Calgary comedian, drag performer Karla Marx explores 'silly, wild, unusual' side of trans life in new album
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On Karla Marx's sophomore album, Fruity, the comedian revisits an awkward rite of passage that many of a certain age went through in the Canadian education system.
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The segment, called The Gender Pinnie, revolves around the dreaded partner dance. For many, it was the most feared part of gym class, where 'sweaty teenagers' were forced to touch each other, Marx says.
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There were always more boys than girls in gym class, which ultimately meant that boys would have to be paired up. But this was 1990s Alberta, a 'queer desert' with a 'strict no homo' policy, Marx says. The 'particular Albertan solution' was to choose a few boys and outfit them in The Gender Pinnie, which designated them as temporary girls for the class. The pinnie started out red, but over the years faded into more of a pinkish colour.
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Marx would always end up wearing the pinnie.
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'It was one of those things that you forget happens to you and it's only later that you think 'Wait, that was (expletive) up. Did that really happen?'' says Marx, in an interview with Postmedia. 'Yeah, they used to put us in pinnies and be like 'Now, you're a girl.' I was like, 'Why do I always end up in a pinnie?' You start wondering, 'Did they know?!''
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Karla Marx is the name that Victoria Bucholtz performs under as a drag and burlesque entertainer and comedian. Her second album was recorded live in January at Inglewood's The Attic, where she co-curates The Laugh Loft every week alongside fellow comedian Victoria Banner.
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Like many comedians, Marx mines her past for jokes. The opening segment on Fruity is Manager Dad, which recounts how she came out to her parents, where she 'just pulled the Band-Aid off' and said, 'I'm a woman, I'm a lesbian and I'm getting married.' On another segment, Trans Day of Visibility, she talks about coming out on Facebook a day after International Trans Day of Visibility. The day is March 31, which means she accidentally posted on April Fool's Day. On We've Been Hacked, she talks about almost being outed in junior high by a librarian who had access to her online search history.
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Marx said she narrowed down the segments for the album based on audience reaction in the past.
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'The audience will tell you when you've got something,' she says. 'That's one of the great things about comedy: it's so honest. People won't sit there and fake-laugh their way through a 45-minute set. They are going to laugh if they really love it. So you know real quick from the audience when you've got a really banger joke.'
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