August 6, 2008

Penultimate Trannyshack

A San Francisco institution is coming to an end. After a 13 year run, the Tuesday night drag tradition, Trannyshack, is coming to a close next week. Hostess Heklina (right) has decided she can't handle the pressure of producing a weekly club event anymore, and besides, she has bigger fish to fry, so to speak.

My drag daughter, Wenda Watch (left) came all the way from Santa Fe to perform one last time at Trannyshack last night. Wenda Wednesdays at Harvey's is credited for "bringing drag shows back to the Castro" in the mid 1990's, while Trannyshack was already an important event at the Stud in South of Market. Wenda's show started out as very traditional old school drag - Barbra, Judy, Bette, etc. until she started hanging out with the gals from Trannyshack. The performers from Trannyshack always came from an edgier, more rock-n-roll background, with a distinct taste for splatter movies and a twist of dog shit - eating Divine thrown in. Customers were always warned about flying blood and who-knows-what.

Some of the highlights from last night were Rentecca doing "Don't It Make My Brown Eyes Blue" where she pulled a pair of blue anal beads out of her ass, held them up to her eyes, then put them in her mouth. Tasteful.

Kimo (below top), known for his big production number, "20 Years of Madonna In 20 Minutes", revived one of his first Trannyshack performances with a tightly edited audio collage of demonic phrases from "The Exorcist", ending with him stripping down to nothing but his hairy chest and pierced dick.

There was Pat Benetar tribute by Valentine, a militant anti-disco march, a re-enactment of the tranny serial killer scenes from "Silence of The Lambs" complete with removing a face, a queen-sized Sheena Easton bursting through a vagina styled backdrop of "Sugar Walls", and did I mention that the bar was totally packed with super cute gay boys of the "alternative" variety? Young, smart, creative, edgy, misfit fags are "my people".

But it was Wenda Watch that made me venture out after midnight on a Tuesday. She had gone to see her idol, Dolly Parton earlier in the evening, then raced home to throw on some drag to perform a rousing gospel number by Dolly. But as a special tribute to Heklina, Wenda made a very tender speech thanking Heklina for providing a creative and inspirational venue. She then performed the same number that Bette Midler sang to Johnny Carson on his very last Tonight Show. It choked me up, and clearly did the same for many in the usually caustic audience of bitches. You can tell by the pictures how Heklina was touched.

The very last Trannyshack is Tuesday, August 12 at the Stud, 9th Street and Harrison in San Francisco, but the big The Trannyshack Kiss-Off Party will be Saturday August 23 at the Regency Center, 1300 Sutter @ Van Ness. Doors 9pm, show at 10pm. Featuring performances by Justin Bond, Lady Bunny, Ana Matronic, Lady Miss Kier, The House of More, KIMO, Fauxnique, Raya Light, Kiddie, Hoku Mama Swamp, Putanesca, Precious Moments, and more!

I shot over 700 pictures last night at Trannyshack and they are in the Lavender Lounge VIP Room under the Paparazzi section. With a big, professional looking camera, I was able to bamboozle my way to the stage and get lots of tight close-ups of the animated expressions, color, glamour and grossness.

Posted by lavenderlounge at 12:30 PM

Comments

Post a comment