Paul E. Pratt is an entertainment journalist who leads a double life as a crazy ass drag queen. So, when he’s not interviewing people like Spike Lee and Oliver Stone he’s getting all fierce and fabulous down at Trannyshack, where he has been the reigning “Miss Tranny Shack” since 2007.  I’m not exactly sure how it happened, but I wound up spending the better part of a recent quiet Sunday drinking Pilsner and watching a drag show with Pratt at Mecca in The Castro. Here’s what he had to say.

MEET: Hey, you don’t look like a drag queen at all. Whaddup with that?

Pratt: Well, I like to keep a fine line between who I am in drag and who I am out of it.

MEET: Yeah, I didn’t know what to expect before I met you. I kind of thought you’d be all dolled up, ten feet tall and scary.

Pratt: Well that’s something you see more of in the Midwest, where I used to live. A lot of the drag queens out there feel sort of forced to live in drag all of the time. You’ll see a lot of transgender people, men trying to become women. The point of the community out there is different in that sense. San Francisco has another side. There’s the pageant circuit — the Imperial Court thing — that you’re seeing some of now. And then there’s the Trannyshack crowd. It’s not so serious out here. I mean, there are straight guys who perform occasionally. There are also female drag queens — we call them faux queens — and even couples like Landa Lakes and Miso Hornay. You don’t find too much of that elsewhere.

MEET: So what you do is more just for fun then?

Pratt: It’s for fun and glamour and fabulousness.

MEET: Are the differences just because of the political climate back in the Midwest?

Pratt: Yeah, well, here in SF transgender people have a public presence, whereas back in Ohio it’s more of a secret. So they form these tight knit communities based around pageants.

MEET: Is that why you moved here then, to get away from all that?

Pratt: No, I moved here for a job after I graduated. I never thought I’d be involved in any of this, actually. Then one random day someone asked me to dress in drag for a fundraiser and I just thought it sounded fun. I got a lot of attention that day, so instead of going home I went out to a drag event at Harvey’s. And that’s where I met Cookie Dough and she was like “Who are you and where do you perform?” That was April 27th 2006. It was the first time I had done drag and I was getting so much positive feedback. Someone actually came up to me and said, “You look like a future Miss Trannyshack.” So from that moment I knew I wanted to do this. My competitive edge had been sparked. I started doing the Star Search thing, met my dragmother, Landa Lakes, and just went from there.

MEET: That’s awesome. What is a dragmother by the way?

Pratt: Well, it’s usually the first person who ever does your makeup, but that’s not the case with her and I. She was the first person to take me under her wing and sort of teach me how everything works and how to improve my look and all that. I dressed pretty outrageous when I first started doing this, but she urged me to work in more femininity.
I’m still pretty campy though.

MEET: Yeah, I saw your video where you were, like, eating a foot. Can you talk about that for a minute?

Pratt: Oh that was the intro video for my Trannyshack pageant performance. The idea was that Pollo Del Mar, The Queen of the Wild, had been locked in captivity by a bunch of hunters. It was basically my take on the King Kong story. She gets captured, the hunters rape her and beat her and demoralized her sexually. Then she breaks free and goes crazy. They play the movie at the beginning and then there are two other parts. For the second part I did this She-Ra thing where I was like twenty feet tall. I busted out on stage and these hunters started beating me, and….

(At this point a person in a slim fitting lounge dress stepped onstage and started lip-synching to “I Want You to Die” by Storm Large. Paul was visibly moved.)

MEET: Who is that?

Pratt: Oh, that’s Suppository Spelling. She’s one of the most revered performers in the city [Ed. -- ha! Work it!]. She was Miss Trannyshack 2004, a real rockstar. Probably my favorite performer. She’s a cult of personality, really. Her performances are great, but her energy and personality are an inspiration for me. She has one of those super expressive faces. Sometimes I feel like I’m a one-look-wonder. You know, like I’m angry all the time. It’s fine though. I usually just wind up doing these really angry numbers.

MEET: So are there any draw-backs to being Pollo Del Mar?

Pratt: Well, I love being Pollo because it frees me to be flirtatious and crazy. But it’s weird because I’m not at all like that in real life. Like if I saw a hot guy walking down the street, I’m the type of guy that, even if we make eye contact, I won’t do anything. It’s very hard for me to follow up on it. So sometimes I’m like “what would Pollo do?” And that’s weird because it’s like I’m jealous of myself.

Landa Lakes and Pollo

MEET: So you feel sort of trapped when you’re just Paul?

Pratt: Well, yeah. It’s like Pollo Del Mar gets invited to parties all the time. I get calls and people are like “Oh, is Pollo coming?” And I’m like “Psssh, NO. I’m gonna be me. Take it or leave it.” But otherwise, no complaints.

MEET: So, you’ve already won Miss Trannyshack. Where do you go from here?

Pratt: Well, Team Pollo does this Wednesday night show at The Lookout, and that’s cool because I can relax a little while I’m dressed up. I’d like to be more of a fixture, like a celebutante, where I don’t really have to perform. I just am. And of course I’m always busy interviewing celebrities.

MEET: Yeah, I hope it’s not obvious, but I feel funny interviewing you because you’re, like, a professional interviewer.

Pratt: No, no, no. You’re doing fine, I promise.

MEET: Thanks. Oh, I almost forgot to ask, but I heard Trannyshack is ending. How is that going to affect you?

Pratt: Well, the reality is that Trannyshack isn’t really ending. It’s just evolving. After 12 years of weekly shows, Heklina has decided to keep things alive through a combination of monthly parties at bigger venues, special tours — like the annual trips to Hawaii, Reno, L.A., Portland, Seattle and the U.K. — and even things like Bay cruises. She also plans to continue the annual Star Search competition — which I won in 2006 — and, of course, the pageant.

MEET: Oh, so it’s just changing then. Well where does that leave you?

Pratt: So many people have been asking about where the changes to Trannyshack leave me. Maybe I’m crazy, but I think all of this is really exciting! Worst-case scenario, I get to be the very LAST Miss Trannyshack. Best-case scenario, I go down in history as the LONGEST REIGNING Miss Trannyshack ever. Either way, I’m going into the record books. And being remembered is what it’s really all about, right? Ha!

MEET: You’re damn right.

(By this time the entire cast of The House of Glitter (H.O.G.), of which Pollo is an esteemed member, had gathered around the interview table. When they started throwing tampons smeared with ketchup at Paul and I, the interview was officially over.)

BY JUSTIN JUUL

Sam Kehl is a singer/producer/DJ from Seattle who I randomly met on a camping trip in Morrow Bay. He was wearing a pink hat, a leather jacket, and really really cool sneakers, which was odd because all his friends were decked out in REI gear. *Obviously the dude had never been camping before, and I don’t think he’ll ever go again. I mean, a man can drink whiskey and use his shoes for a pillow right here at home can’t he?

I’ve gotten to know Sam pretty well over the past few months and although he may suck at camping, I can say without a doubt that he rules at being weird. Oh and his music is really rad too.  Listen to his tunes here.

*Correction! Sam actually camps all the time. Read his statement down at the bottom

MEET: So what’s your deal?
Sam Kehl: Hi, my name is Samuel Kehl. It’s spelled K-E-H-L. So I’m not related to the face products, Kiehl’s, or whatever. Sometimes people put me on flyers and spell my name like the face product. I hate that. Kehl is a German name, but I’m from Seattle.

MEET: Why did you move to San Francisco?
Kehl: Well, San Francisco has a particular history of being queer and open-minded and there’s always been a lot of electronic music here. Seattle just got boring and I had already lived in New York so I decided to check out SF, mostly for the music.

MEET: Any bands in particular?
Kehl: Well, I know there’s a lot of really really early experimental stuff here and all those Drum-&-Base people like UFO and DJ Abstract. There are others too, but I can’t remember. And um, Safety Scissors, Eats Tapes. Tiger Beats records. OK, so, not all the people I like are from SF, but I had already done New York and Seattle and I’m petrified of LA, so, well, I came here to do my music.

MEET: So what’s up with your music anyway? How’d you develop your sound?
Kehl: I’ve been doing music for a really long time and I’ve been deejaying for exactly ten years. I don’t have any musical training, but I had choir and I sang in college. Oh and I played cello too. So I had all these different musical interests and then bands like the Postal Service and The Blow came out and I was like oh God, why don’t I do that? Why don’t I sing and make electronic music? Most of the electronic music that had vocals at that time was really bad. I was more into bands like Plaid and Aphex Twin, and Boards of Canada, like Warp Records stuff, you know? It didn’t really have vocals, but then those other bands came out, and I was like, Oh of course. What the hell? I should do that.

MEET: When was this?
Kehl: I started producing and performing that kind of music in 2004, but it was weird. I would get really quiet and psycho and I didn’t ever let anyone hear my shit. I wouldn’t even make a myspace profile for various reasons, because I thought it was like this dumb sellout thing to do or some weird shit. I didn’t even let people copy my CD’s for like a really long time. I was just really secretive about the whole thing.

MEET: You’re still like that.
Kehl: I know. But now I have a Myspace profile. I actually have two, one for each of my projects. My Samuelroy stuff is sort of “electronic art pop.” It has what some people would call an IDM beat, but to me it’s just an experiment with many different sounds and structures. It’s highly melodic and often mellow. Samnation is more dance oriented and generally harder and darker.

MEET: So when you perform do you sing?
Kehl: Yeah, I pretty much just have my laptop and I’ll sing. Or I’ll grab a tambourine or a rattle or something to try to make it a little more fun. I try to be theatrical about it.

MEET: Do you set yourself on fire or anything?
Kehl: No. Do you know of a good way to that? Shit, I never thought of that. I mean, I certainly would set my self on fire, but I never learned how. I did go to theatre school though so I’m really into the whole theatrical thing. I’m just not that great at it yet. But I’m learning new little ways, like, I’ll drop my rattle halfway through a song and act really unaffected by it.

MEET: How do people respond to that?
Kehl: They like it. I love when people laugh during my shows because my music is supposed to be sort of funny, but serious at the same time.

MEET: Ok, so here’s the main question, what’s up with your tattoo?
Kehl: It says; if the rich guys want to play with you, make them get their hands dirty. What’s up with it? Well, I just don’t ever want to compromise and I guess I’ve had so many experiences in my life where people pretend to value my creativity, but really just want me to work for them. They want my creative energy, but it has to be on their terms. I’m just never gonna be able to do that. I want that to be clear so I figured I’d just put it out there. It’s not about sex. It’s a quote by Jenny Holzer.

MEET: That’s great man, but I was talking about your other tattoo.
Kehl: Oh, the pterodactyl? Oh well, it’s sort of a response to those stupid girls who have, like, butterfly tramp stamps on their back and shit. You know, those girl are always like oh, ever since I was little I always liked butterflies, blah, blah, blah. And it’s like, okay, yeah, every single goddamned little girl likes butterflies, so don’t act like you’re all special. I mean, I’m a little boy and I fucking like dinosaurs. Should I go out and get a dinosaur tattoo? I mean that’s just a stupid way to think.

MEET: But now you have a dinosaur tattoo.
Kehl: Yeah, well, the whole butterfly thing became this long-running joke between my friend and I, so eventually I just had to get it. And the best part is that my friend doesn’t even know about it yet. I’m going to surprise her at her wedding. Pretty awesome, huh?

MEET: Hell yes! Any last words?
Kehl: I want to start playing at more art openings and stuff, so if you have a show please contact me through myspace.

*SAM ON CAMPING: Although I realize it is funny to make fun of my survivalist skills, the sad truth is that growing up in the Northwest I had been camping at least once a year since birth — often in dodgier, rainier conditions. It should be noted that the camping trip referenced happened within the first 3 or 4 days of my moving to the bay area with no more possessions than 2 suitcases. However, I do – in fact – suck at camping… so even without this excuse it would have been kind of similar I imagine.

CONTACT SAM: FACEBOOK FANPAGE, FACEBOOK, MYSPACE,

BY JUSTIN JUUL

I was reading a newspaper in the doorway of Mama’s Market the other day when an old golden retriever suddenly appeared out of nowhere and started sniffing at my feet. I’m a normal dude so I did the natural thing and bent down to give the little guy a pat, but stopped short and recoiled in horror just as my hand was closing in. The poor dog’s feet were mangled and bent and his back was spotted and hairless with weird-looking bumps sticking out all over. I knew the right thing to do was to pet him anyway, but I just couldn’t do it. Whatever. He was stinky and old and gross and I wanted beer not a new friend. I walked in the store thinking I’d never see him again, but five minutes later, he was back. And this time he had a friend.

“There’s nothing wrong with him, you know?” said the lady in the floppy hat –obviously the dog’s owner– when she noticed me standing behind her in the checkout line (damn it!). Then she snapped her fingers and the dog limped in and starting sniffing at me again. “Are you sure?” I said, as I stepped back to avoid his scabby nose. “Of course I’m sure,” she said. “Sam may be ugly and old, but he’s just as good as any dog out there. Better even. He knows the difference between love and obligation.” She went on to tell me that she had adopted Sam from a canine rescue organization. Sam had been tortured for years, but was now living the high-life with this woman, Mary E. Fahey, the owner of a dog-walking service called Chattanooga Pooches and Kitty Cats 2.

I didn’t pet Sam that day, but when I ran into the couple the following week I asked Mary to sit down with me for this interview so I could try.

MEET: So, Mary. Where are you from and why did you choose to settle in SF?

Mary Fahey: I came here in the ‘80s. I was in a high tech graphics company, installing computers and stuff. They transferred me from NYC to Nor Cal and then I lost my job right afterwards. This was in the dark ages, right before the personal computer came out. The whole game changed as soon as I got out here and everything I had learned was quickly becoming obsolete. Things were becoming kind of cut-throat around here.

MEET: How’d you get into dog-walking?

Fahey: Well I got back into the computer industry for a while and suddenly I was just too old. Well, I didn’t think I was too old, but everyone else obviously did and they made no effort to hide it. I had a dog walker at this point, but I had to let her go soon after I was fored. I sat around the house for a while after that, just gaining ten pounds a day, feeling sorry for myself. And then my old dog walker asked me for some help and I said okay. I’ve been doing it ever since…almost 15 years now.

MEET: So what’s the story with Sam here?

Fahey: He was rescued over a year ago by an organization that specializes in rescuing golden retrievers. He was found on the street, having escaped from a terrible life. The people who owned him were really really rich. They basically threw him in the back yard and forgot about him for ten years. When the rescuers found him he was covered in bruises and disease-ridden from one end to the other. He had no hair. If you think Sam’s scary now, you should have seen him then.

MEET: Does that happen a lot with dogs?

Fahey: Yes… well whenever a movie like 101 Dalmatians comes out, you get all these kids who want a Dalmatian and then they forget about him when he’s not a puppy anymore. They just throw him in the back yard and that’s the end. That’s why we have all these specialized dog rescue services like the Nor Cal Golden Retriever Rescue Association and, I don’t know, the Pug Police, or whatever. It helps narrow down the search when you concentrate on one breed, I guess.

MEET: Well they certainly did right giving you Sam, here. He’s really nice.

Fahey: Oooooooh, you should have seen him when I first got him. He was so scared of human beings, you couldn’t make a move without him getting scared and hiding.

MEET: Sorry I freaked out in the store. Can I pet Sam now?

Fahey: Sure go ahead.

At this point I stopped interviewing Mary and focused on the dog. I looked deep into Sam’s eyes as I gave him a good petting and then walked away, having redeemed myself to the fullest. I can now sleep soundly with the knowledge that I am an indiscriminate dog lover.

This interview originally appeared in The San Francisco Bay Guardian

Please Dress Up!

BY JUSTIN JUUL

Please Dress Up! is a clothing company run by Grant Doolittle and Judy Berbarian, two artists who live in near the *Panhandle. If you’ve noticed all the girls rocking stripy shirts and pencil pants in the last few months, it’s because of them.

*Update: Grant and Judy recently did something all fashion designers dream of, but never actually do. They threw all their shit in a bag and moved to Paris. Read about their first few months here).

MEET: So what’s your deal?
Judy Berbarian: My name’s Judy Berbarian and this is Grant Doolittle and we make up the label Please Dress Up! We’re custom clothiers/fashion designers.

MEET: What’s the general idea behind Please Dress Up!?
Doolittle: Well, it’s just as the name states, really. We want people to dress up and we want to create unique pieces that are timeless in both style and in construction so they can do it. The name Please Dress Up! came to us after realizing what direction we wanted to take our clothing. It’s clear and direct and people get the message right away, I think.

MEET: Do you fit in with any fashion trends, like a specific school of fashion or whatever?
Berbarian: Our work is rooted in the tradition of French couture: custom made-to-measure garments all available in different fine fabrics. We don’t pay much attention to trends, but we do admire other designers. Some of our favorites are Balenciaga, Viktor and Rolf, Yves Saint Laurent, Christian Dior, and John Galliano.

MEET: What about local designers? Are you part of an indie fashion movement or something?

Berbarian: We’re pretty separate from any scene, but we do admire some local designers. Al from Al’s Attire in North Beach is our favorite. He’s a true craftsman and his work is just amazing. We’d love to have a shop just like his once we get a little more settled. As far as us fitting in to the design scene here, it’s been kinda hard. San Francisco used to be a Mecca for designer and high-quality clothing, but the industry has sort of disappeared and so have most of the resources for designers like us. All we have is each other to push our creativity further. On the flipside though, the indie designer scene here is special because it’s so raw. Also, people here really want to support locally made crafts. That’s why all the indie festivals have been doing so well lately.

MEET: So how did you guys get into the fashion thing? Did you go to fashion or design school or anything?

Doolittle: Nope. No school for me.
Berbarian: Me neither. I’ve been sewing since I was 14 though. I always wanted to do this, but my Aunt discouraged me. It’s was kind of weird because she always made all my clothes, yet she wanted me to be a doctor or a lawyer or something. But I just wanted to be like her and make clothes. I was doing it on my own for a while and then Grant came along. We’ve been friends for seven years now, and we’ve been living together for like a year.

MEET: How did you guys meet and decide to get together?
Berbarian: We were neighbors in Seattle and then I moved down here. Grant came to visit me one time and he just never left. I was doing the sewing thing out of this cold moldy basement and Grant was like “teach me how to sew!” So we just started spending all of our time in that basement. I remember feeling bad because the space was so small. Grant had to hunch down the whole time. Eventually we got this house and painted every room a different color. We work from here now and spend pretty much all of our time at home.

MEET: So Grant, You didn’t make clothes before you meant Judy?
Doolittle: No, I did. By the time I met Judy I had been screen-printing shirts for years. I got bored with that though and I wanted to do something more. I mean, everybody makes t-shirts, you know?

MEET: Do you guys have a pretty big following now? I see your stuff all the time. It seems like a gang or something.

Berbarian: We’re doing pretty well actually. We sold out our first boutique in the Mission and every time we do something we sell out pretty quick it seems.

Doolittle: We also do a lot of street marketing, so you may have seen our stuff other places too.

Berbarian: And we did a street fashion show for our latest line, all the French stuff, at Still Life in NoPa. That got our name out there a lot.

MEET: What’s up with the French stuff anyway? I heard you’re moving there. Why would you do that when you’re having so much success here in SF?

Doolittle: France is such a major capital for fashion and we’re just ready to take it to the next level. Being from San Francisco is good for us. We can take the success we’ve had here and apply it to what we find in France. The whole “local designer” thing isn’t as big out there so we’ll be sort of a unique voice, I hope. Plus, there’s just a lot more resources out there. High-end buyers, and stuff.

MEET: Do you speak French? It seems so ballzy to just pack up and move to a foreign country.
Berbarian: Well, Paris is really the center of the fashion world and we think people are sort of seeking young talent and a fresh take on things. But to answer your question, no, we don’t speak fluent French, but we’ve been studying it for a long time. Our whole house is decked out with French labels. We have words all over the walls, the clocks, the toilets, everything.

Doolittle: And we just got a really nice French roommate to help us out.

MEET: Awesome, French roommates are the best. Are you gonna stick with the French themes for a while then?

Berbarian: No, that was a one-time thing for Still Life. Right now, we’re working on our spring summer 2009 collection. It’s gonna be a lot of really fine silk and cotton knit dresses, tops, skirts, and of course capes. We love capes. We’re going to be hand-dying a lot of our stuff with really bright colors. It’s gonna be awesome and we’ll be premiering the line in October down in Silverlake.

MEET: Sounds good. Where can we find your stuff right now, though?
Doolittle: You can still find our Fall Collection at Still Life, but we’re mostly focusing on custom made items which we sell through our website. We also do small off-season collections and sell them at several stores like The Painted Bird, Candy Store, and Harputs Market.

This interview originally appeared in The San Francisco Bay Guardian

BY JUSTIN JUUL

Lonni Kutzen is the owner/operator of Lonni’s Punani, a hair removal boutique in Potrero Hill that specializes in Brazilians and Manzilians (that’s pussies and balls to you and me). We caught up with Kutzen recently to see what happens when people stop being hairy and start getting waxed.

MEET: So what’s your deal?
Lonni Kutzen: My name’s Lonni and I’m an aesthetician here in San Francisco. I do Brazilians and manzilians all day long.

MEET: What exactly is a Brazilian and why do they call it that?
Kutzen: A Brazilian is the removal of all, or nearly all, of the hair down in your nether regions –butt hair, labia hair, all of it. I’m not really sure why they call it that. If I had to guess, though, I’d say it’s because Brazilian bathing suits are really tiny. I’ve been there three times and you can see everything.

MEET: Yeah, I guess that’d look pretty gross if all those sexy chicks were rocking full bushes all the time.
Kutzen: Exactly!

MEET: But you usually leave some hair right? My girlfriend went to Kabuki Springs recently and she said almost every girl had a different haircut down there.
Kutzen: There are a lot of different ways to go about it, but I usually leave my trademark triangle. So if you meet someone with a cute little triangle down there, you know they’ve probably been to Lonni’s Punani.

MEET: Are there different names for all that stuff? I’ve heard of the “landing strip.” What are some of the other styles called?
Kutzen: I don’t know that they all have names. I hate that landing strip thing though. I think it looks really ugly. I like the triangle because if you look at a woman’s body, it actually looks like a triangle down there. The strip looks so unnatural. It reminds me of Playboy models from the eighties. And as far as men’s styles go, I usually wind up removing everything. I do their balls and butts…everything.

MEET: God! Does that hurt? The only frame of reference I have is the Man-o-Lantern scene from The Forty Year Old Virgin where the dude’s screaming and crying. Does it ever get that bad?
Kutzen: Yeah it does. It’s always the men though. I had a guy in here yesterday screaming and crying like that. I almost had to stop. I think women just have a higher threshold for pain. I mean…it never hurts me!

MEET: Is it mostly women you get in here, then, or are there a lot of men rocking the Manzilian in SF right now?
Kutzen: I’d say about 80% of my business comes from women, but I see men in here nearly everyday, mostly straight men. I think a lot of men wind up shaving though.

MEET: What are the benefits of waxing as opposed to shaving?
Kutzen: Well, to stay smooth with shaving you have to do it all the time, but you only have to wax every couple months. Also, a shave will leave you smooth for a day or two, but it always gets all stubbly after a while. That doesn’t happen with waxing. You rip the hair out at the root and then wait for it to grow back. Also, shaving can make you itchy, but waxing won’t. I personally like waxing much better than shaving, but that’s not why I got into the waxing business.

MEET: How did you get into it then? How did you become Lonni, the punani waxer?
Kutzen: Well, I was a pastry chef for years and then I became a cater-waiter. At some point I just decided that I couldn’t do that kind of stuff forever. I’m really good with my hands. I’m mean, I do pottery and stuff. So I thought about it for a while and eventually decided to go to beauty school. I didn’t think I’d become this crazy waxer or anything, but it’s perfect for me because I still get to use my hands.

MEET: You probably make more money these days too, right?
Kutzen: Oh, definitely. Waxing has been much more lucrative than making pastries ever was. Also, my specific focus is much better for me than facials, which I’m also licensed to do. Facials tend be slow and kind of boring, but waxing keeps me on my toes. I’m a little ADD, so having a bunch of different clients throughout the day works pretty good. I just wax one and then move right to the next. I also do waxing parties, which can be fun.

MEET: How do those usually go down? Have you had any crazy experiences?
Kutzen: They don’t usually get too crazy, but I did host a party with a bunch of gay men once. They were all drinking Caipirinhas, that Brazilian drink everyone loves. They got pretty drunk and I wound up waxing all ten of them. But none of them ever came to my shop for more. Men can be so wimpy!

MEET: Maybe it’s just a societal thing. It seems like hair removal is more acceptable for women. Actually, that reminds me of something I’ve been meaning to ask. I hear people talk a lot about how waxing and shaving are something women do to appeal to men who want to have sex with young girls. Do you think that’s true?
Kutzen: No, not at all. I don’t hear people saying that too much either. I think it’s a personal thing. I mean, I think there probably are guys out there who’re like that, but none of the people I deal with seem to get waxed for that reason. I did get a creepy stalker one time though. He called the shop and at first he was just asking normal questions. But then he was like, “I’m looking at your Web site right now and I’m getting really turned on. I get to be naked on your table right?” He was talking about the picture of me from my website and he kept saying all these nasty things. Finally I just told him he could never come in and then I hung up on him. I’ve had a few calls like that, but nothing scary has ever happened. People don’t get too excited about stuff like that around here.

MEET: Is that why you chose San Francisco, because you knew people would think your name is funny as opposed to perverted?
Kutzen: Yeah, well, I didn’t move to San Francisco to do this specifically, but I knew people here would think the name was funny. I mean, it’s a little crass, but SF is a good place for stuff like that. It’s a lot more liberal than other places and people don’t get offended so easy.

MEET: Well, we certainly like your name. Any last words?
Kutzen: Props to my Web site designer and boyfriend Eric Husk. Please check out my Web site or come down to the shop for some waxing. I promise to be gentle!

This interview originally appeared in The San Francisco Bay Guardian.