Texan Paul J. Williams left the business world to pursue a life onstage… and ultimately struck gold as a Church Lady of the Modern (and Antiquated) Era! Sister Helen Holy keeps bingo players holy rolling in their seats with laughter, so much show that they often forget about the actual bingo — and she’s bringing the whole Religious Experience to Fire Island next month.
Thotyssey: Hello Paul aka Helen, thanks for chatting with us today! As of this writing, St. Patrick’s Day has recently come and gone… how did you enjoy the day?
Sister Helen Holy: I dutifully wore my green since I have Irish background, and I didn’t want to get pinched. But I stayed away from any official celebrations since I don’t drink. Plus I’m too old for that!
You perform all over the place as Sister Helen Holy, and in several other capacities. Where do you reside for most of the year?
My base is in Dallas, TX. Dallas has such an amazing LGBTQ community; I just hate our state politics!
I see you’re originally from the San Antonio area, and you grew up with a Southern Baptist upbringing! That can be traumatizing for a queer kid, but it looks like you were able to find joy in a lot of that culture… or at least find stuff to make you laugh, right?
Oh gosh, yes. I was lucky to grow up in a fairly progressive Baptist Church in San Antonio that was a little ahead of its time. But I was there every time the doors were open, with my family, participating in one thing or another. It wasn’t until I got to Baylor University, the world’s largest Southern Baptist university, that I started hearing more conservative religious talk. When I first started doing comedy, I realized that my background made for a unique take on comedy from a gay perspective because I knew there were other little Baptist boys and girls like me out there — and that proved to be true.
Do you have any favorite divas from comedy?
My absolute comedy idol is Lily Tomlin. In seventh grade I participated in my junior high school talent show by dressing up as Lily’s character Edith Ann, and basically reciting jokes from Lily’s comedy album. In 8th grade I did the same thing, but dressed up as Ernestine the operator. My freshman year in high school I went back to Edith Ann, and the high school drama department even built me an oversized rocking chair. So yes, it seems I was doing drag as early as 7th grade!
When did you first realize you could make people laugh?
At that 7th grade talent show. I was hooked. I also love Lily’s famous line, “At an early age, I realized people were laughing at me. I decided I might as well try to be funny.”
I understand that before you fully got into acting and performing, you pursued a career in the worlds of finance and marketing! Was there any specific moment during that time that you realized that performance was really the life for you? And also, I bet those business and marketing skills came in handy for a career as a freelance performer!
I went to college intending to become an international banking person, with the desire to move to Austria and work for an American bank. I studied the German language all the way through my junior year in college in preparation for that. After my first finance course at Baylor, I realized that I was not cut out for that business and I switched my major to marketing. Suddenly, my innate creativity came alive — and like any good gay boy, it was my dream to become a big wig with a major department store. So I moved to Dallas with that goal in mind.
However, after three years of that business I realized I didn’t like that either… and that I truly only wanted to be some sort of performer (I won’t mention what year that was, but I’ve been doing this ever since). Everything from stage performing to singing gigs to improv comedy then standup comedy, and now returning to my original love: dressing up as another character.
And yes, learning how to market myself has been invaluable.
How did you create Helen, and did you base her on anyone specific?
Early on in my performing career I got a job doing singing telegrams in Dallas. This was when Dana Carvey’s Church Lady was very popular in pop culture. The company asked me if I could imitate that character to send out as a singing telegram, and I gave it a shot. It became wildly successful. But after a few years I realized that I didn’t want to make money off of someone else’s creation. So, I gave her her own identity, made her Baptist, and stopped using Dana Carvey’s catchphrases. I can’t deny that she was inspired by Church Lady, but I hope that I have evolved her into my own unique character.
Folks probably often assume that Helen is a Catholic nun at first due to her “Sister” title, but she makes short shrift of that real quick, lol! I guess folks in the First Southern Fried Self-Satisfied Babatist Church and other rural congregations often call each other Sister and Brother?
Oh yes, especially in smaller churches. And yes, Helen makes a big deal about the differentiation. Part of the satire of being a Baptist is that she believes any other religion is going to hell, especially Catholics.
Much of what you do as Helen is crowd work, where you work through all the various religious denominations of the audience members as well as their jobs and all the usual stuff! It’s all hilarious and requires quick thinking on your part. Do you have little bits about every possible faith background prepared, or does everything come to you in the moment?
I have a response for just about every religion already in my head. But I really enjoy it when I get something that I’m not ready for, and I get to make it up in the moment. The really fun instances are when someone says they were raised one way and then converted to another way and are now practicing something else. It gives me a chance to mix all of those stereotypes into one joke. I love it when someone tells Helen that they are Mormon, as the quick response to that is “I thought I saw a bicycle outside!”.
An essential part of the formula of being a successful live comedic performer these days is being good at crowd work and getting that out on social media… and your act is tailor made for that! Is that all a challenge to keep up with?
When I decided to stop doing standup comedy and focus strictly on Helen, it was because I hadn’t been writing anything new as a standup and for some odd reason I wasn’t as comfortable doing crowd work as me. But when I’m dressed as Helen it’s a whole different story. As far as social media goes, I do my best, but I have to admit I could use an 8 year old to come in and teach me more on Instagram!
Do you consider yourself a drag queen, or is Helen and other women you play merely characters that happen to be women?
This is a very good question, and I’m glad you asked. I have intense respect for my friends who are drag performers in the truest sense. And by that, I mean the ones that have become so successful thanks to RuPaul. However, I don’t dance and I’ve never lip synced to anything as Helen. Nor do I wear very much makeup. So being referred to as a drag queen I believe is inaccurate. Am I dressed as a woman? Yes. But I consider myself to be more of an actor along the lines of Dame Edna, who was created and performed by a straight man and who made him a lot of money.
Also, where do you get Helen’s wardrobe from?
I am constantly going to thrift stores and resale shops for outfits for Helen. Nothing too flashy, of course. I tend to go towards simple box suits with a jacket and skirt. Anything that looks appropriate along with the ridiculous baggy support hose that I wear with the orthopedic shoes. Early on someone gave me a 60s style purse like the ones that became popular by the designer Enid Collins. I now have about eight Enid Collins bags… which are not only part of the character, but happen to be very valuable these days.
What’s your favorite part about performing as Helen, and have you had a favorite gig or moment at one of her shows?
My favorite part overall is always being able to bring laughter to others. Throughout the years I have performed for small crowds and huge crowds. I performed for church groups, and I have performed for some high profile people. Early on, I got hired to do a party at [former and late Presidential candidate] Ross Perot’s house where I was hired to roast his sister Betty for her birthday. It ended up being such an incredibly fun evening, and you just haven’t lived ’til you’ve had Ross Perot introduce you as his former Sunday school teacher!
My most memorable off the cuff moment occurred when I was working on an RSVP Vacations cruise. I was hosting bingo and I had just called a number, so we were in a quiet moment as everyone was looking for the number on their cards. Just then, the ship hit a rather large wave creating a loud boom. Without missing a beat Helen said, “oops, we just hit a cat.” The room went crazy, and I got so tickled I had to turn around.
We’re in a weird time where communities in Red Districts are starting to push back against drag… which is a shame, because Sister Helen Holy is the perfect performer for many of those communities! Do you ever run into that kind of pushback personally when you try to perform in conservative areas?
Another interesting question. When I’m home in Dallas, I get hired to do a lot of birthday parties for wealthy people here — many of whom are, I’m assuming, Republicans. However, they seem to be the ones that love it the most. I think also because I’m doing a character act, it is received more as theater rather than a traditional drag show. But I honestly don’t know.
The pushback that I do get comes from the satire that I create. So many in the LGBTQ community today have been hurt by organized religion or get angry at the narrow mindedness of conservative Christians. With Helen I accentuate those ridiculous stereotypes and the religious right, and try to allow the audience to laugh at them rather than be hurt by those kinds of attitudes. It has always been an integral part of the character.
But as time has passed, I am finding that a younger generation is not as keen on this kind of satire… and I get taken far too seriously. I have backed down a little bit on this, but I don’t want to lose that satire completely. I always make a disclaimer when I perform that “Helen is going to pick on everybody regardless of race, religion, or anything else. So if you aren’t offended when you leave here, please let me know because I will have missed someone.”
It’s like Seth MacFarlane does on Family Guy. I have certainly been shocked by some of the jokes he has used on that show about such delicate topics as AIDS, religion and ethnicity. But I also realize that he leaves no stone unturned, so I can’t be offended when I know that he’s doing it as comedy and thus tries to hit every area of life. I also believe his intent is to be bold in his comedy, and not to be hateful. I would hope that people understand Helen in that light as well.
On May 24th, you’ll be at the Ice Palace on Fire Island rolling balls and schooling heathens for “Sister Helen Holy’s Sunday Church Bingo!” I understand that there is a bare minimum of actual bingo in these shows, and that everyone is perfectly delighted with that!
I tell people that it is essentially a comedy show with bingo games thrown into the middle of it. I always have people who attend just to watch rather than actually play bingo. Helen always says to those people, “how boring does your life have to be that you WATCH bingo!?”
What else is coming up for you, in and out of the world of Helen?
Some private parties scheduled in Dallas, and I will be working with VACAYA on their Mediterranean cruise in August. If it goes well at the Ice Palace on Memorial Day, I plan on coming back over Labor Day weekend as well.
And finally, a random yet important theological question: what’s the last thing you’d like to be caught in the middle of doing while being Raptured?
Okay, you must have a religious upbringing of some sort in order to ask that question! If there is a proverbial rapture, I sure hope I’m not sitting on the toilet when it happens!
Thanks, Sister!
Check Thotyssey’s calendar for Paul J. Williams aka Sister Helen Holy’s upcoming area appearances, and follow him / her on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and Paul’s website.
Thotyssey 
To the audience I say…”Get ready Debbie…You are about to be Delighted”…It’s the most Glory you’ll ever experience
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