Last night was Popstar Bench's O Bar birthday show, and it was quite an amazing production. The "Popstar" part of her name has been more than deserved in recent years. It started as a representation of her dancing ability and the uncanny degree to which she managed to capture the likes of Sarah Geronimo. But in more recent years (perhaps especially since her run on Drag Race Philippines), her being a popstar is more reflected by the scale of the productions she likes to stage. It's one thing to put together a big production number for one or two songs. But now she thinks of entire shows built around a central theme or artist. We've already seen her recreate many numbers from Lady Gaga's Mayhem Ball, but her birthday show was a stellar celebration of many artists she performs as, including Dua Lipa, Lady Gaga, and Chappell Roan. The main part of her birthday show was over 90 minutes long - AND she featured in most of the numbers with multiple costume changes. You have not experienced the best of Philippine drag until you've watched a full Popstar Bench production like that.
My first photos of Bench date back to around 2014, which means she's been performing at O Bar for a good 12 or so years now. It is an honor to have been able to see her so early in her career and still be in a position to celebrate her growth today. She's one of our favorite O Divas, given how much hard work she's put into her craft and yet remains the same endearing queen we first met all those years ago. My YouTube channel only really began to take off because of my earliest recording of her performing Sarah Geronimo's Tala, so in many ways my O Bar videography is directly tied to her rise as one of the country's top drag artists.
At the same time, last night's show was another reminder of the rather unusual space I occupy in the local drag scene. I got to engage a bit with the guest queens who added their talents to last night's show, and the conversations went back to my YouTube channel. It's one thing for random O Bar patrons to approach and address me as "Rocky Sunico" because I used my name as my channel name, but it's a whole other thing to hear other drag queens also bring up my channel. Many end up saying similar things - how they used to watch the O Bar videos on my channel, and that helped inspire some to get into drag. Or there are those who even celebrate the fact that I now have a video of one of their performances, as if it's some sort of honor. Whatever all this is "supposed" to mean, I will state that it's nice to hear that people appreciate what I do, even if it means I may look like a weirdo trying to record the entire show every time we go to O Bar.
Sometimes, I worry that the performers still based at O Bar don't feel the same way about my efforts, but that's neither here nor there. I'll keep doing this because it has just become a thing that I do, especially after the darker years of the pandemic lockdown. For as long as we can go to O Bar, I will continue to record the shows.
Besides, you'll never know which baby queen I record today will become the next big thing in Philippine drag. I cannot say that I expected Bench to put together a birthday show like what she did last night based on our limited interactions back in 2014. It just reinforces my belief that every performer who graces the O Bar stage has such tremendous potential for greatness, as long as they choose to put in the work and continue to grow their craft. And the fact that there's much passion in the local scene is why Philippine drag is uniquely special.
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