DRAG QUEENS IN MUFTI

I recently had the pleasure of attending the going-away dinner for the manager of Lips, the Greenwich Village eatery which features drag performers as waitresses and bartenders. Edwin is going off to California, and is considering an offer to manage a clothing-optional men's (i.e. gay) resort there. (Does anyone besides me see a certain, um, symmetry, between running a place where people dress up, and one where they, uh, dress down, all the way down?)

I've been a regular customer at Lips for several years, and I've gotten to know some of the people who work there. No deep friendships, but enough to occasionally hang out with them after they get off work. They were nice enough to invite me to this dinner for Edwin, also.

The thing was, I had never seen most of them out of drag before. A couple of them present as women full time, and two more were quite recognizable as men. But there were these other two...

One was the last to arrive, so I knew who it was by process of elimination. But I don't think I would have recognized him otherwise. (The funny thing was, he didn't recognize us! The restaurant staff had to show him to the table. He said it was because he was looking for a table of drag queens--and I was the only one there even wearing a wig.)

The other one I would never have recognized in a million years, despite all the hours I've spent looking at, er, her. Then he opened his mouth. As soon as he started talking I knew who it was.

We talked (and laughed) a bit about it. One said it's common for them to do a performance, return to male-mode, go out to the bar, and be totally unrecognized by people who had just seen them up on the stage.

The late arrival told a story on himself. One night he wasn't working he went to a bar, hoping to meet someone. He saw a guy he liked. He went over, and started "cruising" him, showing his interest. The guy gave him a puzzled look, but he continued giving him the eye. The guy started laughing, and said, "Xxxx, it's me, Edie!"--someone he had worked with, in drag, many, many times. Even drag queens don't always recognize each other out of uniform.