Getting a Leg Up on the Sequined Competition

[Shana A]

Getting a Leg Up on the Sequined Competition

By JENNIFER 8. LEE
Published: September 7, 2009

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/08/nyregion/08entry.html?_r=1

Antoine Ashley, 29, a dancer and model, has worked full time for three years as a drag queen known as Sahara Davenport. Originally from Gaithersburg, Md., he went to college in Dallas, where he started performing in drag before moving to New York. He does shows, but also works for Screaming Queens Entertainment, which hires drag queens out as "ambience girls" for corporate events and bar mitzvahs. Mr. Ashley's companion also performs as a drag queen, Manila Luzon.

[tekla]

corporate events and bar mitzvahs

Priceless, after all what's a bar mitzvah without a shikseh?  Yes, today you are a man, tomorrow, do you want to borrow his dress?

[heatherrose]

As long as they spell your name correctly.
Such edgy questions and insightful commentary.

Starting a drag career:

Is it hard making a living as a drag queen?

The industry in a downturn:

Work schedule:

How did you choose your name?

Number of wigs:

Which bathroom do you use when you're in drag?

Favorite outfit?

On learning his companion was also a drag queen:

The benefits:

[tekla]

Odd, I see most of those questions here on a regular basis.
Post Merge: September 09, 2009, 01:30:06 PM
And I'm still laughing about the Bar Mitavah bit, unless they were making a kind of 'in show biz joke' which it is. 

[Shana A]

corporate events and bar mitzvahs

Priceless, after all what's a bar mitzvah without a shikseh?  Yes, today you are a man, tomorrow, do you want to borrow his dress?

I would rather have had a bat mitzvah... and never mind borrow the dress, I'll keep it girl!

Z

[tekla]

It's sure to be preferred over seeing the mohel coming in for your briss.

[heatherrose]

"It's sure to be preferred over seeing the mohel coming in for your briss."

Unless you are in Trinidad and the "mohel" looks like Marcy Bowers

"Odd, I see most of those questions here on a regular basis."

I have to agree, I guess there are "inquiring minds" where ever you go.

"And I'm still laughing about the Bar Mitavah bit..."

The idea of a "T-girls" coming of age celebration... priceless!

[tekla]

Most of the Jewish mothers I know would rather have their sons be transsexuals than truck drivers, far less shame to the family.

[heatherrose]

Hmmm... I wonder how they would "feel" if they were to discover
that their transsexual child wanted to be a truck driver?

Post Merge: September 10, 2009, 04:37:13 AM

I know how much my Mama hated the fact that I was a truck driver.
Not because she was ashamed of me but because she constantly worried
that I would become a statistic doing a job where I was more likely to die on the
job than if I were a cop. She knows what a life robbing, thankless, job it is. She
knows how all feel justified in belittling, abusing, robbing and looking down
the end of their noses at you even after you just spent a portion of your life
dodging pigs, a-hole drivers, and horrible weather because they absolutely,
positively had to have their forty-thousand pounds of "Cupie Dolls"
yesterday. She knows it is an addiction harder to overcome
than any physical drug, one which I probably never will.
So yeah, now that I think about it, even though my
Mama isn't Jewish, maybe she would feel better,
if I were only a transsexual.

[tekla]

I just figured it was because a transsexual still might become a doctor. I married into a Jewish family, and the only reason they let me in is because I'm a doctor - or was working to become one at the time.

[heatherrose]

I just figured it was because a transsexual truck driver still might become a doctor

HeYa...ha-ha...Yaha..I know what..you mean.

[tekla]

Sure, people are under the impression that you have to be smart, but I think you only need an average intellect.  You need above average motivation, above average self-discipline, and superior organization skills, which is what it takes to be a good drag queen too, that and a business manager I guess.