Monday, October 5, 2015

Cancer, Schmancer

It's very rare that a show comes along that I'm just not that into... Unfortunately, this was one of those rare shows that I probably should've stayed home for.

With the events of the previous night's show I was more or less exhausted and physically in pain, as I had apparently hit both my hip and my face on the way falling to the ground at the Breezeway.

In the middle of the day, I took a cake, along with a bunch of cupcakes to the Elks Club in Lewiston, so it would be there for Leanna Love, and be a surprise, as she didn't know that we were making her a cake.  Other than that, I did pretty much as little as possible.

I may have milked the sore and exhausted thing a little bit, but, I needed the rest, because there was still one more day of shows to go.

We got there, and I did the usual thing, being bag boy, grabbing my "dresser" ticket, and meeting up with my parents.

I hated the setup of the Elks Club. For a show, it was set up poorly. People wanted to tip, but the tables were too close to get through comfortably and there were so many people that it just looked awkward for the performers.  The stage was in a corner, far away from the audience, and there was little to no lighting, which meant that pictures were not very good from the night.

Knowing the girls in the show, I knew that the bar girl in each of them wouldn't allow most of them to stay on the stage, and figured that the best place for photos would be from across the room. I was mostly right, although, I should've used a flash, instead of relying on the low light settings on the camera and hoping.

I caught hell from stepping in front of the ladies in the concession stand, until they realized that during the show, nobody was getting up, and that they could move out from behind the counter.

Carol, my lobster smuggling friend from Zumba and her husband came, and I had them sit with my parents. Although, my mom followed me around with her camera...and Carol and her husband left...and dad followed us to the front, finding an empty chair, and getting the Shaunna treatment that I normally get, when she throws pieces of the tear aways at me...

Because I wasn't that into it, it felt like it took forever, I couldn't understand the need of Jacinda and Natilee to climb up on the tables and crawl around. (I mean, if that's what you want to do, fine, but, I just didn't get it.)

There were a couple of things that stood out for me though, and it wasn't all bad.

The show itself was a fund raiser, for two women who were battling cancer. Benefit shows are a good thing.

Over the years, I have often heard of Malibu, a queen that used to do shows all the time. I had never met her, and as far as I knew, she was no longer performing...only she did for this show.  My only issue with her performances, as a photographer, was that she kept turning her back to me, and even when she was looking toward my camera, her hair covered her face.

Jersey Couture, (who I have to fight myself to not call Jersey Shore) performed. It's rare enough to get her out out of drag, and even worse in drag, much less performing.

I don't remember if it was the sound,  the audience, the tipping or what, but, for the first time ever, in the time that I have been with Shaunna, I spotted a mistake in a number. So many of the numbers I have seen her do enough that if I wanted to, I probably could perform it spot on myself...so, when a rip away was missed, and then a double rip away happened, I kinda freaked out...like, what happened?

The show finally ended, and all the queens came out for a bow. And Chris, the emcee, asked Leanna to come back to the stage for a minute. Leanna, knowing that her birthday was right around the corner, tried to book it out of the place. After all the work that we put into the cake, I wasn't going to allow her to leave without at least seeing the cake. So I grabbed her arm, and walked her to a chair, while she glared at me, accusing, "You knew about this and didn't warn me!"

A few more pictures with all the queens, the cake, and a few random fans, and it was time to go. And I was ready...we still had Portsmouth the next day. Leanna invited us to go out for dinner, but we declined, and went home.

This was a bit of a low point in my drag fan career. But, you can't be on point all the time, and keep your physical being from having some kind of effect on your mood.

No comments:

Post a Comment