What’s a girl gotta do to get an IN Los Angeles cover these days? Bring along her gal pal Liza Minnelli, that’s what!

By Miss Coco Peru &
Liza Minnelli
Photography by
John Skalicky

OK, so here’s the thing: I wanted the cover of IN Los Angeles to help promote my new show opening at the Renberg Theatre this month, and word got back to me that if I wanted the cover I had to get a celebrity to interview me. Now, I have been an openly gay performer for years, I have won awards, I’ve appeared in gay films, I’ve done TV, I filmed a comedy special for LOGO, I’ve done hundreds of benefits, and still I can’t get the cover of a gay magazine on my own merits?!? Did I mention my new show is called Ugly Coco?

I thought, “OK IN Los Angeles, you want a celebrity? I’ll get you a celebrity. How’s Liza Minnelli for you?” So, while in New York preparing the music for my new show, I got together with my old gal pal Liza in her uptown Eastside apartment.

Coco: The last time we saw each other was in Marbella, Spain, where you were performing.

Liza: Don’t you wish we were there this second?

Coco: Yes, I miss it terribly. It was a treat to see you there, because I was able to call friends and say, “I’m in Spain…on the Mediterranean…seeing Liza Minnelli!” It was delicious. You know, Rafael and I got married in Spain last year. Well this year, my sister-in-law said I’m officially Spanish, because not only do Rafael and I own a place there, I burnt a pan of olive oil and almost set my kitchen on fire.

Liza: Oh, honey!

Coco: So Liza, we met each other about 13 years ago.

Liza: I think it was a little more than that. I was your fan immediately. I loved your work.

Coco: I’ve written about you in my new show!

Liza: Oh, have you?

Coco: All very sweet and loving things.

Liza: Oh, thank you.

Coco: I’ve never been one to drop names, but sometimes in this business people don’t find value in what I do because they see it as “just drag.” I want people to know that if it wasn’t for drag, I would’ve never met you!

Liza: But you’re one of a kind. It’s very hard to be the first of anything, and right now you’re the only one of your kind. There’s an underlying belief in the value of human life that you give me when I watch you. It’s miraculous! I’ve been thinking about it, because it’s been so long and I love you so much. Every time I see you I hear something that I relate to. So does everyone in the audience. Everyone can relate to your humanity. And your funny, wacky point of view on things suddenly makes it all alright.

Coco: That was my goal when I first started, but people said, “You’re crazy! You’re never going to work again.” I thought, “I need to do this to make the point that it doesn’t matter what you’re wearing, it’s the human story behind the costume that makes it relatable.” I’m including you in my show, because when I was growing up in the Bronx, I’d go to the local library and take out Cabaret and The Act and sing and dance. Then, years later, I was at an award show where you were a presenter. It was the first time I saw you “live,” and I was so excited. “God, I remember listening to this woman in my bedroom, and here she is on the stage in front of me.” My mother was mad at me because I didn’t introduce myself to you! I said, “Ma! She was on stage giving an award!” Then I said, “You know what, Ma? Someday I’ll meet Liza Minnelli, not because I’m trying to meet her, but because she wants to meet me.”

Liza: We met because I found you. You didn’t come to me.

Coco: And it was lovely! I think there’s value in telling that story, especially for young people. I get e-mails from kids all over the country saying, “If you had the balls to do this…” It inspires them.

Liza: Exactly! You’ve got to somehow get it across to them. They have to believe in themselves to rise above what people are doing, which seems to be about just putting everything and everyone down. Anybody can do that.

Coco: I saw you in Vegas—what show did you do for all of those...?

Liza: Oh, the “gypsy” show! It’s a tradition that Sammy Davis, Jr. and I started. In those days you did a third show just for the kids on the Strip. The tradition had gone, but I brought it back, and it was so much fun!

Coco: It was fun. Again, it was one of those nights where I thought, “I’m lucky to be me!” I was sitting right in the front row. I brought two friends, and when you walked out, I turned to them and said, “Do you smell her perfume?”

Liza: Ha! I love it!

Coco: Oh, and because I forgot when we were in Spain, my mother, Helen, asked me again to thank you for inviting her to see you in Palm Beach.

Liza: Yes, I met her; she’s lovely.

Coco: My mom got a lot of points around the pool at her condo for that! She told me, “I go to that event every year and always sit way up in the rafters looking down at all the glamorous people. But this year, I was in the middle of them!”

Liza: How wonderful!

Coco: It was even more wonderful to remind her, “Remember when you were mad at me because I didn’t introduce myself to Liza Minnelli?”

Liza: See? “You never know,” said Sally Bowles.

Coco: I’ve always told people that you’ve always treated me like a fellow artist.

Liza: But you are! There’s nobody like you. If people go to see you expecting a drag show, they’re not going to get that. But if they go to see a really funny, talented performer, that’s what they’ll get. To me, your drag is like a Ron Lewis dance show. I first saw it in Las Vegas when I was 19, and they were topless. I thought, “Omigod, they have no bras on!” But eight bars later, I forgot because the choreography was so great. You do the same thing. The audience starts with, “Cute outfit! I wonder how…” And then they start to listen. I really love that.

Coco: Thank you! Remember, years ago, I told you I didn’t know how to sing harmony? You said, “I’ll teach you!” I said, “Liza, Jonathan Larson, who wrote Rent, couldn’t teach me and said he never could.” But you said you could. We sat on a couch singing for more than an hour, and you said, “You can’t sing harmony.”

(Both laugh)

Liza: The thing with harmony is, I have to learn it like I’m re-learning the song, like it’s the main line.

Coco: Well, I do a solo show, so I pretty much always have the main line. You may not remember, but in one show I talked about pretending to be Jeannie from I Dream of Jeannie, and how, after playing it for hours, my parents would say, “Alright, either Jeannie finds a new game or Jeannie’s going to bed.” But I didn’t care, because…they called me Jeannie! (Both laugh)

Liza: That’s what it’s about! All of this world should hear your stories. You can’t stop telling them. I mean it.

Coco: Thank you, Liza!

I left Liza’s apartment that afternoon, and as I walked toward the elevator I could hear her warming up her voice for a rehearsal, and I still couldn’t help but think, even after all these years, “Oh, my God! That was Liza Minnelli!” And as I rode that elevator back down to reality I thought, “OK IN, now can I get the f--king cover?”