Life in Lashes by Kita Mean

Author:Kita Mean
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2022-08-30T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 9

House bound

KITA AND ANITA’S DRAG Wars quickly developed into a beast that could no longer be contained within the walls of The Dog’s Bollix. As welcoming as the venue had been, it didn’t have enough room for our performers to change and prepare, and the audience was bursting at the seams. Fortunately, there was another venue that wanted to tempt us into their arms.

When Finale had fallen over, it had left in its wake an amazing venue for putting on shows, and that opportunity was leapt on by a company called Encore. Rather than being focused solely on drag, Encore was a cabaret company. They had showgirls, musical theatre numbers and MCs in suits, and they offered the old-school type of dinner theatre. The space was perfectly set up for drag shows – after all, just a few years earlier that was what it had been created for.

They saw that our show was booming and made us a pitch: we bring the show to their venue, which was all ready to go with a high stage, flash lights and heaps of room for a crowd, and we keep the ticket money while they keep the bar money. It was a great deal, and we were pretty happy to be leaving a venue that was named after a canine’s balls.

We quickly became a staple at Encore. And not just a staple, we were soon the most popular show they had. There would be lines down the street and the amount of cash going over the bar was massive.

When Encore moved up the road to a bigger venue, which was even better kitted out for big stage productions, and rebranded as Phoenix, Drag Wars grew again. There was almost no standing room left in the entire venue, and the crowd wasn’t just the mates that contestants were bringing to ensure they got plenty of votes. There was buzz about the show and all sorts of people were coming to check it out – even the straights!

We soon realised that the money they were making over the bar from our show was paying Phoenix’s rent for the rest of the week, and we were once again in a position to make a big business move.

Caluzzi was packed out every week, and we were constantly having to turn away many of the lucrative (and often outrageous) hen parties that we didn’t have room for. We’d even had to start adding mini-shows at 6 pm, at which a drag queen would host the hen party with cheeseboards and games before the main show. Even though we weren’t giving them the full experience, we still had to turn parties away every week.

We realised that if we could take over Phoenix, we could have multiple shows running on the same night and not lose any business.

Anita and I went to meet with the owners of Phoenix and put our case to them. Two of the owners agreed to sell to us right away, but one still believed in the cabaret venue she had poured so much blood, sweat and tears into.

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