Miss Coco Peru (aka Clinton Leupp) has been a household name in the LGBT community for over 25 years. She got her start in the early 90's as a downtown favorite in the cabaret world of New York after she wrote, produced, directed, and starred in her first show, Miss Coco Peru in My Goddamn Cabaret, and has since enjoyed an expansive career, ranging from intimate cabaret stages in New York and LA, to television sets in millions of living rooms. She's toured around the world, has over nine million views on YouTube, and has been in multiple cherished films, garnering multiple awards and nominations for her work.
A veteran of numerous feature films (trick, To Wong Foo..., and the cult classic Girls Will Be Girls, and more), and television shows (How I Met Your Mother, Arrested Development, Will & Grace, among numerous others), Coco has also become a viral sensation on social media platforms, including Instagram and YouTube.
Considered "the hostess with that something... extra," Coco has received worldwide acclaim for her award-winning solo shows that she's starred in, written, produced, and directed, as well as her remarkable series of tributes to great performers, Conversations with Coco, in which she conducted live career-retrospective interviews with such luminaries as Lily Tomlin, Jane Fonda, Liza Minnelli, and the late Bea Arthur.
Coco's long history of passionate activism, unflagging support of the LGBT community, and fierce dedication to AIDS-related charities earned her the Los Angeles LGBT Center's Board of Directors Award, presented to her by Zachary Quinto.
Coco's show at The Auditorium on Saturday, April 6, 2019 was exceptional. Her first time to Eureka Springs and her first time to Arkansas and we showed her our love support with quite a turnout to her show.
The Show, The Taming of the Tension, is hilarious. Coco intertwines messages of love and connection juxtaposed against humor and, of course, tension. She takes opportunities to shift the dynamic with audience interaction, singing music from Broadway Shows and her infamous (highly dramatic) storytelling.
My favorite story was the one about how a lizard in Spain had a connection with her that taught her the concept that we are all energy and we are all connected and the magic to those connections is LOVE. We're all connected like rings. Rings of love.
In Eureka Springs, love and joy surround us. We know all about the rings of love here.
Coco's message, her humor, diversity, everything she's all about connects to Eureka. Ha! That Spanish lizard was right.
"We are all connected."
I especially enjoyed it when she drew attention to her trademark look and the fact that she really only has "one wig." One trademark wig. "Onewig" has become a nickname fondly given to her by her friend (fellow drag queen) Jackie Beat.
Coco is legendary. It was hard to hear her talk of retirement but then again, maybe she will consider our little community as her resting place in her retirement years.
That's how it often happens. Just one visit to Eureka Springs and your connected to it and falling in love.
Cheers to you Coco and thanks for sharing your love and talent.
Coco’s live one-person shows include: “Miss Coco Peru in My Goddamn Cabaret”, “Miss Coco Peru: A Legend in Progress” (’92 MAC and Bistro Award), “Miss Coco Peru at the Westbeth Theatre” (’95 MAC Nomination), “Miss Coco Peru’s Liquid Universe”(‘98
GLAAD Nomination), “Miss Coco Peru’s Universe” (’99 LA GLAAD Nomination), “Miss Coco Peru’s Glorious Wounds…She’s Damaged” (’01 LA GLAAD Nomination) “Miss Coco Peru is Undaunted” (’04 GLAAD Award Winner, Ovation Nomination), and the hugely successful “Ugly Coco”, “There Comes A Time”, “She's Got Balls”,“A Gentle Reminder: Coco’s Guide to a Somewhat Happy Life”, and her current production: The Taming of the Tension. These shows have been performed to sold out audiences in Theatres, Clubs, Restaurants, Ballrooms and Cabarets throughout the US and abroad.
She currently has dates scheduled nationwide through 2019.