Interview: Varla Jean Merman STANDs BY Her DRAG For One-Nighter @ Catalina Jazz Club

Drag icon Varla Jean Merman brings her latest one-woman show Stand By Your Drag to the Catalina Jazz Club for one night only April 23, 2024. Varla Jean found time after her Palm Springs engagement to answer a few of my queries.  

Thank you for taking the time for this interview, Varla Jean!

You just finished your one-nighter of Stand By Your Drag in Atlanta, Georgia, and then stopped in Palm Springs before your Catalina engagement. Any audience reactions take you be surprise?

I wasn’t the one surprised! I think anytime you see a 6’5” 260-pound lady do a patriotic number that ends in a long laborious attempt at a “split,” any audience member would be taken by surprise!

What cosmic forces initially brought you and writers Jacques Lamarre and Ricky Graham together for Stand By Your Drag?

I grew up watching Ricky Graham perform in New Orleans. He is one of the reasons I perform today. I met Jacques Lamarre while doing a play at Hartford stage. Both are completely hysterical, and they can make anything I do funnier!

How much did you tweak their script to better fit Varla Jean?

I write the script and have the ideas for songs, and then they come in and punch it up. Having been in the business for 30 years, I can sometimes cannibalize my own jokes. Keep it fresh!  

What would your three-line pitch for Stand By Your Drag be?

It’s a one-woman spectacle that pinpoints the origins of the drag bans through the history of the artform. A call to arms for anyone who loves drag! And there is a dancing Tic Tac box who tries to maim me.

Who will be accompanying you in Stand By Your Drag?

My assistant Brian and my fur baby, Jasper.

You’ve done a number of shows at the L.A. LGBT Center over the years that I’ve seen (Varla Jean Merman Is All Washed Up, Varla Jean Merman's Under a Big Top, Varla Jean Merman’s Holiday Ham!, to name a few). How many different shows have you done at the L.A. LGBT Center?

I have no clue. Honey! I can’t remember where I was last night!

How many one-woman shows do you have in your repertoire? 30? 40? More?

At least 40! 27 that have debuted in Provincetown alone!

Do you ever reprise an older show?

I did “Under A Big Top 2.0,” but that is the only one I have ever brought back!

You must have ‘practiced, practiced, practiced’ to get to Carnegie Hall. What do you remember of that experience?

That was in 1997! But I recently saw a VHS tape of the show! Well, it may have been a Beta tape. Anyone? It was incredible and odd because a week later I was back to performing on a plywood-covered pool table in Chelsea.

May I talk to your alter ego Jeffery?

I see you credited as ‘Jeffery Roberson’ and ‘Jeffery Roberson Loe.’ Which is correct?

I am a “Sadie, Sadie, married lady” and my husband’s last name is Loe. So, technically I am J. Loe.
When does Jeffery become Varla Jean? The minute you start your make-up and costume transformation? The first time you see the scripted words of Varla Jean? The moment you step on stage in your Varla Jean persona?

Varla wakes up after the application of the eye lashes.

How did you pick Ernest Borgnine and Ethel Merman as the fictious parents of Varla Jean? 

Ethel Merman and Ernest Borgnine were married for only 38 days. In an Ethel Merman autobiography, she has a chapter entitled “my marriage to Ernest Borgnine.” You turn the page and it is blank. I always believed that if they would have had a child, Ethel Merman would’ve sent it to an orphanage in Louisiana because child was too painful of a reminder of her sour broken union. That is how Varla was born.

What inspired you to create Varla Jean as your alter ego in the early 1990s?

I had started doing drag in college at Louisiana State University. A very good friend introduced me to John Waters movies and at first, I wanted to be like Divine. But after reading the Ethel Merman biography, I dreamed up Varla! 34 years ago!

Who played Mary Sunshine in the revival of Chicago? Varla Jean or Jeffery? The credit was listed as ‘J. Roberson.’

It was Jeff with splash of Varla.

Do you ever want to pursue your own acting career as Jeffery?

I love doing parts at Jeffery! I was just in a movie “Big Easy Queens” where I play a man.

So, Varla Jean and Jeffery, you will play Hartford, Connecticut after your Catalina date. Any other cities after that? Or is a vacation deservedly due?

I am in the process of getting my new summer show together for Provincetown. “Varla Jean, The Errors Tour,” so there is no rest in sight.
What else is in the near future for the both or either of you?

I debut “The Errors Tour” this summer and then will take it across the world! Maybe even to the Catalina Jazz Club next year.

Thank you again! I look forward to experiencing Stand By Your Drag!

For tickets to Varla Jean’s one-nighter April 23,2024; click on the button below: