FAITH IN POISON by ODIDIVA's Alcoholic Alter Ego Lush Rimbaud

“We have Faith in Poison, we will live our lives completely everyday, this is the age of the smokers of hashish”

- Arthur Rimbaud (Morning of Drunken Rapture)

Poppy Z. Brite the woman, no Transman,  had me entranced from High School to Drama School. While others were lapping up the superfluously written glorified Mills & Boon novels of Anne Rice, I was reading Poppy Z. Brite.

My first book by this gothic scribe, famous for writing Courtney Love’s only authorised biography,was Exquisite Corpse a tour de force of youth culture anti establishment angst, filled to the brim with representations of  alternative underground lifestyles, prose dripping with poetic irony and characters tortured, twisted ,multi ethnic and polyamorous. The story revolves around to modern day vampires, serial killers based on Jeffrey Dahmer, find them selves in entangled in a most unusual love triangle, hunting the same prey:

“A tender leg of lamb tangling into a den of lion’s could scarcely have been more oblivious…”

Exquisite Corpse’s description of serial killer character Andrew Compton was so chillingly accurate that the FBI’s photos and Modus Operandi of Gianni Versace’s alleged murderer (the manhunt unfolded as I was turning the pages) were an uncanny dead ringer of my mind’s eye, down even to the nondescript name, Andrew Cunanan.

By the time I got to the character of Lush Rimbaud (picture Val Kilmer as Jim Morrison in Oliver Stones’ The Doors still tripping balls), a pirate radio station DJ, so named after her favourite poet, I was a devotee lapping up every detail. It was the turning point in this bitches creative process to becoming ODIDIVA.

“We have Faith in Poison, we will live our lives completely everyday this is the age of the smokers of hashish”

Seemed the perfect French translation of my life and a motto to live by. One of my closest friends just happens to have a father that produces South Africa’s favourite white wine blend, Haute Cabriere Pinot Noir- Chardonnay, home of Pierre Jourdan, my bubbly of choice.

The miserly Manager of the venue of my longest residency, so far, after weeks of suffering my ever expanding bar tab decided to rescind the complementary drinks. The uptight tart could barely rein her inner Mein kampf resentment, at the only black person on the floor of her restaurant and not in the kitchen, ODIDIVA,  who single handily put the Burger Joint Diner on the map creating  unprecedented buzz with sold out bookings 3 weeks in advance.

As usual Trailblazers leave them seeing FLAMES!

No bar tab!? Sana ( Baby in Xhosa used like “GIRL!”) I , with my GBF,Tamo von Arnim, Prussian aristocrat,  international model and gay son of  Winemaster Achim von Arnim colluded with his mother to up the sales of Pierre Jourdan Methode  d’Cap Classique (South African Champagne from vines brought over by French Huguenots in the late 1650’s).

ODIDIVA would get a case of Pierre Jourdan Belle Rose ( the Pink one, obviously). A bottle would be waiting for moi, chilling in ice, popped  open and poured by some slavishly well muscled Bar man after delivering my opening salvo, the showstopper “I am Telling You” (think Jennifer Holiday, more DRAMA) because, “You’re Gonna Love Me”

ODIDIVA is not called the First Lady of Live Singing Drag for nothing. I am a full fledged and paid up member of The Sorority: Diva Daughters of Preachers & Priests”. Bitches we got Timeshare in Heaven!

Influenced by Aretha I bring vocal dexterity with emotional intensity. Inspired by Grace Jones kill’em with  Avant Garde Cray Cray (for Crazy) Fierceness.

As Brett Bailey, South Africa’s award-winning “Enfant Terrible” of African Theatre  wrote in the script  of his political satire BIG DADA - The Rise and Fall of Idi Amin(2001), when he christened me:

“To be sung like Grace Jones meets Shirley Bassey and Brenda Fassie”

Grace is aforementioned and The Dame is Gay Royalty ( Don’t know? Children, brush up on your heritage and Mothers? get your houses in order)

Brenda Fassie is the Queen of Pop in South Africa dubbed the “Black Madonna” by unimaginative  lighter shade of pale journalists during the Apartheid 1980’s. Amy Winhouse  and Rihanna in comparison are light weights. Brenda Fassie produced a smash hit album a year from 1983 to 2003, outselling heavy weights Michael Jackson, Ladysmith Black Mambazo and Dolly Parton.

Her face? Lets try for a modicum of respect for the legendary dead. God gave all the blessing to her voice, which could out cutsy Katy Perry, oversex Britney and out bust Child of Destiny.

Mabrr (Think Ghetto Mama with an Eartha Kitt Growl and then say it) as we loved to call her, debuted her first single her  best loved song “Weekend Special” in a music video without front teeth some straggly braids and an ill fitting Donna Summer rip-off outfit. I’d like to see one of today’s pop tart’s pull that off and go number one nationally, internationally including charting on Billboard.

Her singing in English was so beautifully articulate it jarred one’s sense of reality hearing  her speak in interviews. Brenda Fassie could hardly make a full sentence in English let alone sustain conversation as she talked  Johannesburg Soweto Township slang in dialect nobody could make head or tail, let alone try to understand.

This woman was ghetto ruff with the infectious joie d’vivre of an excited schoolgirl.

From outrageously extravagant Hollywood style marriage in the 80’s to out and proud lesbian in the noughties Brenda Fassie had South Africa by the balls. Boy did she know how to play’em.

In 1989 influenced by Nigeria’s Fela Kuti, the violent brutality of the South African Defence Force under Apartheid’s State of Emergency (Martial Law), the  exile  of luminaries like Miriam Makeba, Hugh Masekela and the decades long incarceration of Mandela. Brenda Fassie released  the album Black President.

The volatility of The Resistance to Apartheid in the townships of South Africa in addition to the popular clout of  Brenda Fassie was too great even for the  Apartheid regime not to take heed. Brenda’s Black President was unbanned two weeks after it was prohibited. A watershed event and in hindsight an oracle as 9 months later Mandela walked free.

Deeply influenced by Brenda’s turn as social activist, ODIDIVA a fellow lusty Scorpio, born on the same day as Hilary (Goddam) Clinton, felt growing indignation at performing for “Lily White” audiences in her hometown Cape Town more than 10 years after democracy. And to add insult to injury in a gay restaurant that refused to employ even qualified and gorgeous black persons  for front of house. ODIDIVA began to lace her stand up comedy, between songs with cunningly witty observations and beguilingly pointed social commentary.

“ Welcome ladies to the church of the ANC(deathly silence)… the Church of the Ass n Cock(evangelical applause) Where 10 years later I am still the only black person on the floor  and not in the kitchen scullery. To which you will  presume and then ask : YOU SPEAK SO WELL WHERE ARE YOU FROM?

Duh!? That’s like asking an Indian from India if he’s Indian.”

Of course, nothing gives ODIDIVA more righteous indignation than guzzling down a bottle of the finest Bubbly from a Wine industry that still has elements that pay slave wages, which in some cases includes paying workers in low quality wine instead of cash. The Dop system.

That Summer of 2009 into 2010 with Ruby Wax in the audience (doing a very convincing  Japanese tourist impression of Liza Minnelli) I hit the sweet spot of monologues, like Nina Simone on smack:

“So its that time of the year when all the wealthy buffoons of the 1st World grace our shores, like whores willing to pay for it...and you do, don’t you?

What’s the Rand to the Dollar if not  chump change in your back pocket? The Euro, well darling even our Premier (Governor) is German, and we all know how they love deepest darkest Africa.

Its interesting, though, all you ever hear about this country in your news and the newspapers you own here, is about crime. Well this summer it wasn’t us doing the crime it was you “ Foreigners that never get called Refugees or stopped on the suspicion of seeking Asylum”  Funny thing that word Asylum, because I’ve always said you have to be barking mad to want to live in Europe where the sun comes out for 2 weeks a year and the temperature actually  still reads below minus zero degrees Celsius. Why keep counting after zero? When its Freezing its FREEZING. Probably matching the warmth of the people, look at Switzerland. A tram has to go in slow motion to reach its destination because they so anal retentive even arriving early is illegal. And in Africa late is on time, African Time.

But I am Sorry I know What You Tourist Did This Summer,you tourists out did yourselves. Firstly a gay  British Indian man on the Honeymoon of his arranged marriage, arranged his our version of an annulment ( entendre intended) by having his bride executed. His cover story had more BS and holes the size of Bareback Orgies after fisting.

Because did Dewani really expect us to believe that they chose to go sight seeing in the Townships at 10 pm on a Saturday night? Not even people in the Townships go walkabout let alone drive around after ten. Everyone knows Township tourism is like a going to the game park, after dark, you are the prey.

Not even weeks go by and on Christmas Eve a deranged Australian, like there is any other kind of Sheep Fucking Ozzie, don’t worry love they all love going DOWN UNDER, bunch of Moffies! ( South African for FAGGOT)

So an Australian Dude stalks this SAFA chick, but she don’t Suffer like Us, her family home is in Clifton (like French Riviera & Malibu). He stalks her from Brisbane to Cape Town and then burns down the family home. “Merry Fucking Christmas, Mate?” REALLY!?

This has elements of British Tosser a few years ago who flicked a cigarette out his window while driving on Table Mountain and set the whole mountain ablaze destroying 6 homes and killing an old lady. Gives new meaning to “Naughty by Nature, not cause I hate ya, innit?”

On New Years’ the latest crime couple, they’re French so I will call them Bonnie & Claude had a tour d’force that was a coup d’grace of a coup de tat.

Bonnie &Claude after years of living quietly in the outskirts of Sutherland.  The coldest middle of  nowhere in South Africa. This Pas De Deux were actually  a sleeper cell of only an AMERICAN cult  church that predicted the end of the world in 2010.

So after getting “the sign” from the Village Idiot in the Backwaters of Appalachia choking on his Crystal Meth, Bonnie &Claude  went on a shooting spree killing 2 policemen and their landlords son before “Va va voom ing” to the nearest mountains, never to be caught alive.  Bonnie &Claude stayed faithful to the original, going out in a blaze of bullets like the more famous American crime couple, pre-surgery Faye Dunaway &  pre-Madonna Warren Beatty.

And you say we do the crime? Cry Me A River!”

At this point ODIDIVA sang a remixed mash up of Cry Me River the original jazz standard followed by the proverbial “Balls to the Wall” Michael Buble’s big band Bond style classic. During the Buble rendition I then picked up my choice of  patrons cellphones from the tables and some selected designer bags before finishing the song in the middle of Somerset Road (our version of Sydney’s Oxford Rd or London’s Old Compton) in full view of the bemused and cheering audience as motorists whizzed past. Some cheered others not so much, But by some Divine Intervention a Cab stopped picked me up and I high tailed it  leaving  with my Black Economic Empowerment (S.A.’s version of Affirmative Action as Interpreted by ODIDIVA).

“We have Faith in Poison we will live our lives completely everyday this is the time of the ASSASSINS”

I Slayed them with that exit,  and every week after that.

For those conscientious readers, I did return 15 minutes later with all the goodies, still tucked but feeling cocksure, strutting my swag and giving face  like Naomi coked up with Kate.

Ruby Wax was besides herself and introducing herself in that All American “Have Nice Day” manner.

I immediately remembered the urban legend that when she  first moved to Cape Town she lived in a townhouse in De Waterkant Village (our Marais District looking like Darlinghurst), directly situated in front of the main entrance of The Hothouse, Cape Town’s most popular bathhouse,

“Darling, best part of my Sunday was waking up sitting at my window enjoying my morning tea, waving at the boys as they sheepishly exited…”

Flash two years later at a special charity show for Treatment Action Campaign T.A.C. ( our Act Up!) Ruby waxed lyric:

“I have sent people across continents to see Odidiva…”

And I have travelled across continents spreading Bacchanalian hedonistic verve as a dedicated evangelist and High Priestess for the Ecumenical Council of Faith In Poison, in the House of the Holy Afro

"It's the new urban reality and no, you don't have to be black...a gospel saint of the clubbing scene, a preacher of reconciliation through pop-culture, a slam poet, a rap star, a rock star." - CAPE TIMES

- Odidi Mfenyana aka ODIDIVA stars this Autumn in the international smash hit show HOUSE OF THE HOLY AFRO,  Paris 2013 November 18 - 21 http://www.festival-automne.com/brett-bailey-show1585.html