You're Kinda Famous, You Know?

Shaunna Rai: Photo by Jason Poulin

I've never been what you would call popular.  I keep mostly to myself.  And, I have a hard time letting people get close to me.  I have issues with speaking.  I don't stutter, or anything like that.  But, I just have a hard time, stringing words together on the fly, when I speak.  You might not know that, reading what I write, because, generally, I do much better writing than I do speaking.  It's a thing, you know?

Having lived with both Shaunna Rai, and Vanila Honey-Bush for a year, I learned quickly, that keeping to myself is boring.  People wonder what's wrong.  And, I often wonder what's wrong with me.  Since I started the blog, I've had a number of people come to me, while I'm out, and tell me how much they love it.  This is always an awkward situation for me, because on the one hand, I'm all like, "Go on, tell me how much you love it," and on the other hand, "I'm like, you read my blog?  Really? And, you think it's good!? What's wrong with you?"

I find it funny, sometimes, to know that Dan feels the same way about Shaunna Rai as I do about the blog.  Shaunna Rai has been around for two decades.  She's worked all over the Northeast.  She's worked with some big names...Joslyn Fox, Manila Luzon, Latrice Royale...She's performing with Mimi Imfurst this coming weekend...And I remind him, often that Shaunna Rai, is famous in her own right.

Dan went to get his hair cut, by his daughter, and while I was there, she was telling us that she had cut someone's hair, and told him that she was Shaunna Rai's daughter.  According to the story, the guy went wild! He couldn't believe that she knew Shaunna Rai, much less, that she was his daughter.  These are the kind of stories that I try to remind him of.

Why?

Drag in Maine, is on the decline.  There are shows on a semi-regular basis, but those have been trickling away.  This is a sad thing, because people love it.  Dragapalooza sells out every year, as well as the Royal Majesty Drag Show.  People want the drag...but they don't want to pay for it.  And the performers don't want to do it, if they're not getting paid for it.  It's kind of a vicious cycle.  Why would I work for free, when other queens have a booking fee of $2000 or more, plus transportation, lodging and free drinks on the house?

The truth of the matter is, though, that the only way to get that kind of recognition, aside from being on RuPaul's Drag Race, is to put yourself through all the free benefit shows, and the "you're working for tips, and the door", and the, "Hey, you wanna work with a Ru Girl?" shows.  Because the Ru Girls talk.  Joslyn remembered Shaunna from the AIDS Walk weekend in Ogunquit, and recommended her by name to do the shows at the Seacoast Rep over the summer (if memory serves correctly).  

Shaunna really is, the "IT Girl" of Maine. If there's a show, she's usually there.  If there's a show she's doing, it's promoted more than anything has ever been promoted in the history of promotion.  Dan promotes it, Shaunna promotes it, and I usually promote it both on my Facebook page, and here, either with a poster, or a shout out to it.  This is really how to make yourself famous.  Because it works.  Everyone knows what Shaunna is doing when.

This became most apparent, after the announcement of the RuPaul's Drag Race Battle of the Seasons's announcement that it was coming to the State Theater, here in Portland, in March.  As soon as it was announced, Shaunna and Dan were both promoting it like crazy.  And, it paid off.

During the Drag at Sea cruise, which Dan/Shaunna have been dying to get on for the last two years, a friend of ours went.  He was hobknobbing with Michelle Visage, one of the judges (my favorite, aside from Ru) of RuPaul's Drag Race.  He was talking to her about the upcoming Battle of the Seasons in Portland.  She told him that she didn't really "know much about Maine, other than it's cold, it's near Canada, it's pretty redneck, and there is this one queen there, Shaunna Rai, who comes across my feed all the time."

If Michelle Visage knows who you are, and talks about you to people, then you're definitely doing something right.  With a following of over 2,700 people, you're doing something right.

 Meanwhile, I'm limping along on Facebook, with a following of 137 people.  But, it's enough people to remind me that in my own little way, I'm a little famous too.