With a nice hot cup of tea Miss Katherine excitedly chats on the phone with the one and only Cindy Pastel in Sydney to discuss cold shoulders, fine print and a woman’s prerogative.
Cindy: (Ring, ring, ring,) Hello?
Miss K. Hello! Is that Cindy Pastel?
C: Yeeeah
Miss K: Oh, hello darling how are you?
C: I am well you beautiful woman! How did you end up after Pride?
K: Well I passed out, and came to on the floor in the lounge… Oh Cindy we are already recording! So I better get on with it..
C: Oh okay – just let me move my pussy cat, oh god -if looks could kill! There we are, okay we are ready now.
K: I have to ask you Cindy, what are you doing with yourself these days?
C: I seem to be in a new state of mind! I am caring for my best friend of thirty years, who also just happens to be a poet. We are inspiring each other by writing a book together, he is writing the poetry and I am sketching drawings to accompany to accompany them. It is really great because we give each other lots of enthusiasm. He is not the healthiest so I am helping him get in shape, in fact we are about to go to do a few laps at the public pool here in Smithfield.
K: Where did you grow up?
C: I grew up in Melbourne, I am from a horse racing family. My brothers are jockeys and so was my father – I was the big girly blonde! I actually thought I wanted to be a journalist when I was young and did that for four years until I joined an amateur theatre company and realized the stage is where I wanted be. I grew up in just west of the city. I moved to Sydney in 1979 and then onto Perth after twenty years for about ten years.
K: What is it like being back in Sydney?
C: The drag scene, as you know, can be very territorial and competitive, so I have gotten the cold shoulder from a few drag queens. In fact, things have been a bit cold since they put me in that bloody shoe on the Priscilla bus in the closing ceremony of the Sydney Olympics! What they sometimes forget is they did not start it, they may be out there doing it now, but I was one of the pioneers. I started doing drag in Sydney 30 years ago. I am starting back at the Newtown Hotel when it reopens, so that is very exciting!
K: What is your favourite colour to wear on stage?
C: I really love wearing beige and silver together at the moment, beige just makes the silver pop!- and I just love performing under pink champagne (blush) coloured lighting.
K: Do you have a favourite flower?
C: I just love gardenias! Ever since I saw ‘Lady Sings the Blues’ with Diana Ross. My other favourite is a very common weed, the dandelion!
K: Do you have a favourite saying?
C: It is a woman’s prerogative to change her mind and a drag queens prerogative to exaggerate!
K: Do you have any advice for the drag babies?
C: Read the fine print!
Miss Katherine
