All the world's a stage at Drag-a-thon
I finally got a chance to finish my blog entry about the Drag-a-thon (back on Father's Day), so here's a belated report:
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I'm one tired queen at the moment after yesterday's Drag-a-thon at Marlena's -- a 12-hour drag show raising money for the Castro Valley Lions Club.
I'd heard that with that much time to fill, I could probably perform as much
material as I could get ready and I figured it was a great opportunity to try out new stuff in front of live audience and get some practice in. And... OK, I admit it... I'm a stage ****.
Admittedly, I went a bit overboard in getting ready -- I put together about two dozen songs in total. But I once fronted a band in the glorious days of a misspent youth, and I'm able to memorize lyrics pretty quickly. Plus I figured it would let me pick and choose depending on the mood I was in and the mood of the crowd. The real effort was in editing the songs -- probably two-thirds of them needed to be trimmed down in length, or to take out instrumental breaks (which can seem like a reeeaaallly long time when you're up there on stage without anything to down but dance around). I've also learned that when in doubt, err on the side of faster tempos and shorter songs. Finally, it took bit of experimentation to figure out which songs seemed to fit best with my on-stage persona. So some of the songs may never see the stage lights.
Anyway, after a couple weeks of preparation -- and two new dresses -- Father's Day finally arrived. I got up all too early -- since it takes two hours from shave to shoes to get ready -- and even though I don't have much an appetite first thing in the morning I tried to force myself eat a big breakfast since I probably wouldn't get a chance to eat for quite awhile. Despite my best attempts I still ended leaving behind schedule -- having to make an emergency run to the drug for some safety pins and stick-on nails didn't help -- and ended up getting up to Marlena's around 1 p.m. But true to drag shows everywhere, the Drag-a-thon hadn't started on time anyway, so I only missed about a half-hour of it.
I was put on stage almost immediately and from there I usually did at least one number for each of the hour-long sets. It was fascinating to see the different styles of drag -- the Drag-a-thon draws performers from the half-dozen drag shows around San Francisco, who normally don't necessarily cross paths with each other. I do an old-school "glamour drag" style -- a friend said I look "vampy not campy" which is what I'm after. Then there's what I'd call "chaos drag" which verges on performance art and often goes in for shock. One performing group, The Bearded Ladies, were exactly what their name implied, guys in full make-up with beards. And then there's the sort of campy queens that are what most folks think of when you mention drag queens -- although some of them were faux queens (drag queens trapped in the body of women). And there was a lone drag king as well, a bit disappointing since I'd hoped to see more of them.
I brought four dresses and ended up wearing three of them including a new black dress with sequins and a gorgeous saphire blue floor-length dress with beading and sequins. It cost more than I care to admit, but Nikki Star was drooling it. Nikki also brought two wigs she thought I'd be interested in. Both are similar in style to one I mostly use, but one was blonder and one was redder -- and they were such a good deal I got them both.
The sapphire dress seems more appropriate to more moderately-paced songs, so I did Dusty Springfield's "Spooky" and The Motels' "Change My Mind" in the next two sets. "Change My Mind" is a torchy song, probably a bit too slow for a drag show, but it was the song that first came to mind when I thought about doing drag, so dammit I was gonna do it at least once.
My friend Kew drove all the way up from San Jose and got there about 5 p.m. but I wasn't the best of hosts -- I hadn't eaten all day and was about to topple over. (Thankfully, I'd had to foresight to wear my "sensible shoes" (only 2" heels).) So right after she showed up I headed next door to Flipper's Gourmet Hamburgers for some food. But what to eat when you're in full make-up? Thankfully, Flipper's also served breakfast all day, so I had an omelette and a much-needed cup of coffee. On the way back to Marlena's, a Japanese tourist asked me and one of the Bearded Ladies to pose for a picture. 'Cuz after all, it's not a trip to San Francisco without drag queens.
Six hours to go... and all of sudden the crowd picks up for a couple hours. Since Kew is there, I break out one my signature songs, Geri Halliwell's (the former Ginger Spice) "Look At Me," which I'd been saving up. I'd told co-workers that I expected to get bumped as some of the bigger-name drag queens showed up in the evening, but I keep getting put into rotation.
9 p.m. It's been a looong day. The show's host Chlamydia Killroy, is doing her best to keep the energy up, but the bar is pretty empty, so it's a challenge to get the crowd into it. I duck over to Flipper's for a to-go order of fried mozzarella sticks -- so bad, but just what I needed to keep going. (Unfortunately none of those calories ever seem to go to my hips...) The show's now running about an hour late, so the hourly co-hosts start combining their sets.
11 p.m. The crowd has suddenly filled up again. Don't these people have jobs to go to in the morning? Not that I'm complaining. I do KT Tunstall "Black Horse and the Cherry Tree." Sort of an unexpected as a drag song, but it rocks the house. The show is now more than an hour-and-half behind schedule, and it finally wraps up at about 1 a.m. I've done 10 songs in total, my feet are killing me and my face probably has slid half-down my neck. It's sort of like doing a marathon -- I'm glad to say I've done the whole 12-plus hours, but once is enough. Next year, I'll drop in for a couple hours.
The good news is that we raised about $1,300 for the Lions Club, the vast majority of it from the performers' tips, which were donated. But the best news is that queens from two shows invited me to do guest spots -- which is perfect. Doing a show every week is more than I want to do, but performing a couple times a month would be ideal.
Update: Mark those calendars! I'm scheduled to make guest appareance at the Charlie Horse show at The Cinch on July 27th, as well as doing a benefit at Marlena's on July 13th.
In case you're interested, my blog post has samples of the songs I did during the show, as well as the other songs on performance list. I'd love to get feedback on which ones you think work best.
