Beauty. Art. Flamboyance. Love. Struggle. Fame.

All these things are part of lesbian and gay history as represented by Jade Esteban Estrada's "ICONS: The Lesbian and Gay History of the World, Vol.1." Estrada performed his solo comedy and musical show Tuesday night in the EMU Ballroom, in which he depicted six historic and modern-day lesbian and gay icons: Sappho, Michelangelo, Oscar Wilde, Gertrude Stein, Sylvia Rivera and Ellen DeGeneres.

Estrada won awards in both singing and stand-up comedy early in his career before he turned his attention to the solo theater format in September 2002 when "ICONS, Vol. 1" debuted.

While the performance is packed with factual history and cultural and political commentary, Estrada said in an interview his one goal for the show is to entertain.

"It's one thing to tell a story, and it's quite another to be entertaining at the same time," Estrada said. "As a modern vaudevillian, which is what I consider myself to be, it's very tough. My competition is today's  television."

"Estrada's stand-up experience showed through witty one-liners in the performance. After singing "The Tenth Muse" while dressed as Sappho, Estrada told the crowd how Sappho plays the lyre.

"I'm so happy you all have lyres in your time! No, really, I think it's just wonderful. I just don't understand why you put them in the White House," Estrada said.

While playing the character of Italian artist Michelangelo, Estrada sung about the artist's most famous statue. "David is the perfect man, if only he could hold my hand, he'd be wonderful." He then turned to crowd and whispered loudly, "he's be fucking hot!"

The show touched on many aspects of gay and lesbian issues throughout world history. He covered ancient times such as the first allegation of homosexuality in 1116, said the a love of two boys was beautiful in Samurai culture and talked about the execution of gay men in 1703 in Prussia.

Oscar Guerra, a master of ceremonies at the event along with Cree Gordon, said he liked that the performance combined history with comedy.

"Those identified as LGBTQ do have a history," Guerra said.

Each character Estrada depicted had a message for the crowd about human culture and unity. I believe that mankind is beautiful in all forms, and that is the word of God," Estrada said while portraying Michelangelo. To love oneself is the beginning of a lifelong romance" he said as Wilde.

"To have this to educate all people makes it easier for myself to be out as a queer person," Gordon said.

Gordon said his favorite character was American writer and poet Gertrude Stein. Estrada quoted some of her famous lines, including "a rose is a rose is a rose."

Dressed as Stein in her old age, Estrada asked the crowd whether a pink triangle meant anything to them, and said that it means a lot to some. "A pink triangle was the mark of homosexuality in Nazi prison camps," he said portraying Stein. "No one really knows what happened to them...one day they just all disappeared. "It's not a gay thing...it's a human thing."

Estrada also delighted the crowd with depictions of Sylvia Rae Rivera, a Puerto Rican transgender person who some credit as being the first to strike back at police, and stand-up-comedian-turned-sitcom-star-turned-talk-show-host Ellen DeGeneres.

The performance was put on by the Multicultural Center, MEChA and the Lesbian, Gay, Bi, Transgender Queer Alliance.

 
©2006 Oregon Daily Emerald