Hello Everyone,
I was reflecting on the comment I saw yet again in a recent article. It’s an interview with Tom Filicia from Queer Eye. (see link below)
http://www.washingtonblade.com/2012/03/29/queer-eye-on-d-c/
In this article I was mentioned with the following comment:
“…Filicia chuckles when Christopher Lowell’s (“Interior Motives,” “It’s Christopher Lowell!”) name is mentioned. “I hate to stereotype, but yeah, I think he’s gayer than a handbag,” Filicia says. “He’s kind of like the Corky St. Claire character in ‘Waiting for Guffman,’ always talking about his wife. I think Christopher Lowell is a really genius business man and a genius at marketing but what he does is so very different, it’s not something I’ve really connected with aesthetically, but I’m certainly a big fan of him as a businessman and designer. It’s the same reason there are millions of restaurants. Everybody wants something different so he fills a niche that’s greatly needed and it’s wonderful that he’s doing great things with the people who connect with what he does.”
Thanks for the very off-handed “genius” comments, Tom…you are in fact correct I am known in many circles — as Richard Lowell Madden — my real name. I am, as you say, a very astute businessman with a long visionary history in creating both successful marketing and entertainment vehicles…but that also included bringing my alter ego Christopher Lowell to television as well.
While my fans know this well, you might not.
As a poor artist, not being able to afford representation, I created Christopher when I was 17 as the creative entity, or should I say, THE artist — much like an actor changes his name. I then used myself, Richard Lowell Madden, as the business and front guy/agent. By doing so it took me out of my introverted shyness and helped divide the creative sensitive guy from the more all-business guy. As a result I have had an extraordinary global career in the arts and have showed both my art and my musical skills on my TV show. This dual personality, as it were, proved very handy as I executive produced my own TV shows for years. It allowed me to be completely objective about all the content the viewer would see while also protecting the other part of me — the entertainer and the teacher, Christopher Lowell.
More importantly it assured that I never indulged Christopher Lowell at the expense of the message, my guests or my viewers. In fact there were designers who appeared on my show whom, despite the pre-interviews, when their patter became stereotypical, mean spirited, judgmental or caddy, we stopped tape—or simply never aired the segments.
And again you are right, Tom, Christopher Lowell and I, over the years, were indeed very much influenced by many things including the character Corky St. Claire too…how astute of you. Even Jamie Lee Curtis during a long conversation finally asked me if I had adopted some of the aspects which her husband Christopher Guest created. Busted!
Others styles I also admired and adopted were those of Leo Biscaglia, a brilliant motivator of his time along with a bit of Graham Kerr (the Galloping Gourmet) thrown in. Graham knew how to make chopping onions hysterical and it was why I watched. What they all had in common was their inherent authenticity and sweetness and they were all in their own way wonderful teachers.
So, having said all that, let’s take me out of the picture entirely and get to the real reason I write this in the first place.
What really worries me most is this idea of stereotyping in general. I guess what I’m saying is that in a volatile world like ours where a black kid gets killed just because he’s wearing a hoodie, where profiling and discrimination are still very real issues that seem to be escalating, isn’t the less said about stereotypes at all…better? No matter who it’s said about or how inaccurate, I cringe when ANYONE begins a sentence with… “I hate to stereotype but…” And then does so.
I mean isn’t that re-enforcing stereotyping even more?
And is it just me? Am I the only one who finds comments like these (“I hate to stereotype but…”) on the subject of “gay” oddly hypercritical, presumptuous and even more dangerous coming from a cast member who permitted his very sexual orientation to become the lead calling card in the actual title of the show that probably set the Gay Decorator stereotype back decades?
Believe me, I’m not offended personally. My audience and I worked hard to grow past our individual fears together for almost a decade and are proud of it.
I hope the next time you’re goaded into perpetuating a stereotype, Tom, that you don’t “take the bait’ and instead have the grace to make it a teachable moment.
I would really love to hear from all of you on the blog and on Facebook about your impressions on this issue.
Later,
CL