Billy Bloom, the protagonist of Freak Show, is not your ordinary high school skell. The 16 year-old twinkle queen is obsessed with being fabulous, a hobby that doesn’t go over well at his super-rich, ultra-conservative private southern high school. Each day is a new hell for Billy: tater tots in his hair, noogies and donkey punches, and constant humiliation aimed at his alternative lifestyle and unorthodox couture.
Freak Show’s author, James St. James, is an expert on challenging established ideas. The author of Disco Bloodbath, later made into the movie Party Monster, was a New York celebutante who rose to fame as one of the original Club Kids. With appearances on America’s Next Top Model and the Tyra Banks Show, he’s extended his fan base nationwide-but just what kind of fan base is that, and what is he trying to tell us?
Matthew Ray: Freak Show is a young adult book, which is a bit autobiographical?
JSJ: Oh definitely. It starts with my family, my mother, the backseat of the bus boys, all the beautiful boys in school that I was in love with but who taunted and tortured me. I was definitely the oddball freak show in school. Billy’s first appearance in school, when he imagines himself as Rosalind Russell, that really was how I attempted to approach my school days.
When does the book transcend biography?
Billy is ultimately stronger than me. He is more invincible, more like Lee Bowery. The other characters all grow in different ways too. Flip Kelly is very much like a guy in my high school, but Flip ends up in a different place than the person he is based on.
Why target the teenage market with your 2nd book?
That’s really my biggest fan base, teenagers! The myspacers are my biggest fans.
So this is your tribute to them?
My aim in writing Freak Show was to create a positive, Auntie Mame-like hero for LGBT teens. Someone who was outrageous, outspoken, larger-than-life super freak. I think that when you are a teenager, it’s the smartest you will ever be in your life. Teenagers are so resilient and strong, it’s just amazing.
Disco Bloodbath was an adult novel; did you approach Freak Show differently as all-ages fare?
When I first wrote it, the whole ending was different I had the main character gang raped by a gang of hobos – and then I thought that might be too much. I rewrote it again as an uplifting thing. I am a sick twisted queen, but I wanted something for all ages to appreciate.
I thought of this book as Judy Blume on ketamine.
Oh that’s good. Yes, very much like Judy Blume-if she had been a fabulous wonderful drag queen!
Did you mix it up with the youngsters to develop this book?
Not really that much, although I love talking to kids and listening to their adventures. Everything is so hyper-dramatic. “Oh my god this…and Oh my god that…” They bounce from terrible lows to ecstatic highs in minutes. Life is all about discovery and risk and chance to them, and it’s something we lose and forget, as we grow older.
I often wonder about gay men’s attraction to twinks, is it for the same reason?
Well who doesn’t love young flesh? Honestly? {Laughs} But I think people’s attraction to youth is a longing for a time when those experiences were new and unique. When everything was fresh.
Sure, and the young flesh is great too!
Oh I know! Show me a pretty blonde boy and my heart will stop. Just stop! Some of those young kids out there are heartstoppingly beautiful, I just want to pet them and hug them.
You ever miss your youth? The Club Kid days?
Hmmmmmm. No, not really. That was my past. It was a great time when it was roaring on, but I am happy where I am at and proud of my accomplishments, accomplishments I couldn’t have done dancing the night away at Limelight. Who wants to see an old Club Kid anyway? 50-year-old men bopping around in club kid outfits! That stuff is better left to the younger generation.
Give me some backstage scoop on America’s Next Top Model…
I always have a good time on the show, and on Tyra’s talk show too. Tyra is so smart, and first and foremost a businesswoman. She’s really impressive. I honestly have nothing to say bad or juicy about it!
Not even Miss Jay?
I first met Miss Jaye in 1984 at Area. She was in a tube skirt and high heels. There is someone who has really grown out of the old and into the new. Unstoppable.
Any plans for a third book?
Yes. I’m doing a gay teenage werewolf story. It’s probably going to be called Dogbreath, and I’m a little behind in my work. I’ve been promoting Freak Show so much, I just need to go to a hotel, go to Palm Springs, and just crank it out.
Any glamorous appearances on TV?
Nothing yet, but if I could sing or dance with grace, I’d do Dancing with the Stars in seconds. Its an amazing show, I’d love to do it. That or One Tree Hill or something on the WB. Those boys….
Freak Show, $18.99, available from Dutton Children’s Books.
