Lypsinka

John Epperson
John Epperson, May 2007
Born	(1955-04-24) April 24, 1955 (age 62) Hazlehurst, Mississippi, U.S.
Occupation	Drag artist, actor, pianist, vocalist, and writer

John Epperson (born April 24, 1955) is an American drag artist, actor, pianist, vocalist and writer who is mainly known for creating his stage character Lypsinka. As Lypsinka he lip-synchs to meticulously edited, show-length soundtracks culled from snippets of outrageous 20th-century female performances in movies and song.

Epperson was born in Hazlehurst, Mississippi. He took lessons in classical piano from an early age. After high school he enrolled at Belhaven College in Jackson, Mississippi. After graduating from Belhaven he got a job playing piano in Colorado, but in 1978 he moved to New York and became a full-time rehearsal pianist for the American Ballet Theatre in 1980.

He began doing drag performances at nightspots such as Club 57 and the Pyramid Club. Epperson quit his job with the American Ballet Theater in 1991 in order to perform full-time as Lypsinka. He returned to his position at American Ballet Theater on a part-time basis.

Lypsinka first appeared in 1982, and for the first time Off Broadway in September 1988 when Epperson's act was a late-night addition to the bill of Charles Busch's Vampire Lesbians of Sodom at the Provincetown Playhouse in New York. She has appeared in evening-length solo shows Off-Broadway, including Lypsinka! The Boxed Set and Lypsinka! As I Lay Lip-Synching, both of which were originally produced in New York by TWEED TheaterWorks. However, both those named shows were first produced by Epperson in San Francisco, and Lypsinka! The Boxed Set was titled Lypsinka's Greatest Hits in San Francisco. According to Epperson, the prototype for Lypsinka was singer Dolores Gray.

Epperson is a frequent performer at . (That previous sentence perhaps should read was a frequent performer at Wigstock, when it was a land event. Wigstock now takes place on a boat and Epperson has not performed on the boat.) At Studio Theatre in Washington, D.C. Epperson performed an autobiographical theatrical solo show, Show Trash (2004), out of drag, talking, playing the piano and singing in his own voice. In Winter 2004, in a different drag role, Epperson played the Wicked Stepmother in the New York City Opera's revival of Rodgers-Hammerstein's Cinderella in a cast with Eartha Kitt, Dick Van Patten and Renée Taylor.