Celebrated female celebrity impersonator Joe Posa makes a living pretending to be someone else and has mastered it largely because of his ability to blend chameleon-like into the personalities and performances of some of the grandest grand dames around - Joan Rivers, Liza Minnelli, and Barbra Streisand.

And it is these women that he trots out in his current show, “Joe Posa Poses,” along with video footage of some of his other well-known impersonations - Michael Jackson, Gloria Estefan, and Susan Lucci to name three.

But the real secret to this show is the revelation of the one secret few female impersonators care to share - the he inside the faux she.

But what Posa does in his almost one-hour show is just that - he lets the audience see him as he and then as the many shes in his repertoire.

From the moment Posa enters the room he commands attention. It’s interesting that he begins in a mask, for it is what the mask hides that he spends the rest of the evening exploring, though it is not long into “Willkommen” from “Cabaret” that he loses the masks and most of his outfit and stands their revealed wearing nothing more than a pair of go-go boy shorts.

Along this journey of discovery and introspection, Posa is aided by some of his more familiar impersonations - Joan and her drooping, sagging, and falling-apart body; Barbra Streisand on yet another farewell tour; and Liza Minnelli, gay ex-husbands and all.

While Posa may be best known for his “divas,” it is really his willingness to strip away the make-up, the wigs, and the sparkling costumes and instead stand there revealed.

Using pre-shot video footage of the celebrities and then he as them as segue ways between numbers, Posa remains on stage, though hidden behind a screen, as he goes from outfit and personality to outfit and personality.

There’s even a moment when he reveals to the audience, again using pre-shot footage, the steps he takes when getting into costume and character, the painstaking detailed work in applying the make-up and making sure everything is just-so to ensure the illusion remains complete.

Near the end of the show, Joan says her final goodbyes, works the audience one last time - on this particular evening, she seemed most interested in how long couples in the crowd had been together, who was the top in the relationship, and how to convince one young woman to dump her deadbeat boyfriend of three years and put herself back on the market - and warns the audience that while she may be gone, the show is far from over.

Two minutes later, face freshly scrubbed, Posa emerges wearing what one could assume is his normal, everyday costume, a button-down, a pressed pair of slacks, and it is he who thanks the audience one last time for attending, for sticking around for a not-so typical drag show but one that leaves little doubt that Posa is a master, and there is nothing posed about him. •

David Foucher
EDGE Publisher
Saturday Aug 26, 2006

Joe Posa “Poses”

South Florida is loving Lips Drag Dining.

After opening two very successful restaurants in New York and San Diego, the gals packed up their belongings and headed to the Fort Lauderdale suburb of Oakland Park.

On our most recent trip we enjoyed a show by Joe Posa who performed fabulously as Joan Rivers, Liza Minnelli and Barbara Streisand. The show was an entertaining multimedia extravaganza including lights, video and music sung both live and lip synched with incredible costumes and a convincing performance. In short, it was a righteous act of hilarity that had to be seen to be believed.