Jade Esteban Estrada is arguably one of the hardest working actors making a living in live theatre today. Watching him perform after a recent performance of his self-written, self-performed ICONS: The Lesbian and Gay History of the World, Vol. 1 in Tallahassee, Florida, it's interesting to see the former Charo dancer/Back Street Boys scratch vocalist walk into a venue, create a team, delegate and put up a show in about two hours or less reminiscent of the golden days of vaudeville.

The show the audience doesn't get to see is as intriguing than the one he does later that night proving the Comedy Central star to be a one-man traveling theatre.

At the time I arrived, Estrada was not available to speak to reporters. His youthful looking assistant was amiable in explaining to me the venue was available late and that Estrada had to devote all of his time to his on-site technical staff to prepare for the show.

Speaking at a loud level to the sound technician high above, he works through cues in the script and gives him advice here and there. The sound tech makes more than a few mistakes but Estrada stays calm.

He sings through a song in the show for about ten seconds to get a sound level, make adjustments with the monitors.

"OK, let's say we did that…next cue, please," he says as he asks his assistant for the time seemingly every five minutes.

When rehearsal is done, Estrada wishes everyone a good show and disappears into make up and wardrobe.

After Estrada's entertaining performance of ICONS where he portrays six key figures in gay history (and by the way, it's not a drag show), I had the opportunity to sit down with him after the show and talk about his sequel, ICONS: The Lesbian Gay History of the World, Vol. 2 .

He is now relaxed and his make up is gone with the exception of a trace of lingering eyeliner.

"I knew there were going to be a lot of people interested in seeing ICONS 2 after seeing ICONS one so I wanted to make it a completely different experience for them," Estrada said as he drank a glass of water with no ice with a piece of lemon speared by an unused straw.

In this show, Estrada plays Alexander the Great, Susan B. Anthony, Queen Christina of Sweden, Billie Jean King, Harvey Milk and Mark Bingham. The show walked away with the 2004 Audience Favorite Award in Solo Performance in it's opening weekend at the Columbus National Gay and Lesbian Theatre Festival.

Estrada attributes the success of the show to Frank Barnhart, the producer of the Ohio festival where he debuted both volumes of his shows. "Without him, there would probably never have been an ICONS."

The show recently earned him a nomination for Best One-Person Performance at the 2005 Spotlight On Off-Broadway Theatre Awards, which will take place on September 24, 2005 in New York.

Although, he will be onstage performing that night in Prescott, Arizona, he hopes he will win the award, as it will help him "catch a wave to the next level."

"I want to reach as many people as I can, while I still can. When ICONS 3 runs it's course, I'll be done," he says matter-of-factly.

Estrada performs each of the historical portraits in a series of vignettes with the help of Broadway-caliber music and extravagant costumes. Each of them comically and sometimes more seriously, describe the struggle endured during their own time period.

ICONS 2 is a "darker, more serious" piece says the Mexican-American performer who revealed that he wanted to make sure he got away from the cabaret feel of the original volume.

"I think my favorite icon so far in ICONS 2 is Mark Bingham. I love telling the story of a man who was so good at heart," Estrada mused. "That's what theatre really is isn't I? Telling stories? The historical content is merely the theme of the trilogy. Whoever says that there is no correlation between education and entertainment doesn't know much about either."

"My next ICONS 2 show is in St. Louis. I'm really looking forward to that run."

Copyright 2005 St. Louis Gateway Arts