CoCo Peru Gets Out Loud with Bryan Safi

Bryan Safi is a writer for infoMania and host of "That's Gay."

I’m debuting my new That’s Gay Live Show TOMORROW NIGHT at the Out Loud Comedy Festival in San Francisco. You can buy tickets here.

But before you do anything, get to know the extremely hilarious and talented Miss CoCo Peru. CoCo may be most recognizable from the hit cult gay film Trick and her numerous guest appearances on shows like Arrested Development and Will and Grace, but it’s her stage work that’s really something to see. Which you can easily do by checking her out at Out Loud along with drag superstars like Lady Bunny and Jackie Beat.

I had the chance to have a lovely phone chat with CoCo where we discussed the Housewives, the musical Into the Woods, and the, um, “f” word.

Q: Hi Coco! How are you?
A: This sounds so gay, but I was listening to Into the Woods. I forgot how beautiful it is. And I was sitting here CRYING like a big homosexual!

Q: I’m so embarrassed. I don’t really know it that well.
A: I’m not into musicals that much. I’m not one of those people. There are certain ones that I discovered when I was young, and they stuck with me. I remember I was with my first boyfriend. So I have all these associations. I haven’t heard it in so long, it just was really beautiful. That’s my morning!

Q: What are you planning to do for Out Loud?
A: What I always do - tell stories. I’m basically doing 20 minutes of material. It’s gonna be a very wacky night.

Q: You hosted the GLAAD Awards a couple of years ago, right?
A: Oh yeah.

Q: I was at that awards show, and I remember you came out at the top of the show and said, “They told me I couldn’t say anything I wanted to say.” I’ve been meaning to ask you about this since then. What happened?
A: I was asked to host the GLAAD awards. So I worked out all this funny material. And basically during the rehearsal they said, “The GLAAD Censor would like to speak with you.” And I said, “Censor?! Since when do we as homosexuals ever use THAT word?”

So sure enough, this guy comes along and is telling me, we don’t use the “f” word. And I’m thinking, fuck. I can’t say fuck. And I said to him, “well I use that word a lot.” I mean, we’re all adults. And finally I get the sense he’s talking about a different “f” word. So I said, “what ‘f’ word are you talking about?” And he said, “you know, the ‘f’ word.” And I said, “No, I don’t know.” And he said, “you know – the f word.” And I realized what he was referring to. And I thought, I’m gonna make you say it. “What word are you talking about?” And he said, “You know.” And I said, “No I don’t know. Say it. SAY IT.” And finally he whispers, “faggot.” I was using the word faggot saying how when I was young, that’s what kids called me. And then introducing Jennifer Holiday like, “If I had only known back then that this faggot would be introducing Jennifer Holiday…” I was making it like a reclaiming sort of thing. But they said, you can’t go there. You can’t say the f-word.

Q: Unreal.
A: Ten minutes before the show starts, they come downstairs and tell me, you’re not allowed to do any of your material. I wanted to say, “Well you can all go fuck yourselves, faggots.” But I didn’t. I winged it, basically.

Q: Well, you were really, really good.
A: I couldn’t believe that their sponsors were more important than their gay core audience. They were so worried about what their sponsors were going to think. Rather than sticking by the side of a queen that’s been working in this industry for 18 years. Anyway, that’s the answer to your question.

Q: My show at Out Loud is called State of the (Super Gay) Union, and it’s all about how the media portrays gay issues and stereotypes. I was wondering what you’re watching on TV right now.
A: Right now I’m watching The Amazing Race.

Q: Did you see that woman get smashed in the head with a watermelon?
A: I couldn’t stop watching it.

Q: What really made me feel okay about watching it - -
A: Is that her friend was so shitty. I thought if her friend wasn’t so shitty, I wouldn’t be able to watch this and laugh.

Q: Her friend was super-shitty. Is there anything in the media you hate right now?
A: The Housewives are appalling to me. Even that Jet Blue guy—

Q: Steven Slater?
A: Yes. That was so wonderful. He was just hilarious and crazy. There was this talk that he was going to be offered a reality show. If anything makes me tired, it’s these people who have nothing to offer – like the Jersey Shore kids. That’s what so gross about this industry. I guess there are shows on that are wonderful.  I think Modern Family is really funny.

Q: What do you think of RuPaul’s shows – RuPaul’s Drag Race and RuPaul’s Drag U?
A: I think they’re great! I think it’s great that drag is having a second-wave and that the younger generation is celebrating drag and enjoying it again. And RuPaul’s always been so sweet to me.

Q: When can I see you perform here in LA?
A: I don’t perform that regularly in LA. Most of my gigs are around the country and overseas. So I’m on the road for the most part. I do something every year in LA. I do something called Conversations with CoCo. Those happen whenever celebrities can do it. My last guest was Lily Tomlin. We sit in chairs onstage at the Gay and Lesbian Center, and we just talk and show clips from their movies. Lily Tomlin was hilarious. I did one with Lainie Kazan, Charles Busch, Lesley Ann Warren and my first guest was Bea Arthur.

Q: Wow! Have you ever had a show that went really horribly awry?
A: I’ve had a couple of moments. I had to kick someone out of my show in San Francisco.

Q: What were the circumstances?
A: The guy was drunk. He just kept talking. And when I finally confronted him, he started yelling at me. The Bronx in me kicked in and the truck driver inside of me just came out, and I kicked him out. And the whole audience was so uncomfortable. But I came back and made a joke and we moved on.

Sometimes all it takes is one person full of negativity to ruin your show. This one woman in London was not going to have it. She didn’t want to be there, she was angry at her boyfriend for bringing her there. And at one point - at a very inappropriate point - she sneezed but really loudly. And I addressed her and said, “are you okay?” And she said, “It’s your perfume.”

Q: Ew!
A: (Laughs). I know! I didn’t know what to say. She threw me.

Get tickets to the first ever live version of Bryan's segment on Thursday, October 7, at San Francisco's Out Loud Comedy Festival.