Trans* Success

Lazlo Pearlman is a creator, performer, director, lecturer and teacher whose work is often but not always generated by his FTM transgendered experience. He has been making performances since he was ten.  First inspired by an obsession with black and white musicals, comedies and film noir, he has made his way through (and returned to) many performance forms including physical theatre, performance art, installations, cabaret, burlesque, vaudeville, fetish shows, camp/parody, clowning, film/video and even the occasional piece of “straight” theatre. Lazlo holds a Master’s degree in Physical Theatre, has created four one person shows, dozens of short solo works, written and directed short films, and he has collaborated with and directed many other performing artists.

One of the Jew Girls in the jazz- performance-art-comedy group “Sister Theresa and the All Jew Girl Band”, Lazlo also starred as a lead singer and bass player for such bands as the reggae/ska Small Axe, wave/punk bands Skinny Wires and Jezebel’s Kiss.  He adapted and directed an oddly gendered and award-winning version of the Douglas Sirk/Ross Hunter/Lana Turner movie Madame X; and a surrealist The Wonderful, Horrible Life of Lawrence Welk; and a series of fantasy/nightmare performances for the fetish balls of Seattle. He has taught his workshops and given lectures in the US, Canada, France, Italy, Germany and the United Kingdom.

Most recent projects include the new show “Dance Me to the End of Love,” a work exploring love, exposure, the trans body, intimacy, vulnerability and partnering and using the strip, dance, performance art and audience participation; and the feature length documentary on his work “Fake Orgasm,”  (Directed by Jo Sol and produced by Zip Films and Executive Produced by Killer Films and Christing Vachon), currently touring festivals worldwide and taking him along with it whenever possible. At age 30 he transitioned and directed the female-to-male comedy short, “Unhung Heroes”, 2002. His short film “Unhung Heroes,” the first comedy about not having a dick, is available through Frameline Distribution and is viewable online.  He is currently located in London.