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Adelante Magazine
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It is that time of the year folks. Just in time to kick off the holidays of 2013 Best in Drag Show is back! Best in Drag Show is the most fabulous, glamorous, ridiculously funny and yes even generous drag pageant spoof of the year. And yes they are proud of it. BIDS is the yearly benefit event for Aid for Aids, a program of Alliance for Housing and Healing. Each year celebrity judges award the best queen in drag. Past judges and attendees have included Vanessa Williams, Lisa Rinna, Harry Hamlin, Melanie Griffith and of course long time supporter Ms Kathy Griffin. I had the pleasure of interviewing Host and co-founder Patrick Rush and the only Latina contestetant this year, the Boricua Mikey Cativo aka Mimi E. Enjoy! And see you on the red carpet Sunday October 6th at The Orpheum Theater in Downtown Los Angeles.
Samara: So tell us Patrick, how did Best in Drag Show get started?
Patrick: Best in Drag Show” is wayward daughter of “Battle for the Tiara”. ”Battle for the Tiara” was started by Alexis Pittman in the living room of his rent-controlled West Hollywood apt. It started as a joke. A bunch of guys dressing in drag to watch the Miss America Pageant one night. Turned into a small competition. Word spread and we slowly grew from Alexis’ apt. to a bigger apt. to a house in the hill, to a 99 seat theater, to the El Rey, then the Wilshire-Ebell and finally in our 10th year, the Wiltern (selling out 2400 seats). After Alexis Pittman passed away from AIDS, we decided to let the show go. 5 years later, Aid for AIDS approached Tom Pardoe about reincarnating the show. That’s how “Best in Drag Show” got started. Tom assembled as many of the original people from “Battle” that he could and we slowly tried to build back our audience. It’s now our 11th year and I think we’ve won back most of them, while building a new audience along the way
Samara: And how did it become what it is today?
Patrick: I think “Best in Drag Show” became what it is today because the audience feels the love and heart that goes into it. It also is what it is because of the audience. They are the most generous, most supportive, most forgiving (lol) audience in the world. Not only do they purchase tickets, but they continue to throw money and give donations throughout the night. Hearing them laugh, cheer and clap really keeps us going because by the time of the show, we are all so exhausted but recharged by their support.
Samara: You’ve had one of my favorite Divas Ms Vanessa Williams. Tell us about that?
Patrick: That moment has to be one of my all-time favorites. I couldn’t believe we actually got her to be a judge. Our friend Gabor (a former winner of BIDS, Sunny Delight/Miss Florida) was the Desperate Housewives hairdresser and asked her to come. It actually came to me the morning of the show that year. I remember Alexis Pittman being PISSED when she lost her Miss America Crown. Before Alexis died, he gave me the crown from the year he won the “Battle for the Tiara” and told me to give it to Vanessa Williams if I ever met her. I never quite figured out a way to pull that off and when I knew she was going to be there as a judge that night, I figured it was my shot. I didn’t tell anyone I was going to do it, so it could’ve been a disaster (especially if she didn’t want to come onstage). She could not have been nicer and more touched by the moment. She was very un-Diva like. Plus, just seeing her that close… she’s so unbelievably gorgeous and sweet.
Samara: Who are the judges this year?
Patrick: So far we have Holland Taylor, Kathy Kinney, Mireille Enos, Alan Ruck and Bellamy Young. We’re waiting to hear back on a bunch of others.
Samara: What are some of the craziest things the gurls have done on stage?
Patrick: Oh God… what haven’t they done? We’ve had cows, camels, elephants (I’m not talking about the contestants btw). Let me just tell you this, even though it’s not a real “beauty” pageant and the winner doesn’t really win anything, these gurls compete as if there’s a real prize and it’s a real pageant. I always enjoy a contestant who wants to win more than anything in the world because she never does.
Samara: Any last words?
Patrick: If you’ve never been, please come. It is a labor of love. We try to spend as little money as possible, so that most of the money goes to help the clients of Aid for AIDS. It’s really a silly night with tons of laughs and a couple of tears (mostly mine). You will see things you don’t expect to see… and hope to never see again. AND, one year my dream might come true of seeing a contestant fall down the stairs. Maybe this year???
Samara: And now you Mikey. How did you get involved in the show?
Mikey: Four years ago a friend gave me a ticket to the Best in Drag Show and I sat there mesmerized. I knew I had to be on stage as a contestant, but it took me four years to work up the courage. In the meantime, I volunteered as a dresser and a dog (chorus girl). The whole time I thought about my act and my character. I knew I could bring my own special brand of Latino flavor to the event and this year I went for it.
Samara: Can you give us any hints as to what you’re doing on stage?
Mikey: My character is Mimi E – Sheila E.’s cousin. “Glamorous Life” is my theme song and this girl’s got a lot on her mind with big thoughts and big dreams. Let’s put it this way, my talent is a spicy mix of Shakira, J. Lo, and a bit of Ricky Ricardo. The energy will have you on your feet screaming for more.
Samara: Who or what has inspired you during this whole process you’re going through to get to the show?
Mikey: I have been inspired by Jeffrey Drew who encourages me every step of the way. Jeffrey is the director of the show and a past winner. He knows what it takes to pull together the fabulous costumes, memorize the dance steps, and build a memorable moment on stage. I love the creative process and am energized as I work through it with my fellow contestants. And, of course, I am always inspired by my wonderful boyfriend. He is my rock. Even with a healthy dose of stage fright, he will be joining me on stage. Rob, I love you! I am also humbled as the only Latina contestant this year. 32% of the clients helped by Aid for AIDS and Alliance for Housing and Healing are Latino/a. This is a very special community and I am proud to represent as a Boricua.
Samara: What advice do you have for other gurls thinking of competing future BIDS?
Mikey: Just do it! The auditions are open and you should just do it
Samara: Any last words?
Mikey: Aid for AIDS does vital work for those who are suffering with AIDS and homelessness. Even as AIDS fades from the headlines, the epidemic is not over and people are struggling everyday to survive. It just takes a little run of bad luck to need some extra help. Who knows? One of us might be next.
Huffpost Gay Voices
by Thomas Mournian
View the article on the HuffPost Website
“The year Lotta Slots won the crown,” says Jeffrey Drew, describing his evolution from contestant to director of Best in Drag Show, “I rode in on a camel singing ‘Midnight at the Oasis.'” Two standing ovations later, Drew ascended to drag heaven. Thereafter, Lotta was slotted into several years of color commentating (“covering costume changes and reading the girls”) on contestants who struggle to perform in heels and keep their towering hair pieces in place.
A benefit for the direct services organization Alliance for Housing and Healing (formerly AID for AIDS), this year’s Best in Drag Show happens the evening of Oct. 6, when six contestants, several dogs, glitter and feathers descend on the Orpheum Theater’s stage. Best in Drag Show has nothing to do with RuPaul’s Drag Race or the bar circuit of professional drag queens who lip-synch their way through numbers while casting shade and telling raunchy jokes. Best in Drag Show contestants “aren’t the brightest bulbs on the strip,” says Drew. “Some are simple. No, they’re stupid. They don’t know where they’re going. Many of them suffer from untreated Gay-D-D.”
Drew’s journey to directing Best in Drag Show on the Orpheum’s downtown L.A. stage was personal. A 13-year-old runaway, he fled Orange County, hitchhiking up the 5 freeway to L.A., where he stumbled into drug addiction and survival sex, a lifestyle that culminated in being infected with “vintage HIV.” Drew’s passion about Best in Drag Show is driven by that firsthand experience of, as he says, “what it is to be homeless and positive and struggling to get meds.”
The show’s existence serves to underscore the fact that, despite its “disappearance,” the AIDS epidemic persists. “People are still getting infected; people are still living with the virus,” Drew observes, tying it to the LGBTQ community’s crystal meth epidemic. “Eighty million dollars was cut out of the AIDS budget two years ago, so organizations that rely on the government have been devastated. But there’s also the fact that the demographic of AIDS isn’t just gay men. It’s straight people. It’s women with children. Families.”
Best in Drag Show contestants have help: A virtual army of volunteers makes the show possible. “It’s a huge commitment,” Drew says. “And most of them have never done drag before.” Every contestant has a team of two to five people who help them juggle heels, nylons, corsets, boobs, and wigs. Contestants have to apply their own makeup and are encouraged to get a makeup artist. To keep costs down, there’s one day of rehearsal, another for tech and then the show.
Best in Drag Show’s beauty-contest roots and its proximity to Hollywood means that there’s always a celebrity judge quotient. You’re as likely to see Charlie Sheen (who’s made multiple $40,000-plus donations over the years) as you are to see Martin Sheen or Melanie Griffith. Rita Wilson, Anna Faris, Jennifer Coolidge and — who knew? — John C. Reilly have all turned out to judge. And then there was the year Vanessa Williams showed up, lingering with the girls in the alleyway behind the theater and later receiving a crown from emcee Patrick Rush, who said, “We won’t take away from you.”
A central part of the show’s appeal is the contestants’ dimwittedness, a magic trick that serves to distract from their gimlet-eyed, hooker-like focus on collecting as many bills as possible. While the girls serve shits and giggles onstage, dogs and ladies roam the aisles and collect money. “Nearly $3 million to date,” Drew says, putting the evening’s cray-cray, polished hair and makeup and kiki into perspective. “All of it goes to helping people with housing, meds, and food.”
The night of this year’s Best in Drag Show, Jeffrey Drew will take a very specific route to the theater. “For the last 11 years I drive past the Wilshire Ebell, where Alexis Pittman [who created Battle for the Tiara, Best in Drag Show’s forerunner] performed,” he explains. “I think about lovers who’ve died, friends who’ve died, and I pay tribute to the them.” Once Drew steps into the theater, he tries to “summon up all those angels and guys.” He adds, “Fear comes in, fear goes away, channeling all of them. It’s that thing, that magic, that happens when the audience comes in and everybody’s psyched for the show. It’s that roar of excitement and expectation. Whatever’s going on onstage and between the audience, I let go and let it be. A perfect disaster.”
The 2013 contestants include Miss California Beverly Center (aka Sash Carl), Miss Michigan Electra Caprice Riviera (aka D’Nez Westmoreland), Miss New Jersey Vava Fanculo (aka Stephen Molinaro), Miss Puerto Rico Mimi E (aka Mike Cativo), Miss D.C. Ciera Lyon (aka Dajuan Powns), and Miss Wisconsin Misty O’Portunity (aka Aron Ross).
“Beverly Center, Miss California, will be singing opera live,” Drew says. “Misty O’Portunity, also singing. Dancers. An XXL cheerleader. And Mimi E, who thinks she’s a distant cousin of Sheila E, she plays the drums and dances some salsa.”
“They’re all kind of delusional,” Drew whispers. “But don’t tell anybody.”
Frontiers Magazine
by Michelle McCarthy
Click here to read the article on the Frontiers website
Alliance staff Vicki Freda and Linda Forman with Tarquin Wilding from ETAF.
Violet eyes. White diamonds. Two Oscars. What do you think of when you remember Elizabeth Taylor? On the front lines of the AIDS epidemic, we remember her kind and generous heart.
Dame Elizabeth Taylor was a fearless activist who called attention to the disease and its devastation even before her close friend Rock Hudson passed away in 1985. She spoke the truth about AIDS when others wished to deny it.
Her legacy includes the Elizabeth Taylor AIDS Foundation, from which Alliance for Housing and Healing just received a generous $20,000 grant for our Keep It Fresh food program. This initiative provides monthly supermarket vouchers to families and individuals struggling to buy healthy food that works well with difficult AIDS medications. Thanks to the Elizabeth Taylor AIDS Foundation, we will be able to significantly reduce the waiting list of 400 households for this wonderful program.
For more information about the Elizabeth Taylor AIDS Foundation, please go to www.elizabethtayloraidsfoundation.org.
From the Los Angeles Business Journal
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Raul Pavia is the CFO of Alliance for Housing and Healing, an independent nonprofit that provides housing and supportive services to men, women, children, and families suffering with HIV/AIDS and poverty in Los Angeles. As the CFO, Pavia directly manages three staffers and serves as a member of the Senior Executive Team that oversees an annual budget of $7.7 million, 70 employees, and amazing programs that serve 1,500 people each year. In the last ten years, Pavia has been a vital part of several remarkable achievements, including merging The Serra Project and Aid for AIDS to create Alliance for Housing and Healing, a more robust nonprofitthat offers a full spectrum of housing services. Under his fiscal stewardship the Alliance has also increased the number of independent housing units from 34 to 132 – an increase of 388%! Pavia also played a key role in the acquisition of Casa de Corazon from a faltering nonprofit to ensure that this much-needed facility would continue to operate.
