Richard Burnett on Gay Fringe

Bugs and Mado

Fringing with Richie Bitch 

Some pretty amazing stand-up comics have come out of Montreal over the years and one of the best is legendary drag queen (and Fugues magazine columnist) Mado La Motte, so-called because patrons at Poodles’ nightclub on The Main in Montreal way back in 1987 thought she was so ugly they dubbed her “The Mutt.”

by Richard Burnett (reprinted from Fugues with permission)

Thus, Mado ‘La Motte’ was born.

“She looks like a clown!” my six-year-old brother Skye told me as he pointed to Mado at his first Gay Pride parade in Montreal over a decade ago.

When I told Mado about it afterwards, she replied, “He’s right, I am a clown!”

Mado – a.k.a. former UQÀM theatre student Luc Provost, who quit university two credits shy of a bachelor’s degree – got her start as a shooter bitch and cigarette girl at Poodles and Club Lézard. The rest, as they say, is history (or in Mado’s case, Herstory).

Feature: The Gay Fringe

Top Gay Picks at the 2011 Montreal Fringe Festival

By Richard Burnett (Reprinted from Three Dollar Bill by permission)

Few know more than Steve Galluccio how incredible a launching pad the Fringe Festival is. The openly-gay Galluccio launched his career at the Fringe two decades ago with She's The Queen in 1991, and has since gone on to fame and glory. His 2003 play Mambo Italiano – a poignant comedy about two closeted gay Italian lovers – was translated into French by none other than Michel Tremblay, has been performed on stages around the world, been adapted into a successful movie co-starring Ginette Reno and Paul Sorvino, and will soon become a Broadway musical. 

But it all started at the Montreal Fringe. So Galluccio agreed to be their festival spokesperson this year.