TV talk shows are a real drag

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To supplement Amardeep’s post, I thought I would share a video clip of Rose:

I don’t think she’s as funny as Begum Nawazish Ali, although she is just starting out:

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And while the USA has plenty of homophobia, don’t forget that RuPaul had a talk show on American TV in 1996, a decade before either of the desi shows. You can see a clip here.

15 thoughts on “TV talk shows are a real drag”

  1. i have one thing to say, sashay shante, shante, shante, shante i have one thing to say, sashay shante, shante, shante, shante

  3. psssst khoofie, in this surfboard bod o’ mine lurks a curvy (read: manboobs) drag queen just o’ waitin for ya ; )Is port dee only one gonna have da fun?

  4. 🙂 bess, there’s enough to go around at this end.

    Loved the kicker in the begum’s clip. [The Begum is flirting with the (n)ex(t)-PM of Pakistan] “Nawaz is so naughty. And yet so Sharif”.

  6. Can anyone translate (or just give a brief summary of the conversation) the second clip?

    it’s a saucy monologue set as a phone conversation between the begum and Nawaz Sharif, who she calls Jani (darling) through the clip. it starts off with a little wink about her phone set to vibrate and then a plan for a rendezvous between Sharif and Begum. It isnt the actual words, but the flirtation that’s HAWTT.

    As they say back home in the desh, “yeh adayein! yeh nazaakat! voh sharaarat! bahut namkeen hain begum sahiba.” 😉

  7. “yeh adayein! yeh nazaakat! voh sharaarat! bahut namkeen hain begum sahiba.”

    Begum’s definitely got game.

  8. Thanks to Koofia for the summary (#6).

    I remember seeing a Bharatnatyam performance where a male dancer dressed up and played the female role – but this was many years ago. From what I have seen, it is also common for female dancers to play male characters in Bharatnatyam in performances. Maybe this is due to the low numbers of male Bharatnatyam dancers.

  9. Thanks to Koofia for the summary (#6).

    You’re welcome gm. It’s a bit hard to translate or I’d hve tried to . It isnt all fluff btw and this is more than a bawdy drag act. This particular episode (I am gauging) was timed to around Nawaz sharif’s exile – which btw came about when Nawaz sharif tried to block Musharraf from landing at Karachi airport. Begum uses the exile and that plane incident in the monologue. Here’s a relevant piece from Sharif’s wiki entry.

    With the public and press openly speculating about the possibility of a military takeover, Nawaz became increasingly insecure. On October 12, 1999, he removed Musharraf as army chief. Musharraf, who was out of the country, boarded a commercial airliner to return to Pakistan. Sharif ordered the Karachi airport sealed off to prevent the landing of the airliner, and ordered it to land at Nawab Shah Airport,

  10. The clip of Rose seems to be that of an interview or meeting with the press (i think)-she is explaining the term “transgender” and she asks the press to report her explanation accurately as it is very important for them to get it right. It doesn’t seem to be a clip of her show from the bit that I saw.

  11. The clip of Rose seems to be that of an interview or meeting with the press (i think)-she is explaining the term “transgender” and she asks the press to report her explanation accurately as it is very important for them to get it right. It doesn’t seem to be a clip of her show from the bit that I saw.

    You’re right, the clips aren’t parallel in content, but it was the only one I could find. Still, it gives us a sense of her personality.

  14. while the clips may not be comparable and may point to different personalities, it seems that Rose is more eager to get out the transgender message and spread acceptance for such people, unlike the begum, who it seems to me has been so accepted in a society like pakistan because of the archness, high camp of her style, which is almost a parody rather than assertion of a gender identity.

  15. Rose is transgender and is rose off screen as well as on. The begum is a persona, a drag act, like dame edna. I don’t know if Ali has a broader agenda.