Pennsylvania native, writer, performer, comedian and artist, Justin Elizabeth Sayre, started out as an actor, making a name for himself in the downtown New York cabaret scene. There he payed homage to cultural icons such as Judy Garland, Cher, and Elizabeth Taylor. Eventually, his talents extended to writing novels, developing TV shows and creating theater experiences. Sayre is an especially strong voice when it comes to gay culture, the LGBTQ community and our current political climate. His show, The Meeting, was the longest-running LGBTQ comedy variety show in New York, playing at Joe’s Pub for eight years. From that project, he branched out into plays and solo work, a group of YA novels published by Penguin/Random House and eventually for television. Among Sayre’s solo shows are Camp Horror Soap Opera and Ravenswood Manor.
Over the last ten years he’s written and hosted Night Of A Thousand Judys, the Pride c
oncert to benefit The Ali Forney Center. This year’s show, at Joe’s Pub on Sunday, June 5, commemorate Judy’s centenary birthday and the 20-year anniversary of The Ali Forney Center.
NiteLife Exchange (NLE) asks Justin Elizabeth Sayre (JES) Six Questions:
NLE: Can you identify the history of Judy love by the gay community? What is it about her that makes her a gay icon?
JES: Well, I think I wrote about this in my book, From Gay to Z, that I think Judy set the template for all gay icons to come. Glamour out of adversity.
Talent over prejudice. Survival over all. She’s a trouper, a singer who has been through it, yet great each new chance with hope. That’s a very queer narrative. Judy’s always had her appeal from The Wizard of Oz, going over the rainbow to a world of color, to the touring years of endless comebacks. She’s a brave warrior of the heart, and I think for a lot of gay people looking to love in the world, she’s a beacon of what we can do.
NLE: How did Night of a Thousand Judys originate?
JES: Night of a Thousand Judys grew out of my previous show, The Meeting, which ran for 8 and a half years and was the longest-running queer variety show in New York. That show was all about community, so from the very beginning, we, and by we I mean myself, Dan Fortune and Adam Rosen, my producers and long-time friends, wanted to reaffirm our commitment to community. Every month at that show, we would celebrate a different gay icon, and since Judy was born and died in June, we thought June, being pride month, would be the perfect time to celebrate the greatest of all gay icons.
NLE: How did you become connected to the Ali Forney Center?
JES: I have long admired the work done by the Ali Forney Center, for they offer a really holistic approach to getting LGBTQ kids off the street. They do more than provide housing, they build lives. When looking for a charity to devote this event to, I wanted a charity that was doing real work on the ground, and I could not think of a better organization than the Ali Forney Center.
NLE: As an advocate for LGBTQ rights and equality, how far has progress come? How far do we need to still go? Does the current conservative ultra-right political climate scare you?
JES: I think like most marginalized people, I’m always afraid. However, this current climate is particularly frightening. It all reminds me of Weimar Germany, a brief period of flourishing before the atrocities and cruelty. I think we should all be worried because it could happen here, and it is. The rhetoric from the far right is all about annihilation and destruction. They’ve stormed the Capitol, over a lie. And now women, and then gays, and then a new open unchecked racism that makes all the progress we’ve made, disappear in a moment. And the thing that frightens me the most, is that we’ve all begun to feel hopeless about changing it. We’re numb to the brutality and the cruelty when now is the time to get organized, get angry, and get working.
NLE: Who have your mentors been, creatively and personally as a non-gender conforming individual?
JES: My greatest mentor has always been Justin Vivian Bond. Even though the art we make is different, as far as someone shining a light toward truth and sensibility, it has forever been Viv. From the bravery of the Kiki and Herb days to the solo career, exploring a whole new kind of bravery and self-truth. I always look to Viv as a source of inspiration and strength. And I know I’m not the only one. But there’s also a list of long-lost mentors, whose work and lives have inspired me endlessly and whom I never got to meet—most specifically Charles Ludlam, Jackie Curtis and Ethyl Eichelberger.
NLE: As a multi-talented creative, what do you most seek to communicate in your own work. What are your creative goals?
JES: I think my work is all about reclaiming. Space, time, language. It’s all linked to a sense of loss, that I felt as a queer artist growing up in the shadow of AIDS. I know that probably sounds very heavy for a comedian, but I think at the root, I am an artist that is in conversation with the past and bringing it into a new arena. I am always seeking to entertain, to share space, and create community, but I know that part of my work is making the past new. I see it as the thread. Perhaps I’m wrong.
