Derrick Barry, America’s Got Talent competitor and Vegas performer, is bringing his rather astoundingly effective Britney Spears’ show to Edmonton. This is his second try, as when he was previously booked to that cold, northern town, customs wouldn’t let him bring his costumes with him due to something lacking in his work visa application. But that’s not stopped the advance of his career.
"I actually just got cast in a film that I’m flying to Iceland for, next week, and it’s going to be my first film. (It’s) very exciting, because I hqve been hoping to break into television and film since I moved to North Hollywood when I was only 19 years old, and I did my first TV appearance earlier this year.
"(Britney) has gone through her ups and downs, and right when I moved to Vegas to start impersonating her (2004) was when she had to cancel her Onyx tour because of a knee injury. It kind of threw my world a little bit, because she wasn’t out there doing what she was known for. . . Here I was, having moved to Vegas, and my dreams are coming true every night, and yet one of hers just got crushed.
"I followed her Circus tour and her Femme Fatale tour – I was doing the after-party, and the main nightclub there. Sometimes there were pre-parties, if she was doing a show on a weekday, and maybe I was there the weekend before, doing concert giveaways and promotional stuff to coincide with her most recent record. I didn’t actually tour with her, (but) the label would send things out that we could pass out; that sort of thing."
GC asks how Derrick deals with the negative media that Britney is also famous for.
"I tried to always distance myself from what was going on in her life, and keep it more to her music and costumes and choreography, and paying tribute to what she had done as a teenager. (I like to focus on) the points in her career when she is one-upping herself, which I don’t think a lot of artists have the opportunity to do. . . I think Madonna’s one of the only other people in the business that did that time and time again. But Britney was a lot younger when she started."
Not that Derrick is biased, or anything!
"I always want to portray Britney in the best light, and that’s why I have always made sure that I did the most accurate depiction of what I think she is, and what the public remembers her to be . . . There are people I know who are not a fan of the person they impersonate: they either look like them, or they fell into it, or needed another character for a show, so they picked one. It’s interesting to me to have someone say they’re not a fan of someone’s music that they impersonate, because I could have Britney on 24/7. I listen to my set-list every single time before I do a show."
And yet . . .
"I have always considered myself an actor. So whether I’m portraying a man, or a woman onstage, I’m acting and it’s not me, it’s a character. I was used to wearing wigs for shows – wearing makeup, wearing costumes and, obviously, impersonating a woman – the costumes and wigs are different (than impersonating a man). But the foundation is the same: completely taking away everything that I am; putting something in that I’m not. The best thing about impersonating a celebrity is that there’s so much material out there for me to study.
"For the role on (the TV show) Dig, I was a drag queen in a gay club in Jerusalem, and I actually first read in my Britney character (because) I just came home from the show one night and I read the lines for them, and then that evolved into (costume and wig changes) . . . When (the director) contacted me this time, she said there’s a role for you, and it’s a beautiful, blonde American transexual . . . The great thing is that there’s really no evidence that I’m either a man or a woman on film. It’s all based upon interpretation."
And this development, in addition to his successes as Ms. Spears, has him as excited as a schoolgirl.
"It’s very easy for me to be typecast in this business, because they do see me as Britney and, even if I have tried other characters, they look like Britney Spears dressed up on Halloween as somebody else (laughs). I get told I look more like her brother than her brother does! . . . But how much fun – to go onstage and be the most beautiful popstar in the world – and it now has opened up so many doors."
Including, despite his Alberta misadventures, many Canadian ones.
"I have done Toronto a few times; Winnipeg, Saskatoon, Vancouver a few times. I feel extremely fortunate that Canada has been so welcoming."
GC asks about the changing success of gender-benders in the modern media.
"(RuPaul’s) Drag Race has really put drag in front of people again. For so long it has been the joke: whether on SNL or in television shows, they have had drag as a part of it, but it is really different to see a beautiful woman that you know is a man. I don’t think America was quite ready for that (when I was on America’s Got Talent)."
"The (most common) questions that I get are How long are you going to (perform as Britney)? or Are you tired of doing it? and I think what a disservice it would be to the fans, if I don’t want to do it, and I continue booking shows! My favourite thing about performing is that I get to perform as one of my idols. I’m extremely grateful to get to come back to Canada and perform for the first time in Edmonton – since we didn’t quite make that before." (He’s so diplomatic, he’s practically Canadian). "It was horrible, to fly all the way there, and not get to perform, and I have never had my drag taken from me. I have never had my stuff locked up before. It felt like such a violation! How exciting that I get to now go and do my show; and I think it’s much better than it was in 2010."
There you go: spoken like a true Britney!