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When you think about people, or drag queens, that have made a strong impact in our local gay culture, party promoter, hostess, and badass MC Heklina comes to mind. We all know her and love her, but we've all learn something from her. Everyone thinks they know her, but they have no idea. She has taken something that means a lot to our community and redefined it to mean so much more. Through her show she has also given the opportunity to give newcomers to the drag world a chance to leave a mark.

I had the pleasure of interviewing her and getting to know the great Heklina.

JR: How do you define yourself as Heklina?

H: Well, Heklina is basically just me [Stefan] and I just turn up the personality about ten times when I go up on stage. It's not really a character I've developed; I think it's just my personality. It's a little hard to define Heklina because everyone has his or her ideas about who I am. I was the hostess and promoter of Trannyshack for 12 and a half years and I really worked my ass off for that. Now I'm taking a little breather.

JR: How did Trannyshack come about?

H: I was working at the Stud bar in 1996 and the Tuesday night slot at any bar is the slowest night of the week. I was kind of dabbling in drag at the time, I was doing some drag with some theater work that I was doing and the Stud saw that I knew a lot of people so they asked me if I'd like to start a Tuesday night thing. So I thought "Well let's try and do a drag club" and I didn't think it would last more than a couple of months and I really didn't know what I was doing. I didn't know how to really do my own make up and hair at that point and I've never done much performing. It was all-good because I went into it with no clear set of rules about how it should be done and I think that was part of the reason for its success. People could come and do whatever they wanted and after a few months it started to take off and became successful. Then I decided to learn drag because people looked at me like I knew what I was doing. It happened very organically and it was not planned. I think a lot of people are trying to do it but you can't plan for that kind of thing.

JR: How did the success of Trannyshack affect you? When did you start to notice you were an icon?

H: it was 4or 5 years into it, I began to notice that people acted differently, as if they had a preconceived idea of who I am and what I am which gave me an identity crisis. It [Heklina] was never meant to become this thing or person I did become and it was easy to get lost in what people think that you are. I got through my identity crisis and now try not to worry too much about what people are saying or thinking about me.

JR: How did you become a party promoter?

H: I began to get somewhat bored with Tuesday night Trannyshack so I began to throw little parties here and there. I stopped being challenged with the Tuesday night thing because it was something I knew very well now I do feel challenged doing bigger events like the Kiss Off party, the Miss Trannyshack Pageant, or bigger stuff and the reason why I think I'm such a successful party promoter is because I always feel I need to give people value for their money; good DJs, good production values, good show, all that stuff.

JR: Trannyshack was the first party you ever put together, now can you go back to the beginnings of it and tell me what were some of the challenges you faced?

H: One the big challenges is that you have to juggle a lot of the organizational stuff when you do a weekly party, but I was promoting, producing, and hosting the party so it became a lot of work. When I began doing Trannyshack I had 2 jobs, did this I did that, and quickly Trannyshack took over. I was lucky that I was able to focus on Trannyshack and even though it was successful and all that stuff I can still proudly say that I really took care of it to make sure Trannyshack stayed a legendary thing by always having high standards for it.

JR: Where does the name Trannyshack come from?

H: Before I started the club there was a few friends of mine that were all drag queens and they lived in a little apartment in the lower Haight, right on Laguna and Haight st. It was a little kind of basement apartment with low ceilings, very dingy, always smoky. So whenever I would go over there I would say, "I'm going over to the tranny shack" and visit those girls. I was in my twenties and believe it or not I would get in drag just for the hell of it and have fun. So when the Stud asked me to throw a party it seemed a natural choice to do a drag show and Trannyshack was such a fun name. It's still crazy now that the name became such an institution because it's really a silly name if you think about it.

JR: How many legal issues have you had with the name Trannyshack? I know that in the past you've had to sue several different clubs for using the name.

H: Well I have a lawyer and whenever that comes up we have to go after that. I don't know what it is with Florida but I've had to sue at least 3 different promoters in Florida. There was someone in Boston, New York City; I just need to maintain the integrity of the name.

JR: From what I understand, Trannyshack is not completely over so what plans do you have for it now?

H: Right now I'm mentally still on a vacation from the whole thing. Its only been 3 months since the Kiss Off party and everybody is asking me what's next and I'm just not there mentally to think about doing anything regular. Towards the end of Trannyshack I felt chained to that schedule, of every week getting in drag and in front of an audience and sometimes pretend like you are happy to be there even though you're exhausted. Of course so many times it was really great but I just felt chained so I don't want to even think about committing to a monthly party. I am ready to go back to work when I'm in the mood to do it. I had a lot of fun doing the Halloween party and traveling with it, I'm probably going to go to Pto Vallarta in January and do Golden Girls, then Hawaii in February. No plans however to do something on a regular basis here in San Francisco.

JR: Now you're currently performing in the production of "Golden Girls the Play: The Christmas Episodes", tell me how that happened?

H: It feels like such a natural thing to do because the Golden Girls is almost custom made for drag queens, four very strong, different women and the shows are so well written and, it's a very gay show, a gay man can identify with all the characters and has tried to figure out which golden girl they fit. This is great for me because I hadn't done theater since Trannyshack took off and its very fun to do, I love the cast, and we're all friends. Its something where I don't have to organize the show, I can just be part of the cast and not have to be the boss. The audiences love it, this is the fourth run that we've done and it's the Christmas episodes, just in time for the holidays. I like the fact that I don't have to assume the responsibilities for everything, we have someone doing lights, someone doing sound, someone else is directing so I feel like I'm part of a group and that for me is the fun part. Also I can get lost in another character, which in this case is Dorothy and not having to do improve all the time, which sometimes it can be difficult, but now I have a script and I can loose myself in it. The show has been a sold out success since it's opening that we've added new performance times on December 20th and 27th, there now is a 5pm show.

JR: What is your favorite part about playing the role of Dorothy? Is she your favorite character?

H: I like her deadpan delivery of Bee Arthur, who I think is amazing, her comic timing is so genius, she makes it look so easy. It's a challenge to play but I'm suited for that role. She looked like a man anyway so…

JR: Now let me ask about some of your favorites, just in case a reader may ask you out.

Favortie:

Food? H: Fried Chicken

Movie? Rocky Horror Picture Show

TV Show? The Golden Girls

Guilty Pleasure? Rimming

Disney Character? Disney character? I don't know, snow white? No wait the evil

Witch.

JR: How do you feel Trannyshack has influenced the gay scene?

H: Hopefully its given people the sense that they can do any performance and they don't have to be locked down into rules about it. Its definitely has change performance in San Francisco, nobody can do a drag show anymore without doing it with a theme. Almost every drag performance you see is a Trannyshack number where there's a story, props and its very irreverent. I'm glad it has had that influence on drag performance.

JR: What are some of your favorite parties in town?

H: I do like Bootycall. Juanita More is very creative in her very own way and a visionary. There are people who would do a rip off of Trannyshack, like Pink Slip or whatever, and it kind of pathetic because why wouldn't you want to do your own thing. I love Midnight Mass with Peaches Christ. She's very original and does her own thing. Anytime you see someone have his or her own identity and creativity that's what I love to see. I don't see a lot of spark happening in the nightlife so hopefully that'll change.

JR: Thank you very much for you time

H: You're welcome and now I'm going to rim you ha-ha