The Drag Queens
Anyone else see this programme on ITV1 last night at 11pm?
The interest, for me, was in having been to the Birdcage nightclub in Leeds, allbeit a few years ago. Well, it was an opportunity to get to know these characters a little better and find out what has been happening at the club.
First of all the drag queens were interviewed and seen getting ready for their performances. Next we saw the Choreographer, a sweet RG, going through a few practice sessions with the troupe. TBH, the standard of the dance was pretty low - my wife, an ex-dancer, pulled it to pieces. On the other hand, I don’t think the audience at these sort of venues would be too critical.
Next, we found out what the future plans of the company were. An additional £2m venue in Manchester - looked as though it was close to the Arndale centre. Problems complained of were tradesman not thinking about the practicalities of trannies putting on make-up in the loos. Come on, what self-respecting tradesman is going to have that kind of foresight? That was the job of the club owners at the planning stage, yeah?
After that, the club manager interviewed a few trannies for the extra drag queens that would be needed. I’ve no idea whether this new club is up and running - anyone know anything about it?
IMPORTANT: next week (same time, same channel) one of the drag queens is going to give a demonstration of how she transforms herself.
I feel this programme had some personal interest, because I could relate to my impressions of the club in Leeds, but it certainly wasn’t a programme you could use as a launchpad for explaining to the wife/girlfriend that you were a trannie. She’d be thinking you were a raving queer (not that I have anything against raving queers) it’s just that all the drag queens were very camp… in the best tradition of course.
I’ll be watching the final part next week, if I remember…
Since writing this I’ve taken a look at the Birdcage website and discovered the Manchester venue has already opened so there you go.