[Archive 2007-11-19] Murray Hill on the life and versatility of a New York drag king

Historical archive — originally published 2007-11-19. This report records what was known on that date. It is not current news; subsequent events may have changed the situation. Wikinews closed in May 2026.

Drag—dressing in the clothing atypical of your born gender—in recent years has found mainstream success. Films such as Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil and To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar have prominently featured drag performers. But they have all focused on men in drag as women.

Murray Hill is a comedian, emcee and performer. He is also a drag king. Called "The Hardest Working Middle-aged Man in Show Business", The New York Times christened him "the current reigning patriarch of the downtown performance community." He is seemingly everywhere, emceeing a bingo night at the now closed, Jimmy Fallon-backed Mo Pitkins' House of Satisfaction on Avenue A, or hosting the Polyamorous Pride Day in Central Park. Hill has become a legend in New York's "anything goes" counterculture theater scene who is beginning to find mainstream success; which would be a first for a drag king.

David Shankbone's examination of New York City's culture has brought him to the whip's end of a BDSM dungeon, on the phone with RuPaul, matching wits with Michael Musto, grilling Gay Talese, eating dinner with Augusten Burroughs and quizzing the bands that play the Bowery Ballroom. In this segment he talks to downtown legend Murray Hill, former New York City mayoral candidate and comedian, on the last night of Mo Pitkins' House of Satisfaction.

Murray Hill: Murray Hill is from Murray Hill. 23rd Street and Third Avenue. What I like to tell the kids is I was born in the back seat of a cab right there, which is how I got the name. The cab driver asked my dad, ‘Is it a boy or a girl?’ and my dad said, ‘No.’ I knew right then and there, kid, that I was going to wind up in Showbiz! And here I am! Fifty-five years later, lookin’ good!

MH: I’m doing shows. I am the only entertainer who has the most diverse working schedule, and my nickname is “The Hardest Working Middle-aged Man in Show Business.” This Saturday I hosted the Polyamorous Pride Day in Central Park. That was 106th Street and Central Park West. Then I got into a cab and a half later I was on Canal Street and West Broadway to be in a burlesque show I hosted for a completely different audience. And that’s showbiz!

MH: I don’t necessarily talk about the war, specifically. I do not speak favorably about our President.

MH: I think September 11 affected me greatly. As far as what I do and how I relate to audiences, I don’t know if the war has affected me as much in the last few years other then having pure anger at our government and being ashamed sometimes when I go overseas. I’m just like, “Ugh!” I’m against war completely. I don’t talk about that stuff too much. I talk a lot about New York gentrification.

MH: In my shows I talk a lot about New York and sticking with it. I’ve seen the changes so drastically. I would never leave it permanently, but I would go to L.A. for awhile.

MH: I have performed in New York for almost ten years and people still come to my show for the first time and are like, “Whoa!” They had never heard of me and they had never seen me. I think New York is a place where that can happen over and over. You can’t really do that in a place like L.A. or San Francisco because in two years everyone and their mother have seen you twenty times. I’m a performer who accepts the changes of New York and I perform to that. I had a closing night here upstairs where there were no East Village people and I couldn’t believe it! These are all new out-of-towners. It was almost the gentrified audience that was at my show. I’m addicted to it. I’ve never been more electrified by my audience than this year.

MH: It started as something I just did for fun and how it has changed I have put in the time with my craft. I’m very much an improv performer and I think over the years I have developed more of a back-story and honed my craft. I’m a professional now. A full-time career, I’m living off of it, I’m doing movies and music videos. Plays, some TV stuff. It’s become a full-blown career.

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Text adapted from Murray Hill on the life and versatility of a New York drag king by Wikinews contributors under CC BY 2.5. Paragraphs have been selected and abridged, and formatting adjusted. Contributor history.