Oregon Daily Emerald (Univ. of Oregon), OR, USA

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Excerpt:  "Estrada also delighted the crowd with depictions of
Sylvia Rae Rivera, a Puerto Rican transgender person who some credit
as being the first to strike back at police ... "

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March 08, 2006

A glimpse at gay icons

Jade Esteban Estrada performed a solo comedic show depicting six
significant figures in gay history

By Philip Ossie Bladine
News Reporter


Beauty. Art. Flamboyance. Love. Struggle. Fame.

All these things are part of lesbian and gay history as represented
by Jade Esteban Estrada's "ICONS, The Lesbian and Gay History of the
World, Volume 1."

Estrada performed his solo comedy and musical show Tuesday night in
the EMU Ballroom, in which he depicted six historic and modern-day
lesbian and gay icons: Sappho, Michelangelo, Oscar Wilde, Gertrude
Stein, Sylvia Rivera and Ellen DeGeneres.

Estrada won awards in both singing and stand-up comedy early in his
career before he turned his attention to the solo theater format in
September, 2002, when "ICONS, Vol. 1" debuted.

While the performance is packed with factual history and cultural
and political commentary, Estrada said in an interview his one goal
for the show is to entertain.

"It's one thing to tell a story, and it's quite another to be
entertaining at the same time," Estrada said. "As a modern
vaudevillian, which is what I consider myself, it's very tough
because my competition is today's television."

Estrada's stand-up experience showed through witty one-liners in the
performance.

After singing that "Plato called me the 10th muse" while dressed as
Sappho, Estrada told the crowd how Sappho plays the lyre.

"I'm so pleased you guys still have `lyres' in your time, I just
don't know why you put them in the White House," Estrada said.

While playing the character of Italian artist Michelangelo, Estrada
sung about the artist's most famous statue.

"David is the perfect man, if only he could hold my hand, he'd be
wonderful." He then turned to crowd and whispered loudly, "He'd be
fucking hot."

The show touched on many aspects of gay and lesbian issues
throughout world history. He covered ancient times such as
the "first allegation of homosexuality" in 1116, said the "love of
two boys was beautiful" in Samurai culture and talked about the
execution of gay men in 1707 in Prussia.

Oscar Guerra, a master of ceremonies at the event along with Cree
Gordon, said he liked that the performance combined history with
comedy.

"Those identified as LGBTQ do have a history," Guerra said.

Each character Estrada depicted had a message for the crowd about
human culture and unity.

"I believe that mankind is beautiful in all forms, and that is the
word of God," Estrada said while portraying Michelangelo.

"To love oneself is the beginning of a lifelong interest," he said
as Wilde.

"To have this to educate all people make it easier for myself to be
out as a queer person," Gordon said.

Gordon said his favorite character was American writer and poet
Gertrude Stein. Estrada quoted some of her famous lines,
including "a rose is a rose is a rose" and "it's not a gay thing,
it's a human thing."

Dressed as Stein in her old age, Estrada asked the crowd whether a
pink triangle meant anything to them, and said that it means a lot
to some.

"A pink triangle was the mark of homosexuality in Nazi prison
camps," he said, portraying Stein. "No one knows what happened, but
one day they just all disappeared."

Estrada also delighted the crowd with depictions of Sylvia Rae
Rivera, a Puerto Rican transgender person who some credit as being
the first to strike back at police, and stand-up-comedian-turned-
sitcom-star-turned-talk-show-host Ellen DeGeneres.

The performance was put on by the Multicultural Center, MEChA and
the Lesbian, Gay, Bi, Transgender, Queer Alliance.


© 2006 Oregon Daily Emerald