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Pageants are as closely tied to drag culture as talent shows. In the decade-plus I’ve been around Portland’s cabaret scene, drag producers have used pageant-style contest shows as a way to motivate the performer pool, rewarding winners’ hard work with more work in future shows.
Fat Chance is an annual cabaret pageant with the hook in the title: It showcased the beauty and skills of fat drag and burlesque performers. Held at Echo Theater on July 5, Fat Chance featured a solidly entertaining first half, with 10 contestants vying for bragging rights, bookings and cash money. Megz “The Legs” Madrone, Fat Chance’s runner-up, matched Jon Bon Jovi’s vocals and stage swagger with her live cover of “Wanted Dead or Alive.” Aunt Gore’s creepy Texas Chain Saw Massacre Barbie act was truly unsettling. La Mama Dora’s feeder fetish-inspired act wasn’t fully fleshed out, but her costume styling—how she wore it, rather than what she wore—earned her the title of Curvy Couture.
The second half, unfortunately, did not match the first. A lengthy raffle drawing held immediately after intermission brought the show’s momentum to a halt, while the pageant’s reintroduction segment felt needlessly repetitive. Tighter stage management could have made the three-hour show shorter without compromising entertainment quality. If Fat Chance’s organizers used that intermission to tabulate the judges’ scores, for example, they didn’t finish. Ten numbers is a lot to get through, so maybe hosts Ry Bred and Nashville Hott could have saved their admittedly very funny acts for the second half. A RuPaul’s Drag Race-style lip sync battle didn’t seem to cement the results, either (the judges’ remarks weren’t openly shared).
The openly trans drag king Wonderful won the Fat Chance title, with his gross-out act of passing gas almost on cue to classical music besting trained singers, dancers and musicians. Wonderful wasn’t my top pick, but his audacious spirit is one I want to see flourish with time and experience.
Speaking as an audience member, I think Fat Chance would have been more enjoyable as a showcase of talent rather than a competition. It would have been more fun to form connections to favorites rather than watch the show and be told at the end that your new favorites aren’t good enough to win.
