Biography – J. A. Valentine

Biography

Chameleon is word often applied to J. A. Valentine.

A character actor from the minute he was ambulatory, everything not nailed down became a hat. He currently wears many hats, literally and figuratively; actor, impersonator, drag performer, emcee, immersive comedian, game show host and costumer. 

His onstage trajectory began with dance roles in musicals and a sprinkling of classical theatre. Eventually he sprouted high heels, honing his drag personas in such San Francisco nightspots as Heklina’s T-Shack and Peaches Christ’s Midnight Mass Players. A transforming beat of makeup became the X-factor that led to such bucket-list roles as Frank-n-Furter, the Emcee and Fagin, as well as grande dames like Theodora; She-Bitch of Byzantium. Satire is where he is most at home, appearing in such genre spoofs as Star Trek Live, Stale Magnolias and Harry Poofter.

Almost by fluke, he was drafted into a tree lighting ceremony at a local shopping center, owing in part to the Christmas tree costume he had fashioned for the previous Halloween. That same night, event producer Rick Herns tapped him for a series of customized roasts at corporate parties, wherein Jinglepants the Elf read performance reviews from Santa’s “Naughty & Nice” list. A monster was created and a career in special events was born.

He now maintains an arsenal of fully costumed characters and impersonations that have been employed at special events of every description for nearly 30 years. Whatever the occasion; trade shows, private parties, bat mitzvahs or supermarket openings, he supplies improvised immersive comedy and impeccably designed personas. He’s entertained in the homes of Robin Williams, Barry Bonds, Danielle Steele and Rita Moreno, to name-drop a few.

For 15 years he served as inventory manager of American Conservatory Theatre’s costume department, where he also received his best training as an actor. Here he enjoyed a varied diet of designing shows for ACT’s MFA program, conducting costume fittings for private rentals and organizing the stock of one of America’s largest and most prolific regional theaters. Mentored by rentals manager Callie Floor, this position schooled him in period costuming and the cultural context behind what we wear. Among his favorite assignments was designing “The Rocky Horror Show” for the newly renovated Strand Theatre.

Drag continues to be a main feature of his stage work. Spring of 2024 will see the revival of “Bitchslap” at Oasis, a spoof on nighttime soaps of the 1980s, featuring a cast of drag luminaries. He can be seen in Darcy Drollinger’s feature film “Shit and Champagne” and it’s upcoming sequel, “Lady Champagne”. Most recently, Valentine portayed Miss Tracy Mills in “The Legend of Georgia McBride” at Center Rep in Walnut Creek, November, 2023.

Press

The most compelling figure on the stage is the Emcee. Valentine comes close to completely hijacking the show, whether tossing off sexually loaded jokes or belting out such songs as “Willkommen” and “Money."

- San Jose Mercury News

"Then there’s Valentine, a dead ringer for Anjelica Huston in severe makeup and severer baritone…he can cut the stage with a roll of the eyes or a sneer that suggests there’s something both very tasty and very yucky in his mouth. He can make jazz hands into a deadly weapon lying in wait."

- Lily Janiak, SF Chronicle

"As the tortured soul Fagin...he has a way of beguiling the audience while still maintaining his shady qualities. Plus, Valentine's 'Reviewing the Situation' is a gem."

- San Jose Mercury News

"Valentine brings an earnest integrity to the portrait painter Basil Hallward (Portrait of Dorian Gray)"

- Robert Hurwitt, SF Chronicle

“Valentine rocks the Frank-n-Furter corset magnificently.”

- SF Weekly, All Shook Down

“Respectable turns by an enjoyable cast, headed up by a formidable Jef Valentine."

- Robert Avila, Bay Guardian

As bonkers as Theodora is, there's something stately at its center that lends the drag drollery an unexpected air of gravitas. That something, or, rather, that someone, is Valentine's Theodora. Dressed in gorgeous, figure-caressing costumes that alternately make the performer look like Elizabeth Taylor in Cleopatra and Robin Hood as he might be played by Tinkerbell, Valentine commands the Hypnodrome's tiny stage like a true empress. In his manifesto for the legendary drag theater troupe, the Ridiculous Theatre Company, actor, playwright, and founder Charles Ludlam states: “Treat the material in a madly farcical manner without losing the seriousness of the theme.” Valentine perfectly carries out Ludlam's vision."

- Chloe Veltman, SF Weekly

As the Pantalone character, Hospitalides. Valentine is a commedia expert, among the finest performers in this style I have ever had the pleasure to enjoy. Good comedians play over the top to the point of exhaustion, and that is wonderful to behold, but the very best comedians seem to be holding something back, so that the laughter is prolonged and not too soon exhausted. They keep us dangling on a joke longer than it seems possible. Valentine is that kind of comic performer.

- Charles Kruger, Theatre Storm

"The cast has its brightest spots in the crucial places, beginning with Valentine's Theodora, a prostitute-turned-pent-up-empress and misunderstood misanthrope with a great pair of gams

Robert Avila, Bay Guardian

"One of the Bay Area's most luminous drag performers"

- Chloe Veltman, SF Weekly

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