Similar to the childhood fashion musical spectaculars held for his Christian conservative mom, Macaviti’s recent transformation from high-energy performer to high-energy dance artist is subtle yet important.
As an entertainer, he’s been making audiences cheer and take notice since 1999 at Orlando’s Southern Nights, now Revolution, and where Macaviti performs Aug. 18.
But what did you expect from someone who’s mantras are “I don’t judge myself through other people’s eyes” and “We’re all born naked; the rest is just drag.”
The Macaviti story starts in a Gary, Ind., living room with little paper tickets cut with scissors by the performer himself.
These fashion and music performances were intimate affairsâ┚¬â€Ânot like the later headline appearances at The White Party and Cherry Ball, among many others. But outside under God’s big blue sky, you wouldn’t know that watching M. drive heavy metal Tonka Trucks, climb trees high or dig for wormsâ┚¬â€Âsimilar to a lot of other future gay boys.
“I embrace both sides of my personalityâ┚¬â€Âthe male and the female,” Macaviti says. â┚¬Å”I make no apologies for being myself. I am an individual and I refuse to think like a herd of sheep.”
Living as Macaviti would be the ultimate expression, but as it is, a “Bruce Wayne/Batman” split in his life, he said, was required at times to keep the disparate parts of his world discrete.
While the living room shows were a nod toward the future, he still had to escape living and dying in Gary, Ind.
But that’s where the Mouse House comes in and rescues teen M. from a form of gay hell.
The artist to be known as Macaviti gets an audition at Disney World to be an entertainer. (And yes he’s a huge fan of Prince who once said, “When I want to listen to new music, I make it.”
“Within five minutes, there’s a girl standing up and telling everyone, ‘This boy can definitely entertain a group!'”
After a quick realization his shock of red hair wouldn’t fly at stands-obsessed Disney, the bald head was born.
Flash forward to a dizzying array of costumes, leading to anti-glamazon performances and anctics like scaling a lighting rig to whip the crowd a-frenzy and stuff like falling down a full flight of stairsâ┚¬â€Ânaked, only last yearâ┚¬â€Âbut staying in character and keeping the horns on and intact.
The last tidbit is from Steve Donahue, owner of G-Bar, The Honey Pot and Ybor City Social Club. And he’s bullish on Macaviti’s future.
“He’s a world-class entertainer,” Donahue said. “And this certainly won’t hurt his performance career.”
The self-written music of Macaviti now lifts him from club performer to artistâ┚¬â€Âif he hadn’t already achieved that with his elaborate costumes and thought-provoking performances.
“Everyone tells a story,” says Macaviti producer Brian Rosenber, aka DJ Ninteen69.
“It’s Hot!” is their first track, one that incubated for seven years between M. and Rosenbergâ┚¬â€Âan unusually long time for a song to gestate.
Whether it was personal issues, deaths in the family or just plain not connecting, the elapsed time led Macaviti to this moment: “Look, I’m tired of waiting. I’ve been doing drag way too long,” Macaviti says.
“It’s Hot!” is the result, having been conceived in the shower with Macaviti invoking a high-school-cheerleading memory, and certainly something that sets the Macaviti music machine in motion.
Upcoming shows will incorporate his dance-ready sound and look including “All I Need,” another from the evergreen in-the-club category as well as “Top That,” a high-energy observation about the red-hot, in-the-zone dancer we all crave.
Speaking about Macaviti’s mother, one of these days his mom might actually make it to a performance despite her still being active in her church.
“I tell her, ‘Mom, there are no couches in there,” he says.
There’s certainly no sitting or snoozing during a Macaviti performance.
Catch him at Hamburger Mary’s in Ybor City on most Sundays starting at 8:30 p.m.
Just don’t expect the usual.
“I don’t fit the mold, and I don’t want to,” Macaviti says. “Like with a lot of gay people, it’s not our fault. We get ostracized, and when we get in our own circles we ostracize.”
His work flows from this because “I want people to be individuals.”
“I’m not saying go out and put spikes on your head, but just be who you are,â┚¬Â he says. â┚¬Å”Hopefully that will come through in my music as well.”
Macaviti's new single, â┚¬Å”It's Hot!â┚¬Â is available for download on iTunes, CDbaby and Amazon. For more information on Macaviti, find him on Facebook.
