Accidental Groupie

Jungle Red produced by All Gay Frat House is an all drag queen production of the musical adaptation of the all-female cast, classic film, The Women. The bar is set. If you'd like create the gayest show in the world your work is cut out for you.

I went to see this show in San Francisco because if you don't see at least one drag show while visiting this town they don't let you come back. And because it stars Varla Jean Merman, love child of the eight-day long, annulled marriage of Ethel Merman and Ernest Borgnine. That's Varla's story and she's sticking to it.

Quite by chance, every time Carson and I hang out, Varla has a show. I've seen her five times in New York, San Francisco and Provincetown. I never intended to be a drag queen fan boy ... it just happened. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

My reluctant fan status notwithstanding, any chick who can yodel while downing a whole can of spray cheese gets a hearty thumbs up from me ... and maybe a little tongue.



Varla Jean Merman, Katya Smirnoff-Skyy and Me looking like a cheap gigolo.

Dale on Brini on YouTube

Back in 2005 The Brini Maxwell Show featured Board Stiff, the game club I co-founded. If you missed it the first time around, here it is again, now on YouTube.




The shoot was really interesting and I learned some things about performing, not so much from being in the video myself, but from watching Brini.

She created the Brini character. And she is the keeper of the character. Everyone around her, the crew, her writer/producer, members of the club and I all had ideas for her. But she has very much her own idea about Brini and who she is. That's not to say she wasn't open to ideas. She was. Very open.

The whole thing at the end where she obliviously takes my last dollar was my suggestion to the producer. The producer loved the idea and we talked it out with the camera man. Then we all pitched it to Brini who loved it too, so we shot it. This was a particular thrill for me. It's only a few seconds, but it was my directorial debut. ;-)

The fascinating thing to watch was how Brini carried herself and maintained the character's integrity in the whirlwind that is a video shoot. It was a great lesson on how to let other people contribute and be involved in your artistic process, but still stay true to your own vision.

Thanks for the fun, Brini! I had a blast and watching this clip again reminded me of what I learned.

Only in New York City ... at Midnight...

... will you find an Ice Cream Truck "manned" by a drag queen.

I love this town.

Fabulous Puppets

Avenue Q is having a guest appearance contest and a performer I quite enjoy, Joe Kovacs, is in the finals. Please check out these funny Puppet Videos and Vote for Greta, the worlds one and only Drag Queen Puppet Bingo Hostess.

No kidding. Friday nights at View Bar, Joe and Greta, the puppet drag queen, hosts bingo.

Only in New York, kids. Only in New York.

Joe, a man of many talents, is also behind the upcoming comeback of my favorite puppet of all time, Madame.



I met Joe and Madame in a bar some time ago. This was, and will likely always be, my favorite celebrity sighting ever. I could just kick myself for not getting a photo of myself and Madame.

My Promising Future in Voice Over

On Sunday night I went to Adam Sank's new show at Therapy Bar. (He blogged about it.) It was after the Emmy Awards and he had this whole intro bit with a little trophy and celebrity acceptance speech parody. I love how Adam is often willing to go way out on a limb to do customized intros for some of his gigs. It shows the audience that he is paying attention to the particulars of the evening and willing to go to special effort for them.

Adam had me read his intro into an off stage mic as part of the whole gag. After the show he came over to thank me for doing his intro. The audience member I was sitting next to said, "Oh, that was you? I thought it was a drag queen."

Perfect.

RuPaul I Ain't

I went wig shopping today at Ms. Wigs on 14th Street. This has to have been one of the funniest and most emotionally complicated experiences of my life.

And I learned something about myself.

I am one butt-ugly chick.

No really. As a girl, not even drunk, fat guys would fuck me. Not even if I told them I sucked cock like a fag. (Which, of course, I do.)

But it wasn't until about the fifth or sixth wig that I even managed to achieve butt ugly chick.
With my beard scruff, the first several just said, "stoned, hippie, slacker Wayne's World reject."

The owner of the shop was this very bored, itty-bitty, middle-aged Asian woman who was so short she couldn't even reach my head. I had to bend over so she could straighten each wig as I tried it on, because I had no clue what I was doing.

Also shopping at Ms. Wigs were some rather sexy, young-ish black women and a drag queen of, shall we say, a certain age? The drag queen had her very, very, very, hot, hot, hot, Latin boy toy in tow. Did I mention he was hot? Like, fuck-him-on-the-counter-with-his- sugar-momma-and-the-owner-of-the-shop-watching hot.

What is it with Latin boys and ugly, white, middle-aged drag queens?!?! Maybe when I'm middle-aged, if I can't get laid anymore I'll start doing drag so I can get me some of them Latin boys.

Each new wig I tried elicited giggles from these two. When I exclaimed "damn I'm an ugly woman," sugar-momma said, with tourists peering through the door, "oh no you're not, honey, you'll be pretty once you shave."

My head then exploded. Which is why there are no photos. That, and I want to be able to show my face in public again. If you want to see me in my new "Brunette Veronica Flip" you'll just have to come to the show. (Dear, sweet, Jesus, what have I gotten myself into?)

The drag queen kept trying on wigs and making comments like, "no, no, no, I'm already a blonde, I want a change." Then she asked me if I thought the black bob she had on made her look like Monica Lewinsky.

I replied, "no, Andy Warhol."

She seemed satisfied and bought the wig.

I'm actually slightly relieved to know I'm an ugly chick. I don't think whatever fragile sense of my own masculinity I cling to in self delusion would survive the revelation that I'd make a good drag queen.

Dale Meets His Match

It's been years, but I'm back on the tube. Having already had my 15 minutes of fame in my days as a politician, I'm sure I'm tempting fate and risking angering the Gods.

Three years ago, my friend Carson and I started a board game club called Board Stiff.

We were thrilled to be featured recently on The Brini Maxwell Show.

I had a lot of fun at the shoot. I had a cute, goofy little idea for a closing joke for the segment which the producer loved. We shot it and they ended up using it in the show. So watch for the little gag with the play money at the end. Oh, and don't miss the outtake in the last 5 seconds.

Here are the video clips....

Dale Sorenson on The Brini Maxwell Show

Drag Names

You know that old thing you've heard to do to figure out what your drag name is? You know, your first pet's name plus the name of the street you grew up on. Mine would be ...

Ginger Thompson

Not bad. But not great either. Another of my blind drunk in a bar at 3 AM strokes of genius some years ago was a drag name for me that fits perfectly. Now mind you, I'm not really inclined to do drag. But if I did, I'd be ...

Devastating Minutiae

It's rather me. No?