‘This show is going to save lives.’ SC city featured in HBO drag queen series

On a balmy night in April, 75 people, sitting in an elegant Spartanburg garden, watched something many had never seen before — a drag show filmed for reality TV.

Called “We’re Here,” the Emmy-nominated show starts its second season with the Spartanburg episode, airing Monday on HBO.

Starring are three well-known drag queens who have appeared on “RuPaul’s Drag Race,” three Spartanburg residents and Spartanburg itself in b-roll of downtown sites.

The premise of the series is the three drag performers visit a small town in America to stage a one-night-only drag show and, along the way, bring attention and affirmation to people faced with bigotry from their communities and, in some cases, family.

The performers are Caldwell Tidicue (Bob the Drag Queen), David Huggard (Eureka O’Hara) and D.J. Pierce (Shangela Laquifa Wadley). Each has appeared in various seasons of RuPaul’s show, a competition by queens in fashion and performance vying to be named the next drag superstar.

The three local residents featured in the Spartanburg episode are Noah, who is non-binary; Faith, a plus-size lesbian; and Olin, a straight man whose sibling is Patti O’Furniture, a drag queen who performs regularly in Columbia at PT’s 1109. In the show, Noah, Faith and Olin receive coaching from the three professional drag queens and perform in drag for their family and friends.

None of the Spartanburg residents are identified by last name and were not available for interviews.

Patti O’Furniture is the stage name of Pat Patterson, a Midlands Technical College theater teacher. He and his brother Olin are the sons of the late Liz Patterson, who represented Spartanburg in Congress, and grandsons of the late Olin Johnston, a South Carolina governor and U.S. senator.

Peter LoGreco, showrunner for “We’re Here,” said Pat and Olin’s involvement was a “happy accident.” Producers meet with an array of people when they begin research for each show. Patterson was one they reached out to. In conversation, he mentioned his brother. They asked if Olin would be interested in participating. Pat wasn’t too sure.

Olin was hesitant, as he says in the show, but agreed. He shaved his beard, sat for makeup, donned a corset, wig and dress and took on the drag name O’lotta Furniture. He danced and lip synced to “Sisters are Doin’ It For Themselves” alongside Patti and Shangela. Afterward, he said, “Sometimes you have to act outside the box.”

Patti O’Furniture said it was the first time their father had seen her perform after 21 years in the business. Pat Patterson said in an interview Wednesday that Monday will be the 22nd anniversary of the first time he appeared as Patti O’Furniture.

Patterson said his mother saw him perform many times, the first time at Pride in Spartanburg. He didn’t know she was coming. When he got off the stage, he told a friend his mother was there and wondered about her coming backstage.

“Well get ready, here she comes,” the friend said. She had a gift bag and a huge hug. Patterson remembers her saying, “Hello, gorgeous.”

The Pattersons had a photo of their mother on stage the night of the “We’re Here” filming.

His brother’s involvement in “We’re Here” was another great gift, Pat Patterson said.

Some 20 years ago, Olin was the last to learn Pat was gay. But through the years, Olin and his wife have attended shows, and Pat said he can always hear Olin in the audience saying, “That’s my brother.”

Pat hopes Olin’s involvement in “We’re Here” will send a message of love, inclusion and pride toward their LGBTQ+ family members and friends.

“This show is going to save lives,” Pat Patterson said.

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Faith was chosen to be featured in the show after producers met her father, a local minister. Faith’s drag performance was the first time her family had seen her be affectionate with her partner.

Noah came to producers’ attention because of their involvement politics. In the show, Noah explores what it means to live authentically.

Spartanburg was supposed to be the last episode in the first season of “We’re Here,” but three days after shooting began, production was shut down due to COVID.

LoGreco said the team — especially the queens — felt terrible.

They already felt a connection to the local folks.

The team was happy they were able to go back to shoot for season two 13 months later.

The queens spent about 10 days in Spartanburg.

They were hard to miss, especially Eureka, who is 6’4” without heels. She says on her website her goal is “to give bigger people around the world the confidence to go out and live their dreams.”

They are shown in drag walking downtown or in local stores and restaurants.

“Spartanburg had the best food of any place we went,” LoGreco said. Favorites were The Kennedy and Flock Shop, he said.

Spartanburg was chosen because the producers learned a facility was not too far away that did conversation therapy, a widely debunked theory that LGBTQ+ people can be psychoanalyzed or religiously talked into a straight lifestyle.

The drag show was filmed at Clevedale, a 100-year-old inn a few miles from downtown Spartanburg. Owned by Pontheolla Abernathy, a former reporter for WLTR public radio station, and her husband, Paul, the bed and breakfast was chosen because of its sophistication and small-town feel, LeGreco said.

Among the reasons the queens were chosen is their roots in small southern towns — Eureka in Johnson City, Tennessee; Bob in Columbus, Georgia; and Shangela in Paris, Texas. Coincidentally, Eureka had performed in Spartanburg years before.

LeGreco said, overall, the reception in Spartanburg was “joyful and fun and positive.” There was so much interest in the show, he said, they could have had more than 200 people in attendance for the drag performance, but they had to restrict attendance due to COVID.

“The push back comes in quieter ways,” he said, noting places where businesses refuse access due to the views of owners or their concern for what their customers will think.

The Spartanburg episode of “We’re Here” premieres on HBO at 9 p.m. Monday, which is National Coming Out Day.

A premiere event for the show will begin at 8 p.m. in Spartanburg’s Barnet Park, hosted by Patti O’Furniture. They will have entertainment and then watch the episode, which Pat said he has not seen. The producers want to see the performers’ unvarnished responses that night.

A new episode will be released each Monday.

The other locations featured in this season are Temecula, California; Del Rio, Texas; Selma, Alabama; Evansville, Indiana; Watertown, South Dakota; Kona, Hawaii; and Grand Junction, Colorado.

This story was originally published October 7, 2021 at 10:52 AM.