An Interview with Patti O'Furniture
A deep-south coastal city known for its history, food, and tourism industry, Charleston offers a surprisingly vibrant and talented drag scene. There’s only one official gay bar in town, but fans can find a drag show almost any day of the week at a multitude of venues on the peninsula. If you’re lucky, you might catch the Holy City’s hostess with the most-est Patti O’Furniture center stage.
We met with Patti during a show she hosts at Edmunds Oast Brewing Company. Her ability to connect with audience members of all age groups is impressive. We are all captivated by the performers’ talent and artistry. After the show, we walk into the back of the brewery, a huge warehouse neatly lined with industrial equipment and packaging supplies. A makeshift dressing area offers a stark contrast to our cold, pristine surroundings. Open suitcases bursting with sequins; tables cluttered with cosmetics and curling irons - and maybe a few cocktails. Someone’s breasts are on the floor. We wait patiently as the Queens finish up an elaborate photoshoot. Finally, Patti sits across from us, gracefully poised in a chic black jumpsuit – big hair and the friendly smile Charleston’s drag enthusiasts know and love.
Can you tell us a little bit about your history and how you started your career in drag?
My original drag career started off in Columbia. I’m a college professor by trade. Twenty years ago the students at the University of South Carolina, where I worked at the time, were putting on a campus drag show and they needed to raise some additional money, and they didn’t want to. I motivated them by saying, “if you raise the money, I’ll perform in the drag show…” Well, they had the money the next day. So… I went to my friends and told them I’d gotten myself into a pickle. I always say it was like that scene in Cinderella, where all the little animals scurry and help to make her dress.. Well my friends went into their closets and pulled out wigs and shoes and dresses - don’t me ask why they had all that in their closet – and Patti O’Furniture was born. For several years I just performed periodically in Columbia, but then gradually began to travel, and in 2006 was selected to be Miss South Carolina Pride, so I would travel all over the state and promote Pride festivals. Then six years ago, the owner of Dudley’s on Ann called me and invited me to perform at his bar in Charleston. On December 13, 2012, we unveiled the Patti O’Furniture Show! It has been a wonderful experience. Now, Dudleys offers shows several nights a week, but that was sort of my introduction into the Charleston community. One of the things I really do love about my time here is that Dudley’s allows me a platform not just to entertain people, but to promote different groups in the community like the gay rugby team, the local aids services organizations, and Charleston Pride. I’ve been very honored for the past 8 years now to be the official MC for Charleston Pride, and every year standing on that stage looking out at the crowd is a great feeling, It makes me very happy to be part of the Charleston community… I enjoy what I do and I always say that the best part of my job is putting a smile on somebody’s face. Whether it’s a night out at a bar and maybe someone’s having a bad day and I make them laugh, or looking out on a sea of people at Pride and seeing children and parents and couples and singles, younger people and older people and people of every walk of life. It’s just love and happiness and I wish everyone could see the energy we have here in the Charleston community.
What does Charleston Pride mean to you?
Charleston Pride to me means family, it means home, it means all of the things that go with those words. It means warmth.. I was telling a friend of mine who doesn’t live in Charleston that the reason I love Charleston Pride more than any other pride celebration I’ve been to, is I genuinely think that everyone in the city is happy. Everyone is loving each other… I was on social media following Pride, and someone who was visiting during the festival messaged me. They’d come from Ft. Lauderdale and didn’t realize it was Pride weekend and said, “I just want to give you a huge compliment, the local talent you have here in Charleston is better than anything we’ve ever seen in Ft. Lauderdale and it was so obvious that you all actually like each other.” Too often drag queens are associated with being catty and bitchy and here in Charleston, even if we don’t work in the same bar or club, we genuinely like and support each other. And that’s not something that you find in a lot of cities. And we’re a family. And I always say, whether it’s a hurricane or something like the Mother Emmanuel situation, or the recent violence threatening our transgender community, we all come together whether we are directly affected by that or not. We all recognize that that’s one person in the fabric of Charleston and you mess with one of us, you mess with all of us.
So what do you hope for the future here in Charleston for Pride and also for the drag scene?
I hope that we can work to be more inclusive. We have a huge variety of people here in Charleston community and too often I don’t think that our events, our drag show lineups, our night-life offerings and other community events necessarily showcase that. Specifically our trans community, our people of color, and or student population; they’re here but we don’t have a place or space for them to freely express themselves. So, I hope that Charleston can be better about creating more places and events to showcase our diversity and truly be the inclusive city that I know we are. We have one of the best drag scenes in the east coast, where we have so much talent, and the queens are so respected and valued, not just by the club owners, but the crowd as well. Like today, we did drag brunch at a brewery with a predominantly straight audience and little kids are there and coming up and dancing with us and hugging us and I don’t want to ever take that kind of joy for granted but I also know the cast who worked today all felt love and respect. Yes, they were tipped and given a stipend. It’s the wonderful love and respect that our drag community has. And I only hope it continues to grow and showcase the dynamic local talent that we have here in Charleston.
