"So the drag came from an intense desire to be onstage, to be a performer. It wasn't the desire to wear women's clothes or to be mistaken for a woman. How would people describe Miss P? For some she was abrasive, incredibly quick witted and beautiful. For others she was exuberant, godly, outrageous, chancy, gutsy, scary, a brilliant liar, fabulous, freaky, fierce, flawless, fun, just talented, crazy, drunk, unbelievable, a sister, a bitch, funny, drag couture, irreverent, charismatic, a strong attitude, and the list goes on.
Paul Wegman's infamous character, Miss P initially developed after first performing drag in Tampa in the early 1970's, when she was known as "The Lady Pauline, The Girl With The Million Dollar Legs." It wasn't until performing and being the MC at Parliament House, a gay resort in Orlando FL, in 1975 that Wegman began to call his character "The Divine Miss P," which was also dropped to Miss P and then eventually to just P. “Some time after that I decided to go ahead and drop all that divine business because I’m really not all that divine (laughs), and so it became just ‘Miss P’. And then for a while I wouldn’t even let them use the ‘Miss’… I just said ‘P’.” In the early 1970's, Wegman experimented with silicone injections and hormones, which began to develop breasts and "all this fabulous skin and long red hair." Later on, Wegman would state in an interview with Tom Dyer from the Watermark that, "But then all of a sudden something-(laughs) could it have been common sense and intelligence?- took over and said to me (in deep guttural voice), 'Heyya. Where you going' with all this, now?'...So I decided that adventure was over....it was fun... but that'll be just about the end of it." He often expressed his discontent later in life in the decision of injecting silicone and beginning a transitioning as he lost some aspects of his masculinity; yet it seemed to be part of a trend he would journey in, as many female impersonators were trans and found it a means to achieve the illusion of being a woman during the time. “It seems to me that many female impersonators are really going for the illusion of actually being a woman,” Tom Dyer would ask, “whereas P is more of a character. Is that correct?” “I think it goes with the person that I am when I’m in drag. But I beg to differ with you when you say they’re going for the illusion of being a female. I think I’m going for the illusion of being a female and they’re going more for being a female. I think when you start changing your body…the illusion is disappearing…Those of us who aren’t doing that are really the keepers of illusion.” |
"...We were at the Palace Club and I was mouthing all the words with Miss Honey and my friend Whit said to me' You'd like to be doing that wouldn't you?' and I said, "I sure would," and a month later I was on the stage.”
- Paul Wegman
Miss P became known from her outrageous and somewhat offending and not-politically correct performances at the Footlights Theatre. Known for picking on and insulting random audience members, Miss P made it clear that she was a force to be reckon with. “He would turn up the house lights and pick on people,” Margaret Nolan, a coworker at the Orlando theatres, would say. “He would go right out there to them and get right up in their faces. People came there for this. Being insulted by Miss P was a kind of honor.” Regardless of the insults, she managed to captivate the audience through his improvisational comedies and witty remarks. “Paul was an excellent MC,” Willie Tillmon, a friend and fellow drag performer known as Geraldine Jones said. “Paul would get out there and start rapping anything and I would be backstage. I’m the stickler for looking at my watch and looking out there at Paul and you’ll hear him occasionally say, ‘Well Geraldine’s giving me a bad look that means I’ve been out here too long’ and etc. But he would keep the audience really, really hyped up and the people would come out and they were extremely grateful.” P would often perform to Broadway ballads, and to the likes of Bette Midler, Lena Horne and many others; a striking contrast to the performers at the time that would perform disco and other contemporary artists. So popular was Miss P that Bill Miller, the owner of Parliament House, would come to the back of the theatre during one of her monologues and tell her that she was keeping the patrons from buying more drinks around the resort. Even before the first show ended, the guests were in line waiting for the second show. Her famous routine, “Here’s pu**y,” where songs and bits of television commercials of the day seemed to emanate from under her skirt became one of her signature moves throughout the years along with loose dentures and flying lit cigarettes when she would encourage the audience to “Put your hands together” to welcome the next act to the stage. There was even a time when she had a cyst from her back removed because of all the ‘rolls’ and somersaults that the audience would demand upon doing liquor shots. He had it preserved in a jar and brought it out on occasion to show and remind the audience as to why she wouldn’t drop to the floor anymore. She took the audience on a unique rollercoaster ride of improvisation, hilarious jokes and physical routines throughout every show. Everyone wanted to be there because you never knew what P was going to do or say.
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Of course, that doesn’t mean that she was exempt from critiques herself. Wegman would often refer to Miss P as a separate entity, a character mimicking an 18-year-old female at a gay bar let loose with a mind of her own. In many ways, Miss P’s extroverted personality was everything Wegman wasn’t. “You know, Miss P looks at men on an hourly basis. But Paul has met a lot of men he would like to get to know better, but Paul is so very insecure because of me, because of Miss P, that he sort of stops it right away.”
There were times when Miss P would go too far, as one night where a woman tried to have Wegman arrested after his performance. Claiming mental and physical abuse, she touted that his entire routine was “anti-feminist.” He became notoriously known for picking on lesbians, though he makes it clear it was out of fun and love. “God knows I love’em, I really do. I don’t know why. No, maybe I do know why. When you look at relationships in our world, it seems as though lesbian relationships are always the hardest and the strongest and the longest. Perhaps that says something to P, to me, about them being a little more able to take things, absorb things, and to bounce them back at you. And it’s always been true.” Referencing an altercation incident at the Spectrum Awards with former Orange County Commissioner Fran Pignone, Wegman would comment “I think that Miss P should have had a little more control over herself, and probably could have made more points for herself had she handled the situation a little differently, with a little more dignity. P should have met Ms. Pignone on a more even level. I believe in my heart that Miss P is able to do that. I think that Miss P could have looked at Fran and commented about politics or talked with her in some way or another in such a way that not only Fran would have looked good but Miss P would have looked good and the whole situation could have been a lot better. I don’t know why she went for the physical schtick, other than the fact that Fran wore that dress there that night and was showing her bosom off … which made Miss P jealous (laughs).” |
Yet Miss P’s powerful and gaudy character were also balanced by Wegman’s humility and caring side often seen throughout her performances. As P, he would fundraise contributions for many AIDS Benefit Shows and would also coordinate a benefit for contributions to the restoration of the Statue of Liberty in 1985(somewhere inside her there is a plaque recognizing Orlando’s gay community due to Wegman submitting the contributions in tribute to the community). When Wegman’s mother passed away he decided to stop performing “No Time at All” from Pippin as she inspired him when he did, yet one night after a year he decided to perform it again. As the song ended, the verses,
“Now, I've known the fears of sixty-six years
I've had troubles and tears by the score
But the only thing I'd trade them for
Is sixty-seven more...”
Wegman would get caught off guard and become emotional as his mother passed away at the age of sixty-six.
It would seem at the end, regardless of Miss P being a notorious character, that Paul always managed to include some of his sweet, humble and loving attributes to her as well. Miss P was the gift that always kept on giving not just for the gay community and Orlando but to the world as well.
“Now, I've known the fears of sixty-six years
I've had troubles and tears by the score
But the only thing I'd trade them for
Is sixty-seven more...”
Wegman would get caught off guard and become emotional as his mother passed away at the age of sixty-six.
It would seem at the end, regardless of Miss P being a notorious character, that Paul always managed to include some of his sweet, humble and loving attributes to her as well. Miss P was the gift that always kept on giving not just for the gay community and Orlando but to the world as well.
YOUTUBE
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