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week] minimum, and that’s a humb<strong>le</strong> living.<br />
If you do more than just performance, if<br />
you’re also a shooter girl, then you also earn<br />
tips. There are really just two nightclubs<br />
where drag queens perform regularly, C<strong>le</strong>o’s<br />
[above the C<strong>le</strong>opatra strip joint on The Main]<br />
and Cabaret Mado. I have five nights with<br />
about four performers each, so for Montreal’s<br />
20 professional drag queens, that<br />
works out for about five or six of them – like<br />
Madame Simone, Dream and Popeline. Most<br />
of the others work day jobs as well."<br />
It’s the same scenario in other big drag cities<br />
like New York and Sydney. "I’d estimate about a quarter of the drag queen population make a living performing<br />
drag," Mado says.<br />
Jacques sighs. "When I think of all the fierce queens who have moved on to bigger and better who performed and<br />
enriched our club scene: Blane [a.k.a. Mochasheena, now in NYC], Girlina, Titi Galore, etc., it feels like the queens<br />
are comp<strong>le</strong>tely ghettoized now. The only crossover into the straight scene is Plastik Patrik and he’s always been<br />
more club kid than drag queen anyway."<br />
Which is why Kat and I decided to pay tribute to Jacklyn and Sheena. It’s an homage to a bygone era.<br />
"I have a lot of respect for these two icons of the underground, and did you notice they give good face?" says Kat,<br />
who art directed the photo shoot. "I chose emerging photographer Steben A<strong>le</strong>xander to bridge the generation gap<br />
since Steben was just a todd<strong>le</strong>r when Jett and Hershey were ripping up the stage."<br />
"I wanted to capture their beauty, immortalize them," twinkie Steben adds. "I also thought it was important to pay<br />
tribute to Jett and Hershey because they helped pave the way for the newer generations of drag performers in Montreal."<br />
Still, neither Brian nor Jacques really miss drag. But, as Jacques says, "The one thing that I will always love about<br />
drag were the compliments. Never since have I ever been made to feel so beautiful." qRichard BURNETT : bur-<br />
nett@videotron.ca<br />
You can read Richard Burnett’s national queer-issues column Three Dollar Bill online at www.bugsburnett.blogspot.com.<br />
160 <strong>Fugues</strong>.com juiLLET 2011<br />
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