INTERVIEW WITH PORTLAND'S PQ MONTHLY

You know you’re a legend if Rupaul says you’re one. There was a moment on this past season’s “Drag Race,” during Snatch Game, when runner-up Alaska Thunderfuck announced she’d be imitating Lady Bunny. Ru, naturally, cautioned her and pressed her — are you sure you can do it? Bunny is a legend, a very distinct personality, and those are some big heels to fill. While Alaska would never be mistaken for Bunny, she did an admirable job tackling her look and persona — enough so that she got the attention of the Lady in question. “I enjoyed both Ivy’s [last season’s ‘Ms. Congeniality’] and Alaska’s impersonations of me,” Lady Bunny says. “I think they both captured my demented essence — and they’re so much thinner, too!” Demented essence is a pretty apt description. But add to demented dashes of hilarious and witty. My friend Ryan and I spend an inordinate amount of time thinking about and talking about drag queens — especially the legends — and Lady Bunny came up (again) after I watched “To Wong Foo” for the 20th time and simultaneously found out I’d be chatting with her for this edition of the gay newspaper (ahead of Bunny’s appearance at Blow Pony at the end of July). “Do you think she does lots of drugs?” I asked Ryan. “I doubt it,” he said. “She’s too quick and clever to be hopped up.” Add those, too: quick and clever. And while Lady Bunny is really known for her parody, raunchy comedy, movie cameos, and gravity-defying hair to the heavens, this time around she’s pulling a bit of a Madonna — and dabbling reinvention. On the heels of a pair of duets with Rupaul, Bunny is set to conquer the world — or at least the dance floors — with “Take Me Up High,” a hook-filled wonder, and her first solo release in almost a decade. “I wrote ‘Take Me Up’ high about my cholesterol,” Bunny says. “OK, I’m kidding. I write a lot of parody songs, which I’ll also be performing in Portland. So I’ve always dabbled in songwriting — whether it’s duets with Ru on his albums or something here or there on an occasional soundtrack. I waited forever to do this and now it’s time. The lyrics are classic summer party jam — nothing too heavy, just get out and dance. Dance like we used to when the music was better. Sorry, Rihanna.” MORE: PQMONTHLY