by Steve Desroches
Sherry Vine has seen quite a bit in her 61 years of life and 35 years as a drag queen, over which time she’s become a bona fide legend of the craft. She’s also the queen of the parody song (unless Jackie Beat sees this story—in that case, it’s her). A breakout star of the drag explosion in New York City in the 1990s, her career has been an ever-expanding universe ever since, taking her all over the world, with frequent jumps to Europe. Playing everywhere from Iceland to Malta to Poland, it’s testament to the fact that English has become the lingua franca of the continent, and that drag’s popularity knows no borders. However, the imperial system of measurement does. As the United States stand practically alone in its official use, with only Liberia and Myanmar also on the system, the rest of the world thinks metrically. As a drag queen, and a size queen, it didn’t occur to Vine that others didn’t fantasize in inches. So, when she wrote a parody of George Michael’s “Faith” titled “Eight,” meaning the minimum number of inches a man’s manhood must be to attract her attention, she thought she had a hit.
“The song got big laughs whenever I did it in the U.S.,” says Vine. “But when I did it in Europe it didn’t. I couldn’t figure out why. And then I realized as soon as I sang eight inches they start doing the conversion to centimeters in their heads and stopped paying attention. So I started to say before I sang the song that eight inches is about twenty centimeters, and from then on European audiences laughed.”
It’s that kind of cultural exchange that build bridges and fosters mutual understanding. It’s also what keeps Vine on top in the world of drag weathering changing tastes, cultural obsessions with youth, and the RuPaul’s Drag Race phenomenon. Vine is better than ever, and age has a lot to do with it, as she has never been more comfortable in her own skin and confident in her abilities, even if bones creak and joints ache. She’s also never been happier. After 28 years of living in New York, where all her money went to paying rent for a shoebox apartment, she moved to Southern California in 2019 where she now lives in a two-bedroom house in Burbank with a swimming pool, for the same amount of money she used to pay in New York. She’s closer to her drag colleagues and good friends Jackie Beat and Coco Peru, getting together for lunch frequently. And there’s the weather. Vine realized she doesn’t need seasons and loves the consistency of Los Angeles’ climate. But she’s packing up and leaving her beloved new home. Coming off a huge world tour in celebration of turning 60, Vine is back on the road coming to Provincetown for three shows at Red Room this Pride weekend with a brand-new incarnation of the naughty parodies and potty humor for which she is so well regarded.
Vine’s parody videos have garnered tens of millions of views collectively online showcasing her talents for taking pop songs and making them all her own in the way only she can. Who else can turn Gloria Estefan and the Miami Sound Machine’s “Words Get in the Way” to “Turds Get in the Way” or Dolly Parton’s “Jolene” to “Hole Clean.” (And if Jackie Beat is reading this, her too.) And after all these years she’s never received a cease-and-desist letter or a complaint from a celebrity about any of her parody songs, which by the way are protected speech by the First Amendment according to the Supreme Court. Vine has heard through the grapevine that Madonna does not like any parodies of her work, including hers. But on the flip, Lady Gaga loves drag parodies, including Vine’s take on “Bad Romance” called “I Shit My Pants,” hearing from the mega pop star directly over the years. Her most recent work in rewriting songs on the charts for this show took her all the way to the surgeon’s table.
“I thought after celebrating turning 60, I’d move on from any mention of aging,” says Vine. “Then I turned 61 and needed a knee replacement. How could I not address that in the show? So I wrote a parody of Sabrina Carpenter’s “Please Please Please” called “Knees Knees Knees.” Plus, I have to wear flats until at least July. And while most of my salacious stories are made up (except the one about Malta—that’s 100% true), I had to put a recent experience in the show. I was blowing this guy and I threw my back out. He had to help me out of drag, get me into an Uber and to urgent care. I mean, how could I not put that in the show?”
Sherry Vine performs at Red Room, 258 Commercial St., Provincetown, Saturday, June 7, Sunday, June 8, and Tuesday, June 10, at 8:30 p.m. Tickets ($40.50/$50.50) are available at the door and online at redroom.club.
