Chuck Knipp is an American and Canadian (dual citizenship) drag comedian best known for his controversial alter egos, the black-face character "Shirley Q. Liquor" and "Betty Butterfield." His other characters are also what he calls "absurdist" - "Dr. Williams," a Valium-over-prescribing Texas family doctor, and "Narth Dakota Marge" who tends to run over "fat babies" in her Cadillac. For other uses, see Actor (disambiguation). ... For the documentary about Jerry Seinfeld, see Comedian (film). ... This article is about the occupation. ... A minister can mean several things: A government minister is a politician who heads a government ministry A minister of religion is a member of the clergy A minister is the rank of diplomat directly below ambassador This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that... Main articles: History of Canada, Timeline of Canadian history Canada has been inhabited by aboriginal peoples (known in Canada as First Nations) for at least 40,000 years. ... A drag artist Lypsinka. ...

Knipp claims to be a member of the American Association of Professional Chaplains. According to him, he was ordained to the diaconate in 1997 by Bishop J.C. Adams of the Friends Catholic Communion. His special ministries are to same-sex couples, prisoners, and people with terminal illnesses. A chaplain in the 45th Infantry Division leads a Christmas Day service in Italy, 1943. ... For other uses, see Deacon (disambiguation). ... Topics in Christianity Movements · Denominations · Other religions Ecumenism · Preaching · Prayer Music · Liturgy · Calendar Symbols · Art · Criticism Important figures Apostle Paul · Church Fathers Constantine · Athanasius · Augustine Anselm · Aquinas · Palamas · Luther Calvin · Wesley Arius · Marcion of Sinope Archbishop of Canterbury · Catholic Pope Coptic Pope · Ecumenical Patriarch Christianity Portal This box:      This article... A same-sex couple is a pair of people of the same sex, who pursue a relationship similar to that of a heterosexual married couple. ... This article is about incurable disease. ...

Knipp also claims he is a registered nurse with extensive background in emergency, intensive care and psychiatric nursing. After attending the University of Texas and the University of Mississippi, he graduated from Lamar University in 1984. He is currently employed in pastoral hospice care and chemical dependency nursing. A registered nurse (RN), is a health care professional responsible for implementing the practice of nursing through the use of the nursing process (in concert with other health care professionals). ... The University of Texas System comprises fifteen educational institutions in Texas, of which nine are general academic universities, and six are health institutions. ... The University of Mississippi, also known as Ole Miss, is a public, coeducational research university located in Oxford, Mississippi. ... Lamar University is a four-year university located in Beaumont, Texas, USA, and a member of the Texas State University System. ... This article is about the year. ...

Knipp is a citizen of both the United States and Canada, active in the ACLU and Libertarian Party and was nominated as their candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives in 2000. (Texas, District 2). He is a commissioned notary public at large for the State of Kentucky The American Civil Liberties Union, or ACLU, is a non_governmental organization devoted to defending civil rights and civil liberties in the United States. ... The Libertarian Party is an American political party founded on December 11, 1971. ... A US Embossed Notary Seal. ... Official language(s) English[1] Capital Frankfort Largest city Louisville Area  Ranked 37th  - Total 40,444 sq mi (104,749 km²)  - Width 140 miles (225 km)  - Length 379 miles (610 km)  - % water 1. ...

Summary of characters

Shirley Q. Liquor

Knipp's best known character is Shirley Q. Liquor, "the Queen of Ignunce," generally considered a racist depiction of black southern women. Knipp performs the character -- an Ebonics speaking, welfare-collecting mother of 19 children^[1] -- in blackface. Knipp speaks in a dialect of stereotypical broken English when he is performing as Shirley. Her conversations are often riddled with malapropisms, as when she suggests that her cat needs to get "sprayed", or when she goes shopping at "K-Mark" or 'Wal-Mark". The character attends Mount Holy Olive Second Baptist Zion Church of God in Christ of Resurrected Latter-Days AME CME (a reference to historically African-American churches). She also references the Macademia Jubilation Congregation and the Reese's Peanut Butter Choir. On a few skits, she refers to herself as The Reverend Doctor Shirley Q. Liquor. The states in dark red comprise the Deep South. ... This reproduction of a 1900 minstrel show poster, originally published by the Strobridge Litho Co. ... This article or section seems to contain too many examples (or examples of poor quality) for an encyclopedia entry. ...

Liquor's best friend is the seven-foot-tall, 400 pound Watusi Jenkins, who struggles with mental illness and needs to get "her head shocked" on a regular basis. Jenkins and Liquor are fans of Barry White as well as soap operas, which they refer to as "stories". Both are also fans of cold malt liquor and menthol cigarettes. Jenkins usually appears in "Happy Hour" skits which mimic a radio broadcast. Barry Eugene White (born Barrence Eugene Carter, September 12, 1944) – July 4, 2003) was a Grammy Award winning American record producer, songwriter and singer responsible for the creation of numerous hit soul and disco songs. ... Look up Story in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...

In addition to live performances, Knipp has produced several spoken-word CDs. Knipp's "Daily Ignunce" morning radio routine, usually 90 seconds long, is syndicated and heard on radio stations throughout the United States. Most recently, the character of Shirley Q. Liquor made an appearance in cartoon form on the pilot episode of Laugh Out, the first interactive, gay-themed comedy show. Shirley often addresses people by saying, "How you durrin'?"

Knipp's routines were consistently among the top downloaded comedy category mp3 files on mp3.com prior to its shutdown in 2003. MP3. ...

Betty Butterfield

Knipp spun off a new character in 1998: "Betty Butterfield" a large, drug addled, church hopping southern white woman. Butterfield's character was first referenced in a Shirley Q Liquor skit entitled "Telemarketing" in which Liquor mimics the sound of a white woman answering the phone: "mm'hellooo?"

This greeting would become the trademark of Butterfield's routine. Unlike most Liquor skits, which are audio, virtually all of the Butterfield skits are in the Quicktime video format. Betty Butterfield is most likely to be found discussing her never-ending search for a church she can fit into. She has visited Mormon, Catholic, Pentcostal, Episcopal, Buddhist, and even Scientology churches, none of which were to her liking. Chain smoking throughout, Betty is likely to burst into tears at any moment as she discusses her church escapades, need for better prescriptions, and her abusive double-amputee, Vietnam veteran husband, Jerry. Knipp frequently performs his live shows first as Betty Butterfield, then as Shirley Q. Liquor.

Controversy

(top) In response to activist Jasmyne Cannick's boycott of Knipp's act, which led to the cancellation of a West Hollywood show, promoters posted Cannick's e-mail address & telephone number (edited out for legal reasons) encouraging visitors "take a stand against Jasmyne". (bottom) A protest in Hartford, Conn. led to a canceled show at gay club Chez Est. In its place, a free comedy show called "Laugh Him Out of Town" was presented at a local high school.

Image File history File linksMetadata Shirleywmyspace. ... Image File history File linksMetadata Shirleywmyspace. ...

Protests & Cancellations

• In 2002, a group of five protesters picketed a second sold-out New York City performance at the View, a gay club in the Chelsea neighborhood. Later that year, an appearance in Boston which was scheduled for October 18 was cancelled by order of Jerome Smith, acting as agent for Boston mayor Tom Menino.^[2] "I understand that the protesters thought that I might be going to do some sort of horrible offensive racist minstrel show,” Knipp said to the Daily Free Press, a publication of Boston University. “I just wish they’d seen it first and made up their own minds.”^[3]

• In 2004, Knipp was removed from the Divas Rock Atlanta concert following protests from gay non-profit groups.^[4] “I know the purpose of the event is to try to bring the community together," said Linda Ellis, executive director of the Atlanta Lesbian Cancer Initiative, "but there is nothing about [Knipp’s] performance that brings people together." The event lost $60,000 in revenue Knipp had offered to donate to "In The Life Atlanta," a gay black fundraiser.

• In 2005, another New York protest occurred when an appearance by the Shirley Q. Liquor character was slated to take place during celebrations for the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday. This time, the protest would be prove to be successful; although paid in advance, Knipp did not do the show.^[5]

• In 2006, Knipp was banned from Eastern Kentucky University.^[6]

• In 2007, Jasmyne Cannick, an African-American and gay rights activist (who Knipp has publicly attacked several times) spearheaded a campaign against Liquor's act, encouraging nightclub owners to cancel Knipp's act. Cannick's movement brought nationwide attention to a previously unknown underground act, and Knipp's act was canceled in West Hollywood,^[7] Hartford, Conn.^[8], [9] [http://www.circuitticket.com CircuiTicket, which was selling tickets to Knipp's show, countered by posting Cannick's e-mail address and home telephone number to their website, encouraging Liquor fans to contact Cannick.

Knipp alleges that Cannick, in retaliation, posted contact information for a family named "Kipp" in the same area as Knipp's residence, triggering an FBI investigation. New York, New York and NYC redirect here. ... Converted townhouses along 23rd Street. ... Nickname: City on the Hill, Beantown, The Hub (of the Universe)1, Athens of America, The Cradle of Revolution, Puritan City, Americas Walking City Location in Massachusetts, USA Counties Suffolk County Mayor Thomas M. Menino(D) Area    - City 232. ... Detail from cover of The Celebrated Negro Melodies, as Sung by the Virginia Minstrels, 1843 The minstrel show, or minstrelsy, was an American entertainment consisting of comic skits, variety acts, dancing, and music, performed by white people in blackface or, especially after the American Civil War, African Americans in blackface. ... For the similarly named institution in Chestnut Hill, see Boston College. ... Martin Luther King, Jr. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era in the 21st century. ... Languages Predominantly American English Religions Protestantism (chiefly Baptist and Methodist); Roman Catholicism; Islam Related ethnic groups Sub-Saharan Africans and other African groups, some with Native American groups. ... The gay rights movement is a collection of loosely aligned civil rights groups, human rights groups, support groups and political activists seeking acceptance, tolerance and equality for non-heterosexual, (homosexual, bisexual), and transgender people - despite the fact that it is typically referred to as the gay rights movement, members also... West Hollywoods logo illustrates the citys borders. ... When used by itself in a sentence, the term Hartford can refer to one of several places in the United States. ...

• In February 2008, Knipp's home page featured Cannick's face superimposed on the body of African-American porn actress Norma Stitz. Knipp alleges that in response Cannick doctored the Wikipedia picture (above right) of Shirley Q., making the make-up as black as possible to disingenuously support her claims of "blackface." (It should be noted that the picture is in the Wikipedia Commons was a snapshot taken at a concert in Louisville, Ky.) ^[10] Knipp mentioned in a story with the Netherlands magazine, "Revu," that he was ready to retire Shirley Q. Liquor in 2006 and devote himself more to his nursing career, but because of the constant attention of the press, "the money and offers kept rolling in" and he is willing to perform as the character "until someone else is ready to do it."

Norma Stitz (a word play on enormous tits) is a website entrepreneur and nude model noted for her large natural breasts. ...

Criticism

Since the 2007 boycott, there have been a number of articles in media that have taken issue with Knipp and the character.

• To Knipp's declaration that Liquor "was created in celebration of, not to downgrade, black women,"^[11], Cannick countered in her blog: "...it is not possible for Charles Knipp, a white man, to help heal years of mistreatment and racism at the hands of his people by putting on a wig, speaking Ebonics, and in blackface...There is nothing remotely uplifting about Knipp’s act and I wish people would stop defending his character with the tired argument that he’s trying to heal the nation. The only thing Knipp is trying to heal is the hole in his pocket by filling it with all of the money he makes off of degrading Black people."^[12]

• BET.com writer Jennifer Daniels wrote: "I have [no] intention of slinking off into some corner while some pseudo-bigot paints his face black and gets rich off spewing hurtful and embarrassing stereotypes about Black women...Knipp is free to celebrate Black women his way. That is certainly his right. But I have a right to publicly critique said celebration and encourage others not to participate."^[13] Jennifer Daniels offered Knipp an interview with BET to set the record straight about his Shirley Q. Liquor character, but Knipp declined to participate.^[14]

• Shortly after the cancellation of Knipp's Hartford, Conn. show, Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Helen Ubiñas of the Hartford Courant wrote of Liquor apologists: "Racist? Sexist? Homophobic? Absolutely not, just a little harmless satire."^[15]

• On March 4th, 2008, radio commentator Bev Smith said "this transvestite...or transsexual... whatever it is... is someone who SHOULD be lynched. Charles Knipp.."

To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... BET redirects here. ... The Pulitzer Prize is an American award regarded as the highest national honor in print journalism, literary achievements, and musical composition. ... The Hartford Courant is Connecticuts largest daily newspaper, and the only morning newspaper for most of the state north of New Haven and east of Waterbury. ...

Defense

• Entertainer RuPaul has long been a fan and supporter of Knipp. "Critics who think that Shirley Q. Liquor is offensive are idiots. Listen, I've been discriminated against by everybody in the world: gay people, black people, whatever. I know discrimination, I know racism, I know it very intimately. She's not racist, and if she were, she wouldn't be on my new CD."^[16] In her blog, RuPaul adds: "I am very sensitive to issues of racism, sexism and discrimination. I am a gay black man, who started my career as a professional transvestite in Georgia, twenty years ago."^[17]

• Boston Phoenix journalist Dan Kennedy awarded Boston government official Jerome Smith the dubious Muzzle Award for his part in leading to the cancellation of Knipp's scheduled 2004 Boston performance.^[18]

• Writer David Holthouse, anti-racist investigator for the "Intelligence Report" from the Southern Poverty Law Center, stated "Knipp is not a white supremacist" and that Knipp "invites the audience to sympathise with a single Black mother." An in-depth article was printed in the June, 2007 edition of Rolling Stone Magazine.

• The New York Blade criticized GLAAD for condemning Knipp, stating, "We commend GLAAD for condemning racism, but we question whether the organization’s goal is best attained by joining this particular fight."^[19]

• John Strausbaugh, author of Blackface, Whiteface, Insult & Imitation in American Popular Culture, explores Liquor's act in his book.

Knipp concedes that his performances as Shirley can make people uncomfortable. Knipp has said his show is about "lancing the boil of institutionized racism" and that "treating African Americans as if they have a disease is the real racism" because black people are "more than intelligent enough to discern the nuance" of his performances. He's also said that "many people thought that Harriet Beecher-Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin was and still is perceived as racist, despite being the probable artistic genesis of emotional support against slavery in the 19th century." RuPaul (born RuPaul Andre Charles on November 17, 1960), is an American drag performer, dance music singer, actor, and songwriter who gained worldwide fame in the 1990s; appearing in a wide variety of television programs, films, and musical albums. ... The New York Blade is a lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) newspaper in New York, New York. ... John Strausbaugh is an author and journalist who is a regular contributor to the New York Times, The Washington Post, and Cabinet Magazine. ... Uncle Toms Cabin, or Life Among the Lowly, is American author Harriet Beecher Stowes fictional anti-slavery novel. ...

Trivia

• Volunteer Counselor - "Samaritans" (worldwide Suicide Prevention -Template:Http://www.samaritans.org 1997-present.</a>
• Was roommates with Nicholas West, murdered in Tyler, Texas in an infamous hate-crime in 1993
• graduated high school with future adult film star Tom Byron West-Orange Stark High School Class of 1979
• Member of the ACLU and Southern Poverty Law Center's "Teaching Tolerance" program
• Member, American Association of Professional Chaplains
• Member, registered clergy of "Center for Progressive Christianity"
• Member Quaker Universalist Group (U.K.)
• Survived both Loma Prieta earthquake and Hurricane Katrina
• Active in the Episcopalian Church (ECUSA)

Image File history File links Broom_icon. ... Tom Byron (born as Thomas Bryan Taliaferro Jr. ... The Loma Prieta earthquake was a major earthquake that struck the San Francisco Bay Area of California on October 17, 1989 at 5:04 p. ... This article is about the Atlantic hurricane of 2005. ...

References

The Hartford Courant is Connecticuts largest daily newspaper, and is a morning newspaper for most of the state north of New Haven and east of Waterbury. ... The Hartford Courant is Connecticuts largest daily newspaper, and is a morning newspaper for most of the state north of New Haven and east of Waterbury. ...

External links

• Shirley Q. Liquor, After Imus: A Black Face Comic Who Sings "12 Days of Kwanzaa"
• Shirley Q. Liquor at Southern Decadence
• Ban Shirley Q. Liquor