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After fully coming to terms with her lesbianism, she began to test out gay humor in her act—but only for gay audiences. The gay crowds loved her, but, Shaw points out, they were gay. She eventually began doing the gay material for the largely straight audiences in comedy clubs.
She recalls, “Finally, I decided to take the leap even though it could ruin my career. I was holding something back on stage and you cannot be a comedian and hold something back. So I began to slowly put it in my act, and people laughed. They got it.”
Shaw was once discouraged from doing her gay material for a straight audience, and the double-standard infuriated her. “My material wasn't threatening, or blue, or crude, and club managers don't tell a comedian what material they can use--that's unheard of.” The two straight male comics with whom Shaw shared the bill that night both included gay humor in their acts, the kinds of jokes that encourage laughter at gays, not with us.
Shaw confronted the club manager, himself a gay man, and told him,“If I can't do gay material, then they can't do gay material.” She added, “It's those jokes that tell the redneck drunk that it's ok to go out and hunt some queers. And you know, if those rednecks are out in their truck looking for gays to beat up and you and I are walking down the street, guess who they're gonna pick?” Needless to say, Vickie was soon telling her own brand of gay jokes on that same stage. (The club manager recently saw Shaw's Logo special and sent heartfelt congratulations.)
Shaw has played it very gay ever since. In fact, she's spent the last ten years touring on the Olivia Cruise line. Shaw recently returned from an Olivia Grand Caribbean Cruise, sailing with comic Whoopi Goldberg and out tennis legend Martina Navratilova, who took plenty of ribbing from Shaw and playfully lobbed a few tennis balls at the comic in response. Shaw sets sail with Olivia again this summer for a cruise through Europe and later Alaska.
Shaw maintains strong ties to her family in Texas, and is surprised by the steady outpouring of support from her parents' elderly religious friends. At the 50th wedding anniversary celebration for her parents, Shaw's brother was afraid that her appearance with her partner would ruffle Baptist feathers.
Shaw was livid, but had the last laugh when several senior partygoers pulled her aside with comments like, “We told your mother and daddy to let us know when you're going to be on TV” and “I went to your website and it was just so colorful!” Making Beaumont, Texas proud probably wasn't on Vickie Shaw's agenda, but it seems to have happened nonetheless.
Shaw is thrilled with the recent rise in her visibility, and has an open mind regarding where it could all lead. “ I'd like to do my own show, to have more television exposure. Stand-up, a show, a sitcom—I'd like to do all of it!” Armed with a sardonic wit and abundant southern charm, it's likely that she will.
Get tour dates, cds and dvds at VickieShaw.com
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