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Hey... What about the grand days of BoyBar??? Matthew really put a lot into those shows... Glamamore... Connie... Robi Martin... Diandra... Missy... Raven... Codie... Perfidia... Lulu... Mona... even Rockin' Rita Fierce!

those nights of wig-drama... BM's gossip updates...... Flotilla's arguments with everyone... Robi's papi-of-the-minute... the chasers finding their way backstage... aaahh! the smell of hairspray and Chanel No 5...

i also miss (sort of) being in the downstairs coat-check with Sally and Andrea either making out, fighting, drinking, or throwing drinks... johnny... thanks for being the sane one behind that wall...
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This starts it all from Night Nurse:

quote:
Ok, I am starting the topic that I mentioned from the Chrysis topic in NY Girls Forum. Eve and I have had several discussions regarding what are the parallels and "rivalries" between these two NYC performance institutions in the early 90s. I do remember one night at the Boy Bar, Matthew was talking to someone about a show, and he quipped "we'll have none of that Black Lips nonsense" or something along those lines. I never really understood what it was about as I was so JC, and at the time perhaps too intimidated to ask.

They were two totally different types of "houses" to use that term. I always enjoyed Black Lips' shows because they were so egalitarian and edgy, but I loved the glamour-infused Boy Bar, and that's were my roots were.

Now a decade later, time has passed, so let's dish the story, or am I assuming there is more than there was?
There was always a certain BoyBar/Pyramid rivalry, even from day one. As well as an incredible cross-pollination.
I, of course, adored the glamour and spectacle that was BB, and was honored when Matthew invited me into several BB shows. Glamour? Me?
BTW, Tanya Ransom and I went to the newly opened BoyBar once and were told by the staff, "No drag queens allowed!" Then Matthew Kasten came along and changed all that.
And...
Do you know who the first Miss BoyBar was? None other than Hapi Phace! I believe she staggered against the backdrop, as she was accepting the "crown," and pulled it down upon herself. A classic! This was very shortly before Matthew came to create the legendary standard of the BoyBar Beauty, and old garlic/JD breath was running the entire show.
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Oh..Don't get me started.

I did hair and Make up at both venues for both
" houses". Mathhew gave me free reign on my work and Antony always had such great ideas. I learned a lot from both places.

Boy Bar not only had cute fags but hot queens and the show always entertained.

Pyramid/Black Lips productions either worked perfectly or were a beautiful hideous mess.

Miss all that so much.

Did hair and make up on many a budding star: Sweetie, Faux Pas, Mistress Formika, Sherry Vine, Floyde, Flotilla DeBarge, Peau De Soir, Connie Girl, Miss Guy, The Princess Diandra, and many more. Legends one and all!
I went to both Black Lips and Boy Bar, and while I appreciated Black Lips and thought it was genius, I always preferred Boy Bar. Of course in those days I was merely a spectator, until my stint in Louis Quatorze during the Channel 69/early Jackie era. But a huge fan nonetheless.

Black Lips got too weird and kooky for my tastes sometimes. Boy Bar combined the camp of a traditional drag bar, with the unique sophistication and genius you only find in New York. The endless paegentry, the glamour battles, the classic showmanship. And what I especially loved was that it was filled with cute trendy boys, and so the cruising element ran in perfect harmony with the drag show element. You could also DANCE, and dance clubs seem like such a thing of the past now.
I can entertain the notion of a BOYBAR- PYRAMID topic, but with all due respect BLACKLIPS did not posess the the same cache' as the two sainted nightspots. I marvelled on some evenings watching a BLACKLIPS show. Antony, Lily, Flloyd, Eve, Johanna all were amazing, and very much added legend to the PYRAMID legacy. I do see it as an offshoot of PYRAMID however, and although worthy of much praise, only a miniscule fraction of the beauty The PYRAMID offerd for so long.

As someone who worked at both venues I was extremely lucky to know the uniqueness of each beast. The hilarious times I spent onstage at PYRAMID with TABBOO! and Hattie and Hapi and Linda and Faux were times I will always treasure. When I went to BOYBAR on Mona Footes good word to Matthew, the first thing he did was get me with Glamamore and glammed me up. BOYBAR was about the gorgeousness of artifice. The sparkle and gleam of an unattainable glamorous existence. Matthews knowledge of fashion, and hair, and film, and stage were enhanced and built upon like Pyramid, by the many people he filled the stable with. Hair people, designers, make up artists all clamored to have a hand in the magic. Matthew Kasten knew how to PUT ON A SHOW!!! There are still things Matthew instilled in me like a mother to a budding teenage daughter I will never forget. For instance earrings are ALWAYS to be worn even with a]hairdo that covers the ears. What if by some tragic occurrance, your ear should show during a number and had no ornament. TRAGIQUE!! Never wear your makeup to match your clothes. Accentuate your haircolor with make-up. LASHES AND NAILS A MUST. He was a perfectionist. PYRAMID had a rawness, an edge, even an element of danger in that you never knew what was going to go down once you got out on that stage,because you were playing with so many loose cannons. I remember shooting Cathay Che in the face with heavy cream that came shooting out of a huge green prosthetic cock I wore playing Pugsly in one of TABBOO's Addams Family shows. she was horrified, but her horror propelled my performance to campier heights.

the real topic should be how JACKIE 60 took the creme de la creme of both houses and perfected the recipe to new heights. JACKIE had all the best elements of both BB and PYRAMID. The cast of kooks that scooted across that stage was really SOMETHING. Oh well another time.
quote:
Sweetie: The real topic should be how JACKIE 60 took the creme de la creme of both houses and perfected the recipe to new heights. JACKIE had all the best elements of both BB and PYRAMID.


That is so true Sweetie. Jackie brought together so many worlds, that's a big reason why she worked.
One thing is for sure...
There would be no Jackie 60 without Boy Bar, Pyramid or Patricia Field for that matter.
It's not a coincidence that the Boy Bar staff, the Jackie 60 staff and the staff at Patricia Field was almost identical.

And all the talented people behind the scenes doing wigs, costumes, choreography whatever...
was (AND STILL IS) all one Downtown family.
Blacklips included.

Blacklips @ Jackie was sort of like Chi Chi's dark little secret. Sort of like the retarded Kennedy daughter that they hid away in an asylum.

(Who knew that one day that little retarded girl would sell out Carnegie Hall!


Antony

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Alright, now that we got that out of our system...
If you want to talk about the now legendary "Blacklips", I found a topic already started.
BLACKLIPS


Now back to Boy Bar.
Where do we begin?

I know...

Who can name the Boy Bar Beauties AND their monikers? (Matthew -this doesn't include you!)

1) Princess Diandra -
2) Robbie Martin -"A Little Bit Of Nothin'"
3) Connie Girl -"THE Connie Girl"
4) Sister Codie Ravioli -
5) Glamamore -
6) Flotilla DeBarge -"The Empress Of Large"
7) Miss Shannon
8) Miss Perfidia

Sombody help me!
I saw Connie last night (she does the door at Sammy Jo's "Gary 49" party @ Mr. Black).
Well she almost fell off her stool when I asked her about "Blackie" she was laughing so hard.
"Blackie!!!! I don't think so."

Anyway , I got to the bottom of the famous "Exitte" story. (pronounced ex zeet)
The young Connie was on the train with the legendary Christine and Christine was saying "Girl, you got to get a name".
Connie looked up at the EXIT sign and said what about "Exit"?
"No girl, it's not fancy enough".
And Connie said, "What if I pronounce it "Exitte" like in French"?
"YES GIRL! EXITTE"!
So Connie was "Exitte"...
(luckily for one week).

I was going to save this story for Black History month but I couldn't wait.

Connie Fleming as Angela Davis, Jackie 60, 1999.

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quote:
Originally posted by sweetie:
Miss Missy was "a little bit of nuthin". and it was always SISTER Cody Ravioli, the accent on Sister. I can hear it in my head perfectly. Matthew isnt it true you tried to call Connie Girl BLACKIE originally?? I laughed out loud as I just typed that!!

Sweetie i could start an entire years worth of postings of just the silly names we had for each other
Connie was Exitte long enough to perform at "Whispers" once or twice under that name, though we started calling her Exeunt to be very Shakepearean. That was when we injected a dose of glamour into our campy, deconstructed surroundings and were secretly worshiping Matthew and his "Beauties" from afar. And well we were-- they were incomparable. And really, to this day, few come close!

Peau De Soir, on the other hand...
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I was never worthy of that honor.

I appeared at Boybar 2 or 3 times, once as the gag entry in the Miss Boybar pageant. My drag was still in it's...hmmm, experimental phase. Matthew was very sweet and encouraging despite my well intended sloppiness.

I absorbed a lot during that time. I am now in a somewhat similar position. I own a lot of costumes, I tell people what to wear, I have their hair done for them, I steer them away from minimal makeup (a scary trend). While my style is quite different (I love makeup that matches wardrobe), the attention to detail really rubbed off on me. What do you look like from head to toe? Do you have curves? If you have a gut wear a corset, if you're skinny pad your hips, if you want to wear a babydoll then at least push up those tits!
Two Kastenisms that have stuck with me: No lingerie-as-outfit and don't wear too much black.
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One of my all time favorite RETARDED moments at BB had to be the night we did Cinderella 2000 with Sister Cody as Cinderella, Shannon as the stepmother and Faux Pas and I as stepsisters. Faux Pas and I were wearing these rotten white onesie pj's for the final scene when the prince wakes up the house for the slipper. The whole gag was that Cody goes postal and shoots us all. MATTHEW planted a huge ziploc baggie full of chocolate pudding in the back of my pj's so when Cody shot me I could hit the floor and and mess myself. He and I laughed soooooo hard just putting the "puddin' bag" in place that I thought we would die. I also always LOVED Matthews obsession with BEIGE!!! My very first Glamamore gown was nude crepeback satin with a beige chiffon Erte' inpired evening coat. I also LIVED for Matthews love of how a heated stage would "glaze" your make-up to perfection!!! That perpetual ciggie in hand, kangol hat and IRON FIST. The Diana Vreeland of drag!!!!!
Sweetie you really are the real deal!
Puddin bag i am lMAF right now in my regeal eagal's nest!Go I do have a thing for beige it lets the preformer come through no matter how complicated the costume.As a matter of fact the theme for the last boy bar gay pride float was going to be beauty is bland all dressed in beige beige on beige float toped off with a beige on beige boy bar logo high above.
Yeah, but who can top "BEAUTY NOW AND FOREVER" ?
That's BoyBar!!!!

So Matthew,
Tell us...

1) Who were the official Boy Bar Beauties?

2) What were your pet names for them? (as in "The Hog Queen Of Lip Synch")

3) Who was the last "Miss Boy Bar"?

4) Who was the last "Miss $1.98"?

5) Give us 3 Barbara Streisand stories (and they have to be juicy).

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Ok so here is one of my true Bab's stories.
After the sucess of Gypsie with Bette Middler and Annie with Cathy Bates and madonna's film life in the toilet ABC and Disney came up with the brilliant idea of starring madonna in a movie of the week of the muscial "Mame" madonna the notoriuos bitch control freek she is they knew they needed some one bitcher and stronger to be excutive producer So along comes Babs,i was attached to this production from early on.
Babs insted on having hubbie James Brolen play Beau so that's ok with madge but he cant sing and she go's head to head with Babs over that fact,Babs shock's all of us she fires madonna!
when Neil and Craig the real producers find out they corner Babs behind closed doors we can all here La Streisand cussing like a salor Fuck that blond no singing no acting shicksa bitch,
I will play Mame and produce.Well needless to say we all walked away a bit poorer but for the rest of my life I will never forget Babs reading Madonna!
That one's for you Daddy and more to come
Let's not loose focus on this topic of Boy Bar and its beauties. Mr. Kasten had those girls out performing at other venues and events all the time. Be it a gay pride parade with a BB float or at Wigstock as shown here backstage at the original band shell in Thompkins Sqare park. I don't remember the year. I hardly remember my name.

Shown from left to right:
David Dalrymple & friend, Miss Guy,Miss Missy,
Todd Tomorrow, Raven O and Mother of the House of Boy bar Matthew Kasden.

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quote:
Originally posted by sweetie:
Matthew,
You gave me a cassete eons ago entitled ALL ABOUT STEVE with some of the most delicious old school tunes I have had the pleasure of hearing.
I recently started doing Vicki Carr's "So Happy Together". I do the live version from her gig at The Persian Room at The Plaza. That song really swings!!!

Oh wow "All about steve" that was a play we staged once in the early years of boy bar a drag and fag version of "all about eve" that tape was the songs preformed with in the play. Gold dust memories!so glad you have it.P.S there is an un finnished version for film I have kicking around some where.
quote:
Originally posted by bobby:
Let's not loose focus on this topic of Boy Bar and its beauties. Mr. Kasten had those girls out performing at other venues and events all the time. Be it a gay pride parade with a BB float or at Wigstock as shown here backstage at the original band shell in Thompkins Sqare park. I don't remember the year. I hardly remember my name.
thanks for the pict Bobby you rule!

Shown from left to right:
David Dalrymple & friend, Miss Guy,Miss Missy,
Todd Tomorrow, Raven O and Mother of the House of Boy bar Matthew Kasden.
truly many of us from the boy bar need to thank so many people who's work was not on stage!
Bobby Miller entered our lives at boy bar and things were never the same. Bobby with all his talent and skill helped to shape the face of glamour that was boy bar.Bobby was allways there make up brush in hand tail comb and what ever else was needed.Bobby put in so many hours of work he is a true beauty! hats off to Mr Bobby Miller!
Thank you so much Matthew for that agknowledgement. I loved every minute of it..well almost every minute..I can only remember a few people who wore me out..Flotilla for sure but everyone else treated me with great love and respect down in that basement dressing room. I loved the time I spent backstage at Boybar even more than I did actually hanging out in the club. I miss very little of the past with the exception of Boy Bar and Jackie 60. The rest is almost a blur anyway.
I will never forget the first night Matthew turned me out in full glamour. I was wearing a wig that had belonged to Chrysis. Matthew did a huge waterfall comb out. Bobby beat my face within an inch of my life, LuLu took a hideous green taffeta bridesmaids dress and turned into a gorheous show dress. I believe it was Cody who took me in the back into the bathroom with the washer and dryer and taught me how to make tits. The feeling of walking in front of that mirror and seeing myself for the first time was amazing. Such a great sense of family. Magical times for sure.

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