This Ain’t No Drag Story Hour! The Legendary Lady Bunny is Taking Her Show on the Road – but Don’t Bring The Kids

When you talk about drag legends, New York City’s own Lady Bunny is one of the first names that comes up in the conversation – or at least it should be. Possessing a razor-sharp wit and her trademark, sky-high blonde wig, Bunny is hitting the road for her highly anticipated nationwide tour, Lady Bunny: Don’t Bring the Kids! Produced by Voss Events, the tour promises to be a raucous, no-holds-barred comedy and cabaret experience that will have audiences across North America laughing, crying, and potentially soiling themselves with excitement.

In typical Lady Bunny fashion, the show will offer total filth and inappropriate humor in spades. Her hilarious show includes songs poking fun at Trixie Mattel and RuPaul (her former roommate in Atlanta back in the 1980s) and parodies of hits like Lady Gaga’s “Born This Way.” And you don’t want to miss what the drag diva calls “the world’s worst Cher impersonation.” Says Bunny, “Growing up, I always wanted to be Cher, but I wound up looking more like Chaz Bono instead.”

With her signature blend of singing, dancing, and raunchy humor, Lady Bunny is here to prove why she’s a living drag legend. From her outrageous humor to her over-the-top looks, Bunny is never afraid to push the envelope.

We had the chance to talk to Lady Bunny about the tour as well, memories of Atlanta and her thoughts on drag in our exclusive interview. She also shares a few “Lady Lessons” (RIP, Drag U) and answers the Socialite Seven in our exclusive interview.

Photo Credit: Steven Menendez

What is it like coming back to Atlanta? Do you have fond memories? 

I do have fond memories, but when I was in Atlanta, all of the gay bars were in Midtown. You didn't have to drive drunk. You could just walk to the gay bars. And of course I was 20, so all I had to do was walk out the door. It was like a gayborhood in the South, which, you know, there are others now, but back then, that was kind of like the drag mecca. You would see drag, trans, gays, lesbians, you know, and by the time I left, the gays had started moving out and away from this area, which had all these stately homes, to move out by the mall. And I was like, by the mall? For what? Why would you leave? I mean, to me, it was like paradise. It had great thrift stores. And, you know, we all lived in the area. I mean, of course, it was my first experience with the gayborhood because I came from Chattanooga, but no, I love coming back to Atlanta.

You've done so many shows in the past, but tell me a little bit about this specific show, Don't Bring The Kids, what was the idea behind this show? 

Well as you know, there's been a big uproar about drag queens and story hours with conservatives accusing the drag queens who read the stories to kids of sexually grooming the kids, which of course is ridiculous. I mean, first of all, I don't think that the drag queens are trying to molest kids. And even if they were, they're going to go to a library with fluorescent lighting where the brats are with their parents? Come on, that's kind of stupid, but It's also sparked this big debate, whether drag is appropriate for kids.

And, you know, Nina West, for example, loves to read at drag queen story hours and good for her, that's not the kind of thing that I do though. You know, you could do a tasteful drag number, like a lip sync to Whitney Houston in a beautiful gown, singing one of her ballads. But if you do Whitney Houston the way I used to, with the crack pipe hanging out of my mouth, that's probably not going to be right for kids. And because I was only performing in spaces that served alcohol, I never had to worry about kids and I'm certainly not trying to spring anything dirty on kids. So, I just call the show, Don't Bring The Kids. Quite frankly, my act is twisted and there's a lot of song parodies and comedy, a few original songs, but it's pretty twisted – even for some adults.

Even when I go to do gay pride stuff, where I know that families will have children there, I send them links of my show and say, I want to be sure before you agree to this, in case you just know the name Lady Bunny, and that you don't know that I do things like sing “I'm Not a Girl, Not Yet a Woman” with a dildo dangling out of my miniskirt. I’m not trying to spring it on anyone, so I just wanted to make it clear that this show is dirty for the people who like dirty material.

And there is some dishy new stuff. I have a new number, it’s a medley about some Drag Race fan favorites where I go all in on Katya, Trixie – who stole my look – RuPaul, Willam and Todrick Hall, for good measure. He's not a Drag Race queen, but he's affiliated. So, that's been going over well. There's just lots of new stuff. I do a song about Drag Queen Story Hours. I do a song about Joe Biden. It's not a political show. It's a comedy show. But you know what? Something has really clicked about this show. Every show except one that I've done so far have gotten standing ovations.

That doesn't always happen. And I sure don't take it for granted. Of course, I've only done one show. (Laughs) No, I've done, I guess, eight shows and it's been really fun to go out on the road. And some of these shows are, have been at noon and 4 PM, but honey, a gig is a gig. They're sick of me in New York. She had to hit the road! (Laughs) 

Photo Credit: Steven Menendez

I'm really interested with the process of putting a show like this together. How do you pull it off? 

I have a few songs that I do that are like showstoppers, and it's kind of like if Gloria Gaynor went somewhere to perform, you bought a ticket, and she didn't sing “I Will Survive”, you would feel cheated. So, I always include some of my money makers in between the new material, but there's lots of new material in this show, like the number about Joe Biden, who will be retired in January. So, I said, let's just get it out there, you know, while I have them laughing, but I get them all singing along with their phones in the air and stuff like that.

While I'm not a director, I direct my own shows and I kind of do it in such a way where this number goes over well with this bunch and then, after that number, maybe I’ll go in a totally different direction. So, when I do a Liza Minnelli thing, then I’ll do the Cardi B thing, then I’ll do the Adele thing. There's a lot of songs that I've written parodies for that are new – everything from Ed Sheeran to Lizzo. It's a 90-minute show and it's fairly action packed for this 62-year-old. 

What do you think the current state of drag is right now?

You know, it's funny because on one hand, this is something that drag queens get asked a lot – and most of us tend to think about ourselves a lot. And, because drag has exploded, we're often asked about the state of drag as if we are sociologists – which we're not.

But I will say that I see a lot of copycat drag. I'll go to a club and I'll see that they're doing a lip sync for your life like they have on Drag Race and I'm like, no, clubs are supposed to be cool. They're supposed to give you interesting content. They're not supposed to ape what they see on television. That's why you pay to get into a club – to see that the person who's putting on the night has curated something that is worth the price of admission.

I see a lot of other copycat stuff too, like someone doing their makeup exactly like this person because they saw it on TV. And listen, I'll tell you the other thing that I notice a lot. I think that the queens on Drag Race look incredible – like their makeup. I mean, I don't know how to paint those shapes on my face, the hieroglyphics I call them. They look great in a stadium, but on HDTV it looks like you've got hieroglyphics on your nose. But I could certainly benefit from some of the looks and my God, some of the costumes on Drag Race…they're just getting better, bigger and with showgirl headdresses.

But I spoke to someone who said that they watched Drag Race with their straight brother and he said that he only liked Jinkx Monsoon. And we talked about that and it was like, yeah, she's the only one that's fuckable because she dresses as a woman and she looks soft…it may be a vintage woman or witchy woman or whatever, but she styles herself as a woman. Whereas some, like Milk or Ongina are styling themselves as a thing with feminine energy, but bald or with a mustache. I don't know.

I love seeing a perfect look. I mean, it's always incredible. But when you come out on the stage and you look fantastic, I'm going to go woo and cheer for you. You’ve got five more minutes on that stage. If you can't do anything except look good. I mean, that's more than I could do, but you need more, you need an act. I'll give credit to the Drag Race fans because they will often find the performers who they see on TV and then go and support them and determine which ones have a good show and which ones are good at catchphrases that make for good TV.

Photo Credit: Steven Menendez

I loved your podcast with Monét X Change. Are you planning on ever doing a series or a podcast on your own? 

I would love to. I loved working with Monét, but she moved to the West Coast, and with guests, it was coordinating four people's schedules instead of two, and you know, she already had “Sibling Rivalry”, so she was already busy with one podcast. And we also started during COVID when we didn't really have any jobs…but Monét's a hoot. I love bantering with her and I would like to do another podcast. There are no current plans, but yeah, I think I should do one and call it “Down the Rabbit Hole”.

When you were here for Pride a while back, you were DJing, and I love the music that you play. What are you spinning now?

Well, I spin at a lot of disco tea dances, but I don't always limit it to disco unless that's what they want, because now that music is what, 40 years old, if it was coming out in the seventies, but there’s disco influenced stuff like Dua Lipa. Out of all the new artists, I like and play most of her stuff. I mean, it's dance pop and it's good. Actually, I have a new song with Adam Joseph called “Pussy This Good”.  And it is about my nonexistent vajayjay and it's actually out now on all streaming platforms. It's really quite silly, but I do perform that in the show as well.

I watched your interview with Joseph Shepard and in the comments on YouTube, so many people wrote that you should write your memoirs. Is that something you would ever want to sit down and do? 

Definitely. Before I forget! No, you know, I'm lazy. I met someone this weekend who said he's going to crack the whip on me. I've had interest from two publishers, so I just kind of need to ask around but it's something I need to do. I mean, eventually I'd like to write more than one book, you know, but I definitely need to write one about who is this nut in these big wigs.

Photo Credit: Steven Menendez

Once you get through with this tour, what are you planning? Can we expect more music? 

I am working on more music – and this is not a comedy song. My mom is ill. She's 88 years old and this is a song that I wrote a couple years ago and it's a song of gratitude to her. It hasn't really been heard outside the studio, but I'm going to start working on it. My sister and I have been going back to Chattanooga, Tennessee to visit with her and it's been a tough time but I want this song to come out while she can appreciate it because it's written for her. 

My mom lets me put wigs on her and false eyelashes and she's a great sport. I realized when I moved to New York – at that point, I was 21. I was like, oh no, I want to be my own person. I'm not going to be like mom or dad. I don't hate them. But then I got to New York and I realized a lot of my friends can't even tell their parents that they're gay.  Mine are cool with me being gay and a drag queen. So, you might want to count your blessings. I do. They've never tried to interfere in my life, because when I was growing up watching like That Girl or movies where you would see things like a pretty girl who wants to marry a doctor or a lawyer. So, I would ask my parents, don't you want me to be a doctor or a lawyer? They would say, not if you don't want to be. And so, then I would remind them of that and they said, well, you sure did call our bluff becoming a drag queen.

There's another funny story which will be in my book, but I'll give you a sneak preview.  I was in a play in Atlanta, playing an evangelist priest's wife, and my character was named Charity.  My parents came down from Chattanooga to see me in it. In the intermission, a lady was overheard saying, “Now, Charity, is that character played by a man?” And my father volunteered, “It sure is and that's my son.” And she said, “Well, he has nice legs.” And my dad hiked up his pants leg and said, “It runs in the family!” So, I'm not the only joker in the Ingle family.

I'm probably the only person that misses Drag U and I always appreciated your “Lady Lessons.” Since I've missed them so much, can you give me a quick one?

Yes. I will. There are some silhouettes that really need to be avoided by most people who do not want to look dumpy. I say that as someone who is plump myself, but honey, these baggy jeans make your legs look short and dumpy. I mean, if you want to wear big bell bottoms…they're coming back in because we've had the skintight pants, but honey, there's nothing that's going to make you look more long waisted than a low-rise bell bottom. I mean if you've got the abdomen for it and you want to show it off with a crop top, by all means, but that's the key to wearing wide pants. The waist has to be sinched or it just looks like a blob. If you wear a big baggy pullover on top of baggy pants, you just look like a blob.

That's a long one. I'll tell you a quick one. If you ever have to go out and you don't really want to go out and you have to psych yourself up, put your earrings on first and everything else will just be fun. You'll get in the mood, you'll see them sparkle. You're getting ready for a night out on the town and it just all works from there. And then you put your makeup on and you just get prettier, you know? It just gives you that little boost. I'm not wearing earrings now, but I don't think you can tell that!

Photo Credit: Steven Menendez

Lady Bunny Answers the Socialite Seven

Who has had the biggest influence on your career and why?

A drag queen who is actually a trans person in Chattanooga, Tennessee, whose name was Taisha Khan. She was billed as Chattanooga's own bubbling brown sugar or Chattanooga's own 20th century fox. I guess she has changed that to 21st century fox now, but she was the queen that everyone went up for. Back in the day, she would work at a club called the Go-Go Club.  But she was the ruling diva of Chattanooga – and Chattanooga for a small southern city had some really, really great drag, but she had such stage presence. Even at first when I started doing drag, I would do a couple of her numbers.

She also turned me on to Patti LaBelle – not just the big hits – and I've been in Patti LaBelle's number one fan ever since then. She had a big, big impact on me because she lit the club up with her magic and her stage presence and she was a good performer too.

It made me see the joy that these gay people who only had one or two gay bars in Chattanooga could still be with our people and have our entertainers and feel that magic and she gave it to us.

What is your biggest pet peeve?

Promoters who are terrible with getting the details of our sound needs, because it seems like drag has taken off in this really big way, but the tech is getting worse and worse. And even if you are you know lip syncing, you need monitors on stage to blast that music in your face so that you feel like you are singing.

It's in your face. You're not trying to say, oh, what is she saying here? You don't want to waste your energy doing that. You want it in your face. And of course, if you sing, you really need monitors because you hear the key of the song in a slightly different way, or with a delay from what the audience hears with their speakers. So, you have to have it booming in your face. So, yes, can the tech please catch up with the times? We're doing these big theaters and these big spaces…can we catch up with the tech please?  That is a pet peeve.

What is your most prized possession?

I'm not really a “things” type of person. You know, I used to be. I used to thrift shop and oh, girl, look at this. I can't really even say what that is.  I really can't even say.

What superpower or talent would you want to wake up with tomorrow that you don't already possess?

To have my knees not hurt!

What are three things you can’t live without?

False eyelashes, orange lipstick, big wigs and my perfume Bouquet Imperial, which is not made anymore – I have to get it from eBay. I’m allergic to most perfumes

What are you most grateful for?

I am most grateful for my family. My dear sister Jan, who’s a housewife has been able to be with my mom in the hospital. You know, the arguments I had with my mom a few years ago mean nothing. I enjoy every moment with her now and I am going down to see her this Christmas. 

What’s the best piece of advice you’ve been given?

I wear shimmer tights and I went to this store that sells them, Leigh’s Mardi Gras and I asked Bubbles, the queen who worked there, why my tights ran by my big toe and she told me to cut my toenails! She was right. It’s not very glamorous but it saved me a lot on tights!

Tickets for Lady Bunny’s “Don’t Bring The Kids” tour are available now through Voss Events. “Pussy So Good” is available on Spotify or wherever you stream music. Keep up with Lady Bunny on Instagram, Twitter,  Facebook and her website.