Tom Armstrong talks costumes, cats and cabaret with one of London's most fabulous performers...
My first experience of drag queen A Man to Pet was watching a bearded Wonder Woman strut around the notorious NYC Downlow tent at this summer's Lovebox, addressing a frenzied crowd with a Madonna-esque stage authority. Six months on and I'm sat in his cosy East London flat, idly discussing the finer points of Amanda Lear's career over a pot of vanilla tea and a plate of biscuits. Naturally I'm interested to find out where the two sides of this intriguing character meet.
Born in cosmopolitan Athens and raised in Rhodes, Thanasis Petroyiannis speaks with the alluring drawl of a Hollwood starlet – Kathleen Turner as a Greek Jessica Rabbit perhaps.“I never believed that I was gonna come to England,” he begins, his words stretched out to full dramatic effect, “you know, with the weather and everything, I just thought it's not my type of place. But I came here to study, you know, I went to university, and I just stayed over here.”
Since then, A Man to Pet (a combination of disco queen Amanda Lear and his own surname) has gone on to become one of the most respected names in alternative cabaret today, performing in drag to crowds from Buenos Aries to Berlin. He tells me how it all started five years ago on a night out with friends. “There was a lip-syncing competition at Bistrotheque, and the prize was £500 so I was like 'I'm totally gonna go there!'” he laughs. “So I did, and I won. They asked me to do a show again, so I started doing it once a month, and now I've been travelling around the world.”
As matter-of-fact as he is about his career, not every lip-syncing drag act finds themselves performing worldwide with a forthcoming appearance at the MTV Music Awards – under the wig and make-up are the qualities of a true entertainer which distinguish him from many of his contemporaries, something which I'm not even sure if he's aware of himself. “I'm going to so many places, you know, from something that started from a joke with a friend, I can't believe it!”
A Man to Pet also hosts The Pale Blue Door, the East London pop-up restaurant which sits somewhere in the middle of the Mad Hatter's Tea Party and a New York disco, a place which he describes as “like being in a different world.” Guests are seated at multi-coloured mismatched tables for a three course meal and an evening of deliciously near-the-mark entertainment from their host in full fabulous costume. “I have lots of friends – fashion designers, you know, who are making stuff for me - Soteris Kallis, Erevos Aether, Lyall Hakaraia and some make-up artists like Vassillis Theotokis and Sortiris Lambrou. But also stuff I find around, it can be your curtain, anything.” And how many outfits does he have? “In a number? One room.” he laughs. “I've rented a small place to have all my drag.”
I'm interested to find out how his native Greece, a country which from my experience has an overtly macho culture, reacts to the kind of homoerotic performance one is likely to get from A Man to Pet. “The first time I was invited to go back to Greece was last Christmas,” he starts, cradling his mug of tea. “I had a great response. They like it, they understand that it's funny, but the people there aren't as alternative as here in England. Some of them they see me as a kind of transvestite whore, not as entertainment, you know? They ask me 'how much' and I'm like, what?! What are you talking about?!” He laughs but I suspect his smile masks an underlying frustration.
I finish up by asking about the future – can he see himself as a 50 year old drag queen? “I don't know how I'm gonna feel when I'm fifty,” he sighs “I've been performing all the time, even to myself, just relaxing. I remember years ago if I had nothing to do I was just putting on music and being stupid in my house! I don't think I'm ever gonna stop, maybe not in the nighclubs but I think I'll still be at home performing, even if it's to my cat.”
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