jingly

Jingle All The Gay! from Kitten N' Lou on Vimeo.
The past few Decembers I have been lucky enough to usher for a drag holiday show called "Jingle all the Gay" (formerly "Homo for the Hoidays"). Last week was opening night and after an hour of frantic set-up--hauling risers and chairs across the Oddfellows' wooden floors, dragging trash down the freight elevator and dodging performers doing sound check--the doors opened and I stamped hands and gave out the bathroom code to a few hundred be-sparkled revelers. The first two smiling men in the door wore festive suit jackets and had glitter in their beards.
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It's a colorful, happy event and one that always brings me to tears. For all the gaiety and sexiness and madcap song-and-dance numbers, there's an undercurrent of activism, a growing sense of alarm at the ugliness of the wider world. It's a time for togetherness and laughs and defiance. For what is comedy but the truth told with a smile?