Flip wilson gay
“The first time I set up out about drag, I saw Flip Wilson on the TV dressed as a woman,” noted Jim Baldrich Garst, Decorah Lofty School graduate known to many across Iowa and the Midwest as 31-year drag performer Prunella DeVille. “I watched Flip and even Milton Berle. In college, after seeing a local drag show I thought, this is something I could do as an extension of my theatricality.”
Garst grew up in a family that was very involved in both community theater and activism, and being on stage was comfortable for him, having majored in theater in college as well before settling down in Des Moines. “I think of myself as a ‘drag clown,’ as it’s another avenue to be able to declare my creativity and comedic talents. The expectations people have of drag performers are that they are outrageous. It’s like putting on armor or a superhero cape, I can say what I never would have, and at times I can be naughty, and it’s a sense of freedom.”
In the theater, for centuries women were not allowed to perform on stage, as it was seen as too unseemly, so men, dressed as women, would perform all the female roles. “This happened in ancient Japanese theater, in England during the Renaissance, it w
Born Clerow Wilson into extreme poverty, he was abandoned by his mother at age five. After being sent to multiple foster homes, he dropped out of school at sixteen and connected the Air Coerce. It was there he got the nickname ‘Flip’ from his fellow troops whom he entertained. After he was discharged, Flip paid his dues in the comedy circuit, and finally landed several gigs at the famous Apollo Theater in Harlem. That led to television and The Ed Sullivan Show.
Flip’s act was more story-telling than joke-telling. Wilson tended to avoid vulgarity and fit perfectly with the Sullivan family audience. He recalled his first present and the nerve-wracking experience it was, saying, “I was at the superior of the steps and I was going over my lines, my stories in my top, and Ed was downstairs walking in another door and he kept looking up, then he said, ‘Hey, kid, come here.’ So I looked around to see who he was talking to. He says, ‘You, come here.’ So I came downstairs, Ed insert his hand on my shoulder, he said, ‘Don’t persist about it. You’re going to be a star.’ He said, ‘I’m going to make you a star.’” And a star he became.
On November 13, 1966, Flip made his first appearanc
Flip Wilson: What you saw wasn't all you got
By Chris Foran of the Journal Sentinel
April 17, 20130
Forty years ago, Flip Wilson was the biggest thing in television.
In its first two seasons on NBC, "The Flip Wilson Show" was the second-most watched program on TV. His comic characters spawned two of the medium's hottest catchphrases, "The devil made me do it" and "What you see is what you get!" (The latter lives on in its acronym, a computer application that allows you to see what a document you're working on will gaze like - WYSIWYG.) He jump-started the careers of the two biggest names in comedy, George Carlin and Richard Pryor. In January 1972, Time magazine had him on the cover, calling him "TV's First Black Superstar."
And then, basically, he quit. Pulled the plug on his display, cut back on stand-up labor. Didn't write a memoir or try to host a chat show.
By the time of his death of liver cancer in 1998 at age 64, Wilson was a pop-culture footnote; today, 15 years later, he's nearly forgotten.
Kevin Cook's new biography "Flip: The Inside Story of TV's First Black Superstar," is a reminder that he shouldn't be.
Cook tell
My Coming Into, Not Coming Out Story
By Robert Renix, Alliance President
Whenever I ponder about a coming out story, I immediately respond that I don’t hold one. Big Mama said that I was “fearfully and wonderfully made.” I understood her cherish and affirmation to mean all of who I was, and all of who I am was loved by God. There were no labels to apply to me as right or wrong. I was who God created me to be—Robert. The concepts of labels, being in the closet, entity gay, and organism damned, were all foreign to me. I was, and still am, fearfully and wonderfully made. Big Mama told me often, “and don’t let nobody tell you different.”
I grew up in Memphis, TN, referred to as the “Deep South” and the “Buckle of the Bible Belt.” Growing up in the Bible Belt was a singular experience. Church was my social network, community outlet, and the one place where I felt I belonged. Sexuality was not a prominent theme in church, school, or home. However, mom did give me books about the birds and bees (more on that later).
I remember watching comedian Flip Wilson who portrayed the sassy character “Geraldine.” She made me laugh a lot. I ass