By Jimmy Wiggins, Photo by Cody Angus
Now that the holiday season is upon us, it’s time for the Thunder Bay drag queens and kings to wrap up the year with a legendary banger. Our final big show of the year is a mix of holiday classics and blasphemous delights, where Christmas meets Halloween but in a silly, tongue-in-cheek kind of way.
Give or take a pandemic, the 11th annual HoHoHo Drag Show (HHH) is a holiday classic and a beloved tradition among the LGBTQ+ community in Thunder Bay. It’s one of our longest running drag events, and with good reason. It’s a chance for the queens and kings to go full camp and turn the season into a spectacle. “The holiday season is already so over-the-top and whimsical. Who better to celebrate it with than the people who do that all year round?” says drag queen Amber Ail. “So many of the performers live for the holidays, and it shows. And even for those of us who don’t exactly live for it, it really shows.”
What makes HHH so special is that everyone on stage has a different take on the holidays and different traditions that they follow. You’re going to see chaos and you’re going to high camp drag. “The number of different perspectives on the holidays and winter in general is what makes the show stand out,” says Amber Ail. “In a lot of ways, HHH is equal parts high camp, and a Halloween 2.0 show. It’s fun but can get a bit crazy. We love to give you your favourite queer holiday traditions. The Mean Girls version of ‘Jingle Bell Rock’ is always a crowd favourite, but we also like to have our twist on it. If you’re expecting a night of Mariah Carey and Michael Bublé, you’re going to be very disappointed.”
In the past HHH has seen everything from the mild to the wild—from your drag standards like live singing, dancing, and lip syncing, all oozing holiday cheer and tradition, to some much more edgy and high-art performances. Some of the details are too graphic for print, but past shows have seen a queen dressed as a nun doing a burlesque striptease while she was eight or nine months pregnant, to Mrs. Grinch performing the holiday classic “Santa Baby” and then giving birth to a baby Santa and punting it across the room like she was Justin Tucker, to a twisted rendition of “Night Before Christmas” that ended in a literal blood bath. Needless to say, this show is not for the faint of heart—nor is it for anyone who takes the holidays, or drag, too seriously.
So, what should you expect to see this year?
“Magic, drama, and glitter,” says drag queen and MC Mz Molly Poppinz. “And more festive spirit than you can shake a stick at!”
“The audience can expect some very special performances this year,” says drag king Ivan Love. “Sweet and silly holiday moments interrupted by flashes of immaturity, blended together for an extra special holiday cocktail.”
“Glitter and blood, good times and dark times,” says Amber Ail. “The holidays can bring out a lot of emotions for people, positive and negative, and I feel we highlight that a lot. No matter how you feel about the season, there will be at least one performer on stage that night who you can point to and say, ‘that queen/king gets it.’”
Catch the HoHoHo Drag Show on December 14 at Black Pirates Pub. For more details, follow @wigginsproductions, @tbshows, and @tbaydrag.
