Mr? Billie McAllister "What a Big Piece of Meat?"

 

(Kent, 1972-ish) I loved the Eddie Murphy Dolemite movie. We interviewed Rudy Ray Moore and worked with him a few times and those were the exact stories he told, but Murphy went further than the great narrative, capturing the optimism and enthusiasm that such a prolific, fiercely independent artist needed to be able to tap into to drive forward, and I like it more than than the similarly-themed (great) Ed Wood movie. Not to mention Davine Joy Randolph's performance as Lady Reed was genuinely incredible. That said, one thing about the world of Rudy Ray that doesn't get explored enough is the gay content. There is a frequent punchline about pivoting without second thought to having sex with a man because no women are around at the moment, and Rudy's right hand man, the great Jimmy Lynch (peripherally played by Mike Epps in Murphy's movie), has whole album sides revisiting this topic. But most interesting is Moore releasing two LPs by drag veterans at the height of his success. Mr? Billie Mcallister was a blues and drag veteran (cutting some singles in the 50s) and her album (and Rudy only refers to her as "her" in his intro, as well as dubbing her "The Lady of Pure Nonsense") is full of confident, dirty diatribes, and decent bawdy blues numbers. Singing about her pussy, joking about dick size, raising the stakes on the Man from Nantucket limerick with dripping semen references, and posing as a castrating chef chopping a pair of naked men's giant sausages on the cover, this is a bold record (if not the funniest in the Kent cannon). The biggest laugh on the album is her story about a man's post -coital complaint, "You got shit on my dick!,"to which she responds, "Motherfucker, what did you expect...peaches and cream?" The other drag album Rudy released around that time, Mr. Jerry Walker, has the comic dressed as a gigantic fairy godmother on the album cover, and has somewhat better songs and funnier jokes than McAllister's. But McAlister's charisma, and anal sex specificity, seems really special, and I imagine catching this show in real life would have been monumental. Now obviously I know that drag performers have ALWAYS fascinated every audience, and I also know that in every industry, especially, in entertainment, there have always been a lot more gay/trans/bi figures than folks talk about. However, what seems interesting in Rudy's world is that they are talking about it. A lot. And not to make fun of the topic, or to shock, but just to laugh at the absurdity of sex. And life. And giant men in gowns talking about dick.