Last night was the birthday show of Ruby, one of the relatively newer queens who join O Bar after the pandemic lockdown years. She joined some time after Elvira, which sort of became the initial challenge since a lot of people joked that they looked alike. The fact that they performed a lot of numbers together as O Divettes probably didn't help things.
Over the years, it has been a pleasure to witness her grow into her own. From her early "Rebirth" years, she has developed into an emotionally powerful performer with the ability to switch between drama and comedy in line with what she's trying to achieve on stage. She's also refined her more physical performances, making the moves feel more deliberate and measured, and not just tricks inserted here and there for that crowd wow factor. It's hard to explain what I mean in words - I'm just stressing that she's a much more developed drag artist now than a few years ago.
What I particularly love about her is that she has continually pushed herself time and time again. I can trust that she'll always have a new number or two to try every month, and she's never been afraid to go outside of her comfort zone. She's done some ridiculous numbers on stage, but she owns those crazy concepts fully, which makes her all the more celebrated. That's just part of what makes her such a well-rounded performer - there are just so many facets to her drag artistry.
Her birthday show line-up last night was a great reflection of her growth as an artist. There were a lot of numbers that were expansions or innovations on previous singers and performers she has paid tribute to over the years. But there were also some rather left-field things that were pleasantly surprising; all acted as a further testament to her growth. And even the supporting numbers involving other O Bar queens didn't feel random. There was a flow and structure to things that really incorporated the different O Divas well.
That's what I love about O Bar as a place for drag artists to hone their craft and develop their skills. Sure, having a home bar gives any performer a lot of time to practice, given regular shows multiple times a week. But everyone responds to the O Bar rigor in different ways, and I feel Ruby has truly flourished in her time at O Bar so far. She can only continue to get better and better as long as she maintains this level of diligence and commitment. You can tell that she's so much more confident in her own skin and that helps her truly command attention on that O Bar stage.
I swear, I could write full-length articles about any of the O Divas at this point - or any of the O Bar performers, for that matter.
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