Yesterday I posted a very long piece on my experience of going to RuPaul’s DragCon for the first time. But that was only Day 1, just the half of it. (Really a third, since I have another post about the queens performing Saturday night…)
As I said, I’ve known the World of Wonder gang (& Ru) for decades and this being was the third year of Drag Con, I thought I’d better get my ass on a plane!
Based on the (lack of ) success of selling my book, Transform Your Life with Color By Number (this really isn’t the crowd for it) I decided to skip my book signing for day 2. I instead decided to focus on seeing as much of DragCon as possible and checking out a panel or two. I went to the command central of DragCon which is on the second floor and overlooks the entire convention center.
The vibe for the second day was MUCH more relaxed even though I kept hearing that it looked like attendance was more than double last year crossing the 40,000 mark! I hauled it around to see what I had missed in terms of booths (House of Avalon!) and also the amazing looking attendees. It’s impossible to shoot everything that sparkles, because literally
EVERYTHING SPARKLES.
Wow’s own James St. James & artist and activist Zachary Drucker interviewed the 79 year old legendary, Alexis di Lago on a panel and due to my running around the floor and being distracted I missed all but the last 10 minutes. (A video will be posted in the near future of all of all the panels so never fear, you won’t miss it) But I did film the last little bit.
One booth and duo that couldn’t be avoided was Marek+Richard‘s sexy monster and hot underwear. As I was passing by I was treated to a little dance by Jake that I had to film. Somehow it manages to sum up all of DragCon in one 60 second clip. It’s fun, funny, sexy, unashamed, delightfully weird, ridiculous, colorful and a joy to behold. (Btw, when I posted on Sunday night, it started to get lots of views and by the time I woke up on Monday morning, it was over 300,000 views and by day 2 it was over 630K!) Watch it below.
And then, what we had all been waiting for –RuPaul‘s key note speech! If you saw last years (or the year before) you know what an inspiring speaker he is. And this year, he topped himself. (Insert joke here.) Waiting for him was nearly as much fun as the speech. I was lucky and and got to come in with the World of Wonder gang, so I got a third row seat. The first row was WOW head honchos, Fenton Bailey, Randy Barbato and Tom Campbell. Next to them, of course Michelle Visage, and Ru’s sisters and various good buddies and Drag Race alumni. Former Wow Report blogger Nigel Zeff was nearby. Now he works for RuPaul and he just started at Beyoncé‘s production company. I know. If he wasn’t such a nice guy, you could easily hate him for that. Later I ran into Jake Thompson who was also a Wow blogger and Sunday was his last day. Taking Jake’s place is the fab Chelsea Perotty (you’ll be seeing her name all over.) Congrats to them both!
I knew Ru had some BIG news and he led off with that. DragCon was coming to NYC and SOON! September 30 and October 1! That got everybody excited and Tweeting up a storm. Now, I hope you’ll watch Ru’s key note because no matter who you are, if you can hear what he’s saying and take it in it might help you. I’ve been to many self-help groups over the years including an ashram. My own paintings incorporate positive messages and I believe very much in the law of attraction, so this was right up my alley. I. Loved. It. Ru is an LGBTQ guru.
Ending it all on a positive note and looking forward to #DragConNYC. See you there?
