A Night at the Breezeway

Following the show with Joslyn, we had a couple days off, before the next weekend. Only this weekend was going to be a full weekend of drag shows.

Friday night, was a show at the Breezeway, in Manchester,  New Hampshire, called Drag Roulette. A simple concept...the queen spins a wheel, with a list of artists on it, and then the DJ picks a song, and the queen does her best interpretation of the song.  It's a great idea, and it's always fun to see Porcia...who had invited Shaunna Rai to perform.

The morning started with Shaunna putting everything that she needed in the living room, for me to load in the trunk later, when it was closer to time to leave.  I took her to work, and then began a crazy day of baking, and running errands, for a birthday the following day, with another show.

I got everything done that needed to be, except finding cupcake tins, so I ended up baking cupcakes in muffin tins, like muffins, resulting in uncircumcised cupcakes. I finally had everything done, with about an hour left before I needed to go back to Portland to pick Shaunna up.

I loaded everything into the car, and then left. I got a mile down the road, before I realized that the one thing I had forgotten, was the makeup...without which, Shaunna wouldn't have been able to come out. So, I turned around and tried again. This time, I had everything.

I scooped up Dan/Shaunna, and we took off for Manchester. The ride was very much uneventful. I got an earful for almost forgetting the makeup. And, an earful about my driving, thanks to some road work and people slamming on brakes ahead of me.

Finally, we made it to Porcia's. We got the tour of her apartment. And then it was time to get down to business. Makeup mirrors went up for Shaunna, and Porcia and Scarrlett went to their respective drag rooms.  I had a couple of half Solo cups of wine, while I waited.

While Shaunna painted, I watched Porcia's dog screw the life out of a teddy bear. 

Finally, it was time for us to go, for the show. We were a few minutes late, but it was all good. Since the whole show was the three queens, it had to wait for them to even start. We ordered drinks, and I took my place for taking pictures.  I looked forward to it, because I haven't seen a lot of performances by either Porcia or Scarrlett.

Everyone did their first number,  and then it was time for a break. We went outside a the girls could get some air, and so that those who smoked could do so.

Upon returning inside, I was approached by a guy selling roses, and since we were close to Dan's birthday, I figured, sure, why not? We got a drink...I got a water, because I was feeling a little off. And, headed back in, so that the girls could get ready for their second numbers.

What I remember,  is that I got dizzy and grabbed ahold of a counter, and tried to sit on the stool. And then, I was on the floor. Shaunna and Porcia were standing over me. I had no idea what happened.

We went outside, so that I could get some air, and try to remember what happened. Shaunna told me that we could leave if I wanted to, because this was a health issue. I said no, because I already was feeling guilty about having passed out, and I didn't want to have made this trip all the way for one number.

Scarrlett's boyfriend volunteered to stay with me. I was immensely grateful,  and at the time completely ashamed, because I didn't know what happened...and with the cooler air hitting me, I couldn't tell if I had spilled my water, or if I had pissed myself, which made me even more upset.

When I finally regained my composure,  we went to the patio, so I could at least not be sitting outside the door like someone who got kicked out. A guy asked me to take a picture of him with Alex, Scarrlett's boyfriend. I did, and only then realized I had shoved the roses in my camera bag, and fallen on them. (I almost started crying again.)

Alex asked me if I wanted to go in for the last number,  to give Shaunna the roses, and I said I thought that I could manage that. And, so I did.

We left almost immediately after. I still felt like a douche. Dan needed to get out of drag, and then I got the full fury of just how badly I had scared him, and why I need to take better care of myself. And, it was a matter of making myself talk on the way back, so that we didn't end up having to go to the ER, and cancel the rest of the weekend.

That was the night that the Kennebunk rest area BK let us down at 2am, by having switched over to the breakfast menu, when all I wanted to eat was a burger and fries... You will never understand the letdown of sausage and a hash brown, when that isn't what you're craving.

I was never so happy to get home and go to bed as I was that night.

Ask Me Something Interesting!

After I started this blog, Dan started getting requests to answer some questions about drag for people who, like myself, were doing research.  In my case, it's for a blog.  In other cases, it's for college papers, or what have you.

When I created my list of questions that I would just randomly ask any queen who wanted to answer for me, I thought that they were good questions, that anyone would want to know the answers to.  So, after Dan answered the third set of questions, and asked, "Do people realize how many times I answer the same questions? I wish that people would just ask me something different once in a while."

Obviously, people are the most interested in the things that seem the most basic to the person who gets asked them all the time.  So, being the curious person I am, I asked.  "So, what would you rather people ask?"  To which, I got asked a question in return.

"IF you could ask any queen, whether it were me, or Jujubee or Mizery, anything, what would you ask them?  And I'm not talking the fluffy stuff, like how long. Like REAL questions."

And, it got me really to think about what WOULD I ask, if I had the chance.  My thought process went to the usual.  I have an obsession for understanding drag names, and where they come from.  That's my own personal weirdness, but I think other people think it's interesting too. Maybe. Or, maybe it really is just me.  (Fluffy.)  How long have you been doing drag? (Fluffy)  How did you get your start in drag? (Fluffy)

Everything that first comes to mind is fluff.  It's the same set of questions that get asked over and over and over, hundreds of times.  And, once I got that, I realized, there needs to be more to the questions, in order for you to not be the same as everyone else.  This can be accomplished by looking at what you really want to discover from the questions that you ask.

While, in my head, a question like, "How did you get your start?" is all encompassing, to a queen, it's literally about the first time they did drag.  Where, in my head, it's "Tell me about the first time you did drag.  How did you get your name? Who is your drag family? And, a number of other questions that need to actually come out of my mouth (or fingers, as the case may be.) A question that I came up with, on my own, without having to ask a hundred other questions to get the round answer that I wanted, was "What is it about Drag that keeps you coming back to do it? It takes time and money, and can be less than stellar, depending on where, when and who is involved.  You could make a killing with tips, or you could leave with nothing, because you're either going just for exposure, or, because you're donating your time.

Of course, I haven't met Jujubee, to ask her.  And, I haven't seen Mizery, since the last time we went to Club 313 in Manchester.  And, I think when I actually asked that, Dan didn't answer it for me.  Bear in mind, this was a month or two ago, so I may have forgotten if there was an answer, because we were on other business when the subject came up.

Anyway, so we had this conversation, and moved on from it.  And then, a couple weeks ago, a friend asked Dan if he would answer some questions for a research paper.  First thing he said, upon receiving the questions was "Don't you people know how many times I'm asked the same things?" And, he handed me the phone, knowing full well, that I was going to write about this later.  And, sure enough, the majority of the questions were questions that I had already asked him.  Sure, there were a few new/different questions.  But, overall, they set the same tone, as far as content.

So, next time you want to ask a queen a question, try to be mindful of the fact that they're always being asked the same set of questions, about the how/when/why's of it all.  Try to be original, and ask something that will be a little meatier for them.  Don't fluff it up in order to seem like you don't really want to know something.  If you want to know, ASK.  They'll answer.  They might just gripe about the questions at a later date.

That being said, what would you ask a drag queen, if you could ask anything you chose?