Leslie Jordan is a small man with a giant propensity for scene stealing. Best known for his bravura recurring role as Karen's nemesis, Beverley Leslie, on Will & Grace, (for which he won a Best Guest Actor in a Comedy Series Emmy in 2006), he has also made memorable appearances on Ally McBeal, Boston Public, Monk, and Murphy Brown.
Raised in a conservative family in Chattanooga, Tennessee, Leslie -- who describes himself as "the gayest man I know" -- boarded a Greyhound bus bound for LA with $1,200 sewn into his underpants and never looked back. His pocket-sized physique and inescapable talent for high camp paved the way to a lucrative and varied career in commercials and on television. Along the way he immersed himself in writing for the stage, and his one-man testimonials have become cult off-Broadway hits. But with success came dangerous temptations: a self-proclaimed former substance abuser and sexaholic, Leslie has spent time in jail and struggled to overcome his addictions and self-loathing.
My Trip Down the Pink Carpet is a rollicking, fast-paced collection of stories, served up with wit, panache, and plenty of biting asides. Filled with comically overwrought childhood agonies, offbeat observations, and revealing celebrity encounters -- from Boy George to George Clooney -- it delivers a fresh, laugh-out-loud take on Hollywood, fame, addiction, gay culture, and learning to love oneself.
Jordan, Leslie. “My Trip Down the Pink Carpet”, Simon and Schuster, 2008.
Not a Sordid Life at All
Amos Lassen
With thunderstorm warnings in Little Rock today and the thought of summer school starting tomorrow, I was sitting here feeling quite down. Then I noticed a package I had not opened and in it was Leslie Jordan’s “My Trip Down the Pink Carpet” and it was just what I needed to lift my spirits. Most of us know who Leslie Jordan is but I am not sure all of us know “Brother Boy’s” real name. Now that we have established who he is let’s get a look at him physically. He is small but he can steal a scene from the best of them. How many of us cannot forget his entrance to his mother’s funeral in “Sordid Lives” or his guest appearances on “Will and Grace”. “Murphy Brown” and “Ally McBeal” or the night he won the Emmy for Best Guest Actor in a Comedy Series.
Jordan was raised in the South in a conservative family in Chattanooga, Tennessee. He went to Hollywood and his life changed forever. And he tells it all to us. His life is like the man, jumpy and inconsistent. He shows us his Southern Baptist upbringing and how it affected him and he deals with his homosexuality with some very funny stories (I am sure that he has more stories that did not make it into the book). He fought the demons that preached against homosexuality and he fought his own sexual bent. He lapsed into drugs and alcohol and still managed to keep his career on track.
Memoirs are quite difficult to write because the author has difficulty being subjective about himself. We have seen memoirs in which the author’s conceit or self-hatred seem to show on every page. Jordan manages to avoid both traps and he comes across as very real, very honest and sincere
Jordan also does not hold back mentioning names. The divas like Faye Dunaway, Tammy Faye Baker and Beverly D’Angelo are here as are the men he has had crushes on or acted with, Boy George, George Clooney, Luke Perry, Dean Cain and Robert Downey, Jr. He takes us on a journey from Tennessee, through the AIDS epidemic, to the 90’s and “Sordid Lives” to the present and he keeps us laughing. I, personally, loved the chapter, “The Tears of the Israelites” and how he explains how he learned that the word “Jew” was not a verb and how his he relates Del Shores’ story of a Jewish woman in Texas was asked by a friend to participate in a local church’s “Pack the pew with a Jew”.
Jordan certainly had a lot to tell us and he did not tell all. This is my one complaint. When I closed the book, I wanted more. It’s a quick read and one that will keep you laughing for quite a long time.
