Lea DeLaria

For more than a decade Lea DeLaria has sustained herself as a professional lesbian by mixing stand-up routines with vocal performances. She co-founded Gay Comedy Nights in San Francisco and People Who Are Funny That Way in New York, later serving as host for open-mike evenings, festival platforms, and Gay Pride gatherings nationwide, among them the 1987 March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights before a crowd nearing one million.

Viewers may recall Dos Lesbos, the musical comedy centered on perverts that crisscrossed the country between 1987 and 1989, or Girl Friday, the production conceived, written, directed, and performed by Lea that captured the 1989 Golden Gull for Best Comedy Group in Provincetown, the town she calls home. Additional appearances include the stage show Lesbo-a-GoGo and late-night conversations on Arsenio.

Her rapid-fire delivery, flair for spontaneous banter, and brash, often profane stage presence work deliberately to unsettle stereotypes applied to lesbians and women at large. One clear asset is her total ease once the lights come up; on stage she simply remains herself. Lesbian life, gay life, and life in every form supply her creative material.

She hurtles without restraint across the boards and straight into the seats, treating nothing as off-limits while still conveying respect. The subjects of her high-speed assault range from a gynecology appointment from Hell and the birth of Bette Davis to gay and lesbian relationships, the comic absurdities of lesbian dating and sex, straight women visiting Provincetown, and any spectator unwise enough to draw her attention. She has been known to land on the laps of female audience members, turning even sizable venues into settings of surprising intimacy. That same commanding voice also delivers scat, blues, and soul; comedy albums such as 1994’s Bulldyke in a China Shop and 1997’s Box Lunch sit alongside her collections of jazz standards.