Ep 27: Peaches Christ & Veruca Bathsalts—mothering a cultural scene

Peaches Christ, AKA Joshua Grannell, has mentored a whole generation of San Francisco drag performers, including the fantastically-tattooed Veruca Bathsalts, AKA Seth Shubin. In this third installment of Meet the MAYtriarchy, we talk to them both about the fellowship of performance, keeping drag transgressive, and how their creative contributions are part of a much bigger cultural movement and legacy.

Joshua Grannell is a filmmaker best known as his alter-ego “Peaches Christ”, an underground drag superstar and cult movie impresario. Joshua is the writer and director of the feature film All About Evil. The award-winning dark comedy gore film stars Natasha Lyonne, Thomas Dekker, Cassandra Peterson, Mink Stole, and Peaches Christ herself. Joshua’s infamous cult-movie parody events are produced by his company Peaches Christ Productions at the Castro Theatre and regularly draw over 2,000 attendees to each new show before touring the West Coast. Other Peaches hosted events have featured special guest stars John Waters, Cloris Leachman, Appolonia, Barry Bostwick, Pam Grier, and more. Peaches Christ has been featured in the films Milk, I Am Divine, Diary Of A Teenage Girl, Mansfield 66/67, and on HBO’s Looking. In 2018, Joshua created a new company called "Into The Dark" that will produce immersive theatrical haunted shows in the Bay Area written & directed by him. The first show,Terror Vault, is happening at The San Francisco Mint in October.

Seth Shubin, the self-proclaimed "Jerk of all trades" (also known as his sometimes alter ego "Veruca Bathsalts") is a nanny and costume designer for Peaches Christ Productions by day, bartender, drag queen and event producer by night. Originally hailing from Philadelphia he moved to the bay in 2013 to live out the San Francisco hustle, pursuing all his hopes and dreams. Seth throws the widely popular queer punk night "Desperate Living” every first Friday of the month at The Stud as well as the bi-monthly over the top film series “Film School Drop Outs” at The Roxie Theater. A lover of Cats, Clowns and all things trash.

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MOMMA B’S GOODIE BAG OF HELPFUL LINKS

Learn more about San Francisco’s legacy of drag performance with The Cockettes: https://www.cockettes.com

Learn more about Peaches with these docs!
https://vimeo.com/137921217 and https://youtu.be/ggP8oVFtOss

Yes, you TOO should plan a trip to San Francisco around a Peaches Christ performance: www.peacheschrist.com

A helpful guide made for educators about pronouns, that can be helpful to anyone who wants to be more aware of how they use pronouns: https://www.glsen.org/sites/default/files/GLSEN%20Pronouns%20Resource.pdf

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Advice from Mom is a production of Wise Ones Advice Services. It was produced by Juliet Hinely & Rebecca Garza-Bortman. Editing by Juliet Hinely and Samantha Land. Mixed and mastered by Jake Young. Publicity by Anna Beyder. This interview was recorded at KQED in San Francisco. Audio assistance by Bryan Garza. Our theme music is by my band, Love Jerks. Special thanks to Cass Adair for his help on this episode.

This podcast is for informational purposes only and is not intended to offer diagnosis or treatment of any medical or psychological condition. All treatment decisions should be made in partnership with your health professional.