Leave it to DIVA
How do you describe what the Drag Industry Variety Awards are? Could you say they are like the Academy Awards or the Australian Logie Awards? Or are they like a posh B&S ball for cross-dressing performers? To be completely honest, take a little from column A and a little from column B.
Once a year all of Sydney’s favourite drag performers get together for what can only be termed the most glamorous piss-up of the year.
Odd awards such as Favourite Showgirl/ Entertainer of the Year etc. are given out throughout the evening also. But mostly it is a time to go out and spend ridiculous amounts of money on hair and frocks and play with your fellow drag sisters.
The launch of this year’s DIVAs will be held at Stonewall Hotel this Monday, 7:30pm-8pm, hosted by the always fabulous Candy Box and yours truly.
The DIVA launch basically is a means of letting all the showgirls know what is happening for this year’s awards, along with any changes in how the 2006 awards will be run.
There will be the unveiling of the 2006 DIVA poster (rumour has it one of the poster girls is so beautiful that they had to consider removing her because she made the others look like dogs) and the announcing of this year’s after-party venue.
I guess one of my most memorable DIVA moments last year was when the That’s Hot show won for Best Show. I had actually just performed with the fabulous Tony Sheldon so I was upstairs slipping into my Elizabeth Hurley-esque safety pin dress.
If anyone has ever seen this dress, you would know that underwear is no option. So after a few instructional lessons from Courtney Act, I decided with a lot of tape and a little bit of love that I would be all right. How wrong I was!
After dancing up a storm with Tony, I soon found that my tape was starting to slip away from my skin. Not thinking I would have needed any more so quickly, I started to panic and made a quick dash downstairs to backstage, all the time hearing nominations being read out for Best Show.
Just as I hit backstage I heard our name being called, And the winner is That’s Hot. I was untucked in a dress held together with safety pins, so the audience was going to see more than just the gold DIVA being presented. Needless to say a few did get a little bit of a surprise but luckily most of them had the booze running quite freely at their table.
This year’s DIVAs will be at Star City Casino again on 28 August. Ticket sales will be announced in the papers early next week.
