Why Prince Poppycock is Important for America

[JackLuis]

For the past three months America’s Got Talent showcased Prince Poppycock, the bewigged Baroque dandy who sings superlative opera in outrageous outfits. He is witty, elegant, polished, formerly a glittering secret sensation for nightclub habitués.

Is this guy gay? Who cares? He's not much of a dancer, but he's got pipes. and imagination.

 

[sr71plt]

Yeah, but not pipes quite good enough to the statement he tried to make the last night. Peers was right about that performance--he blew it by taking his opera too seriously and not twisting the humor tale with the act. He makes a better Freddie Mercury.

 

[Stella_Omega]

This is what I miss never watching TV.

He sure has some talented costumers!

 

[Tricialen]

I loved him! ... what an imagination..... he is so funny and outrageous.... He will do well I am sure

 

[matriarch]

Just watched him on youtube. I think he's fantastic.

A real showman. I'd pay to go watch an hour long show of him.

 

[Toqueme]

.....

 

[voluptuary_manque]

Hmmm . . . Las Vegas is waiting?

 

[sr71plt]

Hmmm . . . Las Vegas is waiting?

According to a feature in USA Today the day before the final announcement, all four acts already have contract offers--Las Vegas and more.

I got irritated at some of the interviews done with the last ten, where they said they'd just die if they didn't win. All ten of the final acts (and more than that) have/will have contracts far in excess of what they'd have if they hadn't come on the program.

What I found interesting in some of the reports on the final 10 acts or so was that quite a few of them were solicited to come on the show by the show's producers (probably even the "yeah, right!" ones. It's show business.)

I also got a kick out of the hype of this Las Vegas gig for the winner. Turns out this means they headline the combined show of the top ten that will turn--including a stop in Las Vegas.

 

[Stella_Omega]

Hmmm . . . Las Vegas is waiting?

To say the least! He'll be on stages the rest of his days. It's a lovely act.

 

[Zeb_Carter]

I enjoyed the whole season of the show. I thought Poppycock was fun and very inventive. I'm sure he will get his dream of a show somewhere around the country. All the top for will have shows in Vegas. Grimm will have a recording contract if he doesn't already and that little girl, Jackie, has probably been approached by every opera house in the country. What a voice for a ten year old, she was just marvelous.

Fighting Gravity will have a show that will tour the country...don't forget the Blueman Group started as three guys in an IBM commercial.

 

[Verdad]

The other day I read this article where Camille Paglia comments on Lady Gaga. Paglia is, as usual, partly onto something and in a larger part full of it, but the gist, that Gaga is an utterly sterile product, can hardly be disputed.

Now that I checked out this Poppycock guy (I don’t watch TV either) I found myself wistfully thinking of Sylvester in the same way Paglia juxtaposes young Madonna to Gaga. Is it early onset old-fartishness in me, is it the fact that he’s exactly what you’d expect from a show like this (“duh, it’s plastic by definition”) or is something weird going on?

 

[Stella_Omega]

Prince Poppycock is far far more accomplished than Sylvester was. He has a better voice, a better sense of humor and this sort of reverse drag thing is such a delight!

Lady Gaga is young, and even so, at this moment she's showing a metric ton of content by using her celebrity to agitate against DADT. I do not remember Madonna doing anything like that, do you?

Paglia complaining about sterility...

 

[Verdad]

Oh, I'm not taking Paglia seriously. She's got entertainment and conversation starter value, though.

This particular article attracted me because Gaga's stardom is a complete head-scratcher to me. Musically, far from being shockingly new, she’s this cheapest Dance thing you could hear by the hour in the less cool European discotheques up to mid-90's and no later. Of all the things one would expect to revive, recycle, and go big, that was probably the last, lacking genuineness in its original form and bringing nothing new in the reincarnation.

Paglia seems as unaware of this as Gaga fans, though, which gives her analysis a bit of that sad air of an academic lost in the woods. I wonder too if she’s right that young Madonna was so much different and truly “on fire”; I never cared for Madonna either, so I find it hard to judge.

Where Paglia strikes me as correct is in noting the whole Gaga act is just…trying too hard, I guess? The metaphorical representation that comes to my mind is that of people you may have some time seen flailing on the dance floor, having obviously practiced some moves that display their bodies to the best vantage, except, you realize with dismay, they don’t actually hear the beat.

A similar thought invited the Sylvester-Poppycock comparison to my mind. The main problem with that comparison might be that they’re really apples and oranges, but for the sake of conversation, I have to disagree with you that Poppycock is more talented. Sylvester sang in falsetto; you may find that annoying by definition—many do—but he channeled emotion in a way that can still give one goosebumps. I ask no more of an artist. In Paglia parlance, one would probably call him a conduit of the Dionysian, or some such.

Now, Poppycock, his made-up face appealed to me as much as to any of you. How could it not? It’s positively comic bookish, a delightful creation, plus he is young and might grow into something. I don’t mean to judge him harshly. However, at present, I found him just about painful to hear. And I’m not referring to his biting off more than he can chew with opera; I’m referring to the emotional banality. Not only his singing, but also that air of delightful perversion, ambiguity, and transgression an act like his is supposed to suggest, struck me as going through the motions, bereft of the inner pulse.

I’m not necessarily following Paglia in seeing some deep symptoms here, and I don’t think a few pop stars failing to move me signal the sunset of the Western civilization, but I was curious what you guys thought.

 

[sr71plt]

On the point of the thread title, I thought it was great how both the judges and the audiences (including those voting at home) responded to Poppycock's persona and acts.

 

[Huckleman2000]

The other day I read this article where Camille Paglia comments on Lady Gaga. Paglia is, as usual, partly onto something and in a larger part full of it, but the gist, that Gaga is an utterly sterile product, can hardly be disputed.

Now that I checked out this Poppycock guy (I don’t watch TV either) I found myself wistfully thinking of Sylvester in the same way Paglia juxtaposes young Madonna to Gaga. Is it early onset old-fartishness in me, is it the fact that he’s exactly what you’d expect from a show like this (“duh, it’s plastic by definition”) or is something weird going on?

I think the more apt comparison would be to Liberace. Everyone loves a drag queen with a modicum of talent, right?

The basic premise behind these types of acts is tried and true, I think. The subversion is that they take the image of opera, or classical music in general, as stuffy and effete and (yes) "gay", and make it a burlesque. Also in this tradition - Les Ballet du Trocadero de Monte Carlo

 

[Verdad]

Good point, Huck. I did have trouble thinking of a persona that really compares. Another guy that popped into my mind was Justin Bond aka Kiki, probably best known for his role in the movie Shortbus. There's a transfixing drag performer, if you ask me (example) but it’s a completely different act and venue, and an even less apt comparison than with Sylvester.

 

[Stella_Omega]

Verdad... I think you're feeling your age.

No newcomers are ever as sexy, talented, emotive as the singers and musicians of our hormonal teens, right?

Except that you know that can't possibly be true. Talent continually renews itself, and some of what hit us so hard back in the day is pretty mediocre. Entertainment is a two-way street. The audience has to be receptive, and although teen hormones make reception an automatic thing, a little mental effort can widen your field of enjoyment considerably...

Poppycock doesn't do drag, he isn't doing female impersonation-- at least, not in the clips that I saw. He's doing dandification, I guess you could say-- Huck is right, he's more like Liberace.

 

[Verdad]

Verdad... I think you're feeling your age.

I shake my cane at you and say, “meh.”

Seriously, though, I didn’t mean so much to rhapsodize my preferences as to draw a difference, without it being necessarily for better or for worse. Other than that, your explanation might have some plausibility.

 

[voluptuary_manque]

Sort of 'metrosexual' on steroids?

 

[Stella_Omega]

Sort of 'metrosexual' on steroids?

No steroids!

 

[Huckleman2000]

I think there is also an element of "cosplay" in this. Not that that is anything new, remember the "naughty nurse/schoolgirl/etc." n the Frederick's of Hollywood catalogs; but this is more overt. I think it comes from more Japanese influence, such as from anime.

 

[Stella_Omega]

I think there is also an element of "cosplay" in this... I think it comes from more Japanese influence, such as from anime.

Yes, exactly! Very yaoi.

Hell, the guy looks like an uke, when he's out of makeup.

 

[Huckleman2000]

Yes, exactly! Very yaoi.

Hell, the guy looks like an uke, when he's out of makeup.

I had to look those words up - I'd read "yaoi" before, but "uke" was new. Now that I understand the terminology (sorta), you are absolutely right! And, how Japanese of them to devote entire sub-genres of doe-eyed comic book characters to different varieties of sexual preference - it's so... what's the word I'm looking for... masturbatorily efficient?

 

[Stella_Omega]

I had to look those words up - I'd read "yaoi" before, but "uke" was new. Now that I understand the terminology (sorta), you are absolutely right! And, how Japanese of them to devote entire sub-genres of doe-eyed comic book characters to different varieties of sexual preference - it's so... what's the word I'm looking for... masturbatorily efficient?

Efficiency is a part of the culture, for sure