By Steve Hubrecht
Vampires have been part of folklore for centuries in many cultures. And if that weren’t enough, in modern times, there’s Bram Stoker’s classic novel ‘Dracula’, the ‘Dracula’ film starring Bela Lugosi, ‘Interview with the Vampire’ with Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt, the Twilight series, and, of course, Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
Surely people would have a handle on vampires by now. But no, they remain poorly and sorely misunderstood. Good thing Draquarius is here to set the record straight.
The 594-year-old lounge singing vampire will be performing live (but undead) in a semi-interactive musical comedy performance at ULLR Bar on Saturday, Oct. 26. Along with classic crooning, standup comedy, a buffet dinner and dancing, you’ll also, hopefully, get a bit of insight into the much-maligned life (or more accurately, afterlife) of a bloodsucker.
Draquarius, perhaps more widely known (at least for now) as popular public librarian Japhy Hunt, wants you to know that vampires have feelings too.
“There are some big misconceptions about what it’s like to be a vampire,” Hunt told the Pioneer. “Even though Draquarius is, well, a vampire, he’s very human in many ways.
Draquarius was bit (and first became a vampire) in 1430. Being undead prompted a career switch, and Draquarius became a lounge singer, touring the alehouses of 15th century Europe. He met with mixed success: his songs were great, but he was run out of Transylvania for “draining” his audience.
Still, talent is talent, and he’s starting a comeback here in Invermere just before Halloween.
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Draquarius is “cheesy but classy, like many lounge singers,” described Hunt. “He’s pretty old, so he has a lot of different influences from a lot of different eras.”
Tunes from Gloria Gaynor, Bonnie Tyler, Kate Bush, Eartha Kitt, Johnny Cash, John Denver, and more, Draquarius does them all. In fact, he originally wrote the tunes. Or so he says.
“Draquarius insists his versions are the originals,” confirmed Hunt.
The problem is that when Draquarius first wrote the songs, his understanding of musical copyright was pretty shaky. Everyone’s understanding of musical copyright was shaky; it was the 15th century after all.
Hunt’s acting and impersonating has been well documented in the Pioneer over the past decade, and Draquarius is one of Hunt’s latest characters. Unlike some of Hunt’s previous portrayals (Jack Sparrow, for example), Draquarius was dreamed up by Hunt himself.
It began six years ago with a challenge from a friend: sing a song of your choice as a character. Hunt responded to the challenge by singing ‘Age of Aquarius’ as Dracula.
“It was really funny. I hadn’t realized before how many times the line ‘let the sun shine in’ is repeated in that song. It’s kind of ironic if you’re a vampire,” said Hunt.
For a few years, Draquarius stayed on a mental back burner in Hunt’s head. But then the COVID-19 pandemic struck in 2020, and Hunt returned home to the Columbia Valley from acting school in Vancouver. He revived Draquarius (as much as an undead character can be revived), taking and performing song requests as Draquarius online.
The pandemic subsided, but Draquarius did not, with Hunt performing as the character at local farmers’ markets and other venues.
“For a long time, with acting, I stayed away from singing and from standup comedy. Being Draquarius challenges me to do both. It’s been good,” said Hunt.
The doors open at 7 p.m. for the ULLR show and the buffet begins at the same time. Draquarius stakes (sorry, takes) the stage at 8 p.m. for a two-hour performance, and the dance begins at 10 p.m. Tickets are $40 and include dinner, show and dance. They can be purchased through eventbrite.ca, or through Japhy Hunt’s Instagram page or ULLR’s Instagram page.
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