4PLAY: SF - BUTT Interview PT 5

Part five of art critic/educator Andy Campbell's (bold) interview with Paul Soileau, Aliya in 4PLAY: SF, and Chloe, consultant and inspiration for Aliya. Photo above from Paul's performance as "Christeene" in Los Angeles this summer during OUTFEST at the "Bears In Space" party. I love the mash up of high-and-low with the McDonald's signage in the background... although I don't know which is high or which is low? - Kyle

When you were at Folsom, Paul, you did something really genius, that I wish I had been there for. Your drag performance persona Christeene Vale does this balloon dance and for this particular performance you attached the balloons to a butt plug, right? And you inserted the butt plug and then let it fly after dancing with it. Did it actually fly? Was there enough helium in it to lift the butt plug?

Paul: Yeah, one of my dancers, T. Gravel, he was involved in a situation where he had to lift his dick with balloons for a performance and it took twelve large balloons to lift it. So we figured…

And does that mean he has a big dick?

Paul: A big ol’ dick. Oh, I don’t know. It was flaccid when he had to lift it, and he just said it took twelve for him. And his partner, who was doing it too, took a couple more. So they were always fighting about that.

"I’m two balloons more than you!"

Paul: Men! Men! But we knew we were going to need twelve, but we wound up with fifteen helium balloons, and we just tied them to this red jelly butt plug and I did my dance. And then at the end – it was outdoors – and I pulled it out at the end of the little intro dance and let go, and it flew right over a church and it disappeared.

Did you feel the pull of the balloons while you were dancing?

Paul: No, actually it kept…I needed some lubrication, and my friend, all he had was this fancy French lotion, which was so damn silky, and that thing kept wanting to fly out of my butt the whole time. Damn French lotion, it was angel silky.

Paul: Another thing on this trip to Folsom was that it was the first time I had ever met Chloe. And I was dressed up as skanky Christeene, who is just trash, and then the most elegant woman in the world, Chloe, came out.

Scott: Well, when I first saw Christeene, I had to go downstairs and let her in my building. So I had to descend the stairs, and there’s Christeene at the bottom of the stairs –

- where she belongs –

Scott: - where she belongs. I had to convince myself to open the door. And I looked at her, and I was like, okay wait, I do know this person. And I open the door and all of a sudden I realized I spent two-and-a-half hours getting dressed and this bitch is wearing a pillowcase. I’m not shitting you. And looked gorgeous, I have to say. I wasn’t quite sure what was make-up and what wasn’t. It was lots of brown stains everywhere, and I was a little bit scared to give her a hug, but I was so happy to see lovely Christeene.

Paul: It really was like sushi going out with chicken fried steak. It was just tragic.

Scott: But the best part was being in public with you at a bar and people looking at us, trying to figure out, how the fuck do those two know each other? Where did they meet?

It was Folsom, so were those bears all over you?

Scott: The bears were all over us. Paul: The bears loved us. It was amazing.

Scott: The bears loved Christeene… A lot of them were really familiar with Christeene's music and videos. A lot of them were major fans. They knew all the words to her songs. It was this wonderful experience of, I think, people being fascinated and repulsed at the same time, which is a fun place to be, if you think about it.