A host of out musicians, DJs and singers turn out to celebrate National Pride Month at Razzle Dazzle Dallas
SHAKE SHAKE SHAKE
B’way actor/singer/dancer Patrick Boyd doesn’t just sing — he will perform a strip-tease during his appearance at Razzle Dazzle. (Photo courtesy Rob Sutton Photography)
Everyone knows Dallas formally celebrates its Gay Pride with a parade, festival and all around communal atmosphere in September, but that doesn’t mean we overlook National Gay Pride Month, aka June, altogether. And that’s what Razzle Dazzle Dallas is here to do. The three-day event officially kicks off with the finals of the Big D Talent Show on Thursday, June 5, at The Brick, then continues through Friday, June 6, with the MetroBall fundraiser at S4 (and featuring headliner Andy Bell of Erasure) before culminating on Saturday, June 7, with Razzle Dazzle itself, with performances by a host of singers and musicians. And this year, all the events are back in Oak Lawn!
We sat down with three of the headliners — Broadway star Patrick Boyd, Aussie DJ-cum-singer Ray Isaac and troubadour teacher Josh Zuckerman — to get a sense for what they hope to bring to Dallas for the weekend’s festivities.
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Broadway Barer: Patrick Boyd
Although a fundraising event may seem an unlikely place to encounter a movie crew, expect to see the cameras rolling at this year’s Razzle Dazzle Dallas. Singer, songwriter and Broadway performer Patrick Boyd will be performing at the Pride festivities while co-starring in the independent film Touch: A Love Story. Boyd plays a gay pop star in the movie, and a crew will shoot his live performance for use in the film.
The feature film’s storyline addresses the difficult topic of same-sex domestic violence, and, although producers originally recruited Boyd to play the film’s abusive boyfriend, they later gave him the option of playing its songbird hero.
“While I welcomed the challenge of the role [of abuser], I don’t think it was in my box of crayons,” Boyd winks. “I thought I would be better suited to play the singer. I have been a performer and singer all my life, so the character I am going to play is a better match for me.”
At next weekend’s events, Boyd will perform “There Are No Words,” one of two songs he wrote and which producers have licensed for the film. “They were just written in my down time to be creative,” Boyd says of the songs. “I think both of them were born out of relationships that I had had previously and what I felt was going on. If I could sing about what transpired as a result of those relationships, that’s what these songs are.”
Boyd’s love of entertaining began early. “I was a kid magician,” he says. “I used to annoy my friends and family with really bad magic tricks.” It was as an undergraduate, however, that he became interested in musical theater, after discovering “computer science … was not my calling.” Luckily, he had also taken a drama class which required him to attend all of the school’s theatre productions. He was quickly hooked, and — even better — found that his family supported his new career choice.
Boyd, who recently celebrated the 20th anniversary of his Broadway debut in the 1994 revival of Grease, is an active participant in Broadway Bares, an HIV/AIDS fundraiser for Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS. It was for the Broadway Bares annual striptease event called Solo Strips that he found another use for his skills as a magician.
“There is a little newsboy strip that I do starting out very innocent and childlike, and it gets raunchier,” he says of a routine that he plans to perform in Dallas. “In the process of that strip, I take a newspaper, it gets ripped up to shreds, and then it gets restored to a newspaper again. At the end of the number, it’s the only thing I have hiding my junk.”
Working as an actor has afforded Boyd many incredible opportunities. He has performed alongside celebrities like Bette Midler in the film version of Gypsy and Rosie O’Donnell in Broadway’s Grease. He has met presidents and appeared in a Tony Awards broadcast. But his career choice also has its downside.
“You jeopardize your personal life,” Boyd, currently single, confides. “Not a lot of people are interested in dating an actor. You have to go where the work is. You have to leave town sometimes on a week or two’s notice. That gypsy lifestyle is not attractive.”
Yet Boyd perseveres. “I just don’t know what else I would do if I didn’t do something in the arts,” he states. “I haven’t given myself other opportunities. It kind of makes me work harder.”
— Scott Huffman
Equal from Down Under: Ray Isaac
Australian born singer, songwriter and DJ Ray Isaac is on a mission — some might even call it a healing crusade. His debut album Who I Am — an 11-track collection of self-penned ballads and pop songs (released on iTunes) — is the result of personal struggle, introspection and self-acceptance. Isaac hopes this labor of love will resonate with and comfort others, especially those who might feel ostracized for being different.
“Who I Am, I would say, is my equality and empowerment debut album,” Isaac, who was bullied in school, says. “Each song resembles a part of my life and experience, but it also portrays what many people who are outcast may be going through now or have gone through. I see it as my natural music healing CD.”
Isaac’s upcoming appearances as DJ and performer at Razzle Dazzle will be a milestone in his musical career. The tour marks both his debut U.S. performance and the launch of his new album. And Isaac is eager to bring his campaign for acceptance stateside and will perform, among other songs, a remixed dance version of his album’s title track, a song inspired by events in his life.
“I was going through this whole acceptance of myself phase,” Isaac says, describing a time during which he was questioning religion and his sexuality. After a period of rebellion and depression, he found peace of mind in a conversation with his mother. She told him simply to go out and be who he wanted to be.
“I wrote this song that day, and I released the tears,” he says. “I hoped the words I chose to record would affect someone else who was going through the same thing.”
One year ago, Isaac performed onstage before an audience of thousands at London’s Trafalgar Square during World Pride. “I was fatigued for like two days after,” Isaac recalls. “The energy from that audience affected me for days later. I was coming down from pure, high, natural energy. Trafalgar Square so far has been the most amazing live performance I feel that I have ever done.”
In contrast, Isaac’s first public performance was a bittersweet one at his cousin’s funeral. He performed “Goodbye Innocence,” a song that he wrote as a celebration of her life. “It made me feel sad in a sense, because she had passed,” he recalls, “but in another sense I felt fulfilled because she always knew that [performing] was what I wanted to do. I had just applied for a performing arts school. She was the only one from my family supporting me going to it. And to be honest, if it wasn’t for her death, my music career wouldn’t have been born.”
Artistically, Isaac credits gay icon Madonna as a major influence. — and not totally for her music skills. “It’s more her attitude, her honesty, her willingness to adapt and change and modify her art every year and for every album. She also has given me confidence just to be myself and not give a damn what people think.”
Isaac’s advice for anyone interested in pursuing a musical career is simple. “All I can say is never give up,” he says. “Every time you give up, it allows someone to have your spot.”
— Scott Huffman
A SEASON OF DEBUTS | Ray Isaac, above, is making his U.S. debut with his current tour, while Josh Zuckerman, above, will make his debut as an actor while filming a movie during Razzle Dazzle weekend.
Hot for Teacher: Josh Zuckerman
Summer is looking very good for singer Josh Zuckerman. He’s booked as part of the live music roster for Razzle Dazzle. But his Dallas visit has an added agenda — like Patrick Boyd, he’ll make his acting debut in the Dallas-shot indie film Touch. This looks to be quite a summer for him.
“It is!” he agrees. “I’m working on my fifth CD and really excited about that. I’ll be playing various Prides throughout the summer [including Razzle Dazzle]. I’m going to have a song in one movie and acting in my first movie!” (His song “When We Dance” will be featured in gay director Rob Williams’ film Out To Kill.)
Originally, the producer of Touch planned to use Zuckerman’s performance just for concert footage, ‘but then she came to me with a ‘small but important’ role. Now I have to study my lines before I head down.”
While the film is new territory for Zuckerman, his music has been delighting fans for years. Sometime in “late June or July,” he plans to drop his fifth album.
“I just finished 13 songs, and I feel like it displays a going back to my rock edge,” he says. “I went more electric guitar, and I just feel like jamming out is more fun.”
That’s a far cry from Zuckerman’s day-job as a kindergarten teacher, a dichotomy that makes the out musician both forthcoming and enigmatic. Indeed, the subject matter of the expected disc is dark.
“I’ve been in really unhealthy relationships, and it’s about that — becoming a better person from it, but it’s also real life stuff,” he says. “I’m very spiritual, and my break up five years ago put me through the ringer. I got into Eckhart Tolle’s The Power of Now, and [so] I named my album Background Static of Perpetual Discontent from a line in the book. That’s what the album is about — all this noise that makes you unhappy and getting rid of that excess noise in your life.”
Living has informed his lyrics, so has it developed his music.
“I think I’m a better, more mature songwriter. I do like my music. I’m very impressed by the idea of creating and affecting people. This is my platform. You know, I could never be a public speaker, but I can easily play guitar in front of people,” Zuckerman says.
That seems ironic, in that both of his careers require him to be in front of people.
“I don’t like being watched or observed if I’m speaking,” he reiterates. “That just isn’t my strong suit. As for teaching, for one thing, it’s kindergarten, and I always looked up to teachers, so that particular situation, it’s a little more comfortable — and easier for 5-year-olds.”
With a new sound on your album, will that affect his live show?
“I love to be a showman, and this album allows me to be much more of one,” he says. “I have some cool eclectic stuff now. The whole idea of doing a more theatrical show is so great, and just the idea of coming to Dallas with a full band is exciting. I mean, they had the budget to fly us all in! That’s cool.”
This article appeared in the Dallas Voice print edition May 30, 2014.