Chico’s Angels

Angel Kay Sedia's Always On Chico's Case

The infamous Chico’s Angels will be opening their latest edition of their riotous, outrageous, hilarious, long-running (15 years!) series of Charlie’s Angels drag homage – CHICO’S ANGELS 2: LOVE BOAT CHICAS on March 28, 2018. The self-proclaimed leader of these too, too funny Angels, Kay Sedia, managed to spare us some seconds of her most precious time between her many costume fittings, wig stylings and Tupperware functions. We even finagled a few moments from Kay’s alter ego, CHICO’S ANGELS co-creator Oscar Quintero.

Mucho gracias for doing this interview, Kay Sedia!

You have worn many a bright colored dress and a huge wig in all your performances in CHICO’S ANGELS since 2003. Do you have your own personal Versace? Or do you sew your frocks yourself?

No, I have my own Versage. Her name is Carol, and chee has a quinceañera shop on Western. Please don’t be jealous or try to approach her because chee is exclusive to me.

Just how many wigs is 15 years worth?

Worth one million dollars, if I had put a number to it. But I say I have about 35 wigs.

How much time needs to pass before you become emotionally unattached to them that you can throw them out?

10 minutes.

With all the shellacking, er, hair spray, how long does a set to your raven locks keep? A week? A Show? The run???

Just depends how active the cho is. Some have last for five minutes, and there are some that last for ten years. It just depends on the amount of work I’m willing to do for the cho. A few of them last ten minutes, but most of them hold their curls for ten years because I’m lazy.

You were born in 1999, out of pageantry necessity. Were you a product of immaculate conception? Or did you have ‘help’ in your creation?
No one can say they do anything alone, specially in the world of drag. Ju always need jur mentors. I had some help from some very fancy gay peoples in Hollywood – mainly Glen Allen, James Gray and a bunch of other queens.

Which would you pick as your moonlighting job – being a Chico’s Angel? Or a top-selling Tupperware Queen?
Well, I tell ju! Tupperware is my yob, I enjoy it. CHICO’S ANGELS is my pasión. So ju decide! They both pay the bills. One just stores my food better.

Can I speak to your alter ego Oscar for a few moments? You can interrupt, er, join in, when you get the urge, OK, Kay?

Si!

Oscar, did any particular person inspire your creation of Kay Sedia?
She is inspired by many women in my family. My mother, my aunts, and my sisters. Kay is a combination of them with the majority inspired by my mother. My mother was the most self-centered woman you’ve ever met. She was the life of the party and a bit clueless about how self-absorbed she was. But you loved her anyway.

What cosmic forces brought you and Kurt Koehler together to create CHICO’S ANGELS, aside from the wonderful Mr. Dan?

We were sitting next to each other and we were on our way to see the Plush Life. We met through the same circle of people. We didn’t know each other that well and he told me about a project he was working that was called “Super Fag.” I told him I had done this alter ego/superhero Kay Sedia, which was called “Taco Chick.” My friend Glen was also sitting with us and mention it was similar to “Electric Women & Dina Girl” — yet like “Taco Chick & Salsa Girl.” We all started laughing. Later, Kurt cast me in this film and that is when we started talking about CHICO’S ANGELS. Cut to about a year later, Kurt called to ask if he could direct CHICO’S ANGELS and I said he could direct it if he would help write it. AND… that’s when the world of CHICO’S ANGELS began.

Okay, Kay, back to you… Describe your relaxation attire? Heels, si or no?
My cha-cha pumps are everything to me. They can help me climb walls and they can make me look sexy when I’m laying on the bed. Cha-Cha pumps are everything.

Do you prefer performing live on the Cavern Club Theater stage or shooting video on location?
I feed off the audience. I feed off their energy. I feed off their nachos if they have them on their table! There is nothing like a live audience for me.

Which of your past CHICO’S ANGELS cases was your favorite?

We now have done five cases on stage and I would say my favorite would be a combo between the one where we are high school hookers, and when we go on the Love Boat. I just love the Love Boat one because of all disco music. I guess ju could say they’re my twins. I love them both equally.

Tell us what you like most about Frieda Laye?

Chee’s slutty and chee doesn’t apologize. I aspire to be like Frieda because ju know, I’m a hopeless romantic and I have to fall in love. Frieda can spread them open, give it away and then walk away to the next guy – I wish I could be like that. Chee’s my spirit animal.

Is there any quality you admire most about Chita Parol?

There’s very little I admire about Chita Parol. Chee’s so mean and so jealous of all my sexiness on a daily basis. But if I have to admire something of her – I admire her jealousy of me.

You’ve had Charo in your show, si?

Ches.

Tell us about your experience with Senorita Charo.

Speaking about spirit animals, chee is definitely my spirit animal. What I find so espiring about Charo is that chee carved out a little niche for herself in this crazy entertainment business that is predominantly Anglo. Charo is a classically trained guitarist, but even chee says “Cuchi-Cuchi!” took her to the bank. That’s what I admire. I’m funny, I’m sexy, and I’m gonna let it take me to the bank, too.

What celebrity would you like the Angels to solve a case for?
Jaclyn Smith… That angel hasn’t come to the cho.

Where do you find your CHICO’S ANGELS Hotties? Do you have a lengthy audition process?
Ches! We have a farm in Hollywood that’s called “Chico’s Estates!” That is where we groom them. We teach them how to learn lines, flex, and workout. Our one main acting technique for the Hotties is how to take their shirts off. It’s a hard class, not many can do it. Frieda has to cho them how using her teeth, but it gets dangerous for her, chee swallows — too many buttons! Chico usually tries to get the young actors as soon as they arrive here to LA. I can’t tell ju how many have fallen in love with me. It’s so sad, but I understand, my beauty is a curse.

Do you know what your boss Chico is planning for you in the near future?

Chico’s next assignment for us has us doing our variety cho. Later in the year, we will be back to celebrating our 15th anniversary on the stage with our original episode. There have been rumors that we might be moving to a “bigger” theater. Gil, there is a lot of good stuff coming up, and we definitely want to make our CHICO’S ANGELS feature film this year. Chico better make it happen soon, because I’m getting bored.

With LOVE BOAT CHICAS returning to the Cavern Club Theater at the Casita Del Compo beginning March 28, are you expecting your Angels aficionados to relive their LOVE BOAT experience and shout out your lines with you?
Thees is a scripted cho and does not include audience participation people! There is NO shouting out, unless ju’re yelling, “Kay, ju are so SEX-EEEE!” By the way, I know that, so keep it that to jurself. (Kay is blushing)

And on a closing note, please share with your fans how you stay the “Pretty One” of the Angels? What’s your diet and beauty secrets?

My diet consists of a lot of chips & salsa. I also do a guacamole mask which then I eat with the chips – it’s almost like a two-for-one facial. Honestly, I try to do as little as possible in the arena of exercise. It’s too much work, and I don’t like it, and it hurts. Sexy is as sexy is. I can’t help it.

Mucho, mucho gracias, Senorita Sedia! I look forward to laughing out loud at you and your fellow Angels. Hmm, I mean laughing with you and your fellow Angels, while oogling your latest CHICO’S ANGELS Hottie.

For ticket availability and show schedule through April 8, 2018; log onto ChicosAngels.com

Julie Brown's GOT A GUN Aiming At Your Funny Bones

Spawned from Julie Brown‘s 1980’s hit song and subsequent music video, HOMECOMING QUEEN’S GOT A GUN fully morphs into Julie’s staged musical beginning October 13 at the Cavern Club Theater. Co-written by Kurt Koehler, this high, high-camped musical will elaborate on how Debi the Homecoming Queen acquired her gun, and the assortment of reasons she went on a shooting rampage of her high school classmates. We got the chance to sit Julie down for a few hot seconds to answer my inquisitive queries.

Thank you for doing this interview with me, Julie!

Absolutely!

I’ve seen your after-show photo with Chico’s Angels on their website, so I know you’ve been to at least one of their shows. How did you and Kurt Koehler first meet?

I think I’ve been to almost all the shows since I’ve known Kurt. I met Kurt because he got a hold of me and wanted to do a show that incorporated all my songs. But I told him that I was already trying to do Earth Girls as a musical, so I didn’t want to use all my songs in another play. I also started thinking of how I could do Homecoming Queen as a musical, and I went to see Kurt’s show INVINCIBLE – THE LEGEND OF BILLIE JEAN and I loved it! It was so funny and campy and exactly the tone I wanted for Homecoming Queen, so I asked him if he wanted to write it with me, and we did. I had so much fun working with him that I asked him if he wanted to write EARTH GIRLS – THE MUSICAL with me because I was trying to do it, but having trouble translating it from the movie to the stage. So we did that too, and we’re going to do that in spring!

When did you realize that Kurt and your kooky, off-center, out-there sensibilities were on the same wavelength?

When he first wanted to work with me, I didn’t know exactly what his sense of humor was but INVINCIBLE convinced me. When he had puppets singing, “Hell is for children!” I knew we would get along. And we do. We laugh a lot when we’re writing and we never fight.

You wrote your hit song Homecoming Queen’s Got a Gun in 1983 and followed up with a music video in 1987. Which came first, your Valley Girl persona? Or this song?

The persona came first. I was doing it in my stand-up act, and I’d even been on TV doing it (Evening at the Improv), and then the song Valley Girl came out. I was so bummed, but then I thought, “I can still do my version of my character.” And I’d been doing songs when I was doing my act with Charlie Coffey in San Francisco. So after we’d both moved down here, I was trying to think of a song. The title just occurred to me while I was driving. I asked Charlie if he wanted to write it with me.

Guess you could describe MTV to millennials as the precursor to YouTube. Did you produce/construct your Homecoming Queen’s Got a Gun video specifically for MTV to broadcast?

We’d written the song, and I just knew it had to be a video-because that’s what was happening then. So we wrote out the video shot-by-shot. Amazingly, this guy came along who said he would finance it if he could be the director. I said, “If you follow our shooting script,” He said, “Fine.” And we got this great DP Dominic Sena, and they followed the shooting script exactly. And then, because I was doing guest VJ spots on MTV to promote my new album, they put it on the air.

I see you’ve uploaded your videos onto your YouTube channel. Any immediate plans to add to your video collection/selection?

Well, I did direct Another Drunk Chick, that’s up right now. And I might do more. Kurt and I are planning to do a webseries of Medusa (the satire of Madonna) that I did in the 90s. It would be her now, with all her kids and her young boyfriends, etc.

Did you have a BFF named Debi who became homecoming queen? Or was Debi your alter ego?

I did not have a BFF who became Homecoming Queen. I think it was my alter ego, because in the video I’m the one with the gun!

In your video, you played yourself and Debi. Who came up with the genius idea to have ever-popular LA theatre staple Drew Droege portray Debi?

When Kurt and I were working on it, we thought about having a woman at first. But, because the whole thing is a campy satire of a girl with a gun at school, we thought the more ridiculous we can make it, the more it’s not real. So, we actually added more death – to make it more like an 80s horror movie, and we made Debi the super talented Drew Droege.

So, how will your show at the Cavern Club Theater expand on your music video? More dancing? More singing? More beefcake?

I think the show explains a lot of the mystery in the song. And – there is more singing and more beefcake!

Can you bring us back in time to when Lily Tomlin first discovered you? How did it all happen?

I invited her to come see me in this little club in San Francisco because she was in town doing her show. I just loved her, so that’s what gave me the nerve to do it. And she showed up! She was super sweet and said to contact her if I came to L.A. I did and she gave me a part in The Incredible Shrinking Woman and I got my SAG card.

What qualities do you look for in the person that you skewer, er, pay homage to (i.e., Madonna)?

They have to be really interesting. It’s sort of best if they don’t have that much sense of humor about themselves. Like they take themselves pretty seriously.

Can you give us a hint as to whom your next target, er, honoree will be?

It will be Madonna again! She still cracks me up and I love her!

Since your co-writer Kurt is also the co-writer of CHICO’S ANGELS, any chances of you joining forces with the Angels to solve their latest case in the near future?

Yes, I could be a much younger Miss Marple. I’ll have to ask them!

Thank you again, Julie! I look forward to your crazy night at the Cavern Club.

For available tickets for one of the four October dates, log onto www.juliebrown.tix.com

Chico's Angels' Frieda Lays It All Out For Ju

Chico’s Angels latest VIVA LA CHICAS! A CHICO’S ANGELS VARIETY HOUR CHO will be premiering May 23, 2017 at The Cavern Club Celebrity Theater inside the Casita Del Campo Restaurant. A loving spoof on the 1970’s hit TV series Charlie’s Angels, Chico’s Angels recruits three gorgeous, comedic Latina drag queens as the crime-solving private ai-yi-yi’s. We had the chance to catch up with the blondest one Frieda Laye between her beauty regime rituals.

Thank you for taking time out between doing your hair and nails for this interview, Frieda.

CHICO’S ANGELS is all of 14 years old. So you, Frieda, didn’t start with its conception, your alter-ego Danny Casillas did. What role did Danny play in CHICO’S ANGELS‘s birthing?

I think he were Bossman. I don’t know, I weren’t there. He prolly don’t played it as good as the guy who play it now, verdad?

What were the circumstances that Danny originally connected with you?

I used to be taller when Edward Alvarado played me. Then, there was a scheduling thing, so they called Danny. I think Kay & Chita liked me no taller than thems, so Danny stuck as me.

Who in his past does Danny tell you, you remind him of, Frieda?

He say I remind him of Goldie Hawn mix with Xaviera Hollander. They both very happy peoples… and blond.

Frieda, do you and your alter ego ever argue?

Jes, sometimes can’t decide: jock strap or panty hose!

I bet you win most of the time, si?

Jes! I need coverage there, if ju know what I am meaning! We don’t want to lose all of stage right, verdad?

Does Danny come to Casita Del Campo with you? Or do you drive to the Cavern Theater by yourself?

We drive together and sing the show tunes real loud with the windows down!

Does Danny pick you up? Or don’t you want anyone to see him at Casita Del Campo?

He picks me up, but I make him dropping me off where Fountain turn into Hyperion. Then I walk up alone, without him to embarrass me and I also, tambien look real eco-illogical, ju know?

Frieda, do you get jealous when Danny does someone else? I hear he does a mean Herve Villachaise in Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Center’s THE MISMATCH GAME.

He can do whoever he want, I know he will NEVER do as many people as I have!

I read in your bio, Frieda, that you were born in La Frontera de Chihuahua, Ciudad Juarez, Mexico. You were left under the door mat of a convent, Las Hermanas de la Madre Guadalupe de los Chavos. Were the nuns there mean to you?

I don’t know if they were mean… Is it mean to making ju eat jur macaroni portrait of La Guadalupe for dinner… without queso?

What did they do to you to make you rebel against everything they taught you?

They maked being good a chore. I decided, once I leaved there, that I would let my body tell me what es good, and not my head. And not the little plastic Mary statue they put it my room, either! It talked en the night!

I guess you can give the nuns credit for the fabulous way you ended up today, wouldn’t you say, Frieda?

No. They were stupid. I gib credit to my natural instinks, my stubbornness and reruns of Los Facts of Life. That Miss Garrett were crazy, but she knowed how to drive a lesson home, ju know?

If I had to guess which Charlie’s Angel was your inspiration, I’d say Farrah Fawcett’s ‘Jill Munroe.’ Right?

Jes!! How ju knowed?

What color blonde do you like to keep your Farrah wings?

I actually finded a color by la Señorita Clairol call Halo Gold 236. So use that …and a spray of the peroxide, or two.

In the many shows that I’ve seen you in, your hair and make-up’s always so plastered perfect. Never a hair out of place, a lip smudged or an eye unlined. Reminds me of the episode of Charlie’s Angels where the three of them, outfitted in prison denim, escape into the ocean and come out completely dry and immaculately coiffed. So, for the discerning Jill-wannabes out there, would you share your make-up tips on presenting a perfect ‘Jill’ face?

Es all about jur color inspiration! For me, I like to thinking an angel eated too many Eskittles and throwed up on my eyelids! Then, once ju have all jur colors in place, pat it down with powder mix with cornstarch and spray it over with hairspray. Then add more hairspray to jur hair. 4 times. Then it all stay in place!

How long did it take you to get used to walking in platform cha-cha heels?

I learned since I were a little children in the convent and they maked me wear high heels to swat flies all the ways up to the ceilings!

How would you describe your unique sense of style?

Well, I thinking, ‘What would Goldie Hawn wear if she barrow something from Veronica Castro?’ and then I think ‘what is real easy to take off fast?’ and I go from there.

Where can your fans get your clothes?

Sometimes, ju can’t find that at T & A Maxx, so I design my stuff and have Carol the Quincenera dress maker lady make it.

Frieda, I have to ask. Do you have a diploma?

No, I getted el DipTet shot for that when I were 5.

In school, what did you major in?

Lee Majors.

Come on, Frieda! I bet you’re smarter that you let on. Sometimes you’re the one who solves the crime Chico sends the Angels to crack. What’s your IQ?

I think O+, but I not sure.

Tell us your favorite characteristic of your close friend Chita Parol?

Sometimes she misses hitting me when I duck good enough.

And what about your closer friend Kay Sedia?

Sometimes, she remember me and Chita are there.

Will there be a new case to crack in VIVA LA CHICAS! A CHICO’S ANGELS VARIETY HOUR CHO? Or is this a “Best of CHICO’S ANGELS” compilation?

It’s what they call a “Clip Show” where we play clips from previful episodes. Ju know, like the shows used to do en the TV when they runned out of ideas, but were contracted to do 32 episodes.

What can the Cavern audiences expect in this CHO?

Singing, dancing and a STRANGE Surprise! (‘STRANGE,’ Hint! Hint!)

Frieda, if you could have one wish for you and your fellow Angels, what would you wish for?

More chirtless hunky suspects!

If you could only have one wish and it was just for you, what would you wish for?

I would wish for world pieces, and a bed that change its own sheets every day!

Frieda, if you could have only one wish and it was for Danny, what would that wish be?

That he find a boyfriend! Pobrecito, he gonna die alone, verdad?

Hopefully, this has been as fun for you as it’s been fun for me. Mucho gracias, Senorita Laye!

Aye! It were more fun than putting Pop Rocks candy en my panties!

For ticket availability (May 25th through 28th) to see Frieda and co-detectives Kay and Chita mess up, I mean, solve some cases, log onto www.chicosangels.com Ju gonna laugh!