By LOUISA CLEAVE
Australian drag queen Vanessa Wagener is not taking chances on Auckland's unpredictable weather — she is bringing her bikini and umbrella to Auckland to host the Hero Parade.
Wagener, aka Tobin Saunders, has been performing drag for about 20 years and has been an on-the-street reporter for Channel 10 at Sydney's Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras for three years.
She is making a transtasman cultural exchange to front TV3's coverage of this weekend's Hero Parade. The programme will air on Wednesday at 8.30 pm.
The TV3 special is one of a handful of Hero-related programmes airing on our screens this month.
Sydney is the subject of Prime's Lonely Planet programme tonight at 8.30, when traveller Justine Shapiro joins the mardi gras procession in front of its 600,000-plus revellers.
Community television channel Triangle is dedicating two weeks to the festival with its Gay, Lesbian & Bisexual Television Festival, screening local and international documentaries, and short films at 11 each night, except Saturday, until February 25.
Among the picks of the festival is Keven — A Life? (tonight, 11.45), a British documentary about a 49-year-old man who is HIV-positive; a funny look at the drag world in Queens for a Night (Monday, 11 pm); and the feature film, The Journey of Jared Price (February 25), about a small-town boy who goes to Hollywood.
Local offerings in the festival include Gay Dragstars 2000, a piece about the annual drag competition in Auckland, and Coming Out, a series of coming-out stories (February 22, 11.20 pm).
TV3's coverage of the Hero Parade has been boosted with a $120,000 allocation from New Zealand On Air, and the network promises a bigger and brighter television special, using more cameras and lights to capture the glitz and glamour of the parade.
Wagener will be joined by radio dj Rob Rakete, while former TrueBliss member Jo Cotton and Mark van Moorsel will report from the street.
Saunders said Vanessa is coming to entertain and educate audiences.
"It's a celebration and these sort of events are a time to reflect on law reform that has taken place, a chance to reflect on people who have passed away from HIV and Aids and keep the message up that that disease is not over and there are things to do still."
Saunders has "unofficially become the darling of the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras," but does not like the politics of the parade and questions the relevance of such festivals.
"I'm very mixed up about people being defined just by their sexuality. I understand why there are gay and lesbian festivals but I also feel that one's sexuality is really irrelevant to what they do and how they work in the world."
Does that make him a hypocrite by fronting our parade?
"It does. I'm a stereotype in myself. I'm a man who puts a frock on. In many ways I satirise drag, I satirise femininity and how woman are supposed to behave.
"There is a paradox in everything I do, but I prefer it to be me there on the mike than some foul-mouthed, Oxford St screamer. I feel it's my responsibility to let those people out in the suburbs know we're not going to bite, that people like us exist right next door."
Saunders describes his drag character as a professional show-off and political activist.
"As much as I'm a showgirl, I see myself as more of an activist. A lot of the work I do in Australia is a combination of incorporating entertainment and humour with education.
"But in [Hero's] case it will be trying to keep as much excitement and colour going, [providing] information and cheap, inoffensive jokes."
And what is a girl to wear at her first public outing in Auckland?
"It's probably weather permitting. I'm packing my bikini I wore in the closing ceremony of the Olympics, because it's so sensible for a summery, outdoor event. But I'll bring a variety of hideously clashing outfits, you know, late 1960s, early 1970s evening gown halter frocks. I'll bring a selection of brollies, too."
TV: The reluctant Hero
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