Miss Foozie

Lucy Foozie (born April 6, 1960(1960-04-06)), better known as simply Miss Foozie, is a character from Chicago.^[4][5] Today, Miss Foozie is not a “drag queen”. She is a “personality.”^[2][3] Time Out Chicago calls her a “drag hostess and entertainer”,^[6][7] and Chicago Free Press has consistently awarded her The Pressie for “best female impersonator”.^[8]

In 1997, Miss Foozie was “born” at her portrayer’s birthday party. Since then, her career has included parades, four films, and live performances throughout the United States.^{[3][4][5][9][10][11][12][13][14]} Her influence extends internationally as publications featuring her are available in both the United States and Canada.

Origins

When Miss Foozie was a little boy, he liked other people and had lots of friends in school. From a very young age, he was a character and made people laugh. Years later, he moved to the more populous Chicago, certain that the city had a lot to offer him and that he had a great deal more to offer the world. He began a career in customer service, traveling downtown every day working 9 to 5. He claims he was a “great worker”,^[3] but too often the job was not as satisfying as he had hoped it would be. He wanted to reach out to more people, not to just talk on the telephone.^[3]

As his birthday came up, there was a new bar opening on North Halsted Street called Circuit. Very few people knew about it. “Can I have my birthday party here?” he asked. He had no shortage of friends, so they all pulled together. He passed out invitations to everyone he knew, and even some people that he did not know. He taped a thousand fliers that had happy faces all over Boystown announcing the party: “Bring your friends. If you like ‘em...I like ‘em.”^[3][4]

On Friday, April 6, 1997, he got to the celebration early, and pretty soon some friends pulled him into a back area and said “Perform something!” and presented shoes, jewelry, a dress and a wig. He told them,“Well, I don’t do that sort of thing. I don’t dress like a woman...” While they were trying to talk him into it, another friend ran in and yelled “Do something and I mean fast! There are over four hundred people out there! You’d better hurry up Foozie!” Dumbfounded, he thought about the four hundred people and replied, “That’s Miss Foozie to you!”^[3][4]

The birthday party was a huge success, and all of Miss Foozie's friends had a great time. Miss Foozie was never the same again, having found something that made her happy, and she had found something truly special that made people laugh.^[3]

^Career

In April 2007, Miss Foozie told Chicago magazine her first paid gig was the weekly stage show “Miss Foozie and Her Floozies” at age 37 for US$30 per show, however, Chicago published he was 48 at this time, possibly mistakenly, since Miss Foozie’s first gig was indeed at age 37, and before his 37^th birthday on April 6, 1997, Miss Foozie did not exist. That would have made Miss Foozie 46 or 47 in April 2007 and 50 as of today, October 21, 2010. Miss Foozie also told Chicago her alter ego works full-time at the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum, and her fantasy job is to be Miss Foozie full-time, although she takes working vacations roughly every other month to cities including Washington, D.C. and New York.^[5]

In April 2007, Boystown pizzeria Pie Hole named a pie after her: “Miss Foozie’s Signature Pie". “She’s a ham, and she calls everyone pineapple... so it was only a matter of time. Full ¼ lb of ham and big chunks of pineapple, plus we pull out a $1 donation for Foozie Charity in honor of all the work she does in the community.”^[16] In addition to Foozie Charity, she was Miss December in the “Glamour Of Boystown Chicago” Charity Calendar.^[16][17]

Miss Foozie had the opportunity to be hostess of the 2009 13^th Annual Triangle Neighbors' Northalsted Halloween Parade, and she did indeed emcee the parade as Alice's Adventures in Wonderland’s Queen of Hearts, following that year's theme of the parade, “Mad Hatter’s Ball”. This was her third year as emcee for this huge event in Boystown.^{[10][11][12][13]}

^Films

In 2004, Miss Foozie appeared in Twenty Gay Stereotypes Confirmed, a tongue-in-cheek look at Gay stereotypes using the director's childhood home movies. She appears on the streets of Chicago introducing the third stereotype with her iconic catchphrase, “Hello, Pineapples!”^[18] In 2005, Miss Foozie made a special appearance in Bowser Makes a Movie, a comedy with a young man struggling to make a Gay adult film.^[16][19][20] In 2007, Miss Foozie appeared as herself in Father Knows..., a Gay interest film involving a father-son relationship, Gay romance, and explicit sex.^[21] In 2009, Miss Foozie played herself again in Sister Mary, a dark comedy written and directed by Scott Grenke, starring Brent Corrigan, Bruce Vilanch, and producer James Vallo who plays Mark Rima, a homophobic Detective who must “partner” up with the very Gay and flamboyant Detective Chris Riant (Shawn Quinlan) to stop a serial killing Nun (Judy Tenuta) from offing 5 band members otherwise known as “The Ex Choir Boys”, but when it is determined that the Detectives cannot solve the case on their own, expert F.B.I. profiler Agent Peccant (Ant) is assigned to the case. As the details of the case slowly emerge the police determine that that the “nun” may only be a silent witness to the grisly murders. The task force then turns its attention on the Catholic Church and a suspect group of Priests that have had a propensity for “cleansing the souls” of innocent young choir boys.^[22][23]