INTERVIEW: Born to Sparkle – Davina at 50! – Scene Magazine

From hotel manager to panto Queen, Gertie the Gorgeous, David Pollikett has done it all. Brian Butler talks to him about his drag queen persona, Davina Sparkle, and how he gets an audience to love him.

DAVID Pollikett didn’t always want to be an entertainer. His father wanted to send him to stage school, but the teenager, describing himself as Mr Sensible, decided he needed a trade to keep him in work. So off he went to catering college, later rising through the managerial ranks at the Forte Hotel Group.

How did you get into show business?
“In the mid 1990s I was living in Stevenage, a relatively new town with not many gay people, but the local pub had a quiz night on a Wednesday, hosted by a drag queen. She went on holiday so the quiz was due to be cancelled for a couple of weeks. I told the landlord I could do it – never having done anything like that before,“ he recalls. “I got a wig and a dress, and I was very nervous but it was good fun and after the two weeks they kept me on. The drag name Davina came from a friend in the office who just decided to call me by it.”

After sending many black and white promo photos to entertainment agencies, he started to host ladies’ nights. “Andre Adore and Candi du Barry were doing them, so I joined in.”

He had to buy a PA system and tape deck, which he recalls having to rewind by hand with a pencil to get to the beginning of each backing track. His first solo song was Bobby’s Girl by Susan Maugham. “I was in a leather jacket with a leotard and long boots. My hair was big. I looked like Cher on drugs.”

Having moved to Southampton he started doing gay gigs. “This is alright, I thought. I add new jokes by telling them to myself in a mirror. If I laugh, then they work.”

In 2000 David moved to Brighton to work on the male stripper Adonis Cabaret shows every Saturday night. But he didn’t work on the drag circuit here, instead doing corporate shows, and his beloved ladies’ nights. “You have to be clever to make 200 women laugh. If you’re not on their level, they’ll boo you off the stage. You mustn’t insult them.”

He was then asked by the Queen’s Arms to do shows, and that’s how his drag work in Brighton started.
“I was the cancellation Queen. When a drag queen pulled out of a booking, I got the job, and got my name known.” This led to him being booked in his own right.

A big influence on him was the late great Phil Starr. “He gave me lots of advice on the timing of jokes, and told me to look at the audience at the back of the room not just those at the front. He taught me you can’t win every time, you just got to sing them to death!”

Another big influence was Lily Savage, who taught him to have ‘bite’ and not take prisoners. “I say things people are thinking but don’t say, which is not always politically correct.”

He has strong views about equality and the labels people seem to need to attach to themselves.

Controversially he says: “If you want equality, you sometimes have to stop moaning about inequality. That doesn’t mean some injustices aren’t worth fighting for, though. We need to be able to laugh at ourselves but also empower ourselves.”

Another piece of Phil Starr advice: “Don’t shout at your audience. If they’re noisy, stop and look at them and in the end, they’ll stop and listen.”

David has regular bookings at the Queen’s Arms and Legends and loves their afternoon shows. “You arrive and the audience is there waiting for you.”

Work now regularly takes him to Cardiff, Manchester, Great Yarmouth and London. Another string to his bow is an entertainment company which organises tribute dinners, with impersonators of the likes of George Michael, ABBA and Frankie Valli. He stages these in Stevenage, Windsor, Milton Keynes, but significantly not in Brighton as he feels there’s enough entertainment in the city already.

His current preoccupation is with Dine With The Stars, a charity fundraising dinner where the audience eat at tables with their favourite drag queen, who later does a cabaret spot. The event, first created by Barry Nelson, has grown from eight tables and eight acts to 16 acts and an audience of 200. This month’s Dine With The Stars is raising funds for the LGBT Community Safety Forum, a group he says he has lots of respect for.

His other charity work raises funds for Help for Heroes, Macmillan Cancer Support and, along with Maisie Trollette and Miss Jason, he’s an annual visitor to Pattaya to raise much-needed funds there, nowadays for the HIV charity Heart 2000.

What advice would he give his 15-year-old self? “Keep yourself fit, exercise and stay slim. I’m a big guy and that’s because of my lifestyle – on the road and eating at 4am.”

Who’s up and coming on the Brighton drag scene that he admires? “Pat Clutcher, who is very new, and Stephanie Von Clitz,” he says without hesitation.

“I get paid to entertain people and it’s wonderful. I should maybe have a retirement age in sight, but not yet. It’s a blessing I’ve got and I know it.”

To book tickets for Dine with the Stars costing £29 each telephone 01273 725331 or pop into the Rainbow Hub at 93 St James Street, Brighton BN2 1TP.

David will be celebrating his 50th birthday at Charles Street on Sunday, October 14 starting at 7pm. Entry is free but donations will be gratefully received for the Wedding Wishing Well Foundation, a cause close to David’s heart. Artists appearing will include: Sally Vate, Patti O’Dors, Mrs Moore, Jennie Castell, Miss Penny, Jason Thorpe, Suspiciously Elvis, Cherry Liquor, Heart & Soul, Miss Disney, Pat Clutcher, Christopher Howard, Stephanie Von Clitz, Spice and Miss Jason.