Billings
residents have heard
Jade Esteban Estrada's name before. The
two-
time
Miss Montana USA Pageant performer returns to Billings for a one-man
show at Venture Theatre on Friday night.
Estrada is an actor, a singer, a dancer, a
choreographer, a writer, a comedian and an activist. And sometimes,
occasionally, he sleeps.
"I think it's a very colorful existence," he said.
The award-winning singer was born and raised in San
Antonio, Texas. He won a scholarship to the American Musical and
Dramatic Academy in New York, studied dance with Slam, the lead
dancer from Madonna's "Blonde Ambition" tour.
"In New York, back in the day, it was mandatory that
you do everything, that you get onstage and tell a joke by yourself,
do a jete, an arabesque," he said. "I'm from the 1990s in New York,
and producers were trying to save money. They didn't want to hire 20
singers and 20 dancers; they were going to hire people who did
both."
In 2002,
Estrada turned his talents to the solo theater
format with the debut of his one-man show, "ICONS: The Lesbian and
Gay History of the World, Vol. 1." With a total of 10 solo shows in
his repertoire,
Estrada has found himself double-checking to make
sure he's not going to go onstage and perform the wrong thing.
"Sometimes I have to look at the costume I have on
before I walk onstage and go, 'Oh, yeah, that one,'" he said.
However, since it's a one-man show, the performances
are fluid.
"One of the cool things about writing and performing my
own work is I can change the entire show on a dime if I wanted to,"
Estrada said. "I enjoy that artistic liberty, that privilege that I
have."
One thing
Estrada doesn't enjoy is the so-called fourth
wall, preferring instead to interact with his audiences.
"I like broken fourth walls in my shows," he said. "It
is my wish that my audience members feel they can reach out and
touch me at any point. I like that, stopping the show, stopping the
song, whatever I'm doing, sitting on someone's lap and saying, 'Are
you paying attention?'"
