The Legend of Dj Buddy Beaverhausen

Dj Buddy's '70s Salad Days

My mother didn't christen me Dj Buddy Beaverhausen, I'll have you know, though I did arrive with great ceremony as a divine being. She carried two babies to term that died during delivery. In those days of yore (and mine), the doctor advised my mother to eat, eat, eat; to give in to all her cravings, but to watch her salt intake. The result: mon petite mom blew up like a balloon and I, consequently, came into the world healthy and happy, but a baby Buddah-like figure at over 13 lbs.

I laughed a lot and gained my first appreciative audiences. My crib was full of stuffed animals and teething toys and rattles, as I truly learned to shake my music-maker to entertain. I was bathed, scented and anointed, treated like the Second Coming. I, of course, thought I was the First Coming! The center of the universe, it was all about me, me, me, and why not! Ah, my halcyon era!

Weight was, of course, an issue, but I slimmed down during childhood and even got down to 118 lbs during my Studio 54 days. I won't say how.

I still have a recording of me, at about 7-years-old, made in a recording booth in Asbury Park, NJ, on the boardwalk. My grandfather took me into that magical space (designed much like the old photo booths) and drew the curtain so that I could sing into the machine and get back a mini-vinyl record we could play at home. My song? The very theatrical "Hey, Look Me Over," from Wildcat, sung by Lucille Ball in her Broadway show of the time. I knew every word! And I sang so loud, I'm sure most of the penny arcade could hear me sing out, Louise, sing out!

Fast forward past incarnations as a cabaret act with a finale in a loincloth, underground filmmaker, award-winning and published poet, and five-time winner at the East Village's Crowbar competition nights as Tiffany/Debbie Gibson wannabe, Sheila Gillerman (who went on to have a few gigs at The Duplex before retiring early and checking into rehab).

My original dj name was Char Treuse, based on a truncated version of my real first and last names (Charles Truenski). As that alias led certain individuals to somehow assume it was a drag name, I was prompted to reconsider.  My childhood nickname is "Buddy, " so I chose that (because it sounds kind of butch) but decided the name needed more to it. I needed a word that suggested the word "alias." And then, I recalled tv's Will & Grace's character, Karen, using "Anastacia Beaverhausen" as a sobriquet. Voila! Dj Buddy Beaverhausen was born. And my dj promo-only, not-for-sale cd-roms became a Manhattan downtown cult legend at bars, lounges and shops.

Now, about getting rid of the baby fat...!