Last night was the O Bar birthday show for Eken, one of the more tenured O Divas. Across the many years we've watched her perform on stage, there are a few key phrases that come to mind in terms of her unique style of drag. A big one is a showgirl - she's always celebrated that big performance energy, whether in terms of her song choices or her outfits. She can bedazzle her dresses like no one else, and when she goes big, she goes REALLY big with feathers, capes, and other extensions. On that note, she's also had a strong personal sense of fashion. I won't use the tired term "look queen" because Eken does something else. Yes, she'll wear things that she looks good in, but they're also performance pieces that allow for movement and other actions, which you don't always get from the drag queens you see on TV. And finally, her comedic styling has always been very distinct and probably defines a lot of what we know to be O Bar humor.
I bring all that up because last night's show definitely felt like a celebration of all these aspects of her drag. She had some really big production numbers with very distinct thematic costumes and looks, starting with something very Thai, and moving to a full Egyptian number later on. She wore a lot of new outfits that we hadn't seen before, which is always something to look forward to. And the closing number of the night was an interesting evolution of her Sharon Cuneta impersonation into something even wilder, which made for a really fun end to the night.
On a more personal note, our table ended up being a sort of staff table to some degree since we got to host the partner of the DJ for the night and one of the former O Boys who had moved on to a different career. It made for an interesting table dynamic, different from our usual, but no less enjoyable. If anything, it helped to make the night more meaningful, given our deeper ties to the bar as a whole. And I think we need that unique social boost, especially since it has been unusually difficult to get our usual O Bar friends to join us for nights out in recent months. We're still going to go whether or not they join us, but naturally, it becomes a different experience with the right people with you.
Well, we have a new workweek ahead of us. Let's get to it.
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