I sat down recently to chat with comedian, performer and artist Jibz Cameron over Zoom about—what else?—making art during a pandemic. Cameron’s stage persona and alter ego, Dynasty Handbag, has been giving vaudevillian performances that fly in the face of social boundaries and etiquette for over 15 years. In the Before Time, she hosted a monthly Weirdo Night at Zebulon in Los Angeles.

The variety show brought together disparate performers and comedians, all of them—you guessed it—Weirdos. Dynasty Handbag, resplendent in neon spandex and smeared lipstick, is the steady but irreverent leader of the weirdos. She comes on between acts to make fun of each of the performers. “I tie [each act] together, conceptually—in the wrong way. If something’s like, really heavy, I’ll come in, and I’ll be able to get everything on track again,” Cameron tells me.

Photo by Indra Dunis.

But of course, 2020 flew at everyone, and Dynasty Handbag was no exception. She was only able to host one live Weirdo Night this year, in February. “Honestly, my pandemic fatigue started right away,” she says. “I went to the black hole immediately. I was really stressed about how I was going to make anything happen… I was very depressed because all the things I had been working towards were just canceled. I’m generally a pretty high-spirited person, except for when I’m not,” she laughs. “But I was a little bit shocked at how bleak my outlook was. Part of that was because it was just at the very apex of a bunch of big things that were happening for me.”

Not only did the pandemic take away Weirdo Night, it also hit Cameron at a high point in her work. March’s Weirdo Night had already been canceled because she was shooting her TV show Garbage Castle, which was picked up to air on FX.

Dynasty Handbag at “Weirdo Night”

“We made the pilot, and it was great. Dynasty Handbag lives in a one-room SRO on top of a pile of trash. This dandy possum lives in the garbage bin in there… and Maria Bamford is in it. She’s the hippie landlord,” Cameron tells me. “They ordered four episodes. So, me and my writing partner, Amanda Verwey, went and wrote four scripts. We turned them in on a Friday and then the lockdown happened the next Monday. And we haven’t heard anything since. Not a peep.”

I don’t know that I have ever heard a more attractive pitch for a show. “It’s so good, if I do say so myself,” Cameron agrees excitedly. “We had this, like, Henson puppeteer [playing the dandy possum]… she came in and did her puppeting on set like a total fucking pro. We made this pilot, and they liked it a lot. It was super exciting that we sold it! Cuz, Dynasty Handbag is a hard sell. You know, you would think the world would be ready.”

Smiling Beth at “Weirdo Night”

I do think the world would be ready, especially in 2020. But apparently not.

Nevertheless, Cameron hasn’t stopped working. She produced a virtual Weirdo Night, which is available to rent on Vimeo. “A lot of people I knew were really scrambling to make content and livestream,” she says. “People really needed to connect that way, and I definitely watched stuff that way. But I did not feel like jumping into that vortex.” After enduring months of the pandemic, in June or July, she started envisioning what the ideal way of continuing the performance series might be. “And lo and behold, with my lesbian spells,” she smiles, “in late July, [Zebulon] got in touch with me. They love Weirdo Night and are really supportive of me. They wanted to do it right. It was a four-camera shoot, and ultimately kind of a film. It was really fun. And, such a relief to talk to artists again.”

Dynasty Handbag at “Weirdo Night”

How was it transitioning a performance meant for a live audience to video? “It’s really easy to be activated [when there’s a live audience],” she says. “So when I went out to do my opening monologue, I thought of it as kind of a late-night talk show. And man, I was stiff as a board, cause I had NO energy coming back at me. It took me a while for the gears to get going. And then I just performed for the camera people. There were entities there!”

What’s next for Dynasty Handbag? “I have no idea,” she sighs. She has made another live show to be performed in 2021, complete with live animation and a choose-your-own-adventure ending. “It’s based on the Titanic. You know, a giant, luxurious, gluttonous ship headed to destruction. It was topical when I came up with it two years ago, and now it just keeps piling on. Like, titans of industry, climate disaster, there’s material for days, you know?”

Dynastry Handbag, I Hate This Place

I do know. “The main character is like Jack, but it’s a kind of nongendered octopus that’s escaping the warming waters and disguises itself as a giant lady’s hat. And then the Rose character is like… I haven’t quite figured out yet, actually. She’s either a cunty spoiled rich girl from the Upper East Side or she’s like a dowdy, I’m-never-going-to-be-married heiress who is the shame of her parents. And she finds this queer romance with this octopus.” And with the live animation? “It’s going to be wild. The sex scene is really good, because [the octopus] has eight arms and is doing all this work!”

The world needs Dynasty Handbag—the voice of unreason tying things together in our uncertain times. Otherwise, where are all the weirdos supposed to go?

Zoom glitches, and Cameron’s last few words run through several digital octaves. “Great glitch right at the end!” I say.

“Well,” she says, holding a tiny banana up to her ear, “I got another call coming in, that’s why.”