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 is no stranger to Liza Minnelli, Barbra Streisand, or Joan Rivers. Over thirteen years of female impersonation in both theatrical and corporate settings, the veteran performer has conquered the looks - and in the case of Joan Rivers, the voice - of his diva targets.
But this past season, when performing each Sunday for a tea dance cruise out of Ft. Lauderdale, a new idea struck.
“I would welcome all the guys and girls on board as Joan Rivers,” he relates. “I’d then do 20 minutes of standup. And after, I go and change as a guy and come back in shorts and the guys would be like, ’That was you? Joan Rivers? You look great.’”
They referred to Posa’s gym-built physique and willingness to flaunt it.
“I kept hearing that,” he recalls, “and I thought, well hey, that’s a show.”
The idea became “Joe Posa Poses: The Man Behind the Women,” an hour-long performance featuring not only his most well-known three impersonations but also his ability to dance as a man.
“I’ve done Streisand, Liza, and Joan Rivers, but this is a totally different packaging,” he says enthusiastically. “I’m doing the show in a men’s bathing suit - sort of like go-go boy does drag - I’m in a speedo, then I do Joan and then I whip out of Joan and I do a dance as a guy, then there’s Barbra, then I strip out of that and dance again. Sort of it’s like taking all the club elements and combine the two.
