The Party Monster Roars: An Interview with James St. James

Billy Bloom, the protagonist of Freak Show, is not your ordinary high school skell. The 16 year-old twinkle queen is obsessed with being fabulous, a hobby that doesn't go over well at his super-rich, ultra-conservative private southern high school. Each day is a new hell for Billy: tater tots in his hair, noogies and donkey punches, and constant humiliation aimed at his alternative lifestyle and unorthodox couture.

Freak Show's author, James St. James, is an expert on challenging established ideas. The author of Disco Bloodbath, later made into the movie Party Monster, was a New York celebutante who rose to fame as one of the original Club Kids. With appearances on America's Next Top Model and the Tyra Banks Show, he's extended his fan base nationwide-but just what kind of fan base is that, and what is he trying to tell us?

Matthew Ray: Freak Show is a young adult book, which is a bit autobiographical?
JSJ: Oh definitely. It starts with my family, my mother, the backseat of the bus boys, all the beautiful boys in school that I was in love with but who taunted and tortured me. I was definitely the oddball freak show in school. Billy's first appearance in school, when he imagines himself as Rosalind Russell, that really was how I attempted to approach my school days.

When does the book transcend biography?
Billy is ultimately stronger than me. He is more invincible, more like Lee Bowery. The other characters all grow in different ways too. Flip Kelly is very much like a guy in my high school, but Flip ends up in a different place than the person he is based on.

Why target the teenage market with your 2nd book?
That's really my biggest fan base, teenagers! The myspacers are my biggest fans.

So this is your tribute to them?
My aim in writing Freak Show was to create a positive, Auntie Mame-like hero for LGBT teens. Someone who was outrageous, outspoken, larger-than-life super freak. I think that when you are a teenager, it's the smartest you will ever be in your life. Teenagers are so resilient and strong, it's just amazing.