Drag kings and queens strutted their stuff on the catwalk for LGBT awareness — and the audience’s dollar bills — Tuesday night in the Russell House ballroom.
The annual Birdcage event, hosted by Carolina Productions and BGLSA, showcased student performers lip-synching and grinding alongside professional queens in a zany, hilarious and raunchy show.
Samantha Hunter, 58, who started The Birdcage back in the ’80s, took the runway first as host and emcee. Hunter made her way into the audience, sitting on laps and leaving black lipstick smudges on foreheads in exchange for cash.
“What’s your name?” she asked one audience member.
“Steffan.”
“How old are you?”
“18.”
“Oh s—-.”
Before heading off, she lounged on the edge of the stage.
“This is where y’all do what we like to call in the business ‘make it rain.’”
One by one, audience members made their way to the stage, dropping dollar bills on her as she tossed her fake hair back and forth.
Next up, Miss Patio Furniture walked down the aisle to Anna Kendrick’s “Cups,” flipping and tapping red solo cups like the music video, except instead of a table, she used the audiences’ laps as a surface.
Miss Roxi Seymour Cox took the stage lip-synching Adele’s “Rumour Has It.” The announcer touted her as a world-class “illusionist”; she bore an uncanny resemblance to the British R&B star.
Wild Cherry Sukrow, a professional queen at a club in Atlanta and a graduate from USC, clashed with Clemson-graduate Cox on stage.
“Clemson is the bottom, and Gamecocks are top,” Sukrow said.
“With how many USC Gamecocks I’ve been with, I know that’s not always true,” Cox replied.
While on stage, the ladies made themselves look as feminine as possible with big wigs, layer after layer of makeup and fake breasts to fill out their “Target-brand dresses.”
But Miss Patio Furniture says that’s not how they dress on the streets. The hyper-effeminate get-ups, like the hyper-sexuality of their personalities, are all an act for the sake of comedy.
“There’s a difference between work and life,” she told the crowd. “I would never get laid wearing this in real life.”
The Kings did the opposite.
Morgan McNamara, a first-year criminal justice student and the reigning Mr. Gamecock who performs under the stage name Mike Hawk, cut his hair and glued it to his face for the show.
Hunter, who works as a counselor at a local hospital, also saves the high heels for her performances, whether that be at USC or The Comedy House. As someone who has lived in
Columbia her whole life, she says the amount of community support for the LGBT lifestyle has skyrocketed since a group of USC students approached her about 30 years ago and asked if she could help them set up a drag show on campus.
“The kids are doing great — they’re doing a lot of things that we could never do,” she said. “Back in my day, we couldn’t even walk down the street without getting picked on.”
When it comes to tolerance for the LGBT community today, however, there is still room for improvement.
“I know for a fact that my parents are against drag,” said second-year journalism student Kyler Hall, the reigning Miss Gamecock who performs under the stage name Koaardour. “To them it seems pointless, but I know that drag queens are a powerful force in the gay community. I personally feel that drag queens can bridge the gap between people who don’t experience gay culture.”