At what point did you start performing as a gender-queer person?
Jer Ber started in 2001. Before that, I wasn’t really doing it. I would only do it once in a blue moon. I hated dressing in drag when I DJ’ed at Trannyshack. I was doing a lot of DJ gigs, and it was too hard and high maintenance when I was DJ-ing. I’ve always been, you know, a club kid since I was 14. Boy George, you know?

You were around during the early stages of Trannyshack. It has become so legendary, especially with the club closed now. Tell me about those early days.
Well, she hates to admit it, but if it was just up to Heklina, there would be a little milk crate with a dish rag wrapped around it. It would be a tired gay bar and tranny club. So she hired me to be the DJ, and I was there from the very first one for almost four years. I was there every single night, every single week. I think, you know, she definitely did all the paperwork, but a lot of those people who came were coming because the music I was playing was totally kitsch. I was mixing Barbara Mandrell – because I literally played the Barbara Mandrell album – and a lot of Dolly Parton before the big Dolly Parton wave swept back around. I mixed that in with all the new, pre-electroclash stuff. I think a lot of people were coming because I was playing this crazy mix of music. I remember I was one of the only people who would perform live. I have nothing against lip syncs – I love lip syncs, I think they are like modern folk lore – but I was the only one at the pageants who would sing. It was fun. It was good. It wasn’t a place for singers, but it was really fun those first few years, at the beginning, because people were so bored. People were still dying of AIDS, so we were latching onto one-another for support and being crazy little punks together.

Jer Ber Jones Stars in "Model for Me"
Video by Austin Young

Tell me how you met Calpernia Addams, your partner in the show Telekinesis – Transfixed.
Calpernia and I were both being asked to host and perform at this electro-fetish club in Hollywood called Miss Kitty’s. I’d just met [Calpernia’s businesss partner] Andrea James at a World of Wonder party. Cali and I hit it right off. She told me she had this new song called “Stunning.” I thought she was a total woman. I had no idea she was trans. She’s so passable. When I found out she was trans, and that she was related to Andrea, I was transfixed. So I remixed “Stunning.” We became really good friends. We’re sort of in the same boat as far as doing really well with our art but having a really hard time paying the rent, so we commiserated on that a lot. I think we both have a lot of respect for each other. We were having a pizza night, and I was telling her how there was this guy in my gym class in 6th grade that wouldn’t ever wear his jock strap or underwear under his gym uniform. That was the first time I’d ever seen big balls and cock hanging out in front of me. For three years he sat in front of me, and I was just transfixed. Cali was like, ’Transfixed!’ Now we have a little suitcase show, and we’re ready to travel the world with it.

How did you get cast as the naïve, easily manipulated one in this two-woman show?
I always tend to go for that role. Cali is gorgeous, and Jer Ber is a monster. Even in reality, we’d set the date and she sent me her hi-res images, I was like, “How did a gorgeous woman like this get hooked up with this ‘tranimal’?” (Laughs) She’s telling me that’s nonsense, but it’s true. I’m this scary man who is like Dee Schneider dressed up a little bit. I think we make a good odd couple, though. It’s a little auto-biographical. I come from a – you know, I ran away when I was 13. I like to think I am a little neater and better presented than Jer Ber, but Cali and I grew up in the pageant circuit, so we took inspiration from our real life.

What has audience response been like to your show?
Really good. It’s been a little bit hard to get people to come out and see theatre in L.A. It’s been like pulling teeth. Everone’s just fed up in L.A. It’s been a bunch of our friends who are going to tell us they love it anyway, but even those who don’t know us really seem to get a kick out of it. We trash each other so hard onstage. We’re really pulling out all the tricks in it. We make it fun. The response has been awesome.

Why did you decide to bring it to San Francisco?
Because my heart is in San Francisco. You know, I spent six years there. I think I need to keep up a link with my friends there, who I hold so close. It’s always an excuse for me to travel. I’m usually too broke or too busy to do much traveling, so I try to kill two birds with one stone. I was going to do my solo show, but I get bored traveling by myself, so I was like, “Cali, let’s go to San Francisco!” Jer Ber has lots of fans there and friends, so it’s always like coming home!

Transfixed runs Fri.-Sat., July 24-25, 2009, at Finn's Funhouse, an historic Victorian located at 814 Grove St. in the heart of the Fillmore District. Tickets are $15 advance, $20 at the door.

For additional information, visit: http://www.Calpernia.com

Follow Pollo Del Mar on Twitter @TheGlamazonPDM

Pollo Del Mar's headshot provided by Jose Guzman Colon.