I finally became the dumpster merman of my dreams and loved every minute

Oct 18

Oct 18 I finally became the dumpster merman of my dreams and loved every minute

I’ve often had the phrase, “Why be a garbage human when you could be a dumpster merman?” floating around in my head. I can’t explain it, it just happens to be one of those things that I’ve had on a post-it on my idea board for years and just never did anything about.

But thanks to the folks at Creative City Project, I can finally cross it off my list.

They asked me to submit some ideas for this year’s art festival in downtown Orlando, and while I must admit to including the Dumpster Merman concept in the pitch, I really didn’t think they’d go for it!

ORIGINAL SLIDE FROM MY PITCH DECK TO CREATIVE CITY PROJECT

The project was full of speed bumps - there’s apparently a steel shortage so dumpsters are hard to find and nobody wanted to rent one to me that I would be filling with water. The City of Orlando’s Solid Waste Division happily loaned me one though (with the prompting of friends like Evan Novell, Leann Siefferman-Busdeker, and Chris Castro).

Then the water delivery companies all went AWOL and wouldn’t respond to requests to fill it with water. So my friend Melyssa Rae Marshall with Creative City Project called in some favors with the Orlando Fire Department and they sent over a crew of incredibly handsome firemen to flood my basement for me. Which they totally did. But they had to plug a hole first. Which they did.

In all, I spent roughly 10 hours over two nights floating in the dumpster and dispensing “Pearls of Wisdom” to the festival-goers and I had a blast. At one point I started to sing a song from “The Little Mermaid” and a pigeon committed suicide by exploding into someone taking a selfie right in front of me. At another point, drunk middle-aged women were shoving dollar bills into my shell titties. And others, I was touching the arms of hot men in front of their girlfriends. Classic dumpster merman shit.

The highlight of the night though, was when I was I was half in drag and crouched down trying to plug in my extension cord for some shrines I had made, and I looked up to see this older Hispanic couple holding their hands and just staring at me. The woman looked me up and down and asked if I had made them and I just nodded my head, feeling funny for being in a wig and trying not to sweat before getting to the gig.

She asked what they were and I told her they were little votive prayer things like when you're Catholic and you put out a candle and pray, or incense, or something where you leave a token and put out some good thoughts for yourself or someone you love.

She looked me right in the eyes and asked if she could tell me instead of the statues and I said sure. She started telling me about when she was living in Puerto Rico and she and her husband, the man standing beside her, used to sneak into the gay clubs to go dancing and to visit their friends who did drag there. They said they used to have to go in separately, she with a girl, and he with a boy, so they'd be let in, and then they'd just dance all night and have a blast. She grabbed my arm and told me that I reminded her of their dear friend who died during the AIDS crisis and how they didn't really dance anymore but she wanted to change that. And then her husband took her hand and said they were going to go dance.

I love hearing people's stories like that. I never got their names but I think I'm gonna remember that little moment for a long time.