Wilson Cruz: Fighting Stage Fright and Honoring the Sissy Boy

Wilson Cruz (photographed by Clinton Gaughran for AfterElton)

Ask Wilson Cruz what’s new these days and be prepared for an earful! Besides shooting a few episodes of the new Bones spin-off, The Finder (which premieres in early 2012 on Fox) and talking up an upcoming indie movie about meth addicts, Cruz is also taking his cabaret act with buddy Scott Nevins to New York this Friday at the Laurie Beechman Theatre. With so much going on, Cruz also finds time to keep up with his gym workouts. As you can tell from the accompanying photos, it shows!

AfterElton.com caught up with Cruz during his recent trip to Los Angeles. He shared his secrets for fighting stage fright and showed off the Rosie Perez-like accent he uses for his Finder role. He also shared how life in New York compares to Los Angeles, especially when it comes to dating.

AfterElton.com: Tell me about the cabaret show. Is that the right way to describe it? A cabaret show?
Wilson Cruz: Yes, it is. It’s me and Scott Nevins and it’s basically an excuse to hang out and get paid. [laughs] He does his thing, which is his comedy and his take on Hollywood and his impersonations. Then, I sing three songs and then we does a live coffee chat thing onstage where he interviews me and we do a Q&A with the audience. We never know where it’s going to go and we never know what we’re going to talk about onstage. It just goes all over the place. There’s no script so we just kind of wing it and so far it’s been a lot of fun. The best part has been talking to the audience and having them participate in the conversation and taking their questions and seeing where the show ends up going. We’ve done it twice right now and we’re doing it one more time in New York the day after Thanksgiving. I might change the songs up at some point if we continue to do it but right now I like the songs, I like their arc and I like the way they’ve gone.

AE: It’s been awhile since you’ve done a show like this, right? Why now?
WC: You know, I moved to New York because I wanted to do more musical theater and so this is a way of me just getting up onstage and doing it. I took some time off to do some film and television so I wasn’t singing as much. I did the tour of Tick, Tick…Boom! This was just my way of introducing myself to that cabaret world and getting my foot in the door and then I plan on putting together my own show that I want to do later on. This is my way to try out small spaces. It’s different when you’re singing on the stage in a 200-seat house than when you’re doing it in a cabaret space. I’m flexing my muscles in that way and I really enjoy it. I didn’t know if I would because I get a bit of stage fright when I can see the audience. If I can’t see them and the light is blinding I can pretend that they aren’t there but when they’re in your face the whole time…I thought I was going to freak out about that but I actually enjoy it.

AE: New York is the last stop right now but…
WC: Scott has told me that there are some other places that are interested He parcels out the information when he deems necessary but he seems to think we can do somewhere else but we’ve done San Francisco and Ft. Lauderdale and then we’ll do New York. We’re [also] doing this concert in Palm Springs for the benefit for the Desert AIDS Project called Sparkle and I’m taking part in that. That’s December 7th in Palm Springs and it’s great. This is the second time I’ve done it.