Just in time for the holidays, Big Freedia appears in the popular talking keychain series.

How do we know that Big Freedia has made it? A book—who reads them? A reality show? Everybody’s got one of those. You’ve made it when a “Big Freedia in Your Pocket” exists. Big Freedia has made it. 

Steve Winn created the “In Your Pocket” series—a collection of talking keychains that play six catch phrases by popular pop culture figures. He has done a Mr. T in Your Pocket as well as a Mayor in Your Pocket—featuring former New Orleans mayor C. Ray Nagin—and in recent years he has also made  Mister Rogers in Your Pocket, Scarface in Your Pocket, “The Three Stooges in Your Pocket, Sarah Palin in Your Pocket, Monty Python in Your Pocket, Doctor Who in Your Pocket, and Star Wars in Your Pocket among others.

According to Winn, getting Freedia to do a talking keychain was surprisingly easy. Winn introduced himself at Bayou Boogaloo while Freedia was signing autographs.

“He yelled back to his manager Melvin something like, Talk to this guy right here. Get his phone number. We’re gonna do a Big Freedia in Your Pocket,” Winn remembers. “There was a little back and forth with attorneys, but it was a pretty smooth negotiation.” 

Working with Freedia was a joy, he says. “We agreed on a list of Big Freedia sayings ahead of time and went to local studio that does recording for movies. We set Freedia up in an isolation booth, and he just ran through the sayings a couple of times,” Winn says. “Then he came up with a couple of extra sayings that we hadn't thought of, and we recorded those. Freedia has such a forceful voice, we had to move the mic around and flip a couple of switches and turn some knobs until the levels were right. The first go-round was so loud it was unusable, but we worked it out.”

Working with Winn gave him some insight into the bounce star. “Freedia does Freedia well,” he says. “We really only needed to do each saying once. He nailed it every time, and at the photo shoot Freedia never ran out of poses. We got so many great pics. A complete professional. We also did a video shoot and again, Freedia shows up and knocks it out.”

Big Freedia in Your Pocket and other In Your Pockets are on sale now and specialty shops such as Fun Rock’n, Dirty Coast and Fleurty Girl in New Orleans, and online at Emanation.com.