Years ago, performer Jade Esteban Estrada got some great career

advice.

     But he didn't know that until fairly recently.

     "(Actress) Zoe Caldwell — I was her assistant when I first went to New York — I said to her, 'Do you have any advice? I want to be an actor.' She looked at me and she held my hand and said, 'Jade, in order to be a real actor, you must do everything.' And I was like, 'What?'

     "And I know now what she meant. Living life, falling in love, having your heart broken, buying a house — these experiences deepen our souls. Actors have a lot in common with psychiatrists in that both are about the study of life, of human behavior. I can't understand human behavior unless I experience it."

     The native San Antonian poured some of his experiences into a couple of one-man shows. He'll bring the second, "ICONS: The Lesbian and Gay History of the World, Vol. 2" to the Bonham Exchange this weekend. The performance is part of the Diversity Center's celebration of National Coming Out Day.

     The show is a little hard to explain, Estrada said, because it's a little bit of everything.

     "There's tap dancing, musical theater, opera and dancing in it," he said. "It's (similar to solo shows by) John Leguizamo, Lily Tomlin, Whoopi Goldberg, but it's not. The format itself is unique."

     Over the course of the show, he'll play diverse souls such as Ellen DeGeneres, Gertrude Stein, Oscar Wilde and Michelangelo.

     Estrada is working on a third "ICONS" show that he hopes to launch at the 2006 Bi-Annual Columbus National Gay & Lesbian Theater Festival in Ohio. That will be a homecoming, since he premiered the first two "ICONS" shows at festivals past.

     "Then I'll be done," he said.

©2005 San Antonio Express-News