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Fabulous 'Freak'

Chris Azzopardi

Thirty seconds. They meant everything for James St. James. They also changed everything. As he sashayed into class on the first day of high school, the former Michigander – much like international phenomenon Borat – graciously kissed his classmates' cheeks – first one, then the other. He ranted about how fabulous the class was, how dazzling the school was and didn't hesitate to spill his eagerness to buddy up to all of his pupils.
"Everyone just looked at me with their mouths hanging open and I realized I had destroyed my whole high school experience. It was one of those things where I took that experience and just sort of built on it," the author recalls.
In "Freak Show," a teenager-geared novel based on St. James' disturbed youth, the author puts a modern twist on his life in the '80s – when life as a drag queen high school student lured a fair share of bullies.
Its soul-stirring theme will likely resonate with oodles of fans; especially the youngsters who St. James courted since the release of his raw debut, "Disco Bloodbath." He channels his inner Miss America, changing his voice from a chipper pitch to a sentimental sap and stating: "I wrote it for the children."

Bold and bloody

That's why when Dutton Juvenile, the publisher of St. James' book, told him that having his underdog-turned-warrior, Billy Bloom, get raped and murdered was a no-no, he re-evaluated his agenda. He turned the scrawny redhead who wants to run for high school homecoming queen into a fierce icon – all the while infusing his own teenage years. "He is me," St. James says, "but he's also sort of an idealized version of me."
He rewrote, and rewrote, and rewrote – burying his twisted muse, and crafting a pick-me-up drag story for his teen fan clique. The same ones who flood his e-mail and MySpace inboxes. The same ones who latched onto "Party Monster," the film inspired by "Disco Bloodbath."
"I was a little horrified when I started getting letters from these kids who were looking to me and Michael (Alig) as role models," St. James admits. "I was thinking, 'Oh my Lord, the last thing you should be doing is idolizing (us).' We were horrible, horrible people."
Debauchery. Drugs. Murder. Mayhem. It's all chronicled in St. James' graphic look at the New York City club scene in "Bloodbath" – a brazen memoir of friend Michael Alig's murder of drug dealer Angel Melendez. St. James, no stranger to the crazed '80s club-kid realm, is now 40. Which, upon dwelling on that as he wrote the yearlong endeavor "Freak Show," posed several daunting questions.
"What on earth do I have to give to teens? What on earth do I have in common with them?" The questions kept emerging. Finally, he found his answer: "I've lived sort of a difficult life and I know that in order to get to that place to be as free as I am there's a lot of struggles along the way."

No going back

Soaking Billy Bloom in that sunny message, though, was like a bout of constipation. Aside from the tiring rewrites, St. James had to set aside his familiar '80s flair, which included references to dressing like mid-1900s actress Rosalind Russell, for a fresher fictional piece.
"It was way more challenging. 'Disco Bloodbath' is something that I was so upset about when I was writing it, and it just sort of poured out me. There was no checking myself. It was like verbal diarrhea. It just poured out of – ," St. James stops. He laughs as he reconsiders his analogy. "That's gross. I can't believe I just used that."
Perhaps it's a sign that a word like that shocks St. James, since not much seemed to faze him as a party animal living it up in New York. Now residing in California, the homebase for the production company he works for, St. James recalls trekking two hours from Charlevoix, where he lived in the early '80s, to Detroit with a friend to grab coffee and copies of The Village Voice and Interview Magazine.
"I haven't been back," he says. "It's probably been like 15 years since I've been back (but) you can totally hear in my voice … that sort of 'Fargo' thing that we all have."
Settled in Los Angeles, St. James chooses to throw himself into his work more so than the dizzying bar scene. And for good reason. "I really feel I'm being watched a little more than I was," he snickers.
He still digs probing the new generation of club kids, the "it" girl and the blooming bar personalities. But those days of stumbling around in diapers are like returning to Michigan – something he won't likely revisit. He adds, "I wouldn't go back to that other person – ever."

James St. James
'Freak Show'
Dutton Juvenile
Available now

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