Buster Poindexter (a.k.a. David Johansen of the New York Dolls) on His Ridiculous Theatrical Roots

Chances are, unless you've been in a cave for the last three decades, you've heard Buster Poindexter's version of "Hot Hot Hot" — in movies, in commercials, while shopping for groceries at 2am. The song is ubiquitous. Few people know, however, that the guy who sang it already had a long and storied career by the time it came out in 1987 (and his name is not really Buster Poindexter).

Indeed, for a large segment of the population, Buster Poindexter is better known as David Johansen, the front man of the proto-punk band the New York Dolls. Johansen says that he originally invented Buster Poindexter as an excuse to perform music he liked, but which didn't really fit into his career as a rock musician.

Now he's swinging it as Buster Poindexter on a regular basis, most recently at the Upper East Side supper club Café Carlyle, where he's appearing from September 29-October 10. This marks Johansen's fourth stint at Café Carlyle, and he has cooked up an all-new show for the occasion.

We loved your show at the Carlyle last October. What's new this time?
Everything: It's all different songs and routines, but it's still me. We're going to do "Yip Roc Heresy" by Slim Gaillard. We're doing this Betty Hutton song, "Murder, He Says." We're also going to do some rock and roll and Broadway.

A lot of the numbers in your last show were quite obscure, and it looks like that is also going to be the case with your new show. Is that part of your mission as an artist: to introduce audiences to songs they might not know, but really ought to know?
Sometimes I think I should do a show of standard material. When I go to a show, however, unless the singer is really compelling, when I hear a standard I think, "Ugh, I don't want to hear this song again." It's fun for me to sing the songs I'm drawn to through the peculiarity of my taste.

It's certainly an eclectic taste. What was your entrance into the world of music?
When I was a kid I would sing in rock-and-roll bands, usually at the high school dance. I would also sing at the JCC [Jewish Community Center], which had a thing called "hoot night" because it was like a hootenanny. When I came into Manhattan, I got involved with Charles Ludlam's Ridiculous Theatrical Company. I hung around with them and soaked up a taste for showbiz. Then, of course, I started singing with the New York Dolls.

Click below to see David Johansen perform "Personality Crisis" with the New York Dolls:

How did you get involved with the Ridiculous Theatrical Company?
When I was seventeen I started to work for a fellow named Lohr Wilson who had a tchotchke shop on St. Mark's Place. I worked in this Dickensian basement with dripping stone walls where we used to take logos from beer cans, cut them out, and make pop-art earrings. He sold them through a mail-order business. One day, all these beautiful costumes started appearing in the basement: feathers, glitter, a giant sequined phallus. He said that he was making this stuff for the Ridiculous Theatrical Company. That's how I met Bill Vehr and Charles Ludlam. I was enthralled. I started going to rehearsals. I just loved everybody in that group. I would sometimes be a spear-carrier or do the sound. I played the guitar in their country-western musical, Corn. It was amazing. I would be sitting at a dressing room table next to Candy Darling, and in all seriousness she would say things like, "I done a lot of low things, but I never been no waitress." I was in heaven.

That seems a long way away from Café Carlyle on the Upper East Side. Did you ever imagine back then that you would one day be playing such a swanky joint?
My mind never really worked that way. I've performed in a lot of venues. When I originally came up with Buster Poindexter, I was singing in rock-and-roll bands. We were touring two hundred and fifty nights a years. It was a recipe for suicide. I decided I wanted to sing songs other than what I was singing. I wanted to refresh my palate, so to speak. I started at this little club down on Fifteenth Street called Tramps. I called myself Buster Poindexter because I didn't want people to come looking for David Johansen to sing "Funky But Chic." It turned out to be a great conceit. It gives me the opportunity to sing whatever I want and it doesn't have to fit into any genre or preconceived notion.

Click below to see Buster Poindexter sing Kander & Ebb's "Cabaret":

Do you consider Buster Poindexter to be an alter ego?
I think of it as a conceit. I wouldn't say alter ego, because he's really not that different from me, yet it affords me a certain freedom. When you're in the singing business, you can really get locked in. It's the same thing for movies: They want you for the same character every time. That feels too much like punching a clock to me. Buster allows me to break that up. Also, the audience that Buster attracts is a lot more sophisticated than your typical arena rock show.