Last night a group of us from work headed to 170 Russell to celebrate Financial New Year’s Eve with Karen From Finance. Having come out of lockdown a few weeks ago there were still some public health directions in place such as wearing masks, social distancing and having bar tables and stools on the dance floor to try to prevent dancing. However, this didn't stop people from having fun just like at a regular drag show.
Each of the performers did two numbers and DJ Argonaut played tracks both before and in between the performance sets. The evening opened with RuPaul's Drag Race Down Under season 1 finalist Karen From Finance doing a Dolly Parton medley that included "Jolene" and "9 to 5." Next was Aysha Buffet dressed as a scout with balloons tied to the back of her shorts lip syncing to audio of a scout helping a senior citizen to get a badge that merged into Cardi B's "Up." Then D Flowers came out and did a Britney Spears medley which included "Baby One More Time," "Oops!...I Did It Again," "Stronger" and "Toxic."
During the performance break we all danced together to DJ Argonaut and enjoyed being out in a club and not in lockdown at home. Karen From Finance came out first for the second performance set in her sequin shark outfit from Drag Race and did a number to the Jaws theme and Lady Gaga's "911" (complete with a severed leg). Aysha Buffet was up next with a performance to "Heartbreak Anthem" by Galantis, David Guetta and Little Mix. Then D Flowers finished up the set with a Beyoncé Coachella lip sync featuring "Single Ladies" and "Love On Top."
As we neared midnight all the girls came back onto the stage and counted us down into the new financial year. We were then treated to the debut of Karen From Finance's new single and video for "Out Of Office," which features a lot of her costumes from Drag Race. We all had such a great time and it was almost like we were back in pre-COVID times.
Here's the video for Karen From Finance's debut single "Out Of Office":
Tonight Sean and I headed to The Melba Spiegeltent in Collingwood for the second of two sold out shows for Karen From Finance’s one woman show Out Of Office. It started with a hilarious video of Karen getting ready for work to Dolly Parton’s “Working Girl.” Karen deals with a lot of misogyny at work, but she loves her job and is the first to arrive and last one to leave each day.
One morning she receives a call from HR and is told that she must take four months leave to use up her entitlements. Karen doesn’t know how to process this news, so she heads off to a bar and one drink leads into a four month bender (again with some hilarious video footage of her adventures). Karen wakes up in an unfamiliar location and has to find a way to get some money in order to get back home in time for work. Logically, she decides to enters a lip sync contest, but things don't quite turn out as expected.
The show was well written and mixed comedy, video clips, lip syncing
and some great costumes. I'm really glad that In The Dark supported this tour for an Australian queen, and I hope we’ll get to see more local girls touring shows in the future (which is likely as it looks like Drag Race Australia will be confirmed shortly).
Last night I headed to 170 Russell to catch this year's Comedy Queens tour, which was a mix of queens from Australia, RuPaul's Drag Race, and a couple iconic drag pioneers. Local favorite Karen From Finance opened the evening with a medley around names and also MC'd the show throughout the night. Next was Australian legend Trevor Ashley, who spoke about her stage career and life, and sang a song about all the famous Aussies she's been with.
The drag icon Miss Coco Peru then hit the stage and did a stand up set with stories about growing up gay in the US, and also sang a parody song to Frank Sinatra's "That's Life." Next up were two stars from RuPaul's Drag Race and the hosts of the fantastic podcast Race ChaserWillam and Alaska Thunderfuck. Willam did some funny jokes, called out audience members trying to take photos from bad angles, and then did his Britney Spears parody to "Oops!... I Did It Again" about fellow queen and Britney impersonator Derrick Barry. Alaska was next on stage in a leopard print outfit, questioning why she was on the tour since she considers herself a glamour queen. Alaska took out her glasses and did some library reads, and then invited an audience member up to sing along with her to her new song "Walking Into The Club."
After a short intermission the legendary Jackie Beat hit the stage. She did a set of stand up and had a great punchline about wearing flats because her feet are tired from paving the way for everyone else. She also sang two parody songs, including one to Jennifer Holiday's "You're Gonna Love Me." The show then took a strange turn when Vanessa Vanjie Mateo from seasons 10 and 11 of RuPaul's Drag Race came out and didn’t really do much except wander around the stage and the front of the crowd as she dedicated Taylor Swift’s "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together" to her ex and fellow season 11 contestant Brooke Lynn Hytes. Karen From Finance had to pop out on stage to keep things moving as Vanjie got a couple guys from the crowd up for a twerking contest.
Thankfully season 8 winner Bob The Drag Queen was up next and just mastered the crowd with a hilarious stand up routine that touched on many topics, including White Night, RuPaul's Drag Race, and the things that are shared between straight girls and their gay friends. Bob also did lip sync mashup around how to detect guys who are cheating. We were then treated to a joint performance by Willam and Alaska of their parody of Kelly Clarkson's "A Moment Like This" called "A Lacefront Like This" that included several wig reveals and a name-check of Sydney's own Wigs By Vanity.
The show finished with everyone coming back out on stage one by one to RuPaul's "Sissy That Walk" for a final bow. I thought this year's show was much better run to time than last year's, and I love that this tour features such a diverse range of queens, many of whom you wouldn't otherwise get to see in Australia.
Tonight I had the privilege of seeing my favorite RuPaul's Drag Race alum and All Stars 3 winner Trixie Mattel return to Melbourne at The Plenary with her new one woman show Skinny Legend. This was the last night of her Australian tour, and opening the evening was Melbourne's very own Karen From Finance, who performed a great routine themed around the working women and office environment. She not only lip synced to Dolly Parton's "9 To 5," but also former Prime Minister Julia Gillard's famous misogyny speech against Tony Abbott.
Before Trixie came out on stage there was a cute little cartoon of her getting ready, then a compilation of clips from interviews, RuPaul's Drag Race, the YouTube series UNHhhhand Viceland's The Trixie and Katya Show. Trixie began the show with a lip sync mash up to "Roxie (The Name On Everybody's Lips)" from the musical Chicago, but with a robot voice inserted to say Trixie instead, as well as some monologues by Tammie Brown and Jasmine Masters. Trixie was wearing a full blond wig and purple jumpsuit with long bell sleeves for the first half of the show. She had some great stand-up bits and stories that covered a wide range of topics, including going through Australian immigration, ageing, parenting, bears and interactions with fans. Despite not liking hugs she invited an audience member up on stage to hug her, which resulted in a red warning alarm going off while she was being touched.
Trixie's Australian accent has improved from previous visits, which could be thanks to her watching Wigs By Vanity Instagram videos. As expected, she played some songs on guitar, with "I've Already Got Your Money" dedicated to people who might be offended by the show, a new song "Rich People" about the troubles of the rich like having to double parking their boats or staining their fur coats with the blood of the poor, and "Little Sister" off last year's EP One Stone. Trixie also sang a hilarious parody of Kim Carnes' "Bette Davis Eyes" called "Steve Buscemi Eyes," which featured a photo montage on the screen of various Drag Race alum faces photoshopped with his eyes.
After a brief intermission the second half of the show began with old black and white fitness and modelling clips hilariously narrated by Devon Green. Trixie then came out in a 1970s Cher/Native American inspired pink outfit with a long pink headdress that showed off lots of body. She had some hilarious puns about her outfit, such as,"I had reservations about wearing this" (note Trixie is Ojibwe). She told more personal stories with her stand up in the second part of the show, including about growing up in rural Wisconsin and being a country gay, moving to Los Angeles and the differences in who's considered hot, and some interesting encounters with the dentist and proctologist.
Musically Trixie showed off her chops by playing a pink clarinet to "Colors Of The Wind" from the Disney movie Pocahontas, her beautiful pink autoharp on the plaintive song "Is Michael Cera Hot" (complete with photo montage playing behind her), and then back onto guitar for the unreleased song "Yellow Cloud," which is due out in May 2019. To finish the night we got a snippet of Oasis' "Wonderwall" by audience request before she played the song that represented her past 12 months, RuPaul's "Kitty Girl" from the All Stars 3 finale. Trixie sang the first two verses before getting a guy from the audience to sing BeBe Zahara Benet and her parts of the song. Overall Skinny Legend was such a fantastic show and demonstrated how multitalented Trixie is as a performer. I am looking forward to some new music on the horizon and hopefully more Australian shows in the near future.
Here's the video for a live acoustic version of "Little Sister"
Over the past few months I have been binge watching numerous previous seasons of RuPaul's Drag Race that I missed when they originally aired (it's available for streaming on Stan here in Australia). One of my absolute favorite contestants, the winner of All Stars 3 and co-host of the YouTube series UNHhhh and Viceland's The Trixie & Katya Show, Trixie Mattel performed tonight for her third Melbourne show at Chasers Nightclub in South Yarra.
The show was broken up into two sets to allow for costume changes. It began with the famous Melbourne queen Karen From Finance lip syncing to Meredith Brooks' "I'm A Bitch." Karen was our MC for the evening and was quite entertaining as she revved up the crowd and introduced each performer. At the start of each set we got a lip sync performance from local queens Lexi GaGa (set 1) and Sabrina Babyslut (set 2), who had the largest number of outfit reveals that I have ever seen in one performance. It was pretty epic.
Supporting Trixie on this tour was RuPaul's Drag Race season one and All Stars 1 contestant Tammie Brown. Tammie is an absolute original and performed her own songs across both sets, including "Walking Children In Nature" and "Porta Potti Prostitute." She also spoke to us in multiple languages and got the whole crowd to move like chickens.
Trixie Mattel is an extremely talented musician and comedian, and she has combined these elements, along with her trademark look, into an amazing and hilarious show. In the first set she did a total take down of some of her fellow RuPaul's Drag Race: All Stars contestants and played the finale version of "Kitty Girl," inviting people up from the crowd to sing the verses by Shangela and BeBe Zahara Benet. She also did one of my favorite songs of hers, "Mama Don't Make Me Put On The Dress Again" off the album Two Birds, and a cover of Avril Lavigne's "Sk8er Boi."
In the second set she opened with the most epic mashup lip sync performance themed around the working woman that included movie clip dialogue and portions of Dolly Parton's "9 To 5," Donna Summer's "She Works Hard For The Money" and Britney Spears' "Work Bitch." The whole crowd lifted and lost it when Trixie started dancing down the stage platform. She did some more comedy bits, including her attempt at an Aussie accent, and finished by singing "Break Your Heart" off her latest album One Stone.
All the girls that performed then came out for one final bow and a photo with the audience (Trixie somehow managed a quick costume change into a pink dress and short wig) and that was it for the night. It was such a fun evening although I wish Trixie had performed more of her own music, including the wonderful and touching "Moving Parts." I'm looking forward to getting to see Trixie again (as well as other Drag Race alumni) as part of the Comedy Queens tour in August.
Here's the video for "Mama Don't Make Me Put On The Dress Again"
