Treyla Trash and Blair Williams are two drag queens who perform and work at Club One. Club One is a boisterous club in Savannah known for, their dancing, bar and elaborate drag shows. Treyla and Blair sat down with SCAD Radio Branding Director Taylor Eby to discuss audiences, drag and what performing means to them. Read the article and listen to the recording below
Taylor: Hi I am Taylor Eby I am your branding director here at SCAD Radio, today we are interviewing the incomparable Ms. Treyla Trash and Ms. Blair Williams.
Blair: Hi!
Treyla : We’re very happy to be here!
Taylor: So just for the people at home, I know I just kind of introduced you guys, but tell us a little bit about who you are, what you do and where people can find you?
Treyla: So my name is Treyla Trash, or Trey Norris. I am the assistant general manager at Club One and I do drag with this one over here. We do bingo every single Monday at 6:30pm. Blair Williams is actually our show director at Club One.
Taylor: Fabulous!
Blair: By that they mean I just heard the cats.
*Laughter* Taylor: I’m sure that that is a task and a half to be doing that.
Treyla: It’s a lot of personalities in one room.
Blair: It really is! My name is Todd Mauldon, I perform as Blair Williams. I’ve been at Club One since 2008, so I’m celebrating 14 years.
Taylor: That’s amazing!
Blair: Yeah it’s been a long time-
Treyla: And also Miss Gay America 2015
Taylor: Wow! That’s incredible!
Blair: My friends usually say wow too.
Laughter
Blair: It was a great, great experience, and I was grateful to have the opportunity.
Taylor: That’s amazing! Okay fantastic! So kind of just for the sake of clarity for the people at home, would you be able to give an overall definition of what drag or drag performance is for those who are maybe confused?
Treyla: I mean drag is different for everybody. But for me, and I think for Blair too it’s more of giving a female illusion. And it’s not making fun of the female form, for me I was always jealous. You know you see these women on the red carpet, they’ve always got these fabulous clothing- like one of my drag inspirations, I guess this is where I can start on: is Bette Midler, from like the very beginning. Um very outrageous, very just unapologetic in her artform, so that’s kinda what drag is for me.
Blair: I think it’s a performance outlet for myself and a lot of other people, especially folks like me, who don’t have a particular talent, like I can’t sing, I can’t really dance, you know.
Treyla: No, she can.
*Laughter*Blair: I hate this! But it was an opportunity to be on stage and that was mesmerized by the art from the first time I had seen it. And I saw it the first time I ever went out to a gay club. I didn’t really know anything about it and had never been exposed to it. But all I remember sitting there thinking, well, I could do that.
Taylor: Like if I don’t have any other talents. This is what I can do.
Blair: But much like Treyla, I’m attracted to the costuming and, you know, the more elaborate for me the better. So that’s what I tend to gravitate towards. I
Treyla: We just like to be shiny!
Taylor: Don’t we all!
Blair: Like a shiny penny
Treyla: From like I don’t know, 12 feet, at least step back 12 feet from me and I’ll look like a woman.
Blair: It is a nighttime sport, and it’s not for the weak at heart!
Taylor: I love that, a nighttime sport. That’s fantastic. So kind of going off of that I have found that music and cultural references tend to be a really large part of queer art and queer performance. In particular, lip sync performance seems to be a very large part of drag. I kind of was curious to know why y’all think that that is why are we as queer people so invested in performing those kinds of cultural references?
Treyla: Um, well, I think as far as like the art of lip sync, I don’t think that most drag queens can sing. First of all
Blair: Why did you look at me?
*Laughter* Treyla: I’m sorry! But you know, like looking at, like people like Madonna who was, you know, very queer centric. Like every every gay bar that I’ve ever been to around the country. I’ve seen at least one drag queen do a Madonna number. You know, so it’s very I don’t know-
Blair: I think we’re attracted to people who champion us as our cause, or as just as regular people and so many performance artists like Bette Midler, like Madonna, like Cher, they embrace us and our culture. And I feel like we embrace them back.
Treyla: Yeah, we want to emulate them.
Blair: Right. it’s interesting, because I think in a traditional drag aspect, you know, you could never walk into a bar without seeing someone perform one of these illusions, right? I think it’s really a tribute to that person and what they mean to our culture.
Treyla: And you want to give that to the audience as well, like, share it. So I think that’s why we do it.
Taylor: That makes a lot of sense. I can’t remember where the quote is from, but from what I remember somebody saying, if you’re a celebrity, and you have a gay audience, and you’re not nurturing it, you’re doing it wrong. Like it’s a symbiotic relationship, in that kind of a way.
Blair: We’re loyal. We’re crazy but we’re loyal.
Treyla: The gays are loyal. laughter “we’re crazy but we’re loyal” that’s a great Leslie Jordan reference. But yeah, I think that all joking aside, you know, the gays are loyal. And also we have an expendable income because we don’t have children. We’ll make the trips to see you, we’ll buy the merch, we’ll do anything we can.
Taylor: Absolutely. So kind of beyond that going into specifically lip sync performance, in your opinion, what makes a good lip sync performance? And in addition is there a particular lip sync artist that when they’re on stage, you’re like, “I gotta go see her, She’s amazing.”
Blair: I think it’s all about the believability. Like you want every aspect of it to be really right, you want the phrasing to be right, the breath to be right, holding out the words like you want to believe that that person is singing and locally, we have someone on our cast, her name is Chi Chi Bonet Sherrington. We call her-
Treyla/Blair: The lipsync assassin.
Blair: It’s insane to watch her lip sync.
Taylor: Really?
Treyla: It really is like, I remember her Savannah pride talent, it was just so very articulate. And I think that a lot of queens that I’ve seen really forget how important lip sync is, and I’m not vocally trained, but I do sing. That’s one thing when I’m learning a number, like I think about the breath, and like, I just want to make sure that it’s coming from my mouth, and I think that some people that don’t necessarily know how to sing or like, don’t do it very often don’t think about that. But it’s super, super important. Because, you know, people are looking at costumes, they’re, you know, in awe, hopefully! Hopefully, they’re in awe, but whenever you get up close to them to take that tip, and you know, say thank you, they’re gonna be looking at your mouth at the same time.
Taylor: That is true, because drag is one of those art forms where you are so interactive with the audience, that if you’re that close, they will clock the fact that you don’t really know what’s going on.
Blair: And the audience is quick to point out, you know, you missed this word.
Taylor: They’re critical!
Treyla: Well, now that RuPaul’s Drag Race is, you know. I mean thank god you know it’s mainstream. It’s brought an awareness to drag, but also people come in that have seen two episodes of RuPaul’s Drag Race and will be like, “no, no, she didn’t do that lip sync!”
Blair: Like I have rushed through learning a new song at a point or two my life and you get on stage-
Treyla: A point or two?
Laughter
Blair: Last minute, like I totally prepared for this interview too. it’s interesting, because when you rush through something like that, like I may know the words, but I have a hard time getting them out, and making it look realistic. So I always felt like the first time I do something, it’s probably pretty bad. And then it gets better.
Treyla: And then by like, the 10th or 12th time, you know, it’s pretty good.
Blair: or 200th!
Taylor: It turns out, right!
Treyla: But what we say when people can’t remember their lyrics it’s watermelon, cantaloupe, watermelon cantaloupe.
Blair: And that doesn’t work either.
Taylor: Oh, my gosh, I was a former theater kid. And that’s what they used to tell us in the back. It would be if you can’t remember the words just start mouthing watermelon. And I remember being like, I guess… sure.
Blair: In our industry it’s like flip your hair and spin.
Treyla: Yeah, do a death drop, do something. Like my thing, whenever I’ve forgotten words: I’ll do like a pose, and I’ll just put my hands up in front of my mouth.
Blair: I’ll be like, “she forgot those words, again!”
Treyla: As Blair’s in the audience watching, like, “I know what she’s doing.”
Blair: I did try to sneak out of the dressing room and watch some of the performances on stage because I’m super proud of what our cast does. And I want to see, how the audience is receiving them, like how they look, how they’re feeling, because you can tell if someone’s really into their performance. So it’s always nice to take a step out of the dressing room and then watch other people perform.
Taylor: That’s amazing. I really, really love that! Not to completely 180 but kind of going off of what you were saying about RuPaul drag race. We’re kind of seeing like you said again, drag being pushed sort of into the mainstream, more and more people are more aware of it culturally, do you feel like that is actually a benefit to local performers? Or is drag race kind of too sanitized of a conglomerate? For it to actually effectively portray what drag is and actually benefit local performers?
Blair: Yes.
Laughter
Treyla: Well, I think this is, you know, it’s very twofold. I mean, we book a lot of people through RuPaul’s Drag Race, and actually, we’ve known people that have been performing for years before they’ve gone on to RuPaul’s Drag Race. Like Shangela, for example, she just got on Dancing with the Stars. I appreciate that drag is mainstream. Drag for me is, like, always been underground, or at least that’s how I thought of it. But it does bring, like more criticism to the table, which, you know, we just talked about, but if people are gonna go and watch, you know, drag queens, like, Shangela on Dancing with the Stars, or RuPauls drag race, go out and support your local queens, please.
Blair: The visibility that that show is created is phenomenal. And I mean, it’s probably an unpopular thing to say, I don’t really watch the show. If someone I know is on it, or someone I am interested in seeing is on it, I’ll catch an episode online or something like that. But, I think the visibility and the fact that it has, you know, brought drag to the forefront of the entertainment industry is really important and great. But there’s so much more to appreciate, than just the, you know, 40 or 50, folks that have been lucky enough to get on that show.
Treyla: Oh it’s more than that now.
Taylor: Within the past year it’s in the two hundreds, it’s crazy.
Blair: Well those 200 lucky individuals. But, you know, it is disheartening to see some of the entertainment and they come in and some of those folks have never actually been in a show, right? They’re Instagram queens, you know, they’re beautiful, they have great costuming, but they don’t know how to be on stage. So it’s disheartening to know what they’re going home with and what you go home with, sometimes. And to know that, not just me, but, so many of the local folks are so much better at what we do in a venue. But it’s also allowed us to do things like bring drag brunch to Savannah, and not just in Savannah, but across the country. I was kidding around earlier, when I said it was a nighttime sport, it’s not JUST for nighttime
Treyla: It’s during the daytime, and it’s horrifying.
Blair: And hot!
Treyla: But to go off of what you were saying: I was having a conversation with Willam, in LA, a few years ago. And we were talking about, you know, RuPaul drag race and the same subject. And she’s like, “you know, there are people that can go off and name 15 people that are on RuPaul’s Drag Race, can you name at least six people that are local drag queens.” You know, so you just have to keep that in mind.
Blair: And I really should add a caveat, I said that some of them have never been in a show. And it’s true.But, some of them are fantastic, right? So it’s not that cut and dry.
Taylor: Right, not all of them are just pretty Instagram queens.
Blair: Well they’re all pretty Instagram queens, but some of them are actually fantastic performers as well.
Treyla: But we have had performers that we booked at the club, from RuPaul’s Drag Race. You’ll see that, they’ll come backstage, they’ll interact with girls, you know, we’ll have a great time getting ready. And then when it comes to interacting with the audience, they don’t know how to talk to people. And that’s one of our points in drag, you know, being on stage is great, it’s awesome. But, what happens after the show? Are you talking to people? You know, are you shaking people’s hand and saying thank you so much for coming?
Blair: Yeah, I think that’s really important because people remember that, oftentimes more than they actually remember what you did on stage, how they were treated, that you actually thanked them for coming, that you had a conversation with them. And speaking of that, Trixie Mattel in particular, came to our bar once-
Treyla: Yeah we’ve had her like four times.
Blair: And when she came back the second time, you know, months or years later, she remembered everyone in that dressing room. She asked about people’s stories that they had shared, she had questions about stories they shared with her. I was super, super impressed. Because she wasn’t just there, she was actually present and she was listening and I think that’s super important.
Treyla: Also I’m going to call out that bitch really quick. Because I know that the people who are listening to this know who Tracy Martell is. So he came into town. I think this was like last year and he was just breezing through town. He texted my partner Travis and I who also runs the club, and was like, “can we go out to lunch or whatever” because she was on tour, she was just stopping and just out of drag baldhead you know what an asshole!
Laughter
So we’re asking her like, “where would you like to go out to lunch” and she’s like, “oh, I want to go to Paula Dean’s” she wanted to go for the chicken and Tracy Martell if you’re listening to this, you’re telling everybody that you’re a vegetarian…you ate that chicken! But we got out of the car with Trixie, and somebody clocked him like two blocks after they got out of the car and was like, “Oh my God, you’re Trixie Mattel!”.
Blair: And they had no idea who Treyla Trash was.
*Laughter*Treyla: But we did take her out for drinks afterwards. And we invited a friend to come out. And it was kind of cute. Because you know, Trixie, at that time her career just exploded, like she was getting ready for the motel and all that stuff. And my friend just came along, and she’s like, “who are you?” And that was such a moment for me! It was amazing!
Blair: My husband’s the same way. He comes to our club, if I have something new to wear, or if I’m doing a new number, rarely anytime else. So I’ll say, well, “so and so it’s gonna be at the bar this week, and you should come out!” and he’s like, “who is that? Why would I do that?”
Treyla: “Who is Lady bunny?”
Blair: He would have no idea!
Taylor: That’s amazing, though, because Trixie does have such a large platform. And I’m a big fan of hers personally, and I watch a lot of her YouTube videos, and she seems very booked and blessed.
Treyla: She’s a great business person. She is amazing. Like I love her. But baby, you looked like shit on your first season of RuPaul’s Drag Race.
Laughter
Treyla: But baby, she came back!
Taylor: She came swinging for the fences, absolutely! It’s amazing to hear that in smaller venues that she’s able to remember and kind of personalize that experience for everybody. That’s awesome! So moving kind of beyond that and kind of focusing on you guys. What kind of drag performance specifically do you guys specialize in? And why do you choose that? Like, are you hosting most of the time? Are you lip syncing most of the time? Is there something that you like fixate on in your drag performance?
Blair: Well we do host a lot! Shameless plug: we host bingo at Club One every Monday at 6:30pm. So that’s something that we do together. And we’re also recording a podcast, so we normally record that on Mondays. And it’s really just, for me, my favorite day of the week to do drag because a good part of the time, it’s just Trey and I getting ready and we laugh, and we listen to the saddest 90’s country female artists. And then our podcast is like Trey says, it’s like walking up to two drunk drag queens in a bar. And then we get to have a great time at bingo. We have a loyal group of supporters. And they don’t care what we look like. They just come to have fun with us!
Treyla: Which last week we came in moo-moo’s, we didn’t even care
*Laughter* Treyla: But do you have a competing aspect to your drag.
Blair: I host our Saturday shows most of the time. And the type of drag I like to do I’d call it kind of traditional, I love big hair and big costumes. And I believe every costume should have a reveal, so there’s multiple pieces. I love old 90s rock music. So I will scour for female versions of songs that I love.
Treyla: Yeah, at one point we called you the Rock and Roll Goddess.
Blair: I love songs that are sort of empowering for women. So P!nk in particular speaks to me, I’m a Kelly Clarkson fan.
Treyla: Kelly Cluckson
Blair: I know how you feel about her.
Taylor: Are you not a Kelly Clarkson fan?
Treyla: Um, I-
Blair: He likes her, he just thinks she makes poor song choices.
Treyla: I’m gonna get read from the gay community at SCAD for this, I do appreciate Kelly Clarkson. The people who pick her songs are just… they’re just not for her voice.
Blair: Now she’s mostly just hosting her own TV show,
Taylor: And good for her!
Treyla: We’re gonna do the same thing!
Blair: But I am competitive when it comes to drag and not just in the arena where there were pageants and stuff. Like even on stage like you’re looking at all these fabulous people that you work with, they have something new, you know, they’re doing new numbers, and you’re like, I’ve got to step it up!
Treyla: Yeah, Blair buys a new costume every two weeks.
Blair: Kind of! I think that motivates us as well, I think it keeps everyone on their toes. And it just helps everyone be better. And there’s a huge support network in that dressing room as well. Like people are very, very kind to each other, they’re willing to zip you up and if your zipper is broken they’ll help, or encourage you, or pick you up if you think your number didn’t do so well. So it’s a great experience.
Treyla: Are you done talking about yourself?
Laughter
I love hosting in drag. I love talking with people. If I could just host and drag and just interact with people and just joke off the cuff. I would do that every single time. Right. But that’s just not the gig in Savannah.
Blair: If I could restructure our show, so just to have that someone who host and not necessarily perform it just host the shows kind of interact with the audience between numbers I would do that. But that doesn’t work as well from a monetary aspect. We’d have to pay the host more because they’re not going to be tipped.
Treyla: I see where you’re going with this, and I like it!
Blair: It’s not happening.
Treyla: But also like I have a theater background too. I love to sing, when I’m in drag, I think that people pay a lot more attention when you have a wig on. But also like it gives you a kind of leeway with what you say. So I could say something in the bar at 11pm when people have a few drinks in them, and I have a wig on. I couldn’t get away with that during the day. So we’ve joked about this too, like, I would love to do a gig like on Fire Island where it’s just like me and a piano and like three martinis, just like a cabaret of people.
Blair: I didn’t think we were joking! That’s be a great fit for you!
Treyla: And just doing that. You know, lip syncing is – I enjoy lip syncing. But I always joke whenever I go out on stage, if I’m gonna sing live, I’m like, “well give it up for her, but if you want to hear an actual voice….”
Blair: And inevitably, somebody’s just gonna say, “well do the best you can and try not to embarrass yourself”.
Treyla: Yeah, exactly, you know, and then I get $2. And, we have a night.
Taylor: That’s fantastic. That’s really, really awesome. So I know that you talked a little bit about earlier, what inspired your drag. But I was curious, like, were there any other influences that kind of inspired your drag and what was kind of the catalyst where you were like, “I want to go put on a wig and dance in front of people every night!” What was kind of the moment that you wanted to pick up drag?
Treyla: I think it was-I saw this film. And if nobody has watched it, you need to go watch it! It’s on Netflix. It’s called “Girls will be Girls”. It is a B movie- I think it was at the Sundance Film Festival or something and it won a couple awards. But there are a couple of queens in there. It’s Varla G. Merman who is a legend in drag, and also Coco Peru.
Blair: Also a legend!
Treyla: Yes, also a legend! And we had her at the club as well! But seeing those two work in tandem, really just kind of pushed me and I was like, “I can kind of do this.” And I remember the first time I was ever in drag, I did drag bingo. And this is before I was working with the club. I did a fundraiser for I think it was Casa at LuLu’s Chocolate Bar and I had a CoCo Peru wig, no pads on, some tights, and I may have bought like a compact and some mascara.
Blair: Oh how things have changed.
Taylor: You were a real woman!
Treyla: Yeah a real woman, and like there was this big ass poster with my face on it. And actually it popped up in my memories like a few months ago. I looked at it like “should I repost” then I thought “no”.
Laughter
Blair: For me, like I always wanted to be a performer. I’m older than everybody in this room, and I don’t know if you guys remember an old TV show called “American Bandstand”. But they had a dance contest during their summer season. And my sister and I-
Treyla: It was on “Greece”. If you don’t know what “American Bandstand” is.
Blair: We would move all the living room furniture out of the way and practice because somehow miraculously, we were going to be called to go come be on the show. So I always, I think, wanted to be on stage. I was the drum major in my high school band. And I think only because I got to be-
Treyla: All drum majors are gay.
Blair: Yeah, actually, most of the drag queens!
Treyla: Yeah most of the drag queens that we’ve had at the club were drum majors.
Blair: But I didn’t really have any reference for drag or like I said. When I saw my first show, like literally, it was at a bar where there was no stage, they just kind of cleared the dance floor and these beautiful queens came out. I was 18-
Treyla: 18… so back in 1940.
Blair: Right after I got off the Santa Maria!
*Laughter*Blair: But I was mesmerized by the whole thing. Like the costumes were beautiful, and the show was filled with some legendary North Carolina entertainers. I grew up in the Charlotte area. And I really wanted to do it and it was a few years later before I actually got up the nerve to do it and it wasn’t great. A few years after that-
Treyla: What was your first song?
Blair: “I’ve got love on My Mind” by Natalie Cole. I may do that tonight, who knows!
Taylor: A throwback. Absolutely!
Blair: And I put myself through school doing that. So I did it for five or six years maybe?
Treyla: You yourself through school doing drag?
Blair: Yeah.
Treyla: I did not know that.
Blair: Then I took a very long break, like a 13 Year break.
Taylor: A sabbatical.
Blair: My husband and I moved from Charlotte to Chicago, Chicago to Philly before coming back down south and life just took me in other directions. And when we moved back down here we moved in 2004. And in 2008, I was working with an organization called First City Network. They were doing a benefit for something and one of the board members knew that I used to drag and was like “why don’t you do this” and I’m like, “haven’t done it and I don’t own a thing.” But I was interested!
Treyla: She just said yes, right off the bat. Don’t play coy.
Blair: I went to the bar one night and asked if maybe I could just do a spot, you know, in one of the shows, and they said “yes!” We would never just say “yes” to anybody!
Treyla: No, no we don’t. We have a cast of like 15 people.
Blair: And I remember the queen’s there, like I did my number and they’re like, “Well, you still know what to do on stage, but that face and that hair, that’s 20 years ago, we’ll help you” and they did! And you know what was going to be a once in a while thing turned into every other weekend, and then every weekend, and now 30 days a week. It’s a very long winded way to say that most of my inspiration, I guess probably was from local queens first, the folks that I met in North Carolina, who kind of groomed me and then the folks that I met here who re-groomed me!
Taylor: That’s incredible. It’s interesting to hear that there’s such like, a community builder around drag. We as queer people have had historically, built our own spaces for ourselves. And drag is usually the one thing that kind of brings all the other homosexuals to that spot, but it’s nice to hear that within-
Treyla: She said “homosexuals”…
Blair: I’m leaving.
*Laughter* Taylor: I’m gay too! Am I not allowed to say it? Um, but to know that within drag, there is kind of that community builder, I would love to hear- because you Blair are Treyla’s drag mother, correct?
Blair: That’s what they tell me!
Taylor: I would love to hear about what that dynamic is like, like drag families, how that kind of comes about? Like, did you ask her like, “hey, will you take me under your wing”? Or was it an adoption situation?
Treyla: Yeah, we have a ceremony and everything! It was a christening.
Blair: I was just looking for child support!
Treyla: No, I think it happened naturally. You know? While I was like doing makeup, or you know, asking you about tights, and costumes, or whatever. Like it just came about over time to where eventually-I think she said it on stage one night. She’s like, “this is my drag daughter”. And I was like, “oh my god! I just want to thank the Country Music Association! Thank you for this honor!” But don’t know, it just came in overtime. And I think that’s how it happens for a lot of people!
Blair: I’ve never really had-like, I am always willing to offer advice as Miss. America traveling around that my job for a year was to encourage people to be the best versions of themselves. But I never expected to have drag children like I’m probably too selfish to nurture someone.
Treyla: She is pretty selfish…she’s not.
Blair: But with Treyla, like it was just easy because we have a friendship and we bounce ideas off of each other, and we kid around and call ourselves makeup artists. But-
Treyla: We’re not, we’re not.
Blair: We’ll like next to each other, like, what did you do? And how does that work? And let me try that. Will you do that to me? You know, so it’s always a give or take. So I don’t know that it’s a mother daughter relationship as much as it is just a familiar friendship.
Treyla: I think, you know, we talk to each other, like every week, we share like recipes. And I actually asked him to be my best man at my wedding. So we’ve always had a really good work relationship and friendship.
Blair: But I’m not good at being a drag parent. Because I don’t-
Treyla: No you are!
Blair: I don’t think so. Because I don’t openly offer- I wait for someone to ask, you know, “what do you think about this?” or I don’t think to you know- working at the club and having a trying to have a personal life too. Life gets filled with a lot of stuff. So I don’t always think to reach out and say, “hey, just checking in, do you need anything?”
Treyla: You do that, though! I just don’t think you recognize it.
Blair: I don’t do that very well. But whatever.
Taylor: We’ll agree to disagree.
Blair: It won’t be the first time
Taylor: Oh my goodness. So going back to drag performance. I would love to know-so for those of the folks at home who have never been to a drag show. What are some rules of the road like what is good drag audience member etiquette? What would you like people to know if they’re going to their first drag show, what to do and what not to do?
Treyla: You’re about to Patti LuPone this!
Taylor: Patti LuPone it!
Blair: First of all, put your cell phones down! Unless you’re taking pictures or video that you want to share on social media, like-I always kid around, I used to say “if you are worried about your husband, or what your husband’s doing or your children then you’re in the wrong place.” Then you should’ve stayed home. I think it’s important-I don’t- this is gonna sound horrible like it-obviously, it costs to come up to our shows on the weekends and sometimes people act like they don’t want to be there. I’m like “you’ve already paid $15 to walk through the door.” You don’t have to do anything but sit here and have a good time, right? You can laugh, you can clap, all of that is free.
Taylor: How generous!
Blair: Yeah, so we want people to immerse themselves in the experience. We are happy if they tip and drag is a tipped income. We always encourage people to tip.
Treyla: Like bring ones. Even as an entertainer going to other drag shows, even if I’m not enjoying the performance, or if I’m like sitting there- like we’re gays, we’re gonna judge. Like I will still give that queen, at least a dollar. Or also coming up to drag shows, don’t touch the entertainers, don’t touch the entertainers! Consent is sexy everybody, consent is very sexy.
*Laughter* Blair: It’s funny because, I’ve had the opportunity to host some of the burlesque shows. They’ll always say thing to the audience, questions like “is it ok to touch an entertainer?” the audience will say “nooooo”. So I feel like I should add that to my shtick you know? Because people, I don’t know, feel like they can take certain liberties.
Treyla: Like stuff money down your boobs.
Blair: Do not put money in your mouth and expect someone to take it from you! First of all money is nasty! You have no idea how many hands it’s been through.
Treyla: Of how many thongs its been through!
*Laughter* Blair: And then they want you to take it out of their mouth. Covid is still a thing.
Taylor: Right, we’re not trying to spread diseases at Club One.
Treyla: No please. At least not during business hours.
*Laughter* Treyla: I’m gonna get read for that. I’m fired! But yeah consent is sexy, don’t come up and touch our hair. Just bring tips, put your phone down unless you’re taking a picture, and just like Blair said, clapping and yelling is free!
Blair: It is true! You know we always tell the audience, the more energy you have the better the shows gonna be! And I think there’s a lot of truth in that. Cause we feed off their energy, regardless if you made 5$ or 500$, if they’re having a good time I feel like we give a better performance. Cause we’re more interested in making sure they’re enjoying what we’re doing.
Taylor: Right! I had an experience- actually it was my first drag show I ever went to. It was my first pride and I saw a queen perform and she was just incredible! And they said that she was performing at my local Hamburger Mary’s that night, and I texted my friends like “we have to go!”. And we saw her and she came over while we were tipping her and I was like “just so you know I saw you at pride and you were incredible!” and she like came out for the next number and murdered! And then came over to us when we were tipping her again and she was like “that was for you guys!” and I’ll never forget that cause I was like, that is such an amazing example of how encouraging your performers begets you a better performance! I find that interesting that people would pay for a show and then just kind of sit there.
Blair: We have a drag brunch once a month at Moon River Brewing Company, and this past Sunday we had an 8 year old in the audience. Her parents brought her because what she wanted for her birthday was to come to the drag show. So that was motivation enough for everyone to put their best foot forward because now we wanted to impress this 8 year old! Whose wish was to come see a drag show for her birthday!
Treyla: Yeah we interacted with her like before and after the show and it was- oh god she was adorable!
Taylor: That’s amazing! I love that! So going off of the performance aspect of it, is there-kind of for fun, is there a lip sync song that you wish people would stop performing? Put it to bed, it’s been done to death, we don’t want to see it anymore.
Blair: That’s half my repertoire…
Laughter
Blair: So I do This Is Me from The Greatest Showman quite a bit, and recently I saw a thread on Facebook, where somebody had said this- somebody that I know posted “If I ever see somebody do “This Is Me again” I think I may just scream” I was like, “good thing you’re not local.”
Treyla: I’m afraid to say mine, because I feel like a lot of SCAD students are gonna listen to this and be like “ok I wanna come to Star Search and I’m gonna do that”. It’s probably Get On Up, you know, “get on up turn me on!”
Laughter
Treyla: But honestly after that anything with a whip crack, anything with a whip crack in the mix or an explosion, please.
Taylor: Do they edit those in? Or do they come in the song?
Blair: No, most of them are like mixes that people make. And back in the 90’s and early 2000’s it was a big thing, and everybody’s song had random whip cracks and they would snap their head one way.
Treyla: Or like kick their leg, do a death drop or something. Please, if you’re gonna come to Star Search, please don’t do Get On Up and please don’t do anything with a whip crack in it, because I will read you for filth! And I will have the evidence to prove to you right now in this recording that I told you so!
Blair: I have said if I ever see a Liza Minnelli impersonator again I would just scream.
Taylor: Are there that many?
Blair: There used to be but not any more. There used to be a ton, I don’t think the entire season of Ms. America, that I went to a prelim and there wasn’t a Liza Minnell impersonator.
Taylor: Interesting, are there like big impersonations now? With people doing like Beyonce or something?
Blair: I think it exists. Not so much on our cast we don’t have a cast that does a lot of illusions. But I think you see that a lot around the country.
Treyla: Like illusions are very hard, giving credit where credit is due, like if you’re going to go into an illusion, it’s one thing to put a wig on that’s similar and like a costume that’s similar but like getting your face- contouring your face.
Blair: And it’s really about adopting that person’s personality and their movement. My friend Cody Collins who was a fairly famous Reba impersonator.
Treyla: She toured with Reba.
Blair: And she used to say, she would learn more about a person and their mannerisms by watching them in an interview, like if they were being interviewed by Oprah, or whomever. She would study them that way so she could adopt those characteristics. I still think like, if people do impersonations they’re pretty iconic. People do Madonna, people do Reba, people do Dolly, people-
Treyla: and Cher. I still think that the best Cher impersonation I’ve seen is Randy Roberts out of Key West. Not only because she looks like Cher, but she sings live and she sounds exactly like Cher. It’s ridiculous.
Taylor: That’s incredible. I mean if the shoe fits, wear it! If you’ve got Cher’s voice you might as well profit!
Blair: And she does a one woman show and sings as herself but then she does illusions, and that’s the entire show.
Treyla: Yeah, just like Electra, another iconic queen and a great costume maker too. She works in P Town.
Blair: You’re just saying that because you have a costume from her.
*Laughter*Taylor: If the costume’s good…
Blair: It is great.
Treyla: I saw her in P Town and in the same show she did Reba, she did Bette Midler, she did Elton John, she did Barbra Streisand, like all in the span of an hour and a half. She would stand at her mirror, she had a little vanity on stage, she would wipe things away and then put a little bit of this on, a little bit of that, put a wig on. She is very talented.
Taylor: That is truly a tallent, you said that drag is for untalented people but that is a talent!
Blair: I can barely get my makeup on the first time let alone-
Taylor: Multiple times!
Treyla: She’s speaking from a hurt place.
*Laughter*Taylor: So speaking of drag shows, I have been to a few in my day and there have been a couple where there have been some, lets say unruly audience members. How do you guys as hosts, what have you found to be the best way to deal with unruly patrons?
Blair: I usually say something to them like “sit down honey I work alone” or “I’m getting paid to make a fool out of myself and here you are doing it for free”. Usually that will quiet people down. I don’t recall having that issue really at the club. We did have a situation a couple weeks ago where I thought a young man was extremely drunk and I was about to really kind of go in. But something told me to take a step back because it seemed like it was more than alcohol and it was. But you kind of have to gage each situation you know and also be mindful of your own safety and the safety of your audience.
Treyla: Yeah I think like if anything happens we’ll joke and say you know “shut up” or whatever. But once the show starts it’s really management’s job.
Blair: And they’re really aware, you know even if they might not be on our floor at that time and usually one of them is. Somebody is gonna go let the front desk person know or somebody so that we can get that taken care of.
Treyla: But I will say when we say something to an audience member who- like let’s say for an example, not that it’s happened many times, but some big bro-y straight guy comes in and is just trying to cause a ruckus during a show. We’ll say whatever we’re gonna say to him on the mic and the crowds basically behind us, “sit down this is not your place”
Blair: And you have to remember most of that behavior is alcohol induced.
Treyla: I’m not ignorant to the fact that, actually Trixie and I had a conversation about this a few years ago. I am not ignorant to the fact that we are here to facilitate ummm
Treyla/Blair: the sales of alcohol.
Treyla: Thank you I’ve said it time and time again, I just couldn’t remember!
Blair: I’m a great mother! Look at me, spoon feeding you!
Taylor: Well that makes a lot of sense, I mean just kind of making a joke out of it because I figure too you don’t want to bring down the energy of the audience by being like “whats wrong with you!” or yelling at them.
Blair: No, that would kill the show.
Treyla: Yeah we can’t just say “stop the show, stop the show”, if it’s a situation like that. It’s not fair to the audience. They came up here to have a good time, and just cause of one person we’re not gonna spoil it.
Taylor: Right, that makes a lot of sense. So wrapping up here with my last couple of questions. What would you like to see from drag performers moving forward? Where do you see it as an artform heading?
Blair: I feel like people-entertainers are more innovative than we used to be. Like they are willing to take risk and do things that are outside of the box and that might be performing a male song in a female illusion, it might be being a bearded queen, it might be not wearing boobs or hips which is traditionally how we build our bodies to look more feminine. Even in song selections I think that people are willing to just take more risks and accept more challenges than we were at one point. I think the audience is there for it! I think that drag is for everyone; it crosses genders, it crosses boundaries and I think- I said genders I said that wrong.
*Laughter* Blair: But I think that it will continue to evolve and be more innovative.
Treyla: Yeah I think we’re very fortunate, we’re in the city of Savannah, we have SCAD, we have a lot of art students coming in, especially doing Star Search every month I think we both see- and with Chi Chi’s Just a Little Drag, which is a drag competition we do as well on Wednesday nights at 10pm. We see things that if we had thought about it like, we’re not gonna be impressed by it, but then we see it on stage and we’re like “oh my god! This is fantastic! Why didn’t I think of that?!” But yeah, I think that drag is-like Blair said drag is for everybody, it crosses all boundaries and drag not only is an artform but it’s also a form of protest. Speaking about genders it’s an expression, so whatever you’re feeling, bring it to the stage, and I think we are seeing a lot of that.
Taylor: Kind of the traditional rules of what drag was are kind of being-not thrown out the window but evolving in a way.
Blair: And I think it’s with a younger audience as well, like we work in a tourist town and the vast majority of our business on a Friday or Saturday night is tourist and bridal parties. And I feel like they have an expectation of what drag is so we certainly want to meet that expectation for them, but at the same time introduce them to something that may be a little more out of the box.
Taylor: Broaden their horizons a little bit. If they’re gonna have their bachelorette party they may as well have their minds expanded.
Blair: Exactly.
Treyla: We’re definitely expanding- especially at Club One like with our cast, we’re bringing on new cast members who have this idea of drag that we never thought of. Blair and I have this traditional idea of drag, it needs to be big hair, you have boobs, you have hips, nails on at all times. So it’s good to see everything that’s coming to the stage.
Blair: I agree with that I’m super proud of our cast. It’s very diverse. They all bring a different, unique perspective to the stage so it’s really cool!
Taylor: That’s incredible. I’m really glad to hear that as drag is evolving you guys are very keen on bringing all kinds of diverse drag to the stage. I really enjoy that. So my final question for y’all this is a little fun thing for the people at home, who maybe want to pick their drag name. How do you come up with a good drag name? What makes it good?
Blair: I’m gonna develop an app.
*Laugher* Blair: I’m gonna be rich!
Treyla: I had a drag name before the one I adopted, it was Trixie Business. But, we already had a Trixie Turner at the club. I didn’t really know what to do so my friend Rob (who now lives in Milwaukee) was in the backseat of my car and he was plastered. I was giving him a ride home and he said “what about Treyla Trash?” and I was like “I grew up in a trailer park that works!” and it goes off of my name as well. So it just kind of tied it in and I’ve kept it ever since. Blair looked in a phone book!
*Laugher* Taylor: Did you really?
Blair: You have to put it in perspective. In the 90’s in Charlotte I wanted a name-
Treyla: When phone books still existed.
Blair: Shut up! This is my story, I wanted a name that I wasn’t gonna be embarrassed by if someone yelled it across the mall so I thought well Blair is unisex, it’s generic enough. Literally everyone I knew who was in drag had a name that sounded real. So I was like “what sounds good with Blair?” like going through the phone book, Williams! That’s it I’ll be Blair Williams! I have a friend in Ohio her name is Deva Station. So Deva is the first name, Station. We always kid around- she doesn’t have any drag children but we always kid around that her kids could be Bus Station, Train Station.
Treyla: So if you could change your name now what would it be?
Blair: …. Kitty LaRue
*Laugher* Treyla: I think that the best drag name I’ve ever heard is- and she’s a queen out of Australia- Karen From Finance.
Taylor: Yes! I’m familiar!
Treyla: Yeah, Karen From Finance, she’s an amazing entertainer. Like that is legend.
Blair: There’s an entertainer in Tennessee who I really have an affinity for. But her drag name is Pat McCooter.
*Laugher* Taylor: That is phenomenal!
Treyla: You’ll just have to bleep that out.
Taylor: I’m gonna protest to keep it in!
Blair: M-C- capitol C-O-O-T-E-R, McCooter.
Taylor: That is absolutely fabulous! So just generally something that speaks to you, or just flip through the phone book, if you have one, if you’ve saved on over time. That is also evidently an option for you.
Blair: Absolutely! Or download my new app!
*Laugher* Taylor: In development now! We could put you in touch with some great app developers here at SCAD.
Treyla: Oh my god speaking of apps can we plug?
Taylor: Oh please plug whatever you want!
Treyla: Blair and I do this podcast, it comes out everything Thursday it’s called Can I Ask You A Personal Question?
Blair: With Blair Williams and Treyla Trash!
Treyla: We have guests that we talk to and we just kind of dive in and have conversations with. Like Blair said earlier, it’s like walking up to two drunk drag queens at a bar and this is the conversation that they’re having. But you can find us on Google, you can find us on Amazon, you can find us on Apple Podcast.
Blair: Or even on our own website at BlairandTreyla.com
Treyla: Also if you have an Alexa, I don’t know if SCAD has the budget for this. We’ll talk to Paula Wallace about getting an Alexa for everybody, thank you Paula!
*Laugher* Blair: Also an Alexa for me!
Treyla: But you can ask Alexa “Alexa play the podcast Can I Ask You A Personal Question?” and you can hear two homosexuals in your dorm room!
Taylor: I love that promo! I hope that somebody in their dorm room has an Alexa and it just lit up for them!
*Laughter*Treyla: I’m so sorry Paula Wallace for committing you to that.
Taylor: You know what honestly-I don’t know if we’ll have to cut this out but she can absolutely afford to give all of us Alexas.
Treyla: I know what she makes every year.
Taylor: She does in fact have a helicopter.
Treyla: Sell the helicopter and buy all of your students an Alexa!
Taylor: Start with us!
Treyla: Actually funny story, we were hosting bingo at the SCAD Museum, we were opening Icons Only, that was the exhibit. Somebody won a prize, and I was like “congratulations, Paula Wallace gave us this grant for 10,000 dollars and it’s yours!” and the face they had! I was like “no I’m kidding! I’m kidding!”
Taylor: I was like, I would’ve fought a little harder in the lip sync if I had known there was a 10,000 dollar grant on the line.
Blair: That would’ve gone right in my cleavage and I would not have known where it went.
Treyla: We should’ve went as Paula Wallace in drag.
Taylor: Oh my god!
Blair: Halloween’s coming up!
Treyla: I can be Paula Wallop!
Taylor: She is a caricature in and of herself, she is quite something. But that’s actually where I first saw you guys was at the drag bingo event. I still have-I came runner up in a lip sync and I still have the flower that I won sitting in my paintbrush holder!
Blair: We have got to get better gifts!
*Laughter* Treyla: That was such a fun time I really enjoyed that.
Taylor: You both were absolutely phenomenal! I really can’t thank you guys both enough for being here. Third times a charm, we’ve tried to set this up several times but I am so grateful that I got y’all in the studio today!
Treyla: Well thank you for asking us!
Blair: We’re super grateful!
Treyla: Any chance to embarrass ourselves is amazing!
Taylor: I’m right there with you! Again thank you guys so much for being here! This has been your Branding Director Taylor Eby thank you so much for watching and listening! And we will see you at the next one! Goodbye!
