I promised you Spring!
Move over Prince
Razzle Dazzle baby!
Oh, I needed hope. I needed magic and I needed SPRING this April — or is it still March — or it May? And then I saw him. An image of Hector Lionel shared by a mutual friend — on his way to “hunt down groceries” looking glittery, vulnerable and powerful all at once. My friend said: "He can discuss everything from Plato to NATO. And a voice from heaven. One night he belts out La Vie en Rose on a mini staircase on Seventh Ave — woulda brought Piaf to her knees.” I knew right then— yes, Hector will be our next Glorious Being!
So, indulge me with this departure from our “usual” GBs (is there such a thing? Naaa) and meeet Héctor — a glorious mix of Prince and Puck — with a very large dose of Oscar Wilde — as we wonder aloud — “what next?”
GLORIOUS PROFESSION: Singer, Actor, Playwright, Cabaret Artiste
GLORIOUS PERSONA: Part Peacock, Part Peter Pan, All Magic
GLORIOUS QUALITIES: Fascinating, Fabulous, Old School Intellectual
GLORIOUS PHILOSOPHY:
“It’s not enough to be accepted when we blend in. We need to be accepted when we stand out”
I SAW THAT CHARLES BUSCH FOLLOWS YOU — J’ADORE — YOU KNOW HIM?
We met on the street. We were having a conversation and in the middle of it I asked if he was an actor and he said: “Yes, my name is Charles Busch.” Oh my …. I knew his work but I just didn’t recognize him.
OOPS
Then he sent me the most precious note saying that he felt that he had gone back in time, and met his younger self that night …
I treasure that note. That is New York to me.
YOU KNOW YOU GIVE OUT A DREAM LIKE QUALITY – I WOULD IMAGINE YOU MEET A LOT OF PEOPLE
ON THE STREETS.
I do.
SO HOW DOES IT FEEL TO BE 24, A GLORIOUS AND AMBITIOUS BEING, AND THIS PANDEMIC — LITERALLY — STOPS US IN OUR TRACKS
It’s hard. I’m a struggling cabaret artist — and we need to work LIVE — with strangers sitting next to each other in the dark. This could be the sort of thing that stops a career from happening. You’re a singer because you sing. You’re an actor because you act. What happens when you can’t do those things? Are you still an artist? I ask myself daily. Very scary.
BUT YOU’RE AN ONLINE GENERATION …
I’m an old soul. I don’t feel like a part of my generation in that way. I’m more tied to the past – my artistic sensibilities – my intellectual sensibilities…
AN “IRL” LIFE?
Definitely. It's very easy for me to walk into a crowded bar, get up and sing. See what the mood is. But it is a very different thing sitting in my home wide-streaming 10,000 people. What and who am I connecting to?
YOUR PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE?
I live by the Oscar Wilde quote: “We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.”
YOU LIVING IN A GUTTER?
Absolutely not. We are in our own universe in Bushwick, NY. If there was any way that I’d have to live through this period — it is here, our land of planetary magic. We call it Wanderstar.
“You’re a singer because you sing. You’re an actor because you act. What happens when you can’t do those things?”
DO YOU THINK ABOUT THE FUTURE?
All the time now. On a good day, I think there’s a lot of potential poetry that can be born out of this chaos. Because it is literally in the air.
Some of the most creative periods followed crashes. The 30s, then the 70s — when the city was literally crumbling, fabulism was born.
YOU LOOK LIKE YOU WERE HATCHED AS AN EXQUISITE FABERGÉ EGG. TRUE?
(Laughs) Born and raised in Puerto Rico! Arrived in NYC 4 years ago. I needed to come here to fulfill my destiny.
WHAT’S THAT DESTINY?
My main mission is called Boleros and all That Jazz — merging standards of the Great American songbook with their Latin American counterparts through a contemporary, queer filter. Old Spanish music has been playing like a sound track my whole life — the music my father and grandmother listened to and I chose to ignore. It wasn’t until later when I discovered the American music of that time spoke to me.
HOW WAS IT GROWING UP FABULOUS AND QUEER IN PUERTO RICO?
I won't say I didn’t suffer a lot. Walking down the street in Puerto Rico, wearing sequins, singing and dancing — it was hard, particularly for my dad, a small-town baseball hero — very macho. But now he and I have a special bond, a musical bond. To this day if I sing a song, any song at all, I sing it to him before I sing it to anybody else.
CAN HE SING?
No. But he can play the conga.
WHAT GLORIOUS BEINGS WOULD YOU SHARE AN ISLAND — OR A DINNER — WITH?
I’d say Oscar Wilde, number one, Marlene Dietrich, Judy Garland, Piaf, Almodovar, Fosse, Liza, Chita Rivera, Rita Moreno, Evita, Louis XVI, David Wojnarowicz, Andy Warhol, and the Marchesa Luisa Casati — they’d be my dream guests at a dinner party.
HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT MY LGBTQ CONTEMPORARIES — THE ONES RAISING HELL AT STONEWALL AND PROTESTING IN THE STREETS WITH ACT UP?
We’re very lucky for the generations before us. I am one of the people who oppose this fake sense of normalcy you see in the gay community in recent years — this imitation of white hetero life — look at how clean they are — look at how professional they can be. I reject that completely ‘cause if it wasn’t for the people at the front line –the daddys and the drag queens — we wouldn’t have what we have today. It is not enough to be accepted when we blend in. We need to be accepted when we stand out.
AND YOU WELCOME PEOPLE OF ALL AGES INTO YOUR TRIBE, I HEAR?
I have friends from their teens to their 80s.
YOU ALSO REMIND ME OF A DREAMY PETER PAN. DO YOU RELATE TO HIM?
I dream of him a lot. My sensibilities are old, but I am young in the sense that I have a lot of energy and want to accomplish a lot. Sometimes I need to remind myself that I am only 24. And I’ve had those moments since I was 14, plotting to get out of Puerto Rico. I had the realization that age could be something that betrayed me.
I STILL HAVE THAT PETER PAN THING … I CANNOT BELIEVE I AM NOW 70. BUT I FEEL LIKE 30.
That’s a difference between Puerto Rico and here. When I go home, I see my grandparents accepting what the world tells them: Dress your age, stop going out, take a nap. But my friends here, no way. My 70-year-old friend and I host a Sunday afternoon salon in Brooklyn where artists, writers, activists, scholars and historians of all ages and backgrounds come together for some boozy discourse and community building. We’re trying out a virtual format this Sunday.
WHAT’S YOUR MUG SAY?
Another Wilde motto: “One should be a work of art” — and on the back “Or wear a work of art.”
DO YOU EVER MISS AN OPPORTUNITY TO “GET DONE?”
Sometimes the surface can inform the substance. Perception is powerful. Like the lyrics from Chicago, mixed up with Cabaret to make another of my mottos: “Life is a cabaret so Razzle Dazzle ‘em — and all that jazz.”
When I use the term “all that jazz” — I use it loosely, same as Boleros, these are words that are meant to be provocative — of a certain period, a certain style and joi de vivre — and blurs English and Spanish.
DO YOU FEEL, CORONA ASIDE, THAT YOU WERE LIVING OUT YOUR DREAMS IN NEW YORK?
I was on my way to accomplish something — getting my new play “Kiss of Marlene” on stage. And there were all sorts of friendships developing — people I wouldn’t have thought to be in the same room with a few years ago — much less friends. I did feel a part of a collective — but it was based on social interaction and cabarets … sigh. To have that stopped completely and without warning — heart breaking.
I AM TOWARD THE BEGINNING OF MY LAST QUARTER OF LIFE — YOU ARE RIGHT AT THE BEGINNING. I HAVE REINVENTED MYSELF A ZILLION TIMES AND YOU MAY BE ON THE FIRST OF MANY ...
I truly hope so. I have nothing but ideas.
HOW DO YOU STAY HAPPY THROUGH THIS?
Painting, getting dressed up — the grocery store is my outlet. Trying out a new recipe, arranging flowers, doing a creative table setting. When everything else fails I turn on “The Dick Van Dyke Show.”
DID NEW YORK GIVE YOU THE FREEDOM AND EXOTICA YOU WERE AFTER?
Absolutely. That first year I was living the full fantasy — the bubble — seeing Broadway shows every week — my parents supporting me through school. I thought I really understood New York magic, but it wasn’t until the bubble burst that I found myself walking through Central Park at midnight, sitting by myself in a bar. This is the core of New York for me — you could walk into a crowded or empty bar, sit down and the person sitting next to you may have a life changing story.
I AM GETTING ALL VERKLEMPT OVER HERE. OUR CITY…
We have to really keep what it is that makes us want to move here. This is one of the biggest dangers of gentrification. Artists can't live here anymore and it becomes a ghost town for the rich. This may be our glorious time to take it back.
Hector will be fairly available till May 1st, like the rest of us New Yorkers and on his IG — a treat at @hectorlionel_jazz.