like everything in iowa, the drag shows here are a little different. first off, it was held in a regular bar, not a gay bar. secondly, instead of a bevy of men dressed in women's clothes, there were only three who rotated duties. the third and most dramatic difference was in the quality of performer. i worked at a fine dining restaurant in college, and if you've ever been to a fine dining restaurant you know this: all the waiters are gay. gay, gay, gay. mrs. gay wisconsin was a waiter, then manager, where i worked, and i attended over a dozen shows and went to gay bars all the time. after a shift, it's where the waiters wanted to go, and all the cocktail waitresses wanted to be somewhere where they wouldn't get hit on, and since young men lead with the groin… so, as went the waitresses went the men.
personally, i liked the gay bars. others among me always felt somewhat uncomfortable, and made the usual jokes about not wanting to go to the bathroom, whether or not there would even be a men's room and the like, but i found the places relaxing. reason being: gays are persecuted in america. so when a persecuted group congregates, it creates a certain comfortable atmosphere.
in a normal bar, there's usually a bunch of stupid macho being thrown around; men have to prove they're men, so they'll grab whatever woman's ass they want and fight whatever guy they think they can beat. in a gay bar, everyone is, well, gay. they're all already looked upon as different, odd, inferior or what have you by those who would judge, so they are all encompassing and all accepting. you'd find african-americans dressed like gang-bangers, but without the attitude, or cowboys dressed in full on alan jackson duds, but without the ignorance. they were an eclectic group on the outside, but with an inside bond.
some of the performers at these clubs were worthy of crying-game type scrutiny; they put time, effort and the occasional surgery into their being. the performance of a drag queen is simply that of lip-synching; they pick a popular song, or one that speaks to their inner being--usually cher--and stand on stage and air-sing their gay little hearts out.
which brings us back to iowa. as said, the local show was held in an everyday bar, one not set for any stage performance beyond the occasional karaoke. while there isn't much difference between lip-synching and karaoke, there is when it comes to the addition of drag queens. behind the platform was an enormous, full-length mirror, and what happens when you marry men who love to play dress up to a mirror? a performer who has his back to the audience half the time. lyds noticed it first, but over the course of the evening it became increasingly obvious and comical that they who were supposed to be putting on a show, were more interested in preening over their outfit for a healthy chunk of the time they were supposed to be strutting their he parts as hers. they would lip synch a line, then turn and look at their hair, lip synch a line, turn and adjust their bra…
as said earlier, the three entertainers of the evening were unlike those of my past; if they were turning heads, it wasn't in quixotical confusion, it was in "what-the-fuck" wonder. sure they put effort into their costumes, but they also were working with too many strikes against them to begin with. no one was going to be tricked by them no matter how drunk they were.
but, it was still a good time. anyone who can't laugh and have fun at a drag show has serious psychological issues they need to work on. most of our group tipped too, where you either handed the dancer a dollar in approval of their moves, or, in my case, got a little more daring.
No comments:
Post a Comment