02F03: Off-Peak ⭕Bar Nights

We're about to get ready for tonight's big O Bar event - the double birthday show for O Divas Elvira B and Dero. We don't brave the Saturday night crowds as much as we used to, save for these instances when there's a special event that we know we can't miss out on. And with this being O Bar's 20th year, there have been quite a number of Saturday events in recent months.

Friday nights used to be our sweet spot for going out. It meant more friends could join us, the O2Men preshow is always a fun way to warm up, and the main shows are a bit more flashy versus Thursdays and Sundays. But in recent months, it has been a struggle to assemble a table group even for event nights, so that has dampened our drive to corral people more often. Thus, Tobie and I have been going to O Bar on our own during less high-volume nights like Thursdays and Sundays more often, just so we can continue to enjoy time with our O Bar family without the added hassle of table logistics and incomplete table rosters.

To be fair, it's not like these "off-peak" O Bar nights are totally new to us. In our many, many, many years of going to O Bar, we have a long history of going just about any time O Bar is open. Sundays used to be our main night, given my old graveyard work schedule during my BPO years. Tobie has a history of going almost every night for some time during the Malate years, and he did his best to help support Ortigas in its earlier years, even when he was practically the only customer there. We have a pretty good understanding of what to expect from a Thursday versus a Saturday, and each night has its own "flavor," as it were.

Event nights aren't what they used to be in this post-DRPH world we live in now. A lot of event nights include returning O Divas who have been on competition shows like Drag Race Philippines and Drag Den, and that comes with a particular crowd pull that isn't quite typical for O Bar. The show fans are very animated, but also typically without tables (since they aren't usually familiar with how booking goes), and it can be a very mixed experience depending on who (inadvertently) ends up competing with us for space around the table and what have you. So there's a definite appeal to going outside of the busier nights.

Thursday nights have become very near and dear to my heart. There being no entrance fee to pay for, these nights feel a lot more intimate, even if the numbers are slightly more humble than what you'd get on a Saturday night. Jamming with the O2Men has become a Thursday exclusive of sorts as they seem to have dialed that back for Friday nights. You get a lot of group staples opening and closing each set and a wide range of solo numbers that are either very well-practiced or quite experimental. There are a lot of numbers that you'll experience in their raw state on Thursdays before they get refined into something more weekend-ready, as it were. Plus, you get a LOT more crowdwork as an emptier bar means the queens can move about more freely. The main downsides are that you don't necessarily have a full roster of performers for the night, especially for the O Boys and the O Ledge. At least Thursdays end a little earlier, so we're not so beat up come Friday morning for work.

Sundays still feel closer to what you'd get on a Friday night, but you'll still experience a degree of repetition from Thursday nights, especially in the past year. It's understandable, as you still have queens and other performers who are only present on Fridays and Saturdays and aren't around on Sundays. But when we do only off-peak nights for the week, we definitely get a strong sense of deja vu. You still have a full roster of O Boys, most of the O ledge, and one maybe DRPH alumnus, but not always. On the flip side, Sundays still have the highest probability of surprise celebrity appearances, and that can be quite surprising. O Bar Sundays have helped us reconnect with a lot of the Drag Playhouse girls who have moved on to be DRPH alumni, and have also helped us forge casual friendships with the likes of Hannah Conda and other foreign Ru Girls when they're in town. 

At the same time, I know one of the big reasons we try to go on Thursday and Sunday nights is just to show support for all the performers and the staff. It's a lot harder to perform for a smaller audience, especially since your average O Bar patron doesn't always invest as much attention in the show as we do. So I feel like Tobie and I being there helps to make up for the lack of numbers because they can count on us to be fully engaged with the show from start to finish, whether through my recording videos of the numbers or Tobie cheering and clapping all throughout. We may not tip as much as some other sporadic guests do, but we're there more consistently, so that's how we make up for things on that front. 

When people ask me if the shows on Thursdays or Sundays are different, I have to acknowledge that this is still true. You can't expect high-flying aerial numbers on Sundays, and the biggest recreations of Super Bowl numbers or music videos happen more on Fridays and Saturdays. But this doesn't mean the shows on these other nights are bad by any standard. The O Divas, the O Boys, and the O2Men deliver a consistent minimum level of quality because they're still artists at the end of the day, and their art is their craft and trade. And the best way to help them deliver better performances is to be engaged, to watch what they do, and not turn away and have obnoxiously loud conversations while they put their emotional cores on the line for a number. Watching a drag show is a two-way process. Even as a member of the audience, you kinda get what you give. Any performer feeds off the energy of the crowd, and if you're not engaged, you're actually participating in making the show less great for everyone.

Anyway, time to get ready. We gotta steel ourselves to face the crowds - but it's totally going to be worth it since everyone works extra hard to make these birthdays shows partcularly special.