Cork Panti show will leave politics off the stage
In the midst of the controversy, Panti delivered a speech at the Abbey Theatre on the subject of everyday oppression of gay people in Ireland. A video of th e speech went viral online.
The intervening months have, unsurprisingly, seen an increase in Panti’s profile, the cult club performer becoming a national celebrity overnight. Those who would like to get up close and personal with Panti can do so when she brings her new show, High Heels in Low Places, to Cork Opera House this Saturday. And, you needn’t worry, there’ll be no speeches.
“At the moment I do sometimes feel this weird pressure to always be this ‘perfect gay’ and to always have an inspiring word,” says Rory O’Neill, Panti’s ‘real life’ alter ego. “And that’s fine, but that’s not only what I do. And this show is more about the anarchic energy of my club act. It’s a raucous stand-up show. It’s my funny, stupid side.”
Pantigate is touched on during the show, says O’Neill. “It’s something people want to know about,” he says. “But I’m not talking about it from the political side. I’m talking about it from the personal side. It’s an odd experience to find yourself in the middle of that whirlwind.”
A Mayo native, O’Neill came out as gay shortly after finishing secondary school. Later, having designed a drag act as part of an art-school project, he was offered a club night in Dublin. Before he knew it he had a career in performance. Living in Tokyo for a spell in the 1990s, O’Neill performed as part of a double-act with an American drag queen. “It was the most fun I’ve ever had,” he says. “People were paying me to have fun and to create havoc. That’s what drag queens are essentially expected to do.”
For the past seven years O’Neill has run the Panti-bar in Dublin while gaining a reputation both as a performer and campaigner. His sudden move to the centre-ground of Irish discourse brings its own pressures, but O’Neill says he won’t be watering down his act for mass consumption. In the meantime, he’s intent on using his time in the limelight wisely. Last week he lent his voice to a campaign to raise awareness of HIV, openly discussing his own HIV positive status.
“I’ve been quite open about my HIV status for quite some time,” he says. “I’d have mentioned it in gay magazines and in my live shows. But I was wary for a long time about talking about it in magazines and newspapers because then I don’t have control of how it’s presented. In my live shows I totally had control of what I said and how I explained it and that was important to me. Obviously, it’s something very personal to be talking about. But at the same time I just wanted to do it for bigger reasons.”
Good old conscientious, social campaigner Panti just won’t hold her whist, it seems.
O’Neill says a drag queen’s prime function is not to teach but to play court jester, provoke people to laughter at all the things that aren’t supposed to be said. “I would hope that people will come out of this show laughing after having had a good night,” he says. “It’s not about feeling like you’ve ‘learned’ something. It’s about fun. If they learn something too, then that’s a bonus.”
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