PORTRAIT OF A QUEEN

 

Betty Fvck

London Adour

Sasha Velour

Sira ManDonna

Blu Hydrangea

SHOWTIME

This weekend brought about many treats since coming home. It was a drag feast for the eyes. Seems all the queens were coming all at once to the city of brotherly love. Friday night was the brilliant Sasha Velour. Every gay man and gay friendly person should have to see Sasha perform. Simply put, the queen is a genius ,and is doing things I have never seen being done before. Sasha is not only brilliant, but her wardrobe is jaw dropping, lip synchs are tightly done, and he is welcoming and sweet as hell. The things is his show Nightgowns is great, but Smoke and Mirrors is even more theatrical and magical then the prior mention. Not only does Sasha lip synch to some great standards, but his graphic artist background for effects is pheromonal. 

This was part of a number where Sasha's dress that looked like a tree continues to metaphases into a full tree by special effects.

But my favorite routine was where we thought we saw Sasha get into a box and get sawed in half...only to be revealed it was all hologram!!!!! Then the "magician" turns out to be Sasha!!! Sasha is way beyond many queens out there, and to me is really being drag to a whole new level. Poetic, artistic and brilliant. I highly recommend this show if it comes to your neck of the woods.

After the show with Olive d'Nightlife.

Last night was ugly. Another show, and if you saw, brought about Lady Bunny in the train station on Sunday morning. YIKES! Sunday night it was off to the Filmore for a full on debauchery fest!

This outrageous, traveling stage show has become a staple of the season,with it's magical and hilarious evening filled with holiday performances, many adult themed, of course. I wanted to go to catch up with Bunny, Nina and Roxxxy. But all these queens are something, and I great bunch! I just fell in love with Shuga Cain even more!!! It was much needed debauchery after a long business trip away.

A fun number with Roxxxy and Latrice. Latrice looked amazing...I suspect because her hubby Christopher was traveling with them. Bunny will have him corrupt by the end of this trip.

Roxxxy, who I will forgive, did THAT FUCKING Mariah Carey song. 'llI give it to her...she knew the lyrics better then Mariah!!!!

When does Manilla NOT bring down a house?

Thorgy was up to her usual colorful antics, Her volin number later was amazing.

Of course the piece de la resistance at most of these things is my favorite queen, the foul mouthed, debach filled, booze hound, sex crazed queen Lady Bunny!!!! Is it any wonder I love her? Bunny nor only did her usual Laugh In style routine, but also a version of Vogue that insulted almost every queen..ever...on Drag Race including Ru herself, but later did a story time, with the audience. Twas the Night Before Christmas, of course this was the Bunny version!!!!

Some candid's backstage. Thorgy is really a sweet heart

Roxxxy is waiting and ready to be the next Philadelphia Sports mascot. I hear the Borghese Houseboys Mud Wrestling is looking for a mascot gurl!

And Bunny arranged all this bitches for a group shot.

And my old and new love, Nina and Shuga Cain! Nina is the lovely hostess for every stop of this tour. Quite amazing she is!!!! Considering she will be doing this every night till January and still keep it fresh, funny and smiling. Nina is a lovely soul.And Shuga's energy is contagious.

After the show most of the queens and the crowd hit the gayborhood for drinks...which is where it all went down hill. Today was ugly. Someone threw me under a Mac truck I believe, or under Latrice!!!! Bunny and her damn shots. Thank goodness my friend John drove me home and got me in bed. And the way I see it, Bunny now owes me a half days pay for leaving early!!!!! Bitch.  A Drag Queens Christmas is coming to a city near you hopefully. I know I have readers in Atlanta, San Fran, Chicago, St.Louis and LA. The girls were telling me, they are all on every stop, with exception to Roxxxy. When she is not present, the fill in queen is either Willam, Scarlett Envy or Shea Coulee. The tour dates are here.

If you need holiday cheer, then this is your ticket.

SMOKE AND MIRRORS

In an already very crowded drag world bursting at the seams, one better have a schtick and something very creative if you want to hold the attention, or have bigger dreams.

And this week's Grande Dame, Sasha Velour is one such queen who I feel is one of the most creative and memorable and unique to hit the scene since RuPaul herself. Sasha is a gender-fluid drag queen and visual artist. Through multi-media performance, advocacy, and design, Velour’s work maps out new frontiers for drag and creates new spaces for LGBTQ artists to flourish and thrive. Sasha Velour came to national attention in 2017, when she won season 9 of RuPaul' s Drag Race. But if you were in on the night scene or drag scene, you were well aware of Ms Velour long before that.. Her finale lip-sync to “So Emotional” by Whitney Houston was called “the performance of the year” by the AV Club and named one of “TV’s Best Musical Moments on Television” by Entertainment Weekly.Velour frequently uses her platform to not only showcase her incredible ensembles, but also discuss politics, queer history, and LGBTQ+ issues. She was billed as a keynote speaker at the 2018 Teen Vogue Summit in New York City, and in December 2018, she took the stage at The Smithsonian for “The Long Conversation,” an event with leaders from around the world. Velour invested her Drag Race prize money back into “Nightgowns,” the monthly drag show she had been producing since 2015 in Brooklyn. Serving as its host, director, and in-house lighting designer, Velour has turned Nightgowns into one of the most esteemed live drag shows in the world. If you haven't seen it...it 's a NYC must see. I feel her drag and performances have brought drag to an entirely new level of performance art.

I'm excitied to see Sasha when she brings her show , Smoke and Mirrors to Philadelphia next week. Smoke & Mirrors, Sasha Velour's first one-queen theatre tour, is an effortless blend of drag, visual art, and magic. Velour introduces audiences to a whole new side of her artistry, through 13 dazzling and genre-busting lip-synch performances, all directed and choreographed by the queen herself. You'll be on the edge of your seat as she explodes into rose petals, vanishes in a poof of smoke, saws herself in half, conjures a rainstorm, even transforms into a tree in front of your eyes (to name just a few). But the real magic is the way that these illusions and deceptions serve to unmask deeper truths, sparking fresh analysis of gender, fame, family, and the importance of dreaming big and living life over-the-top.. So  if your to be in Philly or live in Philly,  next  Friday, November 22 at 8:00 she'll be the Merriam Theater. Tickets here. A little velour bird tells me they are going fast.Without giving too much away, here is one number she'll be doing, a favorite of mine and a Shirey Bassey number. to boot She is just incredible. 

PORTRAIT OF A QUEEN

Upon getting backs from travels, I just had to watch the finale of Drag Race, and was very happy with the outcome. Is was great to see the performers of Queens, Bronx and Brooklyn getting some attention with their ground breaking styles, and who better to win..... Sasha Velour.... who pretty much nailed the season. I was also very proud of Peppermint too, she a incredible performer.

Sasha Velour is a gender-fluid drag queen and designer currently living in Brooklyn, NY. Her creative work includes drag performance, publishing, fashion, and music. She produces and stars in the drag show “Nightgowns," She is also the creative force behind Velour: The Drag Magazine, a bi-yearly publication about drag artists that has been called “unmistakably thoughtful"…with an edgy, demure, and exacting aesthetic. A huge Con-drag-u-lations to Sasha on the win!!! Nice to see a winner with a different style, be added to the winners circle.

DRAG RACE GIRLS.....C L A T

New York City's finest queens were a HUGE presence on season 9 of RuPaul's Drag Race, with four of the year's 14 contestants coming from the five boroughs. That NYC season 9 quartet -- Peppermint, Alexis Michelle, Sasha Velour and Aja -- teamed up with DJ Mitch Ferrino for "C.L.A.T.," a sickening house track with an arresting video that Billboard is premiered a week ago. And C L A T stands for club, legend, art, theater. Rather catchy......

MOST AVANT GARDE THING YOU'LL SEE

Sasha Velour is an up-and-coming fireball of talent, and campy fashion shaker, that resides in New York City. Graphic designer, cartoonist, illustrator, and most importantly drag artiste.

Sasha is the first drag performer, I've seen, that uses visual art in her numbers as a way of storytelling. She wanted more tools to share that narrative with the audience, so she started to use projected images…and from there she just went bonkers. Take a look at the phenomenal performance of her's titled Cellphone. It's the most avant garde thing you see all day. I have never seen anything like it. I was literally speechless. Sasha can also be seen this Friday when the ninth season of RuPaul's Drag Race starts. This is promising to be a group of the most talented season yet.