Doc Hop

What a month! July 18th marked the start of my 39th year on this planet, and July 19th marked the beginning of my second year in California. Between research and CSULB’s summer ASSET course (Accelerating Student Success and Equity in Teaching), I’ve been pretty dang busy, but I made sure to celebrate in my favorite fashion — with drag!

Lydia Butthole Kollins (my favorite queen of Drag Race season 17) performed at Hamburger Mary’s in Long Beach on July 23, and GIRL, it was a TIME!! A GREAT one!

A major benefit of attending events like this alone is that there is often a solo seat open right by the stage, so I ended up in VIP seating without paying the VIP price. I was sat front and center in between a gaggle of women (who were celebrating a birthday) and an aggressively attractive gay couple (also celebrating a birthday). I didn’t tell anyone that I was celebrating as well, but we were certainly a happy birthday bunch.

I’ve been to many a drag show, and I have seen some truly incredible and distinguished queens, but I hadn’t been this excited to attend a performance in a really long time. Lydia struck a cord right in the center of my heart this season, both in 17 and All Stars, and I brought that love and excitement with me to the show. I was and am absolutely love drunk on LBK.

There were so many incredible moments, but my favorite came during her first song. After disrobing on the main stage, Butthole made her way back to the audience, where she didn’t just take my tip. She grabbed hold of my hand, made direct eye contact through a full bar of her lip sync, then threw her leg over my shoulder and onto the table in front of me. And I was holding her hand the entire time. 💀 Dead. Don’t bother calling an ambulance, it’s too late for this one — their gone. So many incredible moments, but that one is going to live at the top of my mind for a very long time.

Another top moment of the night was finding out that Lydia would be joined by the very talented Jasmine Masters! She was not listed anywhere on the line up or marketing materials, but she was in town as a special guest and ended up performing three or four numbers! Woohoo! I’d never seen her perform and I wasn’t expecting to see her, go I was definitely geeking out with the birthday gays.

And as much as I love my Ru girls, I’d be remiss if I did not shout out the INCREDIBLE local talent that make Hamburger Mary’s magical every single time I go. And this week I have to give an entire shop full of flowers to the reigning Miss Southern California Continental — Dani Kay. She KILLED it every single time she took the stage, but I was particularly impressed with her Cher impression and her gender-swap performance — during which she pulled a male member of the audience to the stage to switch clothes (and wigs). It was SO FUN to watch, and Dani Kay looked as beautiful in a bra and a ball cap as she did decked out in silver drag. (You can see more of her in the video at the end of this post.) Take. My. Money!

Okay, okay, okay. I know I’ve had about three favorite moments of the night at this point, but this one really tops them all!

I didn’t splurge on VIP tickets, which were ridiculously expensive and came with a tiara and bottomless drinks and a bunch of other stuff that I didn’t require or desire. BUT I did buy meet and greet tickets, which were only $5 more than show price. (For me. One of the birthday gays was gifted a free meet and greet pass. I told him it was either for his birthday or because he’s so handsome, and he agreed.)

Starstruck! Not really, but almost! Lydia was so kind and so down to earth. She gave me a hug and asked for my name. I told her that watching her this year has brought me so much joy, and I asked her to sign a photo of my favorite Season 17 runway look. She called it her “dick pic,” which was hilarious, considering how much I appreciate a good (solicited) dick pic and how much I’d love to see Lydia’s.

Luckily for me, the photographer got the entire encounter on video, which you can watch below. (And please watch it — it was a very exciting moment for me and we both looked great.)

In addition to the meet and greet footage, I’ve thrown together an unedited clips package of the videos I shot at the show. It can’t capture the thrill of being there in live and in person, but it will give ya a taste! (Also — peep me in the thumbnail! Hamburger Mary’s shared the image to their socials so I had to grab it! If heaven is a place on Earth, my place is with Butthole.)

As a final aside that has absolutely nothing to do with the rest of this post — Long Beach was under a tsunami advisory last night because of the earthquake in Russia! Nothing came of it, but talk about exciting! First earthquakes, now tsunamis. That said, I just got to California — I’m not ready for a Deep Impact! 🌊