|
Feed
QW: Send savory bits of information to Byron
Beck at bbeck@
wweek.com at least 10 days prior to publication.
The
feathers will be flying as drag legends Penny Michaels and
Poison Waters take over the Thursday night show at Darcelle
XV for three nights only.
208
NW 3rd Ave.,
222-5338. 8:30 pm Thursdays, Sept. 14, 21 and 28.
Mother's
Bistro and Bar will be the site for a buffet dinner and
silent furniture auction to help defeat Ballot Measure 9.
Eat, defeat, and get something for da feet!
409
SW 2nd Ave.,
464-1122. 7 pm Sunday, Sept. 17. $50.
Check
out Queer As Folk and C1TV on local airwave Channel
99 every Wednesday at 10 pm. Or head to Boxxes for the weekly
Queer As Folk party.
|
|
I was sooo excited. It had been five years since I had
the pleasure of attending an annual Labor Day ritual: the
La Femme Magnifique International Beauty Pageant. Created
by our city's unofficial mascot, Darcelle XV, this 19-year-old
spectacle sets out each year to crown the most beautiful
female impersonator in the whole world. But after sitting
through the first hour of last week's disaster-laden debacle,
I could have easily waited another five centuries.
Contestants (who actually travel from such far-off locales
as Tacoma and Salt Lake City) compete in four categories:
Formal, Theme Look, Talent and Showgirl Look. For the price
of two drinks, audience members ooh and aah for their favorite
lip-synching "lady" while a panel of celebrity judges (such
as Wendy Westerwelle) decides the actual winner. It has
always had a decidedly JonBenet-meets-Baby Jane flair.
But this year's soiree got nasty.
Don't blame it on Darcelle or his lovable side-cock Roxy
Leroy. This recently registered out-and-about couple had
the unpleasant task of trying to keep the whole thing together
when all hell was breaking loose. You see, it seems a drag
queen is only as good as her technicians (just ask Milli
Vanilli). Unfortunately, the sound technicians hired to
do the audio portion of this shindig, which attracted 500
folks to Jantzen Beach's DoubleTree Hotel, sucked. Nothing,
and I mean nothing, is sadder than a drag queen without
her music.
For nearly an hour the festivities lurched along as leggy
performers grappled with miscued, or completely wrong, music
and spastic spotlights. During this time Darcelle gave the
faint impression of how the Unsinkable Molly Brown must
have acted on the Titanic.
But after those initial hissy-fit-prompting problems were
"fixed" (and the alcohol kicked in), the evening took on
a more upbeat flavor. How could it not? It was bonbon-shaking
time.
Sporting a "Latin Holiday" theme, the long runway was liberally
littered with sequins from the contestants' salsa-stylin,'
swaying costumes. Following numerous performances by Darcelle's
favorite performers (nothing like a little self-promotion),
a talent section (my personal favorite: CeCe from Tacoma,
who had all the charm of a cafeteria lunch lady belting
out Celine Dion) and the "Showgirl" presentation (feathery
headpieces actually scraped the ceiling of the DoubleTree's
Grand Ballroom), local "gal" Perla took home the crown right
around midnight. Perfect timing for these Cinder-fellas,
who were beginning to look like they had spent too much
time at
the ball.
|
|
