INTERVIEW: Leola is ready to sermonize again at The Green Room 42
Photo: Leola’s residency at The Green Room 42 continues April 11. Photo courtesy of the artist / Provided by Emily McGill Entertainment with permission.
In 2019, The Green Room 42, a Midtown Manhattan cabaret venue, has played host to the wild sermonizing of Leola (portrayed by Will Nolan). As a character, she loves Kelly Clarkson, came out as gay at the age of 70 and is ready to serve up some national group therapy in these difficult times.
Her show is in residency at The Green Room 42, and the next performance is set for Thursday, April 11 at 7 p.m. This month’s gig, dubbed Leola’s Land Land!, focuses specifically on Leola’s love for Clarkson, winner of the first season of American Idol.
Recently Hollywood Soapbox exchanged emails with Leola (Nolan) about the upcoming show. Questions and answers have been slightly edited for style.
What can audiences expect from Leola’s Lady Land?
Lady Land is a series of healing sermons from Leola, your favorite Kelly Clarkson-worshipping, senior citizen, redneck lesbian who is on a mission to serve up some much-needed national group therapy, one audience at a time. This next show, on April 11 at The Green Room 42, dives ‘Deeper into Lady Land! (Or The Gospel According to Kelly Clarkson).’ Leola firmly believes that Kelly is not only the first American Idol, but the second coming. Using her canon of pop songs and analyzing her Idol win frame by frame, Leola’s congregation will leave The Green Room true Kelly Clarksists.
Leola is a firmer believer in discovering your inner strength, celebrating your individual beauty and reconnecting with your spirit no matter what’s getting you down! We are so connected with each other these days, but we have never been less connected with ourselves.
Leola found direction, found her path in part because of Kelly Clarkson’s music and now, she’s ready to testify — over cocktails and appetizers! She speaks her mind, and she is a bit oblivious to being politically correct, especially when her commentary is ‘ripped form the headlines.’
Plus, one lucky congregant is winning a pair of gently used pantyhose! What other NYC cabaret gives away free pantyhose? Not many, is the answer. Not many.
How did you create the character of Leola? What are some of your inspirations?
I grew up in Georgia and came out in my early 20s, which I always thought was kind of late in life. Then, upon retiring from the priesthood, my great uncle came out in his 70s. I was the first person he told — it was kind of incredible.
I was fascinated by the idea of people who live relatively happy lives, while denying a big part of who they truly are. That’s how the idea of Leola was born. And because she waited until she was 70 to come out, Leola at 72 is a gay pride parade wrapped around a redneck, senior citizen. Everything is rainbow, and all she wants is for people to be their best selves.
She’s both the manager of the Piggly Wiggly deli in her hometown of Waycross, Georgia, and a self-appointed life coach/preacher with a paper back copies of I’m Okay, You’re Okay and Color Me Beautiful as her bibles.
There was a Leola in my life, but she wasn’t quite as eccentric or fun-loving as this Leola. And she wasn’t gay. A lot of Leola’s characteristics come from my mom who is everything you want an older southern woman to be — she’d love to make you a glass of sweet iced tea, tell you how much prettier you’d be with a little lipstick on, and then talk smack about the neighbors with a wink and a ‘bless their hearts.’ She’s one of the funniest people I know, though not always intentionally!
I’ve always been quietly gay — I live a relatively normal life in the suburbs with my husband, son and cats. I’ve always been a bit introverted and struggled with how to celebrate my community. Through Leola, a senior citizen lesbian from the South, I have found a way to empower myself as a gay man in NYC.
When did you first fall in love with comedy?
I’m a child of the late 70s/early 80s and grew up in Atlanta addicted to sitcoms. TBS was just getting started, so my sister and I watched everything from The Andy Griffith Show to The Brady Bunch to The Facts of Life. I didn’t just watch these shows though, I studied them. I was fascinated by what the studio audience politely laughed at and what they really laughed at. There was no better teacher than Carol Burnett. I couldn’t get enough of her show, and it inspired me to try sketch comedy for a while.
The other life-changing comedian in my life was Dame Edna. I’m a huge fan of drag, but I loved that Dame Edna wasn’t a man in a dress talking about being a man in a dress. It was a man playing a female character. I also love the way Dame Edna plays with an audience and makes you feel like the show you are seeing only exists for you — it always feels fresh, hysterical and a little bit dangerous. A night with Leola has been described as going to see Dame Edna’s hillbilly cousin do a TedTalk from the Bible Belt! It’s the ultimate compliment!
How did this residency at The Green Room 42 come about?
My friend and producer, Susan Griffin of Wayward Creatives Entertainment, pitched the residency to Daniel Dunlow, director of programming at The Green Room. We were looking for a home in NYC and had a couple of very well-received performances of another of Leola’s sermons: Grab Me By the Lady Land! (Putting the #ME in #METOO) last fall.
We essentially dated the space — did they like us, did we like them? The answer was a resounding YES. We started thinking of what a year would look like and mapped out a series of six shows to be shared over the course of 2019. Each show is new material. Unfortunately though, the whole residency thing is hard for Leola to understand. She confuses it with assisted living and keeps trying to give the wait staff her specimens.
In February, we started with Leola’s origin cabaret, and Leola will be back to preach a little, joke a lot and give makeup tips every other month. Next up, on June 13, is Hooray for Lady Land! (Gay History for Straight People!).
It has been interesting to us who seems to gravitate to Leola, because it has been a very mixed crowd: gay people, older people, millennials. Essentially, we’re touching everybody — but in a completely consensual way.
I’ve performed Leola in theaters, churches, bars and middle-aged birthday parties. The Green Room 42 is such a great fit because it is well run, reasonably priced for our audiences and carries a prestige that makes an old hillbilly lesbian like Leola feel totally legit. Our hope is that Leola cultivates a following and her mission to heal the world will spread!
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
Leola’s Land Land! will play April 11 at 7 p.m. at The Green Room 42 in New York City. Click here for more information and tickets.
