The Ballad Debate

We made it over to St. Paul this week for the Pumps and Pearls Revue Drag Show.

This week’s show renewed the debate over ballads in drag shows between my friends. I think ballads are the riskiest thing for a drag queen to perform, especially at a place like the Townhouse Bar.

At the Townhouse, the drag queens perform on a dance floor that is surrounded by the audience on three sides. When the place is crowded, less than half of the audience can clearly see a performer’s face at any given time.
A successful ballad relies heavily on a perfect lip sync. Performing a ballad in a bar where the bulk of the audience can’t clearly see your face means that the majority of the audience is just sitting through a slow song. 
Last Thursday we sat through a string of ballads and it was painfully boring.
Even a mediocre performance to a lively song is more entertaining than a ballad performed by someone whose face you can’t see.

Back home in Miami, some of the show directors don’t even allow ballads:

Misty: “It’s very simple, the only time you’re allowed to do a slow song is when there’s a crown on your head.”

I think there is a place for a well-done Whitney Houston ballad or a Beyonce song, but I’d prefer it if the queens left Alicia Keys and Ms. Clarkson at home.