We bought tickets for the RuPaul BOTS (Battle of the Seasons) show, at the State Theatre, as soon as the tickets were available. It was almost a no brainer, that we would go, and get the VIP tickets. And, literally, since the day that we bought them, I'd been looking forward to the show. We had printed out our tickets, and they had a place of honor on the fridge, so that I wouldn't forget that the show was going to happen. Finally, the wait was over and we were going to get to make use of the tickets.
First in line was Mimi Imfurst, who had texted Dan earlier in the evening asking if he had anything that she could use to look like Maya Angelou (which I had misheard as more like May-a Ann Jello and thought must be a new drag queen). The search was on, and nothing but a couple hats could be found in Shaunna's extensive closet. We talked to her for a couple minutes, and I thanked her for retweeting my blog about her Christmas show at Styxx.
Then, came the pictures. Ivy Winters, Darienne Lake, Jiggly Caliente, Alaska Thunderfuck, Michelle Visage, and Jinkx Monsoon. Jinkx would only do selfies, and I didn't quite know what to do...but I got my selfie with her.
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| Michelle Visage starts the show. |
If I'd died right after I got my last picture with the girls, I would have died happy.
Walking into the theater, I remembered, that the last time I was at the State Theater, I was there with my ex, and we saw Ellen Degeneres. It was a fleeting thought, and I came back to the present. Getting to our seats, it dawned on me, that I was surrounded by pretty much everyone that I know. The majority of the Pride committee was in the row in front of us, Wendy and the boys were in the row behind us.
While waiting for the show to start, I was reminded that "local" queens have a little spark that not all queens have. Cheeta, who was there as his male self, stood up, and tried to get the audience involved in a bit of a warm up for the show.
And then, the show started. Michelle Visage came out, and introduced the show.
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Dress has always been Ivy Winters's
Strongest Suit |
Alaska was the first act, with Whitney Huston's "I Have Nothing," which morphed into a discussion about what was allowed during the show...tipping, photos, drinking, and a reminder that if you don't want to be there, LEAVE. Oh, and I can't forget the ever famous: HIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!
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BenDeLaCreme performs a
burlesque number. |
Ivy Winters was up next, with one of my favorite songs/acts of all time. "My Strongest Suit," from Disney's Aida, with her bajillion costume changes. After having seen the act from the livestream in Chicago, I spent most of the time trying to figure out for myself how she managed to accomplish 3/4 of the costume changes that she did. Because, it totally didn't seem possible that she could have done it all in the amount of time that she had...
Next up was BenDeLaCreme. Ben was one of my favorites during season 6 of the show, and I was really upset with the fact that she didn't make it further. Her burlesque number showed me that I was right. She's hilarious. From the acting, to the lack of a lip sync, to the tassles, to the hidden stash of glitter (I won't say where), it was amazing. The first time she sprinkled her glitter on the front row, I lost it. (And, I'm pretty sure, I didn't recover until well after the show was over.)
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| Darienne Lake |
Darienne Lake was up next. I wasn't quite sure what to expect from her. She wasn't part of the show in Chicago, and I hadn't really seen much of her, aside from on Drag Race. She blew me away. While a majority of the acts were live singing, Darienne did a killer lip sync of "Total Eclipse of the Heart." (I was glad to hear many of the people around me singing along with it, so that I didn't feel like a total fool, like I usually do, when I'm singing or lip syncing, myself.)
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| Jinkx Monsoon |
After Darienne, was Meryl Streep's witch from Into The Woods...er....Jinkx Monsoon. The mash-up of the garden rap and The Last Midnight, was amazing. While I was disappointed in the transition on the video from the Chicago show, due to the fact that it was in HD, and there was no blending of the two wigs, in real life, it was much better. There were places where you could tell that the tear away was there, but it wasn't like it was a glaring, LOOK WHAT'S COMING, like I had half expected it to be. And, she sang it live. Her performances in Chicago put me #teamjinkx. If there was any question, the performance here in Portland made me wonder what it was about her on Season 5 of Drag Race that I didn't like. She is amazing!
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James in the Fashion Design
Challenge |
The weakest part of the show, although, one of the funniest, as long as you knew who James was, was the design challenge. I get that Battle of the Seasons was supposed to be a "beginner's guide to Drag Race," sort of. And, during every show, there's the design/makeover challenge. Taking three random people from the audience, and bringing them up on stage and making a look out of trash...well, it was interesting. BenDeLaCreme, Ivy Winters and Jiggly Caliente were the "contestants" and they had 3 minutes to make some kind of outfit, and the audience would choose a winner. James, who is a bartender at Styxx, got to be one of the makeovers. From what I hear, people were upset that he was really drunk when he got up on stage...but, it made for good viewing. He kind of stole the show, and displayed major amounts of attitude...and photobombed most of my pictures of the other two contestants. In the end, though, his personality lost to Jiggly's design asthetic...causing the first LOSS for Ivy (who designs clothing in real life). By the end of the act though, my face hurt from laughing so hard. In spite of what other people thought, I thought it was hilarious.
Pandora Boxx, was up next. With the Hunger Games Captiol/Showgirl look, I had really high hopes for her. She's one of those queens that I just liked watching on the show. She lip synced to one of her own songs (which one, though, I can't remember.) Nothing really stood out about this performance. I was disappointed by this, because it felt a bit like what sometimes happens here in the Northeast with RuGirls...like, "I'm in Maine, I don't have to be at the top of my game." Whatever it was, this act just didn't quite do it for me.
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| Gotta Have A Gimmick |
Next up was "Gotta Have A Gimmick". Jinkx, Bendela, and Michelle. Can I just say, that these three made my night that night? Michelle with her horn, Bendela with her light up costume, and Jinkx with her wings. And, they all sang it live. I loved it.
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Jiggly Caliente as
The Queen of Hearts |
Next up was Jiggly. I really didn't know anything about Jiggly. What I did know, was that she was famous for jump splits. She came out, dressed as the Queen of Hearts, and did a mash-up of Gaga's "Poker Face" and "Heads Will Roll". While she didn't do any of her famous splits (for medical reasons, which I later found out), she turned it out. High kicks, and dancing. I loved it.
Snatch Game was up next. I was supremely fearful of this, because in Chicago, I hated it. I didn't really feel like it was all that funny. Alaska as LaGanja, Darienne as Adore Delano, Jinkx as Bette Davis and Pandora as Alaska, thankfully saved this version. I don't even know how to describe how funny this act was. The best I can do, is let you watch for yourself. Thanks to Chris Merrill, for posting the video from the show, so that I could share it. Just watch. You'll want to thank Mr. Merrill too.
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Michelle Visage does
Amy Winehouse |
At the end of Snatch Game, Michelle took a seat, and sang us an Amy Winehouse song. Someone from the audience brought her a shot, which she thanked them for, but, didn't drink. She then explained that she doesn't drink alcohol, and never has. I'm not sure why this surprised me, but it did. And, it leaves me a little in awe of her.
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| Ivy Winters |
Ivy came back out for her next number, and I was super excited. She was doing her stilts/butterfly number again. I'd seen it before on the livestream. And, it was amazing. It was even better in person. The couple of times that she came close to the edge of the stage, it was a little scary, because, in order to keep her balance, her feet were always moving...and there was always the question of, is she going to step too far forward? She didn't. Thank God.
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| Mimi from Titanic |
Mimi was up next. Again, I'm at a loss for words about how to describe her act. Mimi pretty much acted out the entire movie of Titanic. From the Old Rose, on the video screen behind her, to the giant hat, boarding outfit, to the outfit that she wore on the bow of the boat when Leo was King of the World, to the nude "Draw me like one of your French girls, Jack" body suit. This was one of my favorite parts of the evening, because it was Mimi's birthday, and she was "home" for it. They brought out a cake on the stage, and Mimi made a speech about how it was good to be home. (And, it was kind of good to hear, again, that she's admitting to being a girl from Maine...even if it's only when she's home.) Either way, she has cemented a place in my mind as one of the best queens I've seen.
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| Pandora Boxx as Elsa |
Pandora came back out for her final number, a mix of Let it Go and Try Some Blow. This one had me cracking up. I felt a little bad, because, literally, as a part of her Titanic act, Mimi had done Let it Go, and so I was kind of like, why didn't they check against each other's music before hand? She came out with a bag of
blow glitter snow, that she would sprinkle around the stage, and then later in the act, would "snort". And, I think my favorite part, was when she accidentally dropped the bag into the audience. My only issue with this, was that she still didn't seem to have the level of energy as the rest of the cast. So, her Alaska Thunderfuck, was the best of her acts during the show. And, I wish that they would have showcased a little more of her comedic timing than her lip sync.
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| Jinkx Monsoon performs Creep |
Jinkx was back for her "Creep" number. With the amount of live singing that she did during the night, I was surprised that she could sing. And, I was reminded of how much I loved this song, when I was a kid. At the end of the song, she showed us what she had to go through to get the dress to look the way it does...with an under-bustle (if that's a thing...) And, then, she sat down on the stage, and took some time to talk to us. She proceeded to tell us how 10% of us would talk about how drunk she was, and how bad the show was. She pretty much wrote off that 10%. She then reminded the rest of us that these girls are the ones who care. They're the ones who made the trek cross country to be here. And, that it does them good to see that we care, and want to see them, to be there to support them. It was the most heartfelt thing that I've heard, and I'm not sure whether that was actually part of the show "storyline" or if that was something special that we in Portland, Maine got that nobody else did. Either way, it was awesome.
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| Alaska battles the Hair Monster |
The show ended with Alaska and "This is my Hair", and her epic battle with the Hair Monster. (I kinda want a hair monster of my own...) I was trying to conserve my camera battery at this point, because just before Jinkx's last number, my battery started screaming that it was dying. And, then, I realized that I still had battery power in my phone, and took pictures that way. I still missed out on a lot of pictures, because the phone camera doesn't make up for shaky hands...
The show got over, and Wendy went home, since she had to be in Boston the following day. The boys went back to their hotel, and we (Shaunna Rai and I) went to Styxx for the After Party. The hope was that the girls from the show would come down and raise some hell. And, we weren't denied that. Mimi, Alaska and Bendela came down, out of drag, and spent the rest of the night at the bar. I, as usual, felt a little odd, because I didn't know Alaska or Ben and I only know Mimi a little. But, I was happy that I got to be a part of the after party, and the after after party. Now, what I need to do is learn to stop being the listener, and start being a talker. Because, otherwise, (in the words of Radiohead), "I'm a creep, I'm a weirdo, What the Hell am I doing here? I don't belong here."
