Drag show offers CU an unforgettable experience, performances
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With Champaign Pride coming up, LGBTQ events took place across the CU region, including cocktails and queens – a drag show was hosted by Amy Myers at the City Center on Chestnut Street on Saturday.
Cocktails and Queens is a three-hour drag show featuring seven queens from southern Illinois. Amy Myers, a drag show producer and member of the LGBTQ community, hosted her first event since COVID-19 just in time to participate in Pridefest, which takes place next week.
Cocktails and Queens was meant to keep the art of drag alive due to the lack of queer spaces in the Champaign-Urbana area, Myers said. Before COVID-19, drag shows were produced in smaller venues like bars, so Myers held his event in a much larger venue in hopes of attracting more people and putting drag on a bigger scale. big stage.
The show began with the first queen’s “leggy beauty” Corinna Carrington giving a stunning performance to Ariana Grande’s song “7 Rings”. She teased the crowd first, slowly walking up the steps to the stage until she was in the center of the stage. She strutted out on stage, not too much energy for a performance, but it did make for a very “rich girl queen” once “7 Rings” was remixed into Rihanna’s song, “B *** * Better Have Money, “as members of the public in both VIP and General Admission threw dollar bills on the scene. Corinna was also showered with dollar bills from the seats above, winning a huge stack of bills at the end of her performance.
The most energetic performance given was certainly Apollo Summers as Myers warned the crowd to “Get out your cell phones and cameras because you’ll never know what she’s going to do next.” Apollo stood out from the artist crowd with her royal blue queen cape and a glittering gold crown to match her theme of royalty. She started her performance with the song “The Ice” by Politascrack, then moved on to “Work from Home” by Fifth Harmony with a change of outfit. She went from royalty to a very vibrant blue and orange outfit, backflip (in heels) when the pace dropped. She was so energetic and very engaged with the crowd that she bumped into the crowd before the second beat drop and death fell through the slits in the middle of the VIP section.
The audience was screaming and jumping up and down for Apollo as she took a few seconds to collect her tips. She ended her performance with a third costume change into a blue and orange tasseled bodysuit, posing center stage as members of the audience formed a small crowd around her. Truly the most exciting performance from the start.
One of the night’s favorite performances was to watch a drag king performance by a drag artist named Presley. Drag kings are usually overshadowed by more common drag queens, Presley’s performance was no shortage of entertainment.
Presley performed Elvis Presley’s “Trouble”, drawing many women into the crowd. It wasn’t as in your face or alive as some of the other queens, but it was a much loved experience for the audience after hearing pop song after pop song. Presley sang passionately into the mic and danced to the audience members, collecting tons of wolf whistles. Presley ended his set with another song from Elvis Presley, ending with a long note that the audience screamed at as Presley fell to his knees in the center of the stage.
To have even more fun at the show, Myer’s organized a dance on stage where the winner received a drink of alcohol at the bar. Myer teased the crowd by asking: “Are you sure we should play the hot dirty version or the nice version?” which was answered with a resounding âDirty! ” a crowd.
Each contestant got to go to the middle of the stage and catwalk to show off their dirty dance moves with a striptease if they were comfortable. Almost all of the contestants showed some skin, but the winner of the dance battle was a girl who did the worm. Other notable contestants broke up on the pitch and twerked for the crowd, really making the atmosphere of the event very friendly, light and comfortable.
Anyone interested in attending a drag show but might be nervous should definitely go if possible. It truly is an experience to be a part of something so special for the LGBTQ community, and it’s welcoming to all genders and sexual orientations. Supporting queens with tips is crucial while they put in working hours for a little performance time, so if you’re looking to go to a show, in the words of Amy Myers, “Bring a lot of inconvenience.”
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