[CHRISblog] Getting Nutty with LEX VAUGHN

Lex Vaughn "Travel Liquids #2"

The first time I saw Lex Vaughn she was dancing on a Canal Street sidewalk in New York City in a participatory performance called “Free Dance Lessons.” The performers invited passersby to dance with them right there on the mean streets of NYC. People either slowed their gait to check it out or sped up hoping desperately not to be noticed. The next time I encountered Lex she was pictured in JD Samson’s 2006 Lesbian Utopia calendar, a project that documented a sexy clump of lezbos traveling to queer campgrounds and RV parks in the (non-global) South. In one of the images, Lex appears in just a towel, spitting water into the sky as the sun sets behind her. Two years earlier, she had made her own calendar in response to JD’s original lesbian pin-up rag. Still later I discovered that Lex played drums for two bands that rocked my world and my body in the mid-2000s: the Hidden Cameras and Lesbians on Ecstacy. And just before I finally met her, my friend Samara turned me on to her web video series, Graham and Diane, which features a sexually repressed homosexual woman and a lascivious puppet. When we were finally introduced about a year ago, I was star-struck and enamored, and so was my boyfriend. Lex is a notorious heartbreaker, yet the most tender-hearted person you’ll ever meet.

Hey tranny guys, ready to reconnect with the repressed lezbo past that you may or may not have had? This sexy dyke will meet you half way in a houndstooth jacket and a jockstrap.

Chris Vargas: Lex, please tell the folks at home where you’re from, where you live, and why?

LV: I was born in Houston, Texas, and raised between Grand Junction, CO, and San Francisco, CA. In 1998, I moved to Toronto, Canada, for a lady and to work at the Second City comedy theater. Both endeavors have since dissolved, but I remained here due to the diverse art scene and great queer integration. But I’ve always been penning a querulous letter to the city, bemoaning its lack of beauty, its repressed citizens, and its dependence on futile bureaucracy. Yet, I am still here. Sigh.

What do you do for kicks, and what do you do to sustain yourself?

LV: For kicks, I turn straight girls gay, and when really drunk I try to steal cars and/or trucks. For money, I bartend for parties and offensive gatherings of bland people, and have recently maxed out my line of credit.

How’s Canadian bankruptcy going? Do you ever miss the US?

LV: It’s pretty crazy to see how much girls and traveling cost. I’m not an extravagant person, and I don’t have anything really to show for all the debt, except a head crammed full of amazing memories. That’s worth it. I think. I wish I’d had better financial sense though. My God, why don’t I have any friends with sound investment advice?

The Golden Ticket, a blessing or a curse?

I go to the states about 6 times a year, and just crossing the border I can feel a palpable difference. There’s so much stress! That kind of urgency for survival isn’t so apparent in Canada, although it exists. It’s just different. America is so dramatic and tragic. I DO miss it and am very vocal about being an American. We are sometimes so fearless and idiotic at the same time—and chatty! People in Canada (Toronto mostly) are not much for chattiness. I mean like on the subways or planes, people are very reserved and polite—teeming with passive aggressiveness. I think it’s the inferiority complex that they’ve inherited being so close to the states. Plus Canada is always about 7 years behind the US in trends and urban planning and innovations. It’s kind of sweet and pathetic. But I love having health care and never hearing gunshots and having access to arts funding, so I’ll suck it up for now.

Graham and Diane is one of my favorite comedy series on the web. Is Diane, your prudish lesbian character, based on anyone you know? In addition, is Graham based on anyone out in the world? I’m looking in your direction, Lex.

Graham & Diane

LV: Diane is based on my father’s ex-girlfriend (also named Diane), who was one of the most humorless people that I ever met, especially considering that my father LIVES for comedy. She has had the same job for 30 years (a middle manager at a salt company) and derives great joy from doing crosswords in her sweatpants and smoking menthol cigarettes. She was more of a jumping-off point, as my Diane is far funnier and takes more risks, even though she herself is a prude. Also, my Diane is a repressed lezzo. Dad’s Diane definitely is NOT.
Yes, Graham is all the dirtiest parts of me. She/he is a genderless (yet engendering the extremes of either sex) nympho who is selfish and just wants to party. To have Graham connected to such a square like Diane affords me the safety to say whatever I want as Graham, which I usually can’t control anyway.

You’ve told me Graham and Diane occasionally make appearances out in the world and outside of their domestic sitcom series. Anything new on the horizon for those two?

LV: I’m making a new series where they talk to musicians, just a 3-5 minute type of thing, in hopes that I can push it as an interstitial for web or music television. They did a Peaches interview recently and MEN and Owen Pallett are coming up. Something’s gotta give for those two—I mean c’mon, give a herm puppet a BREAK!

Tell me and the folks at home about Peanut Brittle.

The Geriatric Dandy, Peanut Brittle

LV: Peanut Brittle is a stylish old codger. He is the amalgamation of every old man I’ve ever seen ambling down the street with a sense of style, the ones I lovingly refer to as ‘geriatric dandies’. Peanut is a man who hangs on to his memories of saw dust covered dance floors, 5 cent root beer, and heavy petting with hair-oiled hands in the back of a jalopy, while the modern world carries on outside his window. He takes refuge in his small apartment, the walls adorned with faded pictures and his paintings, horse track tickets, third place medals; the corners of the room littered with abandoned hobbies. Peanut is an affable recluse who loves to entertain, inviting friends and strangers into his fantasy world, so he doesn’t have to go out into their real one.

PB started out (and still continues) as a character-based installation in galleries, but he branches out to hosting radio shows and public appearances.

Although I’ve never met PB, he seems like a more sweet and tender character than some of your others. Is this true? How do people generally respond when they enter his world?

LV: Peanut is really well loved. He is so social and kind and funny. I’ve been very conscious not to have him be a dirty old man and he hardly swears. I mean, he alludes to dirtiness, but it’s very playful. I want him to be as accessible as possible for people. He has a lot of fans—especially other old men. Whenever I put up the shows, there’s ALWAYS at least one old timer that sticks around for a few hours. Peanut’s world is really safe and full of beautiful things from a time that has passed. There’s always old jazz playing and pictures to look at and junk to sift through. Peanut is a great host and loves to spin bullshit. That’s the best part of him—whatever he says is the truth, even if it’s a lie.

Peanut Brittle: Shhhh I'm on the AIR!!!

Who are some of your comic influences?

LV: Lily Tomlin for her character work and mainstream appeal over the years. That woman has so much fucking heart!
Amy Sedaris, of course, for her depraved manner and unrelenting self-promotion. I recently got to meet her on her book tour and had her sign a copy of The Bell Jar. She didn’t find it funny at all. I was kind of heartbroken, but that’s what you get when you try to be funny to another comedian.
Keaton and Chaplin for their gorgeous pathos.
Paul Reubens, who I also met (time stood still), because there is no one greater than Pee-wee. Have you ever seen him do stuff on the gong show in the 70′s? He’s going to be 60 next year!

And finally, are you trying to steal my boyfriend? You could if you really wanted to—Greg is in love with you. So, please don’t.

LV: I want to be you guys’ third wheel so bad!! Don’t you think its time we all got married to each other? My possessions are few, so I wont take up too much space, and I am clean in communal areas. As long as I have my cat allergy pills, I really think we can make it work. Please?

Lex, Greg, and Chris: three wheels in a pod!

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Watch more Graham and Diane and other videos on: YOUTUBE or Funny Or Die

For more Lex in general visit: lexvaughn.com