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Interview with Tabatha Coffey 2010

The name Tabatha Coffey tends to incite fear, excitement and intimidation in the hearts of those who have seen her on Bravo’s addictive series, Tabatha’s Salon Takeover. The fiery Aussie with platinum blond hair is known for having a tongue that is sometimes sharper than her scissors.

What you can’t tell from watching her on screen is that she is funny, warm and absolutely charming. What I’ve just come to realize after speaking with her is that her honesty is used, not as a way to cut people down, but as a way to hold them up to a mirror and show them their own true potential.

For the next three days, the out reality show star will be joining the Off-Broadway cast of My Big Fat Italian Gay Wedding. We got a chance to catch up with her to talk about her role in the play, as well as get some scoop on the upcoming third season of her show.

AfterEllen.com: I’m excited to hear you have something to do with My Big Fat Italian Gay Wedding. How did you get hooked up with that?

Tabatha Coffey: You know, they just contacted me and asked me if I’d be interested in doing it and it sounded like such a great production, and like so much fun, that I couldn’t say no.

AE: Have you ever been to a big fat Italian gay wedding?

TC: I’ve been to a big gay wedding before, but never Italian.

AE: Is there a lot of hair gel being used for this?

TC: Yeah there will be some very big hair, I promise you.

AE: Do you have to style the chest hair as well?

TC: Let’s hope not. That’s not my forte. [laughs]

AE: So, the production is going on for a while but you’re taking part in it for three special nights?

TC: Yeah I’ll be doing Thursday, Friday and Saturday [Dec 2-4] of this week.

AE: Was there any special direction you were given, or were they just like, “Hey, whatever pops into your mind, go do it”?

TC: Well obviously, there’s a script that they follow for the play itself, but a lot of the lines [for] me —it’s just ad-libbed. I’m playing the marriage performer for the ceremony.

AE: And you’re supposed to ad-lib that?

TC: It’s pretty great. They gave me lines and then, about five more pages of lines, which is hilarious. Then in some parts, they just say, “Be Tabatha” or “Just say something you think Tabatha would say.” I’ve got lines, which I’m working on – I have to know them. Gotta get my ass together. But it’ll be fun.

AE: So your character is performing the ceremony. And you’ve been to a big gay wedding in the past — was that more traditional or more of a loose type of affair.

TC: I’ve been to more traditional where they’ve had more structure, and then others that have been a bit more laid back and more of just a ceremony about commitment and love.

AE: What kind of experience are you going to draw on for your role? Obviously, they chose you for a reason — your personality is so big and vibrant — they want you to inject your own Tabatha personality into the role of the officiant. How do you meld those together?

TC: I think there will be chances, especially with what I’ve read about how the family behaves while attending this wedding. There will be chance for Tabatha to be Tabatha. Honestly, the thing I think is so great about this play, and everybody laughs about it because of the title and everything, is that it’s highlighting gay marriage and what it’s all about.

Obviously, it’s something bringing the families together and not everybody is on board, but it’s really about the two people who want to spend the rest of their lives together and make it legal. I think that part of it is the serious part of it for me and the rest of it is all part of, really any wedding you’d go to.

AE: Have you already seen the show, or is being in it your first chance at getting to see it?

TC: Sadly enough, being in it is my first chance to see it.

AE: Oh boy!

TC: Yeah, wish me luck.

AE: I have absolute faith you’ll do fantastically. Have you ever done anything like this before?

TC: Well we’ve all done school plays when we were little but a play in an auditorium is really very different than an Off-Broadway play. So, no.

AE: If this goes well, can we assume you’d be up for doing more theatrical works in the future?

TC: Honestly I don’t look that far down the road. I’m a hairdresser and a business owner and I’ve got my show. It’s great to do something like this and it’s been a load of fun and I’m sure [acting] will be a lot of fun. But is there an acting career out there for me? [Laughs] Let’s see what my free nights are like first. Call me next week and I’ll tell you.

AE: Speaking of your show, the premiere of your third season is coming up soon. Can we expect any new territory for you?

TC: Oh God. Well, I actually spent the night at one of the salon owner’s homes, so you get to see me in my pajamas.

AE: Well some of us at AfterEllen.com will like that!

TC: It’s a family-owned business and they have a lot of drama at the salon, and then bring it home with them. So I sleep on their couch for the night.

AE: How was that? Was that comfortable for you?

TC: It was pretty crazy. You’ll also see, we go to Provincetown, [Massachusetts] which is a unique place within itself. But also from a business owner’s standpoint, it’s really interesting because they have such short seasons to try and make their money.

This salon has been in P-town for a very long time and they’re really into the shtick. It’s a really small salon, only about 450 square feet, and they have a stripper pole in the middle of the salon where you can dance and try to make money, to take off your bill. So, that’s pretty interesting.

AE: Did that end up getting ripped out?

TC: Um, yes, I took the stripper pole out and no, I didn’t do a twirl. The stripper pole came right down. But it was really interesting to be in P-town, It’s so great. They have a wonderful sense of community and the salon was interesting itself. And we actually do a revisiting episode, so you get to see some of your favorites from Seasons 1 and 2.

AE: I was actually going to ask if you surprise some of your past Takeover clients with a return visit. I’m based out of Chicago, where I know at least one salon that could use a follow-up visit.

TC: Ha! I’m sure they could. We did come back to Chicago — I don’t know if it’s the same salon you’re thinking of. But yes, we do go back to revisit some of your faves.

AE: From one bitch to another, do you think that playing the “bitch” role has played into your success?

TC: I don’t play a bitch; I just am who I am. I think in the world, if I were a guy, they’d say: “Oh he’s such a go-getter. He’s such a strong man and he’s motivated and he’s climbing the ladder.” [But] when you’re a woman, they just default to “bitch.”

I think I really am what I am, and I found that everyone wanted to call me a bitch, so I turned it around and instead of making it a bad thing, (because it sounds like such a negative word) I made my own acronym for bitch which is: Brave. Independent Tenacious. Creative. And Honest. I believe we all have a bit of bitch in us.

AE: That’s fantastic. I love that. What was the most difficult situation you’ve encountered since starting Takeover?

TC: I can’t really pick one because they’re all really difficult for me. I take it all on board and take it all really seriously. Every time I walk into these people’s places, I truly look at it as if it were my own, and I go into survival mode. I find that sometimes, I go home at night and will sit up all night, trying to piece the puzzle together and solve everything.

There are definitely some people that are more challenging than others — it’s usually the close-minded people. But they’re all challenging in that I really want them to succeed and I want them all to get better.

AE: A lot of the times, these people are in dire financial situations. Do you ever feel too much pressure in trying to help them?

TC: Yeah, it’s definitely where part of the pressure comes from because I really do want to help them. And then I have someone who is telling me their marriage is failing, and they’re losing money, and they’re about to lose everything.

This season, I have someone who has been doing this for 30 years and her parents both got really sick at the same time. It made her step away from her business to take care of them, but then it all went to hell in a hand basket. She hasn’t been able to recover. That’s why I take it so seriously. I truly feel for them and want to give them advice and tools to help turn it all around.

AE: That’s a lot more responsibility than I would ever want. On a lighter note, have you had to threaten to punch anyone in the face this season, like you’ve had to before?

TC: Yeah, I lose my temper. Look, I care about what I do, I’m passionate about it. When I feel like I’m taking it more seriously than anyone else is, and I’m sitting up at night worrying if I’m able to help you, and worrying if I’ve gotten through to you, and people are mocking me or not taking it seriously — it makes me lose my temper.

AE: That happens to me on a daily basis. No one even has to mock me for that to happen. What’s your biggest pet peeve when it comes to a salon? I can tell you as someone walking in, for me; it’s seeing hair on the floor. But I just don’t like hair in general.

TC: It always pissed me off when people don’t clean. The fact that people think it’s okay to have their salon filthy is mind-blowing to me. I think the biggest peeve for me is laziness and complacency, because that’s all encompassing. If you’re lazy, you won’t care that the place is filthy, or how you take care of yourself, or how you treat a client.

AE: Have you ever arrived at a salon that was prepped for a makeover and thought, “Eh, you know, this really isn’t too bad”?

TC: You know, this season there were a couple of salons where the makeover wasn’t the issue. There’s one salon I go to in California that was totally refurbished maybe four or five months before I got there. The owners were so delusional; they spent something like $3,000 on shampoo chairs. Like, each chair was $3,000, because they thought that was important.

They put a lot of money into the aesthetic of the salon but it wasn’t about the makeover. Their issues were about how they ran their business and how they treated their staff.

AE: What else is going on with you these days?

TC: I’ve got a book coming out January 25th and it’s called It’s Not Really About The Hair, and it’s the honest truth about life, love and the business of beauty. It’s a memoir with life lessons. I find that I get a ton of emails from people and tweets and things asking me how I stand up for myself and how do I do these things.

A lot of young gay people write to me, asking how I came out. So this book is about my life experiences, for what they’re worth, and how those experiences shaped who I am. The lessons I’ve learned along the way taught me it’s OK to stand up for yourself and be who you are — whoever that person is.

Tabatha Coffey will appear in My Big Gay Italian Wedding! Dec. 2 – 4 at St. Luke’s Theatre, 308 West 46th Street.(ticket info here), and Season 3 of Tabatha’s Salon Takeover premieres Monday, Dec. 6 at 10/9 c on Bravo. Check out the preview of the first episode of the new season:

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