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We told you to tease that hair and dust off the falsies! This year's Miss Trannyshack Pageant was hailed as the biggest, most bedazzling dragfest the world has ever seen, and it just might have lived up to that expectation.
After years of sold out shows, the Trannyshack folks moved the pageant to the SF Gift Center, a slick four story, open, airy, mezzanine-like venue that finally gave the legendary event enough space to welcome the 2,000 fans, admirers, curious onlookers, partiers and revelers. Lines around the block for both will-call and ticket buyers (at $35-$45 a pop) confirmed that the show's sold-out status has continued through this year. SF's quintessential television drag-news correspondent Donna Sachet was interviewing queens, performers and fans in her smart red suit as the hordes poured in and raced to one of the 12 bars for on extra strong, mortifyingly overpriced cocktail.
The giant spectacle began at 11pm (which is drag-time for 10pm sharp). After a LoveShack as TrannyShack song intro, and a brief appearance by supervisor Mark Leno, Heklina and her hair began introducing performances by previous Trannyshack legends. Soon, we were off on our fairytale ride through drag shows, Broadway, political presentations, satirical art, the crude, the lewd and the downright dirty. Video introductions made by SF's favorite queens were generally creative, smart, well executed and pretty damn funny (Pollo Del Mar had the crowd hooting with her black-and-white "How to Trap Queen in the Woods with KFC" film). The musical performances were…not always. The Trannsyshack pageant has made a name for itself by taking drag to a whole new level, with background singers, dancers, entourages and casts. The sets, the costumes, the wigs, and the (clearly intense) amount of rehearsal time all elevate their concepts to grandiose levels. Unfortunately, this doesn't always jive with the audience. Political messages set to 3-song ballad medleys felt endless, and they often lost a highly distractible audience.
Miss Trannyshack 2006 Raya Light offered a provocative performance that transformed her from an oversized girl doll into a buck naked man in front of an American flag. The biggest hits with the crowd, though, were simpler and more entertaining. Dolly Parton's 9-to-5 anthem, Juanita More's performance of Aretha's Respect with a fake gospel choir, a killer Marie Antoinette costume, swings, balloon drops, and other forms of ooh-and-aaah big children entertainment. Unfortunately, the sound system was so poor and muffled it was almost impossible to understand anything said into the mic. Guest judge and comedienne Sandra Bernhard spent half of her stand-up skit mocking the sound quality. Great riffing, from what I could make out of it…. This year, the controversy over the winner wasn't as insane as previous years (e.g. when genetic female Fauxnique won), though the usual audience backlash erupted when many felt the third runner-up should've been the winner. All in all, Miss Trannyshack continues to be the big, gay extravaganza it has always promised it is. In the words of Heklina, it's "the heavenly highs, the lumbering lows, the dizzying dazzlement, the visceral vortex and ruthless reality which are all a part of claiming the coveted Miss Trannyshack crown and sash."
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