Past the bowl of condoms at the entrance of Splash – a self-described “alternative dance club” on Highland Road – and past the bar to a strobe-lit dance floor, a group of people are dancing in front of the mirrored wall, watching their reflection as Kelly Clarkson music blares in the background. Through a small door to the right of this dance floor, Juan Mines is looking into a different mirror.
Mines is in the dressing room at Splash, wearing a yellow T-shirt with the word “Proud!” on it, a headband and pajama pants, while skillfully applying red eye makeup and false eyelashes. In a moment, Juan Mines will take the stage as Nicole Foxx.
“I like drag shows because they incorporate drama and comedy into the performances,” said Mines, the 30-year-old show director and drag queen. “When you are on stage at Splash, you feel such a positive vibe from the audience.”
Mines said his first drag experience was as a child in his hometown of Brownsville, Texas.
“I used to dance to ‘Love Shack’ with a tape recorder in front of the mirror,” Mines said. “I used a towel as a wig and the antenna as a microphone.”
Mines performed as a drag queen in Matamoros, Mexico, from 1995 to 2002. He said drag queens are more widely accepted in Mexico than they are in Baton Rouge.
“Mexico is so much more open than up here,” said the former Miss Gay Matamoros. “The crowds there really support and encourage the artistic expression.”
Lady D, a performer at the club who has previous experience in Puerto Rico, agreed with Mines. Lady D said drag queens are more widely accepted in Puerto Rico than in Baton Rouge.
“You can walk down the street in drag there at night and it’s totally fine,” Lady D said, pulling on underwear with padded thighs to wear under her “Sporty Spice” costume. “No one is shocked by it.”
Mines moved from Matamoros to Brandon, Miss., in 2002 to work in his godparents’ restaurant. In November 2003 he moved to Baton Rouge to help his godparents open another restaurant and has been performing at Splash since April 2004.
John Fletcher, professor of theatre history and theory, said the act of men dressing as women for performance purposes dates to the origins of theater.
“In different cultures throughout history there has been the phenomenon of men dressing as women,” Fletcher said. “Today it is assumed by many that all of the drag queens are gay.”
Fletcher said the assumption that all drag queens are gay or wish to be women is a fairly recent development in society.
“During the time of Shakespeare’s plays, a young man would play the role of Juliet in ‘Romeo and Juliet,’ and he was never assumed to be gay,” Fletcher said. “Around the 1800s we got the idea that people are either heterosexual or homosexual, and certain cultural practices became linked to these identities.”
The so-called “Spice Girls” performed Friday for Splash’s celebration of Pride Week. Each cast member dressed as a different Spice Girl. There was also a second show with five separate acts, each incorporating gay symbols and themes.
“Some states celebrated Pride Week last week, but we are celebrating it this week,” Mines said. “We can’t parade around and make it huge like in San Francisco. If we did that here we’d get killed or something.”
In the dressing room prior to the show, all of the performers seem like a family as they were singing, dancing and helping one another get ready for the show.
Mines’ boyfriend, Venus Santiago, was also in the dressing room, getting Mines’ costume together. Santiago designs and makes costumes for Mines and the other performers at Splash.
“We made nine costumes in three days for the shows this weekend,” Santiago said.
Derrian Tolden, a vocal performance senior who performs as Chelsea DeLorean Divine, held up his silver platform shoes he said he found at the Mall at Cortana. Tolden was preparing to perform as “Scary Spice.”
He said the Miss Gay Louisiana Pageant will be held at Splash this year because of the club’s state-of-the-art lighting and sound system.
“We were ranked 75 out of 1,000 bars in DJ Entertainment magazine,” Tolden said. “It’s because our bosses here really care about the bar and about us. They want to be successful but they want to run a good club too.”
Jimmy Williamson, a cast member of the La Femme Rouge group who performs under the name Jade Lawrence, agreed with Tolden, as he slipped on white platform shoes and pink fishnet tights, preparing to take on the role of “Baby Spice.”
“Drag for me is a getaway – an escape,” Williamson said. “I get to play a character and portray someone completely different from myself.”
Williamson is studying hair and makeup at the Aveda Institute, and also serves as a makeup judge for the Drag Queen Idol competitions held every Wednesday night at Splash.
“Drag shows allow you to be creative as far as costumes and performance,” he said. “I have a love for makeup that I get to incorporate into the shows, and people are always coming up to me for makeup tips.”
Williamson said the makeup he does in school is different from the makeup styles of a drag queen.
“The makeup is a lot more exaggerated,” Williamson said. “As a drag queen you always want to beef everything up.”
Williamson has been performing as a drag queen at Splash since the summer of 2003.
“The first time I performed they had me get up on stage with the professionals and I sang ‘Nasty Girl’ by Destiny’s Child,” he said. “I was nervous because the crowd was so huge, but they were really supportive.”
Since his first performance, Williamson has become a cast member of Splash’s La Femme Rouge. Williamson performs with La Femme Rouge every Thursday night, and during the Diva Nation show every Friday night at Splash.
Before taking the stage on Friday night, the performers do one final run-through of their performance, and then complete the final step in becoming drag queens by applying Tommy Girl perfume.
“This is what we call pussy juice,” said Mines – now Foxx – while passing around the bottle of perfume to the other performers. “It attracts the men.”
The transformation is complete and Foxx takes the stage with the four other drag queens. The crowd is smaller than they had hoped, but still supportive nonetheless, handing out $1 bills to the drag queens as they take on the persona of the Spice Girls on stage.
As the final notes of “If You Wanna Be My Lover” play and the performers take their final poses, Foxx takes the microphone to address the audience. Foxx thanked the audience for their support, then offered advice to the crowd that if they are going to have sex, “take a condom from the bowl at the door.”
Standing by that bowl, Mia Bonet was checking IDs at the door Friday night. Bonet said she has been performing as a drag queen for 11 years and living as a transsexual for the past three years.
“I’m a dancing man,” Bonet said. “Drag shows let me do that.”
Bonet said she moved back to Baton Rouge after performing in various states across the country because Baton Rouge is her home. Bonet said her family is supportive of her career as a drag queen.
“Everyone comes out to see me but my parents,” Bonet said. “The shows are too late at night for them.”
Mines said his family is also encouraging at his performances.
“My parents are in Texas, so they can’t always come to see me here,” Mines said. “But when I’m down there and I have a show my whole family comes out to see me.”
All of the performers agree that Splash is like a family for them.
“We are all very close here,” Williamson said, as he is greeted with hugs by coworkers and club regulars. “We look out for each other.”
Mines also said he enjoys the family atmosphere at Splash.
“Coming to Splash is like coming to your grandma’s house,” Mines said. “There are never any fights and we really are like a family.”
Although Williamson said he is thankful to have met his best friend, Danny, through working at Splash, he said the connections he has made with the audience have made the preparation for the performances worthwhile.
“There are so many people who come up to me and tell me they liked my performance,” Williamson said. “That makes it worth getting up on stage and putting myself out there.”
Mines said that although the gay community has varied opinions towards drag queens, the audience at Splash is supportive.
“Our fans love to see us perform,” Mines said. “What we do here is for fun and for work and for extra money.”
Mines said he would like to remain separate from some of the drag queens who are giving the gay community a bad reputation.
“We go onstage as artists and as actors,” Mines said. “There are other drag queens who are the trashy ones. They dress up and try to hook up with straight guys and start trouble. We aren’t like that.”
Tolden said the performers at Splash have a loyal following, consisting of people from mixed sexual orientations.
“We have a crowd,” Tolden said. “There are a lot of gay and straight people who come out to support us.”
Mines said he would like to expand the La Femme Rouge drag shows around Louisiana and the South.
“It’s all in my mind,” Mines said. “I have a portfolio that I will bring with me and try to sell to restaurants and other venues.”
Mines said he hopes to broaden the horizons of those who may have skewed opinions of drag queens and homosexuals.
“Baton Rouge is a fairly closed-minded town,” Mines said. “Some heterosexuals are open, but many have this idea that homosexuals are dirty and bad. We can’t go to Hollywood, so this is a chance for us to show the community here what we do and it is something that is positive.”
_____Contact Kelly Caulk at [email protected]