Zumanity’s Arias relates good ‘Conversation’

Friday, May 7, 2004 | 8:38 a.m.

There's more to "Zumanity" transvestite host Joey Arias than meets the eye.

The outrageous drag queen, who became the toast of New York night life when hobnobbing with the likes of Andy Warhol and Truman Capote, also writes.

For 13 years Arias penned a monthly column in the magazine Paper, interviewing celebrities as diverse as Rod Steiger, Rosemary Clooney, John Waters, Tony Danza, Anita Ekberg, Esther Williams, Denis Leary, Jack La Lanne and Tammy Faye Baker.

The column is now history, but Arias has compiled about 120 of his best conversations and included them in his new book, "The Art of Conversation," which has been published by Maas Media of Berlin.

The book, which sells for $21, is available at the Zumanity gift shop inside New York-New York and online at joeyarias.com.

Arias will sign the book for fans from 4 p.m to 5 p.m. Thursday in the lobby of the Zumanity Theatre.

"For years people have told me I've got to come up with a book on the history of my life. 'Your experiences are so rich,' " Arias said. "I didn't just want to come out with another book about a gay boy, problems -- because I never did have any. I never had a childhood like that, my parents were very understanding."

Arias says over the years he has spent a lot of time performing in cabarets in Berlin, where he met a representative of Maas Media, a publisher of art books.

"He said they would like to do something with me," Arias said.

He decided to expose himself and his life through the columns he wrote about hundreds of celebrities.

"I thought, instead of a book about my life, how about me integrated with different people?" Arias said. "My life is based around people a lot. I don't like to be alone."

Arias said readers will get to know him through the conversations.

"They will learn who I am," he said. "And it's easy reading. I call it a bathroom book."

Arias says his life has been one of music, cabarets, dealing with people and being intimate with people.

Most of his life he has spent traveling. Joining the cast of "Zumanity," which will have its first anniversary on Aug. 14, has changed that.

"Instead of traveling around the world, now the world comes to me," he said.

Arias signed a two-year contract with "Zumanity," the risque production by Cirque du Soleil. So far, the contract has not been extended.

The flamboyant entertainer doesn't seem concerned about his future. He says he is busy on several projects, including working on another book, a DVD about his life and a documentary about the history of performance art in New York City in the '70s.

"I'm also thinking about doing a book about my adventures with Cirque du Soleil," said the man whose life has been one long circus.