FOFA #1786 – Perfidia, the Queen of the Big Wig
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It takes a village to dress a drag queen. Behind every fierce drag queen there’s an even fiercer queen helping her to look her best. For years Steven Perfidia Kirkham has styled wigs for some of Broadway’s biggest shows and many of your favorite drag queens and entertainers.
Today Perfidia, wig stylist to the stars, joins us to talk about all the glorious big wigs from Lady Bunny to RuPaul, and what it was like in the Wigstock and Club Kid scenes of the 90s.
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Comments
Thanks for reposting this fantastic show! Perfidia is a treasure-trove of drag knowledge, particularly for NYC in the 1980s and 90s! I enjoyed hearing about the history of Wigstock, its relationship to Pyramid and Boy Bar, and Perfidia’s links to Escuelita (amazing!). The information about Patricia Field, Fiorucci (Joey Arias), and Suzanne Bartsch was also fascinating.I enjoyed seeing Wigstock first at Union Square on Fourteenth St (in 1991, while Tompkins Square Park was being redone), then in the East Village, and finally on the pier off Christopher St in the West Side. Great podcast!
Perfidia’s discussion of Boy George’s musical Taboo was also great!
*This* interview really shows off how great you guys are at what you do. Certainly it helps that Perfidia is fabulous, but you ALL really shine in this podcast. LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE ❤️. (Re: glue, egg whites bleach, and spray paint for hair. Some of that influence is from late 70s punk scene. Think high Mohawks. Sure, Aquanet was available but, in my experience, it didn’t have the “hold” to build your hair high when you didn’t have the money or foresight to have wigs to stack, and it’s hard to build a wig Mohawk.A lot of times these household items were just there in the house when you needed something, anything, to build height.)
Marc needs a spanking! I volunteer to bring my paddle. ❤