Chicago's Baton Show Lounge 40th Anniversary

The Baton Show Lounge has hosted one of the finest female illusionist shows in Chicago.

In honor of its 40th anniversary, I found and I'm posting some YouTube video that interviews some of the peeps there and takes you behind the scenes at the club.

'An Evening At La Cage' Closes In Vegas

The tough economy is whacking Las Vegas as well. If you were thinking about checking out the 'An Evening At La Cage' female impersonators review at the Riviera Hotel the next time you can afford to go there on vacation, you won't have that show as an option to see anymore.

Headliner Frank Marino and the rest of the cast were informed by producer Norbert Aleman after the February 9 performance that the show was shutting down immediately, thus ending a 23 year run on the Las Vegas Strip.

'An Evening At La Cage' opened in September 1985 featuring Marino as Joan Rivers. It eventually became the fourth longest running show on the Vegas strip.



This follows the news last month that another iconic show. the Tropicana's 'Les Folies Bergere' was shutting down March 28 after a 49 year run to make room for another undisclosed production.

"The writing is on the wall," said Aleman in an interview with Mike Weatherford. "It's better if we take a break right now and see what's up with the economy, rather than see my numbers go down and have to perform for under 100 people."

Riviera president Robert Vannucci said in a statement, "We sincerely regret the decision to close La Cage, but fully understand the economic pressures forcing the situation. We wish the producer and the cast well and hope in the near future that conditions will change and encourage reinvesting into the show and its reopening. In the meantime, we are in negotiation with several different show producers and hope to announce a new Riviera show very soon."

Marino said he was expecting the closure because of falling audience numbers and it was time to step it up to the next level as a producer. He was going to take a vacation for a month, then start working on the 'ultimate drag show'.



At any rate, here's hoping that the iconic show gets revived or Marino's 'ultimate drag show' debuts once the economy improves.

Just Not Into RuPaul

RuPaul's back on TV with a reality show called RuPaul's Drag Race on Logo. Yeah, I know I've griped for years about the lack of visibility of GLBT African-Americans in the media, but this is one show that I and many African-American GLBT peeps won't be watching.

The reason? Many of us consider RuPaul a sellout.

RuPaul's road to Clarence Thomas-Condoleezza Rice territory basically began in 2002, when he started defending Chuck Knipp and his odious blackface minstrel show that many of us in the SGL community and our allies have major problems with.

When New York activists protested and succeeded in shutting down a 2002 show, RuPaul leaped to Chuck's defense.

RuPaul also had this to say when he appeared at Southern Decadence in New Orleans a few years ago.

"Critics who think that Shirley Q. Liquor is offensive are idiots. Listen, I've been discriminated against by everybody in the world: gay people, black people, whatever. I know discrimination, I know racism, I know it very intimately. She's not racist, and if she were, she wouldn't be on my new CD."

I'm a critic and a lot smarter than you are. Obviously your racism detector is way off and your ignorance of black history speaks volumes. It's also why that 'Foxy Lady' CD tanked.

If you'd paid attention in history class, you'd know that your racist runnin' buddy does a blackface minstrel show that on multiple levels is offensive and racist. Hiding behind your short skirts won't shield him from the deserved criticism and negativity he gets for doing so.

RuPaul also said on a gay radio show,
“I love it. People really need to take a chill pill and people really aren’t sophisticated enough to know that when a person is coming from a place of love as opposed to coming from a place of hate. Shirley Q. Liquor is so clearly coming from a place of love.”

How much 'sophistication' was Chuck showing when he (or one of his cronies) photoshopped Jasmyne Cannick's head to the body of an nude African American porn model on his website because she successfully led the effort to shut down one of his California shows?

Did that come from a place of love? Hell, naw.

RuPaul, you can stop trying to defend Chuck. It's the reason many of us aren't enamored of you any more, and the sooner you realize that, the better.

But then again, like all good sellouts, you'll salute, take the money they offer you, continue to stab your people in the back and expect us to be quiet about it.

Houston Drag Queen National Anthem

I love Anita Baker and can listen to her music for hours (especially when she puts new stuff out, hint hint.)

But there's one song of hers I heard so much when I attended H-town talent nights or local preliminary pageants I got to the point where I started calling it the Houston Drag Queen National Anthem.


That song is No More Tears, and it's on one of Anita's early albums called The Songstress. It's a slammin' album, and of course I have it in my collection. But after I attended a Talent Night one evening at Rascals I was tempted to break the CD in half after I returned home.


For the uninitiated into the world of female illusion, talent nights are basically when the wannabe and future drag legends get to perform at a GLBT nightclub. Think small scale Showtime at the Apollo minus the Sandman or the raucous New York crowd. Just like its progenitor, the winner is determined by popular applause. In some cases the Talent Nights are a series of eliminations that lead to a Finals Night in which all the winners for that cycle compete for a paid one night booking in the main drag show with the club's regular cast.

Those Talent Nights do find future legends from time to time that eventually take the Illusionist or pageant worlds by storm. But you also have your GLBT versions of William Hung who are performing just for their five minutes in the spotlight until the next Talent Night.

This particular one had sixteen people performing in it. It's not unusual to have maybe two people do the same song during these competitions since no one knows until the night of the show who's going to do what song until they hand their music to the DJ. The order of performance is determined by either drawing names or the Show Director makes a list based on check in time. But this night we had SEVEN people performing that same song.

It was okay when the first two girls did the song. But after the third one did it eyebrows were raised. When the next three performers in a row also did No More Tears, that was a bit much. One club patron after the sixth girl walked off the stage yelled, "Do these girls own another CD besides Anita Baker?"


Cookie LaCook cracked a joke that got everyone laughing until the next contestant was introduced. The now overly familiar opening notes of this song were being played for the seventh time with an audible groan from the club patrons.

I caught up with Cookie later that night when it was over and joked, "Can y'all put in a rule for future Talent Nights that no more than two girls do the same song?"

Ever since that night, every time I hear No More Tears (and I like the song), I automatically refer to it as the Houston Drag Queen National Anthem. I also agree with that patron. Can some of y'all illusionists please diversify your music collections?

Drag Kings In The House At MIT

MIT Grooves To A New Beat As Drag Kings Take Up Residence
by Bob Young
Boston Herald

Move over, drag queens. The drag kings are about to elbow you off stage.

For four days this week, the all-black Nappy Grooves drag king troupe from Oakland, Calif., will be setting up shop in a place that doesn't exactly conjure up San Francisco's Castro district: MIT.

Then again, looks can be deceiving: The land of geeks and nerds hosts the largest annual student drag show in the country every year.

For the uninitiated, drag kings are mostly female performance artists who dress like males and sport facial hair makeup; drag queens are men who dress in female clothes and makeup, often for performances.

Where they both meet is at MIT's "Fierce Forever" drag show, scheduled to be held next April 24.

"We usually have more drag queens than drag kings in ('Fierce Forever')," said Michele Oshima, director of student and artist-in-residence programs at MIT. "There's not as much gender balance."

As a way to expose the MIT community to the flip side of the drag world and to raise students' consciousness about gender and race, Oshima booked Nappy Grooves for a residence at the school (Wednesday through Nov. 3), including a free public talk, "Too Hot to Handle," on Wednesday at 7 p.m. at the Broad Institute Auditorium. The press release calls it an adult performance.

"I went to the International Drag King Community Extravaganza last year and Nappy Grooves blew me away," said Oshima. "They're very committed to fighting homophobia and racism and stereotypical images of black people."

And stereotypical images of those in drag.

"Drag queens and drag kings have all different sexualities," said Oshima. "Bisexual, lesbian, gay, heterosexual, transsexual, asexual,omnisexual. Who knows?"

The five women of Nappy Grooves, according to member Mattie Richardson, all have different LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transexual) identities.

"People have done gender performances for a very long time," said Richardson, an English professor at the University of Texas. "But the particular crop of people who call themselves drag kings has gained momentum."

Drag kings have become more and more a fixture in queer performance events. At MIT, Nappy Grooves will tackle issues such as racism and politics through music and play-acting. Richardson, for example, often plays a swaggering black male character who's a womanizer secretly attracted to men.

"Be they straight or gay or trans or bi or whatever," said Richardson, "I think drag is useful and challenging to anybody who is open to questioning gender norms. Anyone who's open will be inspired by our performance."

"Too Hot to Handle," a lecture/demonstration by Nappy Grooves, takes place Wednesday from 7 to 8:30 p.m. at the Broad Institute Auditorium, NE30, 7 Cambridge Center. Free. Go to www.web.mit.edu/arts.

I Ain't Hatin' I'm Appreciating

I Ain’t Hatin’, I’m Appreciating This was the column I submitted to THE LETTER for printing in September for the October issue.


I have much love, admiration and respect for the illusionist community.

Yes, there are certain things about it that irritate me and people involved in it that I won’t be breaking bread with anytime soon, but hey, they are my sistahs too.

And for you illusionists, don’t assume that activists don’t know about your issues, don’t care or haven’t walked in your pumps. Some of the best activists I know used to perform (or still do) on various stages or were pageant titleholders. Some are leaders in their local GLBT communities when they’re off stage.

In the early 80’s, I was a scared kid first starting to venture out in Houston’s gayborhood called Montrose. I didn’t know anybody, was still trying to sort out things and nervous about whether my femme presentation was up to snuff. It was Houston’s legendary drag queen and show emcee Cookie LaCook who took a few moments out of her busy evening to speak to me when other peeps wouldn’t. It jump-started a conversation that put me on the road to becoming the Phenomenal Transwoman you see today and earned me ‘cool points’ with the regular patrons of Studio 13.

Over the next two decades Cookie and I would get into some deep conversations over the years. She sometimes incorporated me into her monologues as “Soul Sister Number One.” I was saddened to find out she passed away July 27

I know what illusionists do isn’t easy. It takes a lot of work, time, talent and effort to perfect the onstage persona, much less perform. I found that out firsthand when I went on stage at small club back home as a favor to a Latina illusionist friend of mine named Brittany Paige. She’d been asking me to do a Talent Night for two years before I finally said okay. It’s not my cup of tea and I’m more comfortable on a stage with a podium, a microphone and a speech in front of me and she knew that. The joy that lit up Brittany’s face is one image that brings a smile to my face whenever I think about her. A week after my one time performance she lost her battle with AIDS.

My illusionist friends helped me polish my feminine presentation. They taught me a few tucking techniques and trade secrets that aided my transition. For the ones that only did girl onstage I got the pleasure of sitting backstage, watch them morph into the gorgeous divas that you peeps tip and learn some makeup secrets in the process.

And speaking of tips, if you like the performer, give ‘em a little somethin’ somethin’. Makeup and all the things ‘the gurls’ need to transform themselves into the beautiful peeps you see ain’t cheap.

They were generally cool people to be around and the source of some entertaining moments as well. I’ve watched illusionists read each other, trifling boyfriends, and hecklers. I’ve seen them beat the crap out of suburban bigots who thought they were easy targets outside of clubs and get into wig-pulling fights. But these same people when I was kicked back and chilling at their cribs challenged and expanded my worldview. They inspired me to check out my African-American LGBT history, helped me sort out my gender issues and kicked knowledge to me about a wide range of subjects.

I can’t forget the greatest gift the illusionist community gave us in conjunction with transgender peeps. They jump started the GLBT rights movement with the 1967 Compton’s Cafeteria riot in San Francisco and Stonewall two years later because they were mad as hell and tired of being jacked with by the police.

So no, I’m not hatin’. I’m appreciating all the things the illusionist community does in their own way to make this a better world for all of us.


TransGriot Note: I discovered after I sent it off to be printed that the Compton's Riot actually happened in August 1966. I also discovered that my editor refused to print this one as well. More details on what's transpiring in regards to my newspaper column in an upcoming post.

Cookie LaCook RIP

I was saddened to hear that legendary Houston drag performer and emcee Cookie LaCook, AKA 'The Mouth of the South', passed away on July 27.

The Louisiana born Cookie moved to Houston and became an icon in the Houston SGL community. She was a former 1987 Miss Gay Texas USofA at Large who was always happy to do a benefit show, host an event, visit the sick or attend a funeral for someone whose loved ones had disowned them. She even hosted a Juneteenth event in Dallas. And she always loved her f*****g great audiences.

I got to chat with her numerous times over the years whenever I visited Studio 13/Rascals or happened to occasionally bump into her when I was downtown. The one conversation I had with Cookie that's the most memorable one happened at a short lived GLBT club called Uptown/Downtown in the early 90s. She introduced me to her favorite drink, the amaretto sour while we had a long free ranging conversation over a wide range of subjects. (y'all know how much I love intelligent conversation). After that night anytime I showed up at Rascals and she spotted me in the crowd I was incorporated into her monologue as 'Soul Sister Number 1'.

As someone noted on the Houston Splash website, a f*****g great audience has a f*****g great host. Cookie was all that and three bags of chips. Best of all, she was a first class human being as well.

It's gonna be strange next May if I'm lucky enough to attend Houston Splash and not see Cookie's regal presence keeping things moving and making us laugh.

Rest in peace, Cookie. You've earned it.

July 2006 TransGriot Column

Congratulations Domanique Shappelle!
Copyright 2006, THE LETTER

I enjoy watching a good drag show or pageant every now and then (as long as I’m not choking on cigarette smoke in the process). I’ll even sit down and judge them from time to time when presented with the opportunity.

Thanks to all the wonderful people who extended me an invitation to judge the inaugural Miss Imperial Diva 2006 Pageant that took place on June 14. Congratulations to Vanessa Ross of Indianapolis who was crowned the winner.
I also enjoyed getting to meet special guests Amelia Black and Terri Vanessa Coleman and watching them perform as well

Speaking of congratulations, it’s past time for me to extend them to the other royalty in our midst in Da Ville since her reign is rapidly drawing to a close. Congratulations to Domanique Shappelle, Miss Continental 2005-2006.

Miss Continental is held during the Labor Day weekend in Chicago. The Miss Continental system is one of the prestige pageant circuits along with the Miss Gay America and Miss Gay USofA systems. There are several African-American pageant systems as well such as Miss Black Universe and Liberty International for starters and the list seems to grow longer with each passing year.

I met Domanique in conjunction with the time I spent with HIM 100 Concerned Men and HER back in 2003 as Transgender Initiative Coordinator. I was asked to become coordinator when no one else wanted the job. She was doing shows at The Connection at the time and had the respect of many of the transwomen I was trying to reach. That was critical as Dawn, myself and several other dedicated people worked diligently for almost a year to try to revive the Afro-American centered HIV/AIDS program before its funding was pulled.

I have had the pleasure during my journey to transwomanhood of meeting many female illusionists. Some are no longer here like the legendary Naomi Sims. Others I’ve met in my hometown and elsewhere have gone on to bigger and better things such as Tommie Ross, Chevelle Brooks, Chanel Nicole, Shawnna Brooks, Sophia McIntosh and Lawanda Jackson.

I have always been aware of the fact in conversing with many of these beautiful and talented ladies that many of them are intelligent goal-oriented individuals. I discovered during a dinner we had at the house a few years ago that Domanique has a degree in communications. We shared the same concerns about our younger transsistahs growing up without the foundations of a good education, knowing their history and having role models they can be proud of.

Well, Domanique is doing it in the pageant world. Whether she’s onstage or off, she’s carried herself with class and dignity. She’s cognizant of the role she plays as a mentor to the girls of the pageant world as their representative just as myself and others strive to build a positive image for transpeople in our interactions with the folks we come in contact with on a daily basis

Our busy schedules over the last two years have prevented us from being in contact as much as I’d like to, but Domanique is definitely someone I want to spend more quality time with. I still consider her a friend and hope she feels the same way.

Congratulations, sis. May you have continued success in your career.