THE MONSTER FROM THE DEEP

Charity Monster is the club for a good cause from the folks that bring you SEPM.

This time around, they are supporting gay health charity Antidote and London Friend with a  Halloween Pool Party. Darren Palfrey quizzed promoter Larry Tee about the latest outing…

What makes SEPM the place to go this Halloween?
Our semi-regular big events outside East Bloc for Super Electric Party Machine have featured #1 starlets like Charli XCX (‘I Love It’), A*M*E (‘Need U 100%’), bad-ass rappers like Brooke Candy, Princess Superstar and Le1f, and Rock ’n’ Rave icons like Sharon Needles (RuPaul’s Drag Race), Ssion and Peaches, and designers Henry Holland and Louise Grey.

They have been a total blast. This time we are throwing a pool party at Aquarium. With our crazily dressed crowd celebrating Halloween, I thought it would be fun to have it where we can get really wet and messy!

So far, we have a Kitsune band, Years and Years, featuring Skins TV star Olly Alexander, and one of London’s it-girl supermodels that I cant give her name until AFTER the event. Plus, designers Basso and Brooke lead the costume contest judging squad, and another #1 pop goddess to be confirmed.

So, it will be a costume party! What will you be going as?
A Charity Monster event wouldn’t be a CM event without a costume contest, and our crowd loves to dress outrageously and loves a stage – and the attention that comes with it.

The only problem is getting the bitches OFF the stage once they have done their star-turn!

This year’s judges are the legendary Pet Shop Boys, and we’re so pleased to have them involved. How do they select a winner without making enemies and pissing off all the others that don’t win?

By throwing them all in the pool afterwards so they quickly forget that they didn’t win! [Laughs]

Why did SEPM choose health charity Antidote and London Friend to support?
I have always felt lucky to be successful in the gay community here and in New York, where I did my first CM event, so I felt I needed a way to contribute back.

My friend Matthew, who had run London Friend and had helped Antidote through a rough patch, asked me to march with them at Gay Pride several years ago. Even though the crew was a rag-tag bunch of chain-smoking drunk catty queens, I was touched by the amazing things they did to help people in need.

Drug and alcohol harm reduction and prevention, safe sex education and HIV support groups and even support for transgendered people transitioning; this was all the devoted work that keeps our LGBTQ society from coming apart. How could I not help and encourage others to join in?

We love getting nutted in a club and for a good cause! This will be your third ‘Charity Monster’, can you give us one of your favourite memories from the first two?
Meeting Kelis at the first one in NYC was a total highlight for me. I saw her heading down the escalator in the Atlantic City Hotel it was held in and raced down the escalator to talk to her: “I’m Larry Tee, the writer of Supermodel by RuPaul, and I’m your biggest fan!” She must’ve thought I was mad!

But she was kind and sweet. Also, when I got caught in the middle of a bitch fight between Perez Hilton and Jeffrey Star before La Roux performed where Jeffrey told me he wanted to see Perez die in a very unkind way.

Seems Perez had said he was talentless. I mean Perez said Will.i.am was gay, and that certainly wasn’t very true. Who knows?

Ahh, there’s better than a shameless celeb bitch-off. Your usual venue is East Bloc and last year’s Halloween special was at XOYO, so we’re especially excited to see how things are going to be done at Aquarium.
Who doesn’t love a pool party? And Aquarium allows us to stay open much later than we could at XOYO, so we went for the late-night afterhours madness for this one.

As for surprises, we always have them whether they are Glyn of Sink the Pink’s production numbers or the biggest supermodel on Earth.

We have some of the coolest acts around on ‘serious music’ labels like Kitsune joining us for a number and then have the trashiest bitch on the block perform.

We like high-brow and low-brow talent and that collision of energy always makes for some surprises and laughs.

• SEPM presents Charity Monster at Aquarium (256 Old Street, Shoreditch, EC1V 9DD) on Sunday 27th October, 10pm-6am.