This wasn't a drag!

When I think of men in drag, I picture giggling men in women’s clothing with way too much makeup on trying to sell their bodies. Until this past Friday I had never seen anyone in drag. So when I saw a professional drag show, I was really taken aback.

Upon arriving at Ibiza, the gay venue downtown, the first thing I did was follow my straight friend into the ladies bathroom. She had seen people in drag before and has lots of gay friends, so when we bumped into two “men” in the bathroom she didn't blink an eye. I, however, couldn’t stop staring. The young girls were in men’s clothes that were tight on their large bodies. One had on a backwards hat and smoked a cigarette while trying to keep a masculine expression on her face. The other had one a plaid shirt and a crew cut and talked in a very low voice. They were obviously women, but it looked like they were playing dress-up.

Once we made it to the stage, the crowd was to stand around the dance floor, not on it, so the performers could use it as they pleased. I walked across it to stand on the other side just before the lights went down and was yelled at in a loud voice: “Hey get off the dance floor, they’ll get angry if you’re in their way!”

The lights then went down and music began to play very loud. Everyone was silent and looked on intently. A spotlight shown on the stairs of the stage and a man in drag appeared. He (or, “she,” they prefer to be called) was an overweight middle aged man that looked like he’d spent days doing his makeup and hair. His hair was long, black and curly. He was wearing a leather corset and fishnet tights. Everyone cheered at the ensemble. I was told that most of the performers made their own outfits because they can’t find ones that fit them they way they like. An announcer introduced the performer by his drag name, which were two female names put together. His was Tara Nicole. He moved down the stairs effortlessly in four-inch heels and walked around the dance floor to show off to the crowd.

The entire time, he mouthed the words to Gimme More, by Britney Spears. Everyone cheered and smiled and held out one dollar bills. I had no idea that people gave money to the performers as if they were strippers. Sometimes the crowd held the dollar bill in their mouth or their breasts and had the performers take it out with his mouth. I was handed a few dollar bills from my friend and decided to try it. I held out the money and when the man in drag came my way, he gave me his cheek to kiss. At first I didn’t know what he was doing, but then I did the appropriate air-kiss and he kept dancing. Whenever the chorus of the song came on, he did a split or high kicks in the air. In the middle of the song, his wig flew off on accident, revealing a bold head with duct tape around it, but he kept going and just smiled. This made the crowd love him even more and hands holding dollar bills shot up in the air along with screams of support.

The other performers were all the same body type, each with their own “personality” to match their outfit. One looked like a motorcycle girl, one looked like a housewife. Some even had breast implants. All of them were very good and knew how to please a crowd. They took their work very seriously and didn’t ever let anyone touch them.

After the show, my friend asked me if I had a good time because she said I had a shocked expression on my face the whole time. The show was aimed to please every kind of audience, not just homosexuals. The people that performed in the show were professionals and really acted like it.