Humor & Life Quote by Paul O'Grady

There is a whole class politics in that sentence, and O'Grady smuggles it in under the greasepaint. "I dress up as a middle-aged prostitute" is a deliberately shocking job description, but it lands as punchline and mission statement: he’s not dressing as glamour, he’s dressing as rent, cigarette smoke, and hard-earned survival. The age tag matters. Middle-aged means past the cultural window where women are allowed to be decorative; it’s the point where you’re expected to vanish. By putting that figure front and center, O'Grady makes the ignored hyper-visible, then dares you to laugh without looking away.

"And do a game show" is the master stroke. He pairs the supposedly disreputable with the most respectable form of British mass entertainment: the brightly lit, family-tea-time format built on rules, prizes, and a performance of fairness. The subtext is that TV itself is drag: everyone’s in costume, selling a version of themselves that fits the slot. O'Grady just refuses the polite disguise and says the quiet part loud.

Contextually, it’s classic Lily Savage-era candor: a comedian from working-class Liverpool who understood that mainstream acceptance often arrives only after you’ve made yourself legible as a novelty. The line plays like self-deprecation, but it’s also a flex. He’s telling you he can walk into the most conventional room on television, in the most unconventional skin, and still run the place.