This Friday the one and only Tracy Barlow, convicted felon and winner of Drag Idol 2017 will be let out of her maximum security prison for Community Service at The Royal Vauxhall Tavern. Dave Cross met up with Jim Lavender, the man who stands just behind Tracy, usually with a bottle of chloroform and a bag, to find out more.
Hi Jim, this is your second full length show at The RVT, how did the first one go?
The last show was produced by PopHorror, who were amazing, and it was great fun. Honestly, there could have been twice as many in the crowd and I’m saying this because there are budding artistes like myself who are putting their heart and soul (and pockets) into putting on new work and I just want more people to get out into our venues and see what we have to offer.
For those who haven’t had the pleasure, how would you describe Tracy Barlow?
Tracy Barlow is a drag character who is a larger than life cartoon character. Think Divine merged with The Mask but from the North-East of England. She’s deranged, she’s angry, ribald and about as politically incorrect as you could possibly dare to imagine! She’s raw and displays uninhibited emotions – not very British is it?
I’m almost frightened to ask but where in your mind did she spring from?
I started Tracy in an amazing competition at Her Upstairs in Camden, Not Another Drag Competition. She was a hodgepodge of different materials and ideas: scourers, tea towels, unrequited love, wool, bestiality… The more I learnt about drag the more I developed that she’s a separate character, like Dame Edna is to Barry Humphries. I started with all guns blazing ready to ‘shove it up the Tories arses!’ or something like that, but quickly learnt that making people laugh is where the real power and subversion is. A lot of it is about playing with taboos.
Tracy won Drag Idol last year, what effect did that have on you?
It was a really wonderful experience, but once it was time to get out there and start doing the gigs, a sense of dread descended on me. It’s easy working towards an immediate goal, but now I just had to go off and do my thing all over the country. It’s been a blast and I’ve learnt tons but I’ve definitely made big mistakes in order to find my feet, or rather, Tracy’s feet. One of the things that was so difficult was I felt like I had to somehow commercialise Tracy, even normalise her, so that she would fit everyone’s taste, but that doesn’t really make sense does it? How can you make a towering, terrifying, monstrosity who is pregnant with a litter of puppies and has brillo-pad hair normal? She’s absurd! So in creating a new character, who is ‘human’ or ‘real’, I’ve actually done myself a great favour by allowing Tracy to be as absurd as she wants.
This new show is called Community Service, does this mean Tracy is out of prison?
Tracy Barlow is Prisoner 24666 on Savage Row in the Paul O’Grady Maximum Detention Centre for Animal Offenders, though she’s petitioning for it to be changed from Offenders to Lovers. But renouncing men in favour of ‘his best friend’ is just the cherry on top of a long list of crimes including, but not limited to, cannibalism, cold-blooded murder, and cyber-terrorism. She recently wrote to the Queen asking for an island to start her own country, Barlopia, where it’s legal to marry dogs. Under no circumstances must Tracy Barlow be let out of prison!When she won Drag Idol, before her numerous life sentences were passed, the following gigs were worked in as part of her community service. She’s giving back by speaking at seminars targeted at the morally corrupt: which is why we’re at the Royal Vauxhall Tavern on Friday.
What can we expect in this show?
So! I’m really trying to push the boat out here to give people something worth coming out for. I am starting the show with my new drag character Nicola Buchanan, who is a beauty consultant for a pyramid scheme called eGlamour. She’s a Geordie girl with a VIP edge who is on a mission to bring the magic of shop floor theatre into your front room. Once Nicola has said her piece, I am de-dragging and doing a turn as myself on the piano before re-dragging as Tracy for the last part of the show. All of this will be interspersed by my real-life best friend Chloe Rose who just won the most recent season of Not Another Drag Competition. Chloe is a real star with amazing lip-sync skills as well an absolute killer voice, she’s like if Ethel Merman did drag. What more could you want?
What are your plans for 2018 and do they coincide with Tracy’s evil schemes?
I don’t think I could tell myself a year ago what things would end up being like, so what the HELL will I think next year? I would like to keep onwards and upwards: I’m hoping debuting Nicola will mean good things, and who knows who else I might plop out in time? Tracy’s actually started her own blog (britainsmostwantedblogger.wordpress.com) and is receiving something of a cult-like following of Furies who are very onboard with some of Barlopia’s proposed legalities. I’d actually really like to get involved in making films, not just about my characters, but the diverse and rich range of artistes we have here in the UK. In my opinion there’s feck all in terms of really subversive and entertaining homegrown media at the minute and I want to see it happen!
Tracy Barlow’s Community Service at The Royal Vauxhall Tavern, 372 Kennington Lane, Vauxhall, SE11.
Advance tickets via vauxhalltavern.com.
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