Walking out onto the stage wearing a red dress and massive high heels, Alex Sylvester (as Scarlett Ecstasy) is a towering seven-foot amazonian drag queen, and that doesn’t even include the extra half foot of red beehive wig perched on his head. The spotlight shines upon him in the darkened room and the audience awaits his every word with baited breath. In one hand he holds what appears to be a small fur coat.
“I was coming out onstage, and I saw this in the wings. I picked it up and thought, ‘Oh, God, is this a jacket or a wig?’ Thank God it’s a jacket. First-world drag queen problems,” Sylvester said. “This year we have all sorts of people. We have gay men that like to wear dresses, and bi men that like to wear dresses and straight men that like to wear dresses, all the colors of the rainbow. And does it matter? I don’t think so.”
The annual UO Drag Show was well-attended with around 400 tickets sold, and every previous year has also sold out. The proceeds of the ticket charges will go to the HIV Alliance.@@http://www.hivalliance.org/@@
Walking up the aisles and alongside the line waiting to be seated were the “cleavage and bulge patrol,” who were scantily clad guys and dolls gyrating and earning tips which go to fund the LGBTQA Alternative Spring Break vacation.@@http://tinyurl.com/7ax8cpk@@
Sylvester, a University junior@@http://directory.uoregon.edu/telecom/directory.jsp?p=findpeople%2Ffind_results&m=student&d=person&b=name&s=Alex+Sylvester@@, was one of the main driving forces behind this year’s drag show.
“This year it has sort of been my love child. I feel like it’s a little more organized this year,” Sylvester said. “We really don’t know how far back it goes, but I know it’s awhile. We have pictures that go back to the ’80s or ’90s.”
Sylvester continued, “One of the common misconceptions is that we all want to be women. The truth is, we’re just a bunch of guys that like to wear glitter.”
Waiting outside the EMU Ballroom before the show began sat Travis Prinslow, a nontraditional student in his junior year@@http://directory.uoregon.edu/telecom/directory.jsp?p=findpeople%2Ffind_results&m=student&d=person&b=name&s=Travis+Prinslow@@. Dressed in drag as well, with a brunette wig, fishnet shirt and a tank-top pullover, he opted not to perform in the show this year. Prinslow is battling Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. His drag name is “Hella Frustration.”
“I had chemotherapy yesterday, so I just didn’t feel well enough to chance a performance,” Prinslow said. “But I was well enough to come down and take pictures, and then I can put them up on the LGBTQA website.”
Dressed in drag with a painted-on mustache and strapped-down breasts (and bearing a striking resemblance to Tim Meadows from Saturday Night Live@@http://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/in-the-90s-tim-meadows/95436@@) is LGBTQA event coordinator Ryan Riddick. Her pop-and-lock dance routine with a fellow member of the cast is remarkable and drives the crowd wild.@@http://directory.uoregon.edu/telecom/directory.jsp?p=findpeople%2Ffind_results&m=student&d=person&b=name&s=Ryan+Riddick@@
“In years past we used to have headliners come down from Portland, but this year is all students. This is their opportunity to shine,” Riddick said.
“If you haven’t been, drag shows are so far above people’s comfort level that people just kind of say to themselves ‘Oh!’ They just end up going with it,” Sylvester said. “This is a product that sells itself. Who would want to miss this?”