TAMMY FAYMOUS. — DavidXDaisy

I distinctly recall noting Alexander Kacala making the rounds of queer NYC in 2017/18. We worked for competing dating apps in different roles, but crossed often on very similar paths. As his media career progressed, I was consistently proud to see him bringing queer stories forward and highlighted in mainstream. I was even prouder when he recently diverted from that career path to return to artistry in the form of his drag persona, Tammy Faymous.

To mark this great resurrection, Tammy has produced a cabaret show, “When Is It My Turn?”, which has its NYC debut on Thursday, April 27, at Chelsea Table + Stage. The following story is edited from a phone interview in which Alex shared intimate life experiences that prove himself as a tenacious, creative force you should be sure to watch in coming years. It is Tammy’s turn now, and we’ve got front row seats.

* * *

DXD: How did you originally get your start in nightlife?

TF: I moved to Philly when I was 18. I dropped out of college kind of when I was studying abroad in Rome. I came back to Philly and I was partying a lot, and I ended up becoming really established in the queer community, almost by default. I was starting to perform professionally in musical theater, and I did that for a few years. I was getting all these chorus jobs and performing professionally, but it was at a smaller theater in Delaware. Then I got this big gig in Philly at the Walnut Street Theater, which is like the highest paid regional theater in America. But I've always felt like an outsider. No matter where I am, I always feel like an outsider.

So I ended up in musical theater, not vibing or gelling with the people. I always felt that theater people only talk about theater, but I was also really into music at the time, and nightlife. And I never could talk to those people. They were so judgmental of me. They thought I was so irresponsible. I was drinking and partying like crazy, but I was 21 at the time. So I just didn't gel with them. But I love performing. A dinner that I was performing at decided to do a benefit drag show where we all did characters and celebrities, and I did Amy Winehouse. I sang live and that was really, really fun. My characterization of Amy was hilarious, and it ended up becoming such a thing that I started performing from there as Tammy Faymous.

DXD: So where did things go for Tammy from there?

TF: I hosted at a really popular straight dive bar in the hipster neighborhood of Philly where we did this monthly drag show called, “Qream.” It was like one Tuesday a month, and we did it for two years. And that's also how I then started working in nightlife was through Tammy. I started doing that party, and I had my own party called Fayme Problem. I started doing a karaoke night at this burger place. I performed in other shows, like at Bob & Barbara’s, the longest-running drag show in Philadelphia, I performed there a lot. And that was the show that was full of older Black and Latina trans women who transitioned in the early 90s. And they were taking me under their wing, and they were so supportive of me – Lisa, Lisa and Karen Vonsay and Deja Alvarez. They were all the trans women in the scene who were really supportive of me, even though I was a hairy-chested queen. And from there, Tammy became so successful and my party became so successful that a bar hired me as their event manager. And then I did that for like a year.

But then through all of this, I was drinking like crazy. I was developing a pretty insane drinking problem where I would get blacked out and crazy. You may know me as crazy, but we've never seen drunk, crazy Alex, which is next-level-too-much. I was getting in a lot of trouble in life and I ended up getting into a really bad incident at work. I wasn't given an ultimatum, but I was so ashamed and felt so guilty about what happened that I quit drinking.

When I did that, I had one more big Tammy gig like two weeks later at this big club in Philly. The girl who does the popular fetish party Bound, Katie K Rex, also ran this party in Philly that I was a part of called Factory Girls. She hosted one with Lady Bunny as the headliner, and I was opening. I had stopped drinking on October 13, and this was like October 28. I was in the green room with Bunny for like three hours because the show was running really late. I was sober and Bunny at the time was completely sober too, and we really bonded over that. We had a great time together, but I felt really awkward and I really did not feel like I could get back into character because Tammy was a mess and the mess was told through the drinking. I ended up realizing I really had to put her on the back burner at that point because I really wanted to take my sobriety seriously. So I did.

And then from there, I kept being the manager of this gay bar. But then I saw this internship that was basically a post-grad internship for the queer brand at Philadelphia Magazine, and they were looking for a contributing editor. So with no journalism experience, I applied and went into a meeting with this executive editor of Philadelphia Magazine who was also an editor at Town and Country and a contributing editor at Vanity Fair. He's really legit this guy. He asked me why I was applying for this job, and I said to him, “Nobody knows the queer community and Philadelphia better than me.”

And he really loved me so much he hired me right there. He said, “I feel like you're the most wrong for this. And you're the most right.” And that started my media career, and fast forward almost ten years later and here we are! So you see I just took that where it took me. It took me to Florida for a job, and that company owned Next Magazine. They made me Editor-in-Chief, and I moved myself to NYC for that job. And then the company went bankrupt four months later, but everything through it all has been a means to an end to get to the next thing. And Tammy has always been in the back of my mind, but I never really had the opportunity or the wherewithal to to take a break from media and refocus on her. And that's what I've kind of done now.

DXD: That is such a fabulous story. So take us back and tell us more about who Tammy was and still is.

TF: When I started Tammy, all drag was bad. Like, everybody was crusty. This was 2011. Tammy was bad and hairy. I tried singing live as much as possible, but I wasn't too much of an outlier. But now, because drag has become so gentrified and everything (which is great) I am really trying to bring back that messiness, that irreverence, that camp, and that rebellion to it. And I think that it's making more of an impact now, because it is more different than what it was ten years ago.

I’m now showing people a side of me that they never even knew about. And so a lot of people are really skeptical. A lot of people see me trying to do all of this, and because they don't know I did this before, they see it as a brand new thing. In some ways it is because Alex is so different now that I think Tammy will be different too. And I'm actually excited about that. But in many ways, I know her from ten years ago. Some of the stupid things that I do, like put chicken nuggets or wings in my tits and eat them; it's not fucking Shakespeare or Bertolt Brecht going on here. But it's funny, and people enjoy it.

DXD: I love that you've really kind of zoned in on the performance art of what you do and really getting back to the heart of drag as performance.

TF: I feel that Drag Race has really inspired queens to be generalists where you have to be good at everything, which is so important in so many ways. But what if a queen just wants to be good at one aspect of it and really live there? Like, what if she just wants to be a local queen who's only on Instagram and never performed live? I'm totally okay with that. Even when I got my start in that dive bar in South Philly, I was ruffling some feathers, but the queens really embraced me. One of those queens was the Goddess Isis. She is from the South, and moved to Philly right about the time that Tammy was getting started in 2011. She had a really popular show called Sinful Sundays with the Goddess Isis.

In that show, I ended up starting to perform, and backstage once we were kiki-ing, and she gave me the best analogy that I think about so much. She said that in order for drag as an art form to thrive, it's a body and all queens are different parts of the body. So there's comedy queens, there's host queens, there's the dancing queens, there's costume queens, there's the makeup girls, there's the look queens, there's the queens that can sing live, there's the cabaret girls, there's every kind of queen. But the makeup girl is the arm and the dance girl is the other arm and the cabaret girl is the leg. It's like we're all parts of the body of drag in order for the body to be healthy and to survive and to thrive. We all need to be there.

And I felt like it was such a beautiful analogy of the community and this art form. It's something that I feel like we have sometimes lost. It’s like in order for me to be a good drag queen, I need to be the entire body. And I think that’s fine, of course, for some people, especially if they want to get on Drag Race. But that doesn't have to be for everybody.

DXD: You are very much a fully-rounded creative. You do drag, sing, perform in shows, been a charismatic queer news reporter, a writer, etcetera. What else have you been working on creatively?

TF: Yeah, I mean I can podcast, I can edit a podcast, I can do social media, I can use Photoshop, I can use CapCut to edit videos, I can use iMovie. I do feel like we've taken art into all these new mediums. Think of Warhol, I'm not saying I am Warhol, but think Warhol as a person that dabbled in lots of media. Today, unfortunately, those mediums are more technologically focused. But that doesn't make you any less or more of a creative. Even if you're just using your Instagram to edit and post a video that you create, there are opportunities for you to be creative with that process. And that is really something I'm trying to focus on. I also think that that makes me really good at what I do, because I understand all sides of it. Again it's like going back to that generalist thing. I may not be the best at something, but like, I'm willing to try it and do it and by doing that I'm going to know it better. So maybe then I can hire somebody else to do it, but I'm going to be able to engage with them better about the process. I definitely feel like all of us need to be focusing on how we can be using all of these things to be as creative as possible, whenever we want.

DXD: Where do you look for inspiration to continue creating, and what helps you when you experience creative blocks?

TF: Well, I read this really good book recently. So when I left NBC, I saw this interview on CBS Sunday Morning with this guy Rick Rubin, and he wrote a book, “The Creative Act: A Way of Being,” and basically it's about how all of us can establish ourselves as artists in some way. I highly recommend it. This book is so good. It's a quick read, but it's so inspiring, because it really provides a blueprint on the creative process – the dips in the valleys and the peaks.

And in it he talks about creative blocks and how to deal with them. And for me, I feel like that means taking a step back and refocusing on something else completely. Be different, but also engage with other things. I feel like so many of us stop experiencing other art or other nightlife because we're focused on our own projects. And I think that that also prevents and hinders more creativity and inspiration. So I want to continue being a person that's going to other drag shows and posting about them and sharing content. Not only do I want to promote other people's things, but I think through that process I will get new ideas for Tammy.

DXD: How do you balance time for Tammy and time for Alex through the years as you go through these different stages of expression?

TF: I mean, I definitely need to figure that out, because this stuff starts getting more busy. One thing is that I really do hate being a clean-shaven boy. I have had that insecurity for a long time, and that was also another reason why I stopped Tammy – I really hated shaving. I feel like I am 100% more handsome with a beard. I love having a beard, so not having a beard as a boy is annoying. But I hate having a beard as Tammy. So I was thinking about not doing so many gigs where I have to be clean-shaven every week. I would love to be able to really get my show going where that's the only thing I do, and it's a monthly show; so I do it, I get ready for it, and then I put her away until the next month.

I also think the other thing that is interesting to think about is that we're all navigating these waters where there has been a narrative that we were told when we were younger that in order to be something, you need to make your living off it. But like I at this point need to understand like I don't want to take drag gigs that I don't want to do just to make Tammy more professional. And that makes sense for me.

DXD: Who is another performer that excites you right now?

TF: When I think about the people that inspire Tammy, that really started with Amy Winehouse for sure. But I also take inspiration from Tammy Faye Baker, especially with my name of course. And then I'm really looking at cabaret performers like Bridget Everett – she's a huge inspiration for me and she's somebody that I'm really modeling Tammy after in my show. A funny coincidence: my bassist used to be her bassist, and after our first rehearsal he said to me, “Wow, you really remind me of Bridget.” Oh my god, I died. Also Joey Arias, as well as Justin Vivian Bond, especially with the Kiki and Herb act, and Sandra Bernhard.

DXD: I think those are great references. Those are the great cabaret artists who can draw in the audience because of what they do.

TF: Yeah, and I definitely feel like Jinx Monsoon is the gold standard in so many ways. I'm obsessed with her and draw so much inspiration from her. I definitely feel like she's an artist. And I feel like she's also a great representation of the underdog. Then there is also BenDeLaCreme. I saw their drag show at Christmas time, and it was really good and really funny. And then I also like Patti Smith. I have a couple of her songs in my show. I’m also very inspired by early Bette Midler and Miley.

DXD: You have produced your own cabaret show, “When Is It My Turn?,” which had its first performance at City Winery Philadelphia this past weekend. And it has its NYC debut this Thursday at Chelsea Table. What can guests expect.?

TF: I’ve worked with my amazing band and musical director, Darnell White, for a show that features the return of Tammy Faymous singing live and really returning to my drag roots. It is a 90-minute cabaret, featuring songs from Amy Winehouse, Bette Midler, Patti Smith, Miley Cyrus, Tina Turner, Dua Lipa, and more. I get to share my stories about my life like I got to share here today, and it’s really fun to get back to doing what I love as Tammy.

* * *

Thank you Tammy Faymous! You can get the full Tammy experience this Thursday, April 27, at Chelsea Table + Stage. Get your tickets here and follow all the faymeproblems adventures on Instagram.

Xx,