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[0:00] Macon Prickett: Good evening, everyone. Welcome to the fabulous 54 Below. Before we get started this evening, just a polite reminder, please take this moment to silence your cell phones and also there's no flash photography, please. Welcome to the 54 Below podcast. I'm Macon Prickett, the club's assistant programming director. Our guest today is the wonderful Tammy Faymous, New York's riotous and raucous hairy Drag Queen, who is bringing Christmas chaos to 54 Below this holiday season for a humorous and heartwarming night of spicy storytelling, spiced eggnog, and classic carols. Tammy Faymous, welcome to the podcast. How are you doing today?

[0:40] Tammy Faymous: I am wonderful. How are you doing?

[0:44] Macon Prickett: I am so good. I'm so excited about this show. I've been working on it. And yeah, it's just once we get into the nitty-gritty of my story, you'll find out why I'm really excited about it.

[0:56] Tammy Faymous: I can't wait. You know, it's unfortunately rare that we have drag performers in the basement. And this is something we're really working on. We want more of this kind of entertainment, and we want to really open these doors to more people in the drag community and like really get it going. So, you know, camp hilarious, humorous Christmas shows the way to go, you know.

[1:20] Macon Prickett: Well, I think a lot of drag queens lip sync. So it will be hard for them to be in 54 Below.

[1:28] Tammy Faymous: For me, I do drag because I love to sing. Um, I've sung all my life, and I've also at the same time had my entire life had my voice miscategorized or mislabeled as being a woman's, which I don't care. Um, but I do have a really feminine voice. I love my voice. Um, so when I sing, I try to sing in the key of a lot of the performers that I sing in. If I'm doing Patti Smith, if I'm doing Amy Winehouse, um, I do, you know, Meredith Brooks or Alanis Morissette. It's a lot of like 90s alternative kind of performers, and that's really who I'm inspired by. Um, and so yeah, that's basically a big part of me is and my drag is singing, and that's why I do it.

[2:17] Tammy Faymous: And so I'm really excited to bring my drag. My drag is also very messy, it doesn't take itself too seriously, it's very um sort of irreverent in of itself. I don't really believe in spending hundreds of dollars on makeup just to wash it down the drain. I hate doing makeup, actually. Uh, so I think that may connect me more to women in general. Uh, because I just don't like doing my makeup. And as and I do try to hire glam as much as possible if I can afford it.

[2:46] Macon Prickett: Sure.

[2:47] Tammy Faymous: Yeah. You know, I was scrolling through your Instagram and kind of watching some videos in preparation for both the show and this episode. And there is something that's so kind of raw and unfiltered about your drag, which I also really, really love. It really kind of, you know, reminds me of Divine and some of those like gritty drag queens who were just doing the damn thing, you know. And I, as a fan of drag in general, just love that.

[3:13] Tammy Faymous: I think for some people, drag is an identity. I think for some people who may be trans or gender non-conforming, they do drag because it's a way for them to enter an identity for themselves that they may be experimenting with or they may be curious about. And I totally support that. For me, drag really is performance, and for me, also I think it's important that we don't let drag in of itself become this very standardized or gentrified entity, which it kind of has become.

[3:47] Tammy Faymous: I was doing messy drag 10 years ago in Philadelphia when I first was performing. And we all were kind of messy drag queens at that point. Now the statement that I'm making is a lot louder and a lot clearer because there is so much drag out there. And so much of it to me is kind of paint by numbers. A lot of queens are watching the same YouTube makeup tutorials, and they all kind of look the same with the crazy contouring and the eyebrows. And that's all good in that, but that's not why I want to do drag. And that's not what makes me feel comfortable, you know.

[4:19] Tammy Faymous: Um, almost less makeup is more makeup for me. And I don't do drag to look good, I do drag to feel good, and I also do drag to make other people feel better about themselves. Because I think when I enter a space and I'm messy and I maybe have gum in my hair, or I just ate some buffalo wings on stage, and I have hot sauce all over my face, and like all that, it really reminds people not to take themselves too seriously, too, because I definitely am not taking myself seriously.

[4:49] Macon Prickett: You're I mean, you're absolutely right. There is there is kind of this, yeah, and even talking with you now. I'm like thinking of all of the drag that we see in media and popular culture on TikTok everywhere, and there is kind of something about the super polished, you know, the step-by-step routine that is really kind of the only thing that's being done.

[5:14] Tammy Faymous: So, like to see these, like to see you be so like proudly this messy, gritty, like who you are, so individual. Like, like I am such a fan of that, and I love that. I think that also sends a great message to people, like you said.

[5:29] Tammy Faymous: Well, drag was really created to break rules, and that really is why this art form was created in the first place. And those broken rules were, I think, much louder in the beginning. But now we're at this time when there are so many rules with drag, and I hate that, and that annoys me. And I don't like being told you have to do something a certain way in order to do something. I'm always trying to be an outsider, I'm always trying to blur the lines, and I have a whole lot of problems with authority.

[6:03] Tammy Faymous: And so, if uh, especially an authority figure is telling me, oh well, in order to be taken seriously as a drag queen, you gotta do A B C D. It's like, well, I'm doing X, Y, and Z. Just because like because you're telling me I can't like, and so even with the makeup thing, I think a lot of people would be like, Oh, you're not a real drag queen if you don't like doing makeup, or if you don't do your own makeup, or if you're not really good at makeup. I don't know.

[6:26] Tammy Faymous: I just feel that like I and maybe there is some sort of confidence confusion there, and maybe I'm not getting my makeup better for you know, more of a deeper reason or something. But I don't know. For me, I also just love going into a space and people kind of seeing me for who I am underneath the drag as well. I mean, I keep my hairy chest, I shave my beard because I do love being clean-shaven on my face, but I keep my hairy chest, my hairy pits, and some people don't even notice that.

[7:00] Tammy Faymous: Like sometimes I can be so feminine looking or just so into it, and they're like, Oh my god, I didn't even realize your chest is covered in hair. Because you know, it's all about just I think having that confidence and having that energy, and I definitely have those things, regardless of what my makeup looks like, or regardless of if they're chatting on me, and regardless of how combed my wig is, um, none of that stuff really matters to me. What matters to me is giving a good show, being present, um, making people happy, making people um remind themselves that you know, life shouldn't be taken too seriously, and yeah, and hopefully just do a good show through all those things.

[7:43] Macon Prickett: Yeah, and and also that all of that mixed with the fact that you are doing your own singing is also just so like admirable to me as well. Just because we don't see that a lot. And you know, there have been some great queens who have been popular recently who also are great singers, and I love that they get the chance to showcase that, but really you blending all of the elements that you're just talking about of just being so you and then being your own singing voice. Like that's like that's a perfect drag queen in my opinion.

[8:12] Tammy Faymous: Yeah, and I think even with a lot of the singing that we do here, it's a lot of queens that are singing very pop or very kind of dance sort of. I'm really trying to bring in like more pop and raw, uh more raw, more alternative, not necessarily like punk, but definitely I think I look a lot to the women of the 90s, you know, like even like Natalie Merchant or the Indigo Girls, or I sing Melissa Etheridge's "Window," or like Alanis Morissette, Meredith Brooks, like Patti Smith, I love Amy Winehouse. So, like those are the people that I'm really trying to center.

[8:44] Tammy Faymous: And I think that there's a big group of people, like any 90s baby or 90s teenager is very nostalgic for that era. And you know, as we're graduating out of gays being or anybody being nostalgic for Judy Garland and Barbra Streisand, we're now entering a new era where people are able to be nostalgic about the 90s. Because unfortunately, the 90s is almost 30, it is 30 years ago.

[9:05] Macon Prickett: I know.

[9:06] Tammy Faymous: It's true. But that, but even for me, I think I also turn to the music of that era because one of my favorite songs, I haven't sung it in a show yet, is like Ani DiFranco's "Untouchable Face." And I would love to cover that because that song was like a huge part of my sister's life, and she introduced Ani DiFranco to me. And like, how many people do you see singing Ani DiFranco? Or how many drag queens do you see putting that out there, you know?

[9:32] Tammy Faymous: I also love to add like Madonna or Tina Turner or Cher or some of the more, you know, pop divas of the last five decades or whatever that are revered by us all. But I also love to sort of even do that music a little bit more rock, um, influenced or inspired to make sure that it also sort of fits the overall arc of my show as well. But it's not like me coming out and doing like a disco pop dance, like "Reaver," I mean, like, you know, um, auto-tuned or something, and like, oh, I'm gonna make all the kids dance.

[10:03] Tammy Faymous: No, I'm definitely like one of the queens that I really look to who I think has done an amazing job is Trixie. And I think Trixie, by doing country, she really sort of was like, okay, this is a lane, and I'm gonna kind of create it for myself, as opposed to doing more pop music or more, you know, dance clubby kind of stuff. A lot of the queens also can't really sing, so they like are they just like rapping, which are also fine, which is fine.

[10:29] Macon Prickett: Well, and the thing is that is fine.

[10:30] Tammy Faymous: And we also, like you said, we have like the dance electronic kind of, we have kind of that area covered, and we have the Judys, we have the Barbras, we have the Lizas. Like, and they do it well, and I love that, but also seeing something like going coming to see a drag performer doing a Christmas show and bringing in all of these like 90s elements. It's like who, first of all, who would expect that? And second of all, how exciting to offer something that is different and unexpected to the audiences.

[10:58] Tammy Faymous: Yeah. And um, my music director, Darno White, he's performed and directed musically a lot of shows at 54 Below. Um, and he's amazing, and I absolutely love him. He also really helps with inspiring the music, and he kind of comes from a much more soulful or more like a little bit R&B, and like his sound and his it's a great um amalgamation between him and me.

[11:22] Tammy Faymous: Like us combining is really, really special because I also feel like he infuses the work that we do with a lot of really great like musicality that isn't necessarily something that I would naturally bring to the table. I'm also not the greatest singer in the world. I mean, I'm not classically trained, my sister is a classically trained opera singer, and there have been confidence confusions with my voice, but I love singing. I do it and this past year I've been on this new sort of healing journey, and a big part of that was rediscovering and reclaiming my drag for myself, and I've been so much more present in my body that my people that have come see me perform for the last decade have been seeing my shows, and they're like, wow, your voice sounds really good.

[12:02] Tammy Faymous: And I'm really, really, but it's also not perfect, but I don't give a but that's all like that's not I'm not also not gonna worry about that too. Like, I just am there to give a good show no matter what. And I really, really do.

[12:14] Tammy Faymous: I mean, like I I gave I did a show at Chelsea table and stage over the summer, and somebody after the end of the show came up to me, a stranger, I did not know them, and they were like, This really felt like old school New York. And oh my god, I'm gonna like get emotional, but like when they said that to me, that like meant so oh my god, I mean like that meant so much to me. Like to hear that person saying that somebody I didn't even know, I'm like, oh my god, like that is the best compliment to have anybody ever say to me. And so hopefully with this show as well, like that's something that we definitely kind of bring to the table. And also the Christmas time can be a hard time for queer people in general.

I mean, this show is everybody. One of my taglines is like we're all surviving something. But I do think at the holidays, queer people have it especially sort of tough or anybody who feels on the outside of a family unit or a very normative environment, even with me and I have amazing nieces and nephews, and I'm best friends with my sister, and I always go home for the holidays. I still have trouble, I think, you know, just really feeling like I belong at the holidays because our journeys are so much different than our straight and our heteronormative counterparts or whatever. It's true. So that is I'm also really gonna lean into in the show. There's definitely gonna be some Christmas songs, but there's gonna be a lot of other music that you wouldn't necessarily think of as being holiday, but I make connections to the holiday season, or I sort of draw it back in to the queer experience and sort of explain maybe this song could really represent what a queer person feels at the holidays. And I'm really excited about that too.

[13:43] Macon Prickett: Yeah, also well, we are going to talk so much about the show in just a minute. But before we like jump into it, I just kind of want to know, because I'm sure that some of our listeners aren't as familiar with your background, like where did Tammy Faymous begin and where did Drag kind of enter your life?

[14:00] Tammy Faymous: Woo girl. Okay, so basically I was like theater kids, and I was hella gay from birth and just feminine and you know I got I got this amazing voice that sounds like a woman, or does is stereotypically sounds like a woman. So I never got the parts that I really wanted as a kid. Um and I would try out and always get, you know, and then my junior year of high school, I got cast as the stepmother in a production of Cinderella. And that came about because um we auditioned and I was called back for like the Herald, you know, and at the callbacks, they were just like, um, the girls that were called back for the step family weren't really giving it their all, like they weren't having fun. And as a joke, the directors asked some of the boys to just get up and read, like all the gay boys in the room, and we killed it, and it was hilarious.

And then at the end of the callbacks, they called up me and somebody else, and they were like, We're thinking about casting you guys as the step family. Would you take it? And the other person said no, because they were like too intimidated. And I was like, hell yes, less like a part is a part, let's go. Now I was 17 and this was 2004. So this is like pre-drag race. I mean, drag restarted in 2009. So drag even in 2004 was not the thing that it is today. I mean, now I'm sure there are lots of community theaters or high school programs that would think about casting maybe a character in drag, but this was very rare. And honestly, for the directors to do that at the time, it really meant a lot because I don't know, it just I really look back on that experience.

Um, because then I did I started it and ended up being incredible, and I was shining and people were loving me, and I was so much happier, and I just was really getting this opportunity finally to perform like I felt like I deserved to. Um, but then well, unfortunately, the week of opening, my mom randomly decided to sit me down for no reason and tell me that my dad was a cross dresser. And um, this was a family secret that had been a big toxic plague on our house. My mom was, and and none of this was happening, none of this is positive. Like, people I've told this story, and people have kind of taken away, like, oh, it was a very this was very, very, very bad. This this moment. And I didn't really think about the timing until literally a year ago when I was in therapy, and my therapist was like, I think you only do drag because you want to make your dad feel better about his cross-dressing.

And I was like, no, because like I was doing drag before I even knew about my dad's. And honestly, I was in so much deep denial about like the why, the who, the what, and the where and the how of like my mom telling me that week that I never, never was like, oh, she told me not for a very good reason. She told me I think because she saw me being really happy in this thing and and and it made her unhappy because it was me putting this family secret that had really harmed her and really harmed my father. Um, I was putting it in the spotlight at 17 years old for everybody to see. And unfortunately, I think that experience really hurt my relationship with drag. Because even that weekend, I still killed it on stage, but all throughout the weekend, I was in my head, I was so weirded out.

I was like, oh my God, like what does this mean for me? And what does this mean for my dad? And like, and I was still trying to understand my dad at that time about what his cross dressing meant for him. I mean, right after my mom told me, I went into also like, I have to take care of my dad. Like, I the next day I went up to him, like gave him a hug and was like, I I really, really, in a in a really intense way, jumped into a protector of him. But I also think in protecting him, I still was really um confused about what his cross-dressing meant for him, and what does drag mean to me? And um, I won't when I years later in my mid-20s, I started performing drag in um in Philadelphia. And my birth, my drag name was birthed because, and it's actually very fitting because you know, just recently it was announced about this musical coming to Broadway.

Me and my best friend had watched Through the Eyes of Tammy Faye, and my best friend turned to me and she was just like, you know what would be an amazing drag name? Tammy Faymous with like famous spelled F-A-Y-M-O-U-S. And I'll never forget, it was like when we were still using LG flip phones, I put like my little LG notes, I put like Tammy Faymous, and like two or three months later, I was performing professionally at a regional theater in Delaware, and they were doing a drag benefit for the for the theater, and it was all impersonations. And they asked me to do Amy Winehouse, and they were like, Yeah, we would love for you to do Amy Winehouse. What's your drag name? And I was like, Tammy Faymous, and that's how Tammy was really born.

But I was about 24-25 when this happened, and I started getting a lot of gigs. I started performing weekly. Like, I ended up having a really successful career at the time in Philadelphia. But still, I was in my head about it. I was insecure about it. I was drinking like crazy. And I really think that the experience of my mom telling me the way she told me about my dad really did prevent me from like really loving my drag and understanding it. And I stopped. When I stopped drinking, I stopped doing drag. And I was like, you know what? I'm gonna focus on other things. So I did this career in media. I went from having no experience in journalism to five years later having a job at the Today Show and NBC News.

I worked there for years and it was incredible. But even with my journalism, all my journalism was about LGBTQ queer issues and drag. Like at NBC News, I became the drag journalist. Like I, and and even like when I was doing it, people would sort of say I was an expert on this. And I would always be very sheepish about taking any sort of expert, you know, um, title except for drag. I'm like, I'm a drag, I am and and so through through all this like story, you know, I came to the realization last year, you know, with my therapist, thank god about the timing and the denial and understanding. And I was like, you know what, girl, I gotta go back to Tammy. I gotta bring her back. I put her on the back burner for the wrong reasons, I think.

And if you even look at my media career, uh, me covering drag, I think is very representative of the fact that I do love it. I feel so good doing it, you know. Um, and yeah, and so that's a lot. But that's pretty much the the basis in the story around, you know, the birth and the and the evolution of my drag. I wouldn't necessarily say the evolution because I'm probably like messier than I ever been before. But I definitely have evolved in terms of accepting myself and really understanding all the confidence confusions around it. And I'm so much clearer in my resolve and my acceptance of me, my mom, my dad, where now it's like I gotta do this for me. And it feels really, really good.

[21:28] Macon Prickett: That's I mean, that's incredible. Not only hearing about the birth of Tammy Faymous, but the rebirth of Tammy Faymous. Like really, no, you're right. I mean, it really is a rebirth. And like, even the other day I got dinner with an old friend of mine, and he just when when he his face lit up when he was like talking about Tammy Faymous and me going back to performing, and he's like, Yeah, like it was something that you really love, and the fact that you're back doing it again. I I'm just so proud of you. And even just that moment was such a like affirmation as to like why I'm doing this now, you know, and it feels just so good. I mean, it also just feels like no better time to be doing it now because I do think that drag is so standardized, is so normalized in so many ways. And I'm like, I want to get in there and just mess it up, mess it up.

[22:16] Tammy Faymous: Absolutely. No, I love that. I think we need more of that. We need more of that in the theater, in all of the arts, but especially I feel like with the drag world right now. Like that's I find that thrilling, and I am already a fan. I can't wait to like see where like this is good. Like, yeah, I think that people, I mean, I think that people I I've had a even at my last show, I had a bunch of I did a show at Red Eye for Halloween, and there was like a table of lesbians from California who had never known no idea who I was, and they were just, and at the end of the show, they were like, I really get what you're doing. And I'm like, I just, and it just feels really good because I think it can also be a hard thing to sort of explain to people or something.

And I think that of course, with like Brooklyn drag versus Manhattan drag and Manhattan and Brooklyn drag is so much more bohemian or so much sort of you know, um, punk in so many ways or whatever, but still it takes itself so seriously, where like I have no problem being the biggest joke in the room in the room or sort of calling that out. I mean, my big slogan this summer was make drag fun again. And I had this big poster and I was carrying it around Fire Island during some of my shows, and I did the invasion with it, and people were coming up to me being like, Yes, I love this. I like love what you stand for. And and and it just feels so good because I feel like now is the best time to be calling out these things and just to keep it in check, like just to keep some people in check.

[23:53] Macon Prickett: Yeah, yeah. Well, because it as an art form, much like the others, has the potential to do really, really great things and bring about change, but also you can do all of those things while not taking it so seriously. Just because you have the opportunities to do all of these wonderful things doesn't mean it has to also be the most serious, like you know, thing. I mean, I am kind of wait, I am kind of like a drag expert, and I go to a lot of drag shows myself, and I still go to drag shows and I love drag shows and I love lip syncing queens. Lip syncing is such an art, and I'm still trying to infuse some lip syncing into my shows.

[24:30] Tammy Faymous: Like, I'll do a song, but I'll meet I maybe will put in like um famous scenes from movies that I'll lip sync to to sort of kind of also communicate the energy or the you know, the the theme that I'm trying to get along with the song, but at so many shows, like some of these queens are just begging people to tip them. Like tip girl, I'm gonna tip you when you do something worthy to be tipped for. But if you're just begging for a couple dollars on the microphone, that is not no. And so much, I mean, I think there are a lot of people that do turn to this art form because they think it's a cash grab and they think it's an easy road to success, but they don't have the purpose, they don't have the intention behind it.

They don't even know maybe why they're really doing drag or what really informed their love for it. They're just trying to get somewhere, and I just don't know if that's the best thing for them, and that's definitely not the best thing for me, you know. I've been probably losing money on shows because I have an expensive band to pay for. And that's also why a lot of drag queens probably are performing with a band because it's expensive. But I wouldn't want to do it any other way. I mean, performing with karaoke tracks is yes, cheaper, but is one of the most like lonely experiences in the world to be like it's already very vulnerable to be on stage singing, you know, really to be just with a computer track.

No, I love my band, I pay them good, I'm very proud of that. But it's just like this isn't right now a money-making opportunity for me. It really isn't. This is me um reclaiming my art. And I also think when capitalism is combined with art making, everybody loses. Because then you got Taylor Swift drag brunches, you got a bunch of Taylor Swift drag brunches, and girl, I am not uh there will be no Tammy famous Taylor Swift drag brunch. I made a joke. Like, if any queen performs a Taylor Swift song, they better sing it live. Because if Taylor Swift is one of her songs, you can get through one of her songs too, because she ain't a singer. It's saying, like, I'm a Swifty, but I can admit it. I don't know.

I'm a Swifty too, girl. I love Taylor. And I listen to all other things. I'm just saying that like I do think when capitalism is really involved with art making, that is when things get compromised. And I have another career that I'm very excited about as well that I'm working in addition to this. And of course, if Tammy was able to like pay all my bills and pay my mortgage and pay my maintenance, yeah, let's go, Tammy. But for now it isn't. And but for now, I really just want to create a space where I'm creating something I'm proud of. And hopefully the audience, and they have been, you know, the strangers that have come to my show the past year, I think really have been picking up when I've button down. So that feels just like really, really good.

[27:16] Macon Prickett: Absolutely. Well, we're going to take a very quick break. We're going to be back chatting about all things Tammy Famous Christmas at 54 Below when we get back.

[27:31] Macon Prickett: And we are back. We are chatting with Tammy Faymous about a very Tammy famous Christmas coming to 54 Below on Wednesday, December 27th at 9:30 p.m. Just gonna make sure we're plugging the date and time so we all know. So you can all get your tickets. My friend was joking and he was like, Yeah, I wonder if um we just were joking. I was like, Yeah, it's a shame I couldn't get a date like before Christmas. He's like, Yeah, no, but like we're at the end of the show. Like the best Tammy could do is two days after Christmas, and I love that because that is hilarious. But then I was also thinking like so many people have off the week between Christmas and New Year's. So then they'll need things to do. It is a Wednesday night, it is later on a Wednesday night, but if you're off Thursday from work, it's a great time to potentially catch my show. So I'm actually really excited about the timing. Um I think it's gonna be really, really good.

[28:25] Tammy Faymous: Yeah, I think it's a great time. I thought why not? And that's that's such a fun week, anyway. People are like you said, looking for things to do. There are more people in the city than than usual. So like come see a drag Christmas show at 54 Below. Why not? Like it's gonna be amazing. And after they listen to the podcast and they hear how like raw and authentic and like awesome it's going to be, how could they not? So they're gonna get with it. I do want to ask you, you spoke earlier about um Trixie Mattel kind of doing the country route and really doing her thing. Are there other drag queens specifically that you really like look to for inspiration? Do you have a drag mother? Like, what are some who are some of the queens that you look up to?

[29:05] Tammy Faymous: I definitely don't think I don't think anybody would uh claim me as their child. I I do have a lot of good relationships with a lot of people. I am I am I've had a historical relationship with Alaska. I actually dated Alaska for a year. Um that was interesting, and we're so good friends. Um I'm close with like Peppermint. I really love Peppermint. Peppermint and me performed back in my mid 20s, and she is such a light, and she is such an incredible person. Um let me think of some other I think though when it comes to the people that I'm trying to emulate with my act or the people that I inspire to be, it's much more in the cabaret scene. It's much more like Justin Vivian Bond, Jolie Arias, um, Murray Hill, like Bridget Everett.

I really, if if I could call anybody my drag mom, even though she's not a drag queen, it would be like Bridget Everett. I want Tammy Faymous to be like the drag version of Bridget Everett. And um, she's somebody who I love. I used to live by her in the upper west side, and we would bump into each other, walking our dogs, and she's such an amazing person. But that is really sort of the hierarchy of the people that I aspire to be. So it's more in the cabaret scene. And another big um drag queen who was a big inspiration for me and still is um her name is Martha Graham Cracker, and she was um is a queen in Philadelphia. And when I was performing in my mid-20s, she was very established in the Philadelphia scene.

She also came from the theater world. She ran a very prestigious theater company in Philadelphia called Pig Iron, which was like one of the first kind of people to really do um, you know, when you do shows in like the middle of a bathroom and like a warehouse or whatever, you know, like they would like they would not like the 12th night, but you know, it's a truck stop, it's like a rest stop at a truck stop. Um so she performed as Martha Graham Cracker, and she also sings live and she also sings with a band, and she's also Harry. I as Tammy, I performed with her a few times back in Philly, and I wouldn't necessarily call her my drag mom, but she's also somebody that I've definitely been inspired for and has really shaped my act, and it's somebody that I uh I look to for that inspiration in many, many ways.

But a lot of the people that I'm bringing up are more in the cabaret world, I would say, than the drag world per se. Um, and that's also just the way that I'm trying to sort of create my shows. I love performing in a nightclub and I love performing in a gay bar. But the one thing that's also harder when you're singing live, you then gotta work with like the shitty microphone that like just run out of batteries and like the sound system that like you know. I mean, even jinx is funny because Jinx Monsoon made a funny joke that like when she performed in Chicago on Broadway, she like had to hold back her singing because for the first time she didn't have to like scream to be heard. But when you sing live in these gay bars with these shitty ass sound systems, it can be really hard to project and to also like do the best vocal quality.

She obviously was in Chicago on Broadway, so hopefully Chicago has a good enough sound system and they do. But yeah, they can afford it. But there are so many, I mean, I love drag. I mean, I love I love um let me think of some of the other, I mean, Trixie, I think, is definitely an amazing businesswoman. I definitely think with her motel in Palm Springs and just the fact that she got a country album. I think that was so unique and so different from what other people were doing at the time. I love Bianca Del Rio. Um yeah. Oh, yeah. I mean, the list goes on and on. Alexis Michelle, she's been a huge supporter of mine. We had a FaceTime the other day, and she's done shows at 54 Below. I mean, she's a really talented one.

Her show's yeah, great voice too, you know. Yeah, I mean, there are so many people doing so many great things. I mean, of course, now we're in this moment when to have your drag seen the most by the most, it's to be on drag race. Um I'm obsessed with drag race. I love drag race. I reported on, I've interviewed RuPaul. I DM with Michelle Vassage daily. She was just DMing me this morning about something. Um, I know the producers very well. It's an incredible platform. But at this point now, it's hard to imagine how people who really paint outside the box of the formula, how they're able to get a platform there. Um hopefully that continues to happen with people. Um, but you know, I think it in some ways is harder.

But then you have somebody like Jimbo, who is so outside in many ways, um, find so much success there. I just hope they keep giving opportunities to the Jimbo's of the world because there are definitely more of them out here, I think doing that type of thing.

[33:54] Tammy Faymous: Yeah, we don't see that enough on the show. Absolutely. I mean, even some of the queens who, if you go back and watch those earlier seasons, you think of, you know, some of them just had duct type and a prayer, you know. And it's like you're watching those episodes and you're like, they wouldn't not because of their their not because of a lack of talent or style or anything, but there's no way they could even be in the new seasons without, you know, a little bit of restructuring. So yeah, I would love to see them continue to give those opportunities.

[34:23] Tammy Faymous: Right. I mean, I think it's like a couple things. I mean, back in the day, uh, they were still growing, and so people didn't know how successful it would be. So they probably weren't putting that much money going into it. There were queens that showed up season two in like jeans, you know, like in the workroom. And now the idea of that happening, but I also kind of love that because I also think that like, why not show up in jeans? Like that can be part of somebody's drag, right? I think it's the same, but we know now that how what a platform it is. And so there's there's people going into 40,000 worth of credit card debt to just get on the show with the outfits that they think the show needs them to have.

Who knows? If I was put in that position, which I've never been, who knows what decisions I would have to make because I would probably try my best to get enough money and hire a bunch of designers to put together some good books. Um, but I also don't know if that's necessarily at the core of my drag. So it's also like, how do you stay true to yourself while also doing well on that show? That that's a very, very hard, hard thing, I think, to compromise, especially now that the show has become so successful and it has become such a thing. Um, it can be more confusing as to say, like, where do I fit in? I of course still think people should audition. I'm probably gonna audition for the next season.

Um because why not? But I also just have to be like honest with myself too about like if I did get on, I may have to figure out how to do my makeup a little bit a little bit better. I think it would be hilarious if I show up day one and I'm just like, wait, like I can't bring my my makeup artist with me. I mean, that would probably start like a forest fire in the in the workroom.

[36:06] Macon Prickett: In the workroom, right? Absolutely see people's reactions and be like, yeah, why I mean, why can't we hire Glam for this? Oh, we can't? That's not part of the rules. Fuck. That I mean, it'd be a great bit, honestly, like unforgettable moment.

[36:23] Macon Prickett: But they're outside, like they're here, like we can't let them in. That's amazing. Well, I want to get to the the Christmas of it all. Um, why a why a Christmas show? Where did this idea begin? And um, what what are kind of what was kind of the inspiration to to do this?

[36:45] Tammy Faymous: Well, I think that, like I said before, I think Christmas can be a very confusing time for queer people. Um maybe some of it's in our head, but also it's family, it's about chosen family. Maybe people are in a weird place with their biofamily. But even somebody who's not really in a weird place with their biofamily, I still feel like if you don't have the kids, if you don't kind of have those things going, it can be really hard to figure out like where your place is or something. And I think for everybody, straight or gay, it can just be a triggering time. And when you're supposed to feel happy, it can make you feel a little bit sadder because if you don't necessarily naturally correlate with that feeling, then you get more in your head about all of that.

And I think it's really important to put out work that is Christmas related, but also maybe Christmas and queer. And queerness can just be different, you know. It's not even about a sexuality or a gender identity thing. It's about an artistic sort of expression. So me singing a Mary Jane and Alanis Morissette song and applying it to the queer community and applying it to the holiday season. I'm like really excited to do something like that because I think it is a little bit different. Also, for me, honestly, Christmases were a very traumatizing time in my family. My mom would sometimes cancel Christmas, and instead we got the presents thrown at us on December 12th, um, unwrapped, and I was like 12 years old or 11 years old.

I mean, my mom dealt with a lot of issues. Really, I think that some of them were in this sort of relationship with my father, and about him being a cross-dresser, her sort of forcing him to stay in the closet, um, him not really doing that, my mom catching him dressing up. Um, I think that there is there's so much about that, but a lot of that negativity and that bad stuff really manifested itself at the Christmas and holiday time, even if nothing was triggering her, the Christmas season was just a big trigger for her in general, and she would really um it it just was a really tough time. So I think now in my adulthood, I'm really trying to reclaim that for myself in a positive way. And I also think that I am also trying to tell people for my mom or for a queer person, okay, you do feel a little bit sad, like that's okay.

Um that is okay. And um, we can be sad together, or we can be um, you know, not necessarily sad, but like melancholy, or just you know, it's it's also very hopeful and very um, I think just it's it's also when you're not in denial about something is when you're you're just honest about it. That can just be so freeing and of itself, you know. You know, I am a little bit sad this Christmas. And if you kind of share that with somebody else, I think that experience in of itself can be can be very helpful.

[39:38] Tammy Faymous: Right, right. Well, and there's also, you know, kind of on the on the flip side of that, there's also something so kind of like camp about Christmas. So just like it's just so much that like combining blending like a drag queen and Christmas. To me, I'm just like, well, that just makes sense. Like, of course. That there's pencil, there's garland, there's mess. Like, why not? And it's definitely gonna be fun. I mean, I'm gonna sort of look to, I'm gonna play on the idea of um Christmas Carol with like the ghosts of Christmas past and future, but make it um site specific to Studio 54 and sort of like talk about the ghosts of Studio 54 and what are those people maybe who are haunting the premises or whatever, because 54 Below is in the same venue as Studio 54, right?

It is, isn't it? Oh, yeah. So we're actually 54 Below is in the cellar. So we are the basement of Studio 54. So like we I mean, we've heard legendary stories from performers like who have who were there who were in the basement, you know. There were all kinds of things that happened in this basement. So if there was ever a place the ghosts would haunt, it would be 54 Below for sure.

[40:52] Tammy Faymous: Right. No, I know I definitely and then that can just like if I'm doing great if I'm talking about Grace Jones doing a Grace Jones number, or if I'm talking about Liza Minnelli doing a Liza Minnelli number, like uh Tina Turner was there. Like there are so many people. If you just you know Google Um, like who was at who was at Studio 54, who was at Studio 54, the roster of artists is amazing to pull from. So that's gonna be a really fun kind of component of it as well. I also could try to get some people who are still alive who have have been there. Like I'm close with Michael Musto. There's a million photos of Michael Musto at uh at Studio 54. That's just gonna be sort of like one layer, and that I think is gonna be really campy and really fun because that's also really gonna be celebrating the holidays in a very irreverent way, like pulling in Grace Jones' music for for um Christmas, I think is gonna be cool.

And then of course there's gonna be some Christmas songs. Like I there's some Christmas songs that I love. Like I love Merry Christmas, darling. So I'm definitely gonna be singing that from my favorite Christmas songs, The Carpenters. Um, so like that will be in there. And I also love Barbra Streisand's Jingle Bells question mark. Um that's gonna be in there. Um, you know, she's everywhere right now because of her memoir. So yeah, so it's definitely gonna have all, but the show is like high energy, it is go, go, go. It's probably gonna be like half an hour, 45 minutes of just like go go go and then we'll bring it down you know and then we'll like really get into your heart and maybe I'll cry and make you cry and like then we'll bring it back up and then you know it's like crazy crazy crazy crazy ending.

Um and yeah and that's basically it I mean I really really am like so excited about the show me and my band are gonna start rehearsing after Thanksgiving I love my band um they're incredible they're all so talented and and yeah it's just gonna be really fun I have to say I was I was thrilled when I was reading when I was reading about your show when you know we were announcing and everything and I read that Darnell was your music director we we just love Darnell so much and I know you did speak about Darnell earlier but you know having someone like that on on the on the keys backing you up and like working with you is just like the level of trust I can only imagine like the that you would have with Darnell and just like you know you're in good hands.

[42:07] Tammy Faymous: So like the show is like he's a really like he him and I are a perfect match like just musically and energy wise and like I can be a little bit like you know up up up up um which is good but then like I need that grounding presence and he really is that he is very grounded and like I was saying before too his musicality is a little bit different than mine but I feel that like he also just gets me so well. I mean we we started rehearsing for my first show which was April probably in January and just weekly meeting, just getting together and really understanding each other. I live near the Bronx and he's in the Bronx, so it's really easy for us to get together. And every single time we did, it was just like so much fun, and it's felt like such a connection.

And I I love, love, love working with him. I really think that you know, also historically, I've tried to work with people or whatever, and I just feel that like sometimes people are just so like business, or they're just they're just so like they're always thinking about like I need somebody who's present, like they're always thinking about the next gig or the next rehearsal, and like I get that we're all you know, trying to make that money, and like we got bills to pay.

[44:24] Tammy Faymous: Oh, yeah. But I need somebody like you know, and I probably did look at like three or four piano players, and I'm so happy that I picked him. And now we've done a couple shows together this year, and we're gonna keep doing shows together, and yeah, he's a very, very special person, and he's a big part of the reason why I think and all people come in the show and they're like, Wow, you're like they're probably like your your musicians are better than you, and I'm like, Yeah, that's the best thing about like that. That's what you gotta do. Like, you gotta surround yourself with people who are better than you, and that makes me better. That makes you better, absolutely. And and like, and but even with Darnell though, too, people I think really like watch him play and they just they they vibe with him and his energy and they leave being like, Wow, like I love your piano player, and I'm like, I know, right? He's really special, yeah. So yeah, so it feels really good that we keep that we keep working together and we keep making it happen.

[45:18] Macon Prickett: Absolutely. Well, is there is there any like I know you've told us quite a bit about the show itself, but is there any special thing you want to tease? Any I mean you've given it.

[45:31] Tammy Faymous: I've loved this. This has been amazing. I do want to ask you though, like before we go, I do want to ask, and if you're covering this in the show and you want to save it, let's we'll save it. But we are all kind of dying to know your opinion. Is Die Hard a holiday film?

[45:48] Tammy Faymous: I think it definitely is. But you'll be amazed. People love this debate. Like, yeah. Oh girl, there are just because I've I've covered so much Christmas. Like I did a roundup for the Today Show when I worked there, like the hundred best Christmas films. And we had Die Hard on there, and like in the comments on Facebook, people will be like, Die Hard isn't a Christmas film. And then people being like, Oh, I love that Die Hard's on here. And you're like, wow, I did not know this was such a thing. Um yeah, I definitely like also kind of bringing in a little bit of pop culture. I do have a background in media covering pop culture, and so during my show, I do sometimes do a deep dive into certain pop culture things. And with Christmas, there's so much, not only with Christmas music, but with other kind of Christmas, you know, Hallmark movies. Um yeah, uh just the lore of it all, you know.

[46:38] Tammy Faymous: Oh, yeah, there's so much. I mean, look at all think of all the cheesy Hallmark plots, you know, the city girl with the marketing job, goes to, you know, to save her parents in and like bumblefuck, whatever Idaho, and then you know, they're while she's there, she like falls in love with the man who's like selling Christmas trees. I hope to bring a lot of that stuff in terms of like talking about that and and making jokes about it as well because it's so funny. But no, I think Die Hard is a Christmas film. Sure.

[47:11] Macon Prickett: Okay, great. Well, before before we go, where where can we find you on uh social media?

[47:19] Tammy Faymous: So my Instagram is FameProblems, and fame is spelled F-A-Y-M-E Problems, and that's pretty much my Instagram. I'm on TikTok as Tammy Faymous. I have a Facebook that has like 10,000 followers almost. Um, I just posted on there what is the best drag film of all time, and that created quite like 200 comments of people debating, going back and forth. And it's it's crazy. I mean, people take something like that.

[47:41] Macon Prickett: I have to check that out.

[47:42] Tammy Faymous: I'm gonna go look at that as soon as as soon as we're done. Henry Big isn't a drag queen film, and I'm like, it is not that deep. It is not that deep, people. I think Hedwig is definitely a drag film, but whatever. People really just love getting into the nitty-gritty of things, especially on Facebook. Um Instagram is the best thing to follow me. I mean, I have 20,000 followers there, which I'm very grateful for.

[48:09] Macon Prickett: Great.

[48:10] Tammy Faymous: Yeah. And I, you know, I'll definitely have 20,000 and one.

[48:13] Macon Prickett: Yeah, absolutely.

[48:14] Tammy Faymous: Yes. Everyone go follow Tammy Faymous on Instagram and come see a very Tammy Famous Christmas at 54 Below Wednesday, December 27th. We're all still gonna be in the holiday spirit. So go ahead and grab your tickets, and we will see you in the basement on the 27th. Thank you so much for chatting with me. We can't wait to see you here soon.

[48:35] Tammy Faymous: Thank you.

[48:41] Macon Prickett: You've been listening to the 54 Below podcast, part of the Broadway Podcast Network. To find out more about our upcoming shows, visit us at 54below.org.