"I've always tried not to get involved with politics in my act," says Jeffrey Roberson, who performs under his nom de plumage, Varla Jean Merman, at Oasis next Wednesday through Saturday night. "If you hear me talking politics, its really urgent."
In over two decades of drag shows, the strapping, 6' 2" native Louisianan has tended to prattle on about urges more physical than political. But this go-round, things feel different.
"I was starting to put the show together for Provincetown this year," explains Roberson, who has performed for the past 18 summers in Cape Cod's gay getaway. "Usually I have a specific theme I want to work around-I've done fairy tales, Disney, circus. This time I just wanted to make fun of white people. I was thinking, why are there so many jokes about every other group, but the only jokes about white people are about how they're boring or they're not passionate?
"I started to pull together all these songs by people I'd heard on AM radio as a kid; Anne Murray, Helen Reddy, the Carpenters. It's not very good-but it's a genre.
"Then all of these shootings started showing up in the news and Trump started in with all his racist talk. Last year was such a positive year with gay rights and gay marriage. But this year, with Pulse nightclub and the police violence and the election, it gave a political context to the show."
Thus was born "A Little White Music," which Roberson promises is full of the same sassy attitude and wicked wordplay for which Varla has always been adored.
"There's a point of view in there," he explains, "But it's not heavy-handed. It's not about politics, it's not Vote for Varla!"
Provincetown Magazine assessed the piece as "the most hilariously subversive and delightfully iconoclastic show Varla Jean Merman has ever done."
Today, San Francisco audiences -who have embraced Roberson ever since his first performances here in the 1990s at the late, lamented Castro cabaret Josie's Juice Joint- reap the benefits of Roberson's summer-long P-Town residencies.
"I bring a new show to Provincetown every year and do it seven times a week for ten weeks. It's a hard audience because everyone has had the same experience that day; they're all on vacation, so if the weather was bad, they've all had a disappointing day. There are so many choices of cabaret every night and everything is word of mouth, so the show has to get really tight. I can't do a bad show. I have to keep making it better. Every single beat has to work right.
"The world of drag has changed so much," reflects the 47-year-old Roberson. "You used to have to work your ass off to get famous. There was no TV, no magazines. Someone like Lypsinka was a rarity, and it took her years to get barely known."
Roberson adds, "Back in the '90s, before RuPaul's Drag Race, there was no such thing as instant fame. But it's made drag seem like a viable career. Some of the girls, like Jinx Monsoon and Courtney Act and Bianca del Rio had their shit together before they were on TV and will continue to be successful. But plenty of those girls make lots of money to go to a club and lip-sync a song or two. It's hard to make that last. They're attracting attention because they're celebrities, but you have to move on from being an instant celebrity to figure out what it is you actually want to do. You've got to have something to back it up."
On the flip side, Roberson notes with some irony, "I can't do half the things they ask contestants to do on Drag Race. I can't sew. I can't do my own make-up!"
While proud to be recognized as drag royalty, Roberson, who is a classically trained vocalist and in the 1990s appeared in the Broadway production and national tour of Chicago, is closer in spirit to Barry Humphries, the man behind Dame Edna, than to many of today's younger queens.
"I'm an actor and a writer," he said. "One of the first drag performers I was inspired by was Coco Peru, because she did long, thoughtful monologues. She showed me that drag could be more than just being dirty and nasty and reading people. I can't hit the high notes I hit twenty years ago, but the more I write and perform, the better I get."
Varla Jean Merman performs 'A Little White Music' at Oasis. $25, $35, and VIP champagne tables $225. 7:30pm. October 5 thru 8. 298 11th St. at Folsom. 795-3180. www.sfoasis.com