Eleganza extravaganza are the only words that describe a fabulous Wednesday night of watching a killer lineup of drag queens transfix a crowd of people, performance after performance.
Red Stick Social’s “Wine Sipping Wednesday” drag show featured drag queens Lady D. Andrews, Santana A. Savage, Nakita London, Dani Pax, Alicia Fierce, and I’Yanna Andrews. The crowd was hot, but the queens were even hotter.
As recently as last July, Pax, a 2019 LSU alumnus who goes by Garret Phillips offstage, started in drag. Even as a newer queen on the scene, Pax held their own with the seasoned professionals of the group.
Looking like the ultimate good-girl-gone-bad, rocker-chick-fantasy girl, Pax had the audience in the palm of her hand as she somersaulted and head banged on stage to a mix of Olivia Rodrigo’s “Good 4 You” and Paramore’s “Misery Business.”
“When I’m performing, it’s almost like I go into a different headspace. I’m in a different zone,” Pax said.
“When I’m done performing, I come back to, and I’m like, ‘oh my god, what did I even just do?’”
In the drag world, performers often develop a different persona to express parts of themselves that they don’t usually reveal to the world offstage. For Pax, that means harnessing a different level of confidence that lives inside of her.
“I’m still myself, but just a more confident version of myself. I’m so nervous up until the music turns on, but as soon as that music turns on, I flip a switch,” she said.
She said she feels no greater happiness than when she is approached by an audience member who loved her performance. Knowing that she could spark joy in that person is extremely meaningful to her.
When it comes to people who enjoy Louisiana drag, there may not be greater fans than Heather Prudhomme and Nicole Schweitzer LeGrange. The co-owners of the visual arts website Queens of Louisiana use their platform to promote local Louisiana drag queens. LeGrange photographs the queens, and Prudhomme interviews them.
Prudhomme could write the bible of Louisiana drag; the drag guru grew up immersed in drag culture and has watched the industry change since her uncle was a drag performer in the ‘70s and ‘80s.
She said she remembers the abuse her uncle would suffer for being a drag queen and is happy that the public attitude toward drag is now more accepting and celebratory.
Pax, a self-described “baby drag queen,” is also happy to see the Louisiana community opening up to even more niche drag genres.
“I’ve definitely been seeing a lot more different drag show up, like bearded queens and alternative queens. It’s nice to see that, and I think as long as the community opens up to those queens more, we’re going in the right direction,” she said.
With more drag culture in the Baton Rouge community, a greater appreciation for the art form is being cultivated. For a queen to be truly successful, she needs to bring more to the table than just beauty, body or gimmicks.
Drag is about the physicality of a performer, and how well they can connect with an audience and hone their craft. On Wednesday night, queen Nakita London demonstrated this perfectly while performing “I’m Every Woman” by Chaka Khan.
London fully embodied the song’s energy and radiated it out into the audience. The performance was aesthetically stunning, but it was also physically charged and dream-inducing.
Queens undergo numerous tasks in preparation for a performance, such as curating set-lists, designing costumes, cutting foam padding to use as faux hips, snatching their waists with corsets and gluing down their brows, to name a few. The job is mentally exhausting and physically brutal. Most queens wake up the morning after with bruises from last night’s “death-drop.”
“The biggest setback has really been just learning how to do the makeup and really learning how to go out there and just perform for the crowd,” Pax said.
Follow Queens of Louisiana on Instagram:
@queensoflouisiana
