Cult film icon Mink Stole and legendary drag performer Peaches Christ are teaming up to take their cabaret show, “Idol Worship,” on the road, stopping in Philadelphia on Feb. 18.
Stole made her indelible mark in the world of cult films as an original Dreamlander, part of the crew of regulars featured in legendary John Waters’ films like “Pink Flamingos” and “But I’m A Cheerleader,” to name a few.
Stole said her long and storied acting career, while amazing, was something that she fell into.
“I didn’t go looking for the movies,” she said. “The movies found me. I’m one of the luckiest people in the world. I met John Waters when I was 18 years old, and he asked me to be in a movie. That was a lucky encounter the day that I met him. I wasn’t looking for him. He found me. I was looking for adventure. I was quite ready for him when I met him, but being in the movies wasn’t on my agenda.”
Those Waters films that made Stole an underground star would end up being a revelation to the teen who would go on to become Peaches Christ.
“I grew up in Maryland, and of course, that is where Mink was making movies with John Waters and the whole gang,” Christ said about experiencing the work of Waters and Stole for the first time. “I was a kid in junior high school when they were making ‘Hairspray.’ It was a big local news story that this movie was being made. I knew that I wanted to be in the film world, but Hollywood seemed like it was a million miles away. So, I became fascinated. That’s how I learned about Divine. I saw ‘Hairspray’ when it came out. Maryland was very proud of it. It was simple for me then to go to Mom’s Video on Kent Island on the Eastern Shore and find ‘Pink Flamingos’ and the rest of them. That’s when my mind blew wide open. It really changed my life from then on out.”
For all the younger generations reading this, yes, there was a time way back in the dark ages when the films of Waters and drag queens were not just a click or a streaming service away or coming to your local library to read to you. If you wanted to see a Waters film, you had to either find a relatively hip video rental store (get your elders to explain to you what those were) or know of a movie theater that did midnight screenings of cult films. Today, tastes and opinions have changed, and Waters and his works have gone from icons of sleaze to national treasures.
“‘Pink Flamingos’ and ‘Hairspray’ are in the National Registry,” Stole said. “It’s shocking to me.”
“It’s amazing,” Christ added. “I’ve gotten to watch her over the years. Now that we’ve been friends for over 20 years, you get to see this legacy success that her films are having with the Academy Museum of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences doing an entire exhibit dedicated to John Waters and these movies with Mink’s costumes and mannequin replicas of Mink’s characters. Seeing that from Mink’s point of view is probably how I feel about the popularity of drag.”
Peaches Christ made a name for herself as a performer, producer, and filmmaker in San Francisco, long before the days when “RuPaul’s Drag Race” launched drag performers into living rooms and stardom across the world.
“When we started out as drag performers, it was a gritty, grungy, dirty hobby that we were drawn to do because we were sissies who needed to perform and express ourselves,” she said. “We found great humor and artistic satisfaction around drag. But it was always underground. I never imagined it would be like it is today. The way people are learning about what I do has changed dramatically. In the old days, it was me trying to recruit people like myself, who were punks and transgressive, who were interested in the kind of cult movie events with drag queens that I was putting on. Now, I have drag children who are household names. Bob the Drag Queen and Jinkx Monsoon are two of my drag children that people would know. They are so famous that people find me through my drag children. My hope is that if they come my way, maybe I can lead them to the well of wonderment that is the early John Waters movies. I feel like there’s this passing down of culture that we should do, and I think we do it.”
Stole said she is happy to celebrate her works on stages across the country with Peaches Christ, but if you saw her on the street, you probably wouldn’t make the connection between her and her iconic film roles.
“I used to call myself a funky conservative and I still sort of am,” she said. “I dress conservatively. I don’t look outrageous. If you see me in the supermarket, you’d think ‘there goes an old woman.’ I see these punks and they have their hair dyed red or blue. And every now and then, I’ll get a look of pity from them. ‘Oh, that poor old thing. She must have the tired-est life.’ I have to laugh because they have that hair color because I had that hair color. But I don’t have that anymore. I’ve moved past that. I think it’s great that they do it. But I don’t need to do that anymore. I like looking normal.”
Mink Sole and Peaches Christ perform 3 p.m. Feb. 18 at the Punch Line Philly, 33 E. Laurel St. For more information or tickets visit peacheschrist.com.