. In a monumental collaboration with Lady Bunny, she created a parody of Cardi B. and Megan Thee Stallion’s infamous “WAP” video! In case you’re not familiar, WAP stands for Wet Ass Pussy. As Bunny says in the vid, “DAP” is for post-menopausal women like Flo and herself, so I’m sure you can guess what DAP stands for! We were then treated to a showing of the video! With screamingly funny, unbelievably rude lyrics like, “Sandpaper your walls with this dry-ass pussy, exfoliate your balls with this dry-ass pussy,” and “You need a ChapStick to eat this dry-ass pussy!”, Flo and Bunny actually upped the vulgarity of the original, to the delight and amused shock of the Pangea crowd!

Other musical selections included Flo’s bouncy cover of “Happy,” by Pharrell Williams, which became a sort of sing and clap-along for the audience. We also got a gorgeous, Billie Holiday-tinged version of “But Beautiful” (Jimmy Van Heusen, Johnny Burke) and a bipolar rendition of Diana Ross’ “Theme from Mahogany” (Michael Masser, Gerald Goffin). Here, Flo went from her own demure live vocal, into a crazed “dialogue break,” where she lip-synced to some of Diana Ross’ lines from the film! The juxtaposition of the soft vocal with Ross’ crazed filmic rants was hysterically funny and made the number uniquely Flo! At one point, DeBarge left the stage while Musical Director John Bronston took the spotlight with two numbers, including a thunderous, fabulous “Sweet Transvestite” (Richard O’Brien, Richard Hartley) from The Rocky Horror Show!

Now, wonderful songs aside, it’s clear that DeBarge is at her best when she just talks! Throughout the show she spoke about her own Covid lockdown—watching TV, getting fat and dealing with the aftermath of “that Orange Virus.” She talked about the new gender identity politics and personal pronoun choices, coining a new phrase: the more politically correct “A-Them” instead of “Amen.” She got big laughs complaining about her tendency to sweat during her shows, saying, “I come out here lookin’ like Halle Berry and end up lookin’ like CHUCK Berry!” Repeatedly losing her false fingernails, she said the show was always better depending on how many nails ended up on the floor! Excusing her constant reliance on a music stand full of notes, she shouted “you expect me to REMEMBER all this shit?!” One of my favorite quotes was “I’m gonna do the ballad now, ‘cause I’m a fuckin’ CHANTEUSE!” And getting a little more serious, she said that we New Yorkers have lived through AIDS, 9/11, Hurricane Sandy and Covid, stating, “We’re not just survivors, we’re THRIVERS!”

But therein lay a little problem. As Flo herself admitted to me after the show, she does tend to go off on tangents. She’ll engage members of her audience and before you know it, the show’s narrative goes off the rails. This performance ran for two and a half hours! Now, I will say that the crowd was never bored—everyone laughed and had a great time throughout. But it was definitely a long haul for those of us who like our cabaret shows in more conventional one-hour doses. Still, for die-hard Flo Fans, it was all worth it!

Flotilla BeBarge is an icon. She also happens to be a friend. And regardless of the overlong running time, it was great to get back into the cabaret room at Pangea and see Flotilla do what she does best: entertain! So, my prescription for beating the post-Covid blues is to get to Pangea… or wherever she’s playing—and by all means, go with the Flo!