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Arts & Entertainment

Tupperware 'Queen' No Drag on Network TV

'Aunt Cassie Rolle' works day job on NBC's Parks and Recreation Thursday.

You may know him better as "Aunt Cassie Rolle," a lovable drag queen who schleps Tupperware in living-room dinner parties coast to coast, including a recent stop in Haddonfield.

But in his day job, Haddon Township native Kurt Koehler has landed national exposure with a scheduled appearance tonight on NBC's comedy hit Parks and Recreation, 8:30 p.m., locally on WCAU-TV 10 Philadelphia.

“I'm in only a few last minutes," Koehler said during a phone interview this week. "It’s a few lines in the last third of the episode, very close to the end.”

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It's still a big get for Koehler, 40, a 1989 graduate of Haddon Township High School. He moved to Los Angeles in 1996 after finishing college and securing his Screen Actors Guild card as a local actor in commercials. The Parks and Recreation spot is his first speaking role on television.

He was mesmerized on the set.

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“Magical," he said. "Driving through the CBS Radford Studio Gate to film is like a dream come true. Usually they make you park across the street and walk in.  That day I drove on the lot and parked by stage 21. I did film a scene on Stage 20 for the show Greek a year earlier as a glorified extra. I actually accidentally walked through the Parks and Recreation set that day, but this day was no accident.”

Parks and Recreation revolves around the antics of public officials in an Indiana town. Amy Poehler, of Saturday Night Live fame, stars with Rashida Jones and Aziz Ansari. Actor Rob Lowe is also a cast member.

Koehler said he passed by Poehler several times during his visit to the set, but knew it wasn't proper protocol to interact with the stars.

“The other actors are focused on a million other things, so it's not my place to introduce myself to anyone," he said.

Koehler has pursued acting and directing since high school.

“If I could give any advice, I'd tell kids who want to act to graduate early from high school," he said. "I had the chance and didn't do it. The younger you start in this business the better your chances. When you're 18 to 20, you can get auditions for major film roles; 25 and older, those auditions slow down. I had auditions for Swing Kids, Scent of a Woman, Clueless in my younger days, now it's like groveling for an audition.”

Koehler makes a living as Aunt Cassie Rolle selling Tupperware in drag as part of a team of other male actors and as a producer of a stage show.

“Cassie was born in a comedy sketch," he said. "She was Louise Klemp. I wrote and performed her for a Saturday Night Live audition class that prepares you for an audition for a show like that. They ask for three original characters and three impersonations for a sketch show.” 

Koehler also directs and produces a full-length musical called Chico’s Angels, in Los Angeles. The show has run four times a year for the last eight years.

“It's a Latino Charlie’s Angels in drag meets The Three Stooges." he said. "We have a web series and music videos online at www.ChicosAngels.com."

For Aunt Cassie Rolle fans, Koehler says, “Aunt Cassie is on Facebook and plans to return to New Jersey in May or June 2012.”

 

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