The video above is some typical Drags Aloud moments: Show bits from Edinburgh and Adelaide stages and audience interviews . Enjoy.
These videos below are promotions and performances.
Showbags Grows
When Jessica James conceived The Sound of Music Drag Show, Showbags was faced with a personnel problem. The cast required six members and so Showbags was joined with Jillette Jones, Jackie Stevens and Kris Del Vayze.
The show was a great success and the crowds poured in. We were very proud when we reached week 33 of our run, and established SOMDS as the longest running production drag show in Melbourne (just beating record for “The Guardian” at Pokeys) 
I was very proud of the work we’d done with SOMDS and with the idea of “nothing ventured, nothing gained”, I contacted the Melbourne International Comedy Festival (MICF) to ask if they’d allow a drag show in their festival. They didn’t say yes, or no, but promised to come and check the show.
It turned out better than we could have imagined. They loved the show and Edwina Lunn, the Artistic Director offered us a two week season in one of the official theatrical tents by the Yarra.
Edwina told the famous Karen Koren owner of the Gilded Balloon in Edinburgh about us, and they both came along to the opening night of Grease Lightnin’ Drag Show. She had missed SOMDS by a week, but on Edwina’s recommendation, she invited us sight unseen to bring SOMDS to the Gilded Balloon for the Festival. Karen saw our Grease show though, and if things went well, she’d like to have Grease as well. Our plans were set for the next few years it seemed.
Cast Changes
However the potential was weighed against commitments in Melbourne. Jackie and Jillette both had careers so they stayed in Melbourne. We’d been running Grease Lightnin’ with them at PINK, and so for the new ‘international’ version, we were joined by Linda Lamont, Miss Bunny and Christina Andrews
The GLDS was another hit and Edwina and Karen’s faith was rewarded when we consistently sold out her largest venue, The Debating Hall. At the end of the run, we discovered that we’d been awarded the Forth Fringe Award, and that a promoter – Calvin Wynter – wanted us at his venue in New York. Not only that, Karen wanted to manage us in the U.K., that is, she wanted to manage four of the cast only. Not for artistic reasons, but purely for the bottom line. So she invited her chosen four of us to return to London with a new show in 8 weeks time. We argued that Grease Lightnin’ was what we could do with the larger cast, and we would all benefit. Karen was adamant though. The offer was clear and it was up to us. It was very disappointing for us all. Bunny and Christina had put in everything they could and had a reasonable expectation we’d all continue together. It seemed sad but inevitable that Drags Aloud became a foursome.
New York, New York.
After a frantic 7 weeks preparing and rehearsing in Melbourne, we appeared on the West End with “The Great Australian Drag Show” for two nights, and shortly after we were heading to New York. We opened our season officially, Off-Broadway at The Theatres on Bleecker Street.
New York was a great experience and we were thrilled to finally sell out on our closing night. We had met Joan Rivers in Edinburgh at the Artists Bar at the Gilded Balloon and she was a delight to talk to. Walking into our London theatre, we bumped into her again, and then in New York, our publicist was also her publicist. We met her backstage at one of her New York shows and she invited us to open her Australian tour.
Returning to Edinburgh we were in time for Christmas and our Showbags Christmas Show became Drags Aloud White Magic at the Speigletent. After this season we were supposed to tour Scotland, however those plans fell through and we returned to Australia.
We intended to return to Edinburgh, and so we went into rehearsals for ‘Drags Aloud At The Movies. It was designed in stand alone sections and we used elements from DAATM when we played Darwin Festival with the Sista Girls. We got wonderful reviews for At The Movies at Adelaide Fringe and we were again invited to the U.K. with a new venue, Underbelly.
On the success of At The Movies we assembled Showgurl. Linda had tired of life on the road and the challenge of nightly drag faces, and retired to her catering career in Melbourne.
Jess, Kris and I decided that we would remain a trio and so we began work on Showgurl. We’d been using video for costume changes and to progress the narrative, and the Showgurl video was setup as a documentary on Showgirls, with Jess as the naturalist and Jess’s Dad, Jock as his sidekick. Another change was introducing us to the audience, with personal and funny stories for the audience. This was hit and miss on the night. Audiences were used to our foot stamping favourites and our comedy. We shuffled the formula and were in effect a new product. Response was good, but not the standing ovations and foot stomping we’d seen previously.
After the years of work and creation, frustration at the glass ceiling applies to drag acts, and negotiating the ‘business’ end of show business, we were finally uninspired. We needed a rest, and Kris was looking for something new, and so Drags Aloud ended – but there was one last hurrah.
Joan Rivers had not forgotten us and she contacted us and asked us to open her Melbourne show at Hamer Hall. Kris was still in the U.K. and so Linda, Jess and I formed one last time as Drags Aloud, opening her show with our Sixties Medley.
Linda wasn’t interested in performing again after Joan Rivers, but Jess and I each decided to pursue our show interests, as comedy characters and we put together some clever duet moments in a show we called ‘The Mandy and CaCa Show. We opened at Perth Fringe with full houses and some very flattering reviews. Next stop was Melbourne Comedy, but unfortunately, as we’d always found, Melbourne audiences were not much interested in Drags Aloud despite the Awards and 5 Star reviews. Melbourne was always the hardest audiences to pull, and our Mandy and Ca Ca Show once again got wonderful audience and critical response elsewhere, but again, Melbourne crowds were thin. We decided to finally toss it in.
We were off the roller coaster and looking back it was an incredible and unique experience. We’d achieved a level of success that was unimaginable for a drag show in those days. We achieved the status of theatre act, not just a show in the corner of a gay pub.
So if you’d like more details about us, visit the Drags Aloud Shows archive.
Thanks for reading,
Amanda
