‘a joke is always more than a joke.’
‘a joke is always more than a joke.’
Aurora trans activist Penelope Torres talks spooky season, Dave Chappelle and the queer radical comedy and drag showcase TTime.
Queering the Burbs is a weekly-ish distillation of pop culture, politics and queerness written by Joe Erbentraut. If you like what you see, please consider subscribing (it’s free!), liking or sharing this piece.
In case you have been leading a peaceful existence that is unaware of the latest mess that Netflix has gotten itself into, let me catch you up very briefly: Two weeks ago, Netflix dropped Dave Chappelle’s latest comedy special, The Closer, on its platform. The special was almost immediately met with an intense backlash for its anti-trans, anti-LGTBQ content.
From there, it’s just kept getting worse. Netflix suspended and then reinstated a trans employee who criticized the company’s decision to run the special, and the company’s co-CEO Ted Sarandos defended The Closer and double-downed on that defense. Nanette star Hannah Gadsby took to social media and tell Sarandos “f*** you and your amoral algorithm cult.” A staffer was fired for leaking that the streamer paid $24 million for the controversial Chappelle special to the press. And a trans employee walkout at Netflix is planned for Tuesday.
The whole thing is a disaster, and if you’re still unsure what all the fuss is about, I recommend you read the clear-headed essay that Terra Field, the fired-then-reinstated trans Netflix staffer at the heart of the pushback, just published in Deadline.
What does Field want? For one, she writes, she doesn’t want to see the special pulled from the platform. Instead, she wants Netflix “and other companies with similar influence” to do better: to stop pretending that transphobia in media doesn’t have a real effect on society, to pay queer and trans comedians and talent “and pay them well,” and to promote queer and trans comedians and talent, among other things.
Speaking of queer and trans talent, let’s talk a bit about Aurora’s own Penelope Torres.
Torres is a friend of Javi, whose words you may have read in this space before and who suggested we connect. Much like Javi, Torres is one of those folks out here queering the burbs like few others are doing right now. She is booked and busy — an Aurora resident since 2008, she’s a commissioner on the Aurora Human Relations Commission, operations director at Aurora Pride, an at-large board member for Aurora Downtown, a committee member for the Human Rights Campaign — Chicago, and school experience coordinator at the Paramount School of the Arts.
On top of all that, Torres is also serving as the mistress of ceremonies at a very unique event called TTime, a “queer radical comedy and drag show experience” taking place Friday, Oct. 22, at the Comedy Shrine in The Fox Valley Mall (with tickets available here).
Ahead of the event, I was able to connect with Torres to learn more about her work, and the upcoming show — and while I had her on the proverbial “line,” I had to ask about the story of the hour. Read on for more.
Penelope, you are very involved with building queer community in Aurora. Can you tell me about your decision to get involved in these efforts? How have these experiences been for you?
Well, after spending my 20s very closeted, I came out and transitioned when I was in Aurora. With that being said, at the time 10 years ago when I began transition, Aurora still was a mystery to me on if it would be a safe place for a queer Latin trans woman. Compared to other places, the queer community felt rather “closeted” and much was due to lack of visibility. Being close to Chicago it felt like you had to leave Aurora and head to Chicago to be in a place where it was OK to be open and authentic. I wanted to help create a space in Aurora where the LGBTQ community felt open to be themselves.
How do you think Aurora is doing in terms of making an effort to ensure the city is a welcoming place for queer and trans people? What is the city doing well and where is improvement needed?
Well, I think that depends on what you mean by “Aurora.” The people of Aurora have come to be vocal allies and embraced the visibility that the local LGBTQ community has been building. However we still desperately need resources that are targeted towards the needs of the queer community. Seeing rainbows and pride flags are wonderful — seeing an LGBTQ community center that many in the Fox Valley could use as a resource would be AMAZING!
You are the mistress of ceremonies for this upcoming show at the Comedy Shrine at the Fox Valley Mall. Can you tell me a bit about the show and how it came to be?
ABSOLUTELY! TTime came to be during the Covid lockdown. During the shutdown I was helping with the build out of the Comedy Shrine’s new space. While helping the owner, Dave Sinker, with [the] set up of the comedy museum we would talk comedy. He’s a HUGE comedy buff (and I’m a bit of a comedy nerd myself). I told him about how I wanted to carve out a place for Brown, Black and queer folx to have a show to just “be” and let their guard down. BIPOC and Queer folx were hit HARD by the lockdowns, especially those in the performing arts.
As it looked like restrictions were going to be lifted in June, I pitched the idea of TTime — queer radical comedy and a drag show, with a punk band for fun! I wanted to create a show that I wanted to see (and that no one had done before). I wanted to have some fun playing with gender “norms.” Radical TRANS stand up comedians and drag queens are certainly a group that can deliver that! The first serving of TTime was in June and it was a HIT! With the first show proving itself on a Thursday, the owner offered up a weekend slot — and that’s how we came to be serving T on 10/22!
The timing of the show is interesting for a couple of reasons — one, it is spooky season and I’m always very interested in the intersection of queerness and horror, for example. What do you think it is about queer/trans identity that makes us so engaged with spooky vibes?
Fall, Halloween, “the spooky season” is sort of the second Pride for many queer folx. I think horror and queerness have always gone hand in hand. (Side note: Woot to Elvira recently coming out as queer!) Horror and Halloween have always given us a space to explore new identities and push some ideas that aren’t always mainstream (maybe experiment with a different gender presentation even…) I think that queer folx have been villains in the eyes of those who are heavily invested in cis hetero narratives, and leaning into horror is a way of reclaiming the narrative. Plus it’s just plain fun!
Additionally, I wanted to ask about the controversy surrounding Dave Chappelle’s new Netflix special (his saying he is “team TERF,” that “gender is fact” and defending J.K. Rowling among other things) and how Netflix has responded to the backlash from trans and queer people and their allies. What does it mean to you to be helping put on a queer comedy and drag showcase in this environment (where transphobic language is condoned by powerful folks like the head of Netflix)?
I love a nice light topic! Ha!.. The biggest controversy of The Closer isn’t the cis, hetero, Black man and what he said about trans folx and TERFs, it’s his trans friend that no one talks about EXCEPT for him. Someone needs to say her name: Daphne Dorman. She was a trans woman and comedian in the San Francisco area. I say “was” because she unfortunately took her life in 2019. Now navigating the world as a trans woman is not an easy task.. navigating the cis, hetero, male dominated world of toxic masculinity in standup comedy — as a trans woman — WHEW!!!! That’s a whole other experience! Daphne chose to laugh at the ugliest parts of the world — head on, and in the process was on her way to carving out a place for herself, and her community. THAT IS INCREDIBLE — and she earned it, mostly by trails of life and the quick thinking that comes from it.
Shortly after tweeting in support of Sticks and Stones when it came out, she was bullied, harassed and dragged through cyber hell by people who she felt were her kin. Six days later, she ended her life. A talent was lost for trans folx, a person starting to carve out a place for her and trans folx — and the sad part is that it was because of “cancel culture.” We NEED to create spaces where trans and non-binary people and BIPOC folx can radically create and laugh. Now more than ever. Then I wouldn’t have to be home watching Netflix specials as much!
One more question on the Chappelle point, what do you say to the folks who continue to say that his content is “just jokes” or that he’s “just a comedian?”
Words matter, they absolutely do. There are a LOT of words that many, many people are uncomfortable with. A joke is always more than a joke, it’s a statement of an idea. Be careful what ideas you laugh at.
Anything else you’d like to touch on that wasn't addressed above?
TTime is all about getting real with radical comedy, serving some weird and wild drag looks, and embracing punk life — that which makes you happy but pisses off the mainstream. The T will be strong, and the queens wild! I hope it’s a place where we can find a moment to be a bit free to be unapologetically trans, Black, Brown and queer!
TTime is taking place Friday, Oct. 22 at the Comedy Shrine at the Fox Valley Mall, with shows at 7:30 and 10 p.m. Tickets cost $25 and are available here. The event will also feature drag performances from Areal Haunting, Androgynique Iman, Lucille Faux Fur, Dolce Vita and Robbin Graves; comedy from K.J. Whitehead and The Queeny Bitch, and live music from Sweetie, the T-Time Band. Latex, leather and lace are “encouraged but not required,” while proof of vaccination or a negative Covid test is required.
For more interviews with queer folks in the western burbs, read my previous interviews with Batavia artist Annie Hex, Aurora organizer Javi, the organizers of Geneva Pride, Batavia alderman Dan Chanzit and Paramount Theatre artistic director Jim Corti. As always, please comment, share and subscribe if you like what you read.
***
LINKS! LINKS! LINKS! (a week in pop culture):
We saw our second movie of the pandemic in the theaters last week — Halloween Kills — and I have to admit I’ve never felt more represented in film than by the couple who bought and meticulously renovated Michael Myers’ childhood home. The movie was OK. Now here’s Jamie Lee Curtis telling you what the latest installments of the iconic slasher franchise are all about:
Apparently the Grammys have decided that Kacey Musgraves no longer qualifies as a country artist — or at least her new album, Star-Crossed, won’t qualify for a country Grammy. Musgraves isn’t happy about it, but has the Recording Academy gotten anything right — aside from Grammy of the Year for Musgraves’ Golden Hour in 2019 — lately anyway? In an industry now dominated by streaming, do genres really even matter anymore?
I’m still not over someone asking Adele what her body count is while she was on Instagram Live (for the first time ever, apparently) the other week. Sure, her new song is transcendent. But I’m still thinking about those bodies. I’m also loving actor Mary Elizabeth Kelly’s reenactment of this history being made.
HBO Max just dropped a new two-part documentary on the life and death of Scorpio icon Brittany Murphy. It’s a dreary, upsetting watch that reveals little new information for anyone who’s fallen down a rabbit hole looking into Murphy’s tragic passing — aside from the fact that her former husband, Simon Monjack, allegedly snuggled with her mother after her death. If you’re curious, save yourself the two hours of watchtime by reading The Cut’s rundown of the most revelatory moments.
FYI, the popular tea cult Celestial Seasonings put out an Instagram ad featuring its iconic Sleepytime Bear taking a “thirst trap” while wearing a crop top. I’m not sure I’ve never seen anything more beautiful.
Smash Mouth lead singer Steve Harwell was shown in a truly baffling TikTok video that was followed a matter of days later with the announcement of his retirement. The original TikToker is now calling herself the “Smash Mouth whistleblower.” I’d hire her.
Speaking of viral TikToks having real-life consequences, Zillow has now announced that it is discontinuing its Zillow Offers iBuying program through the end of the year — because it is dealing with a backlog of homes it has already bought. The program came under scrutiny after a real estate agent in Nevada called out the company out for allegedly attempting to manipulate the housing market in its favor. Zillow denies all that, of course.
Singer Zara Larsson really, really, really hates bowling. For deeply personal reasons I cannot go into further in this space, I’d have to say she’s correct.
It’s October, the sun is going down at 6 p.m., and the time is now for some darkwave. Sway, brood and behold Texas’ very own, Twin Tribes. Here is the QTB bop of the week, “Fantasmas” off the 2019 album Ceremony.