Photo Shoot

Cassandra and I did a photo shoot to promote a show that she was doing, and I was taking pictures of her and some of myself too. We love the way some of the pictures turned out, and there are PLENTY more where these came from Check our Facebooks. You should be able to find us. 

Cassandra Terrace

Cassandra Terrace

Ciara Mist

Ciara Mist

Ciara Mist

Ciara Mist

Ciara Mist

Ciara Mist

ET. Feat Ciara Mist

Yesterday we had another show at WallStreet Night Club, with Kiley Dash, Cassandra Terrace, Akasha O`hera Lords, Selena Terrace, Vivian Von Brokenhymen, Britney Blair, Kendra Knoxx, Terra Ford.
The show was Madhouse. The shows at Wallstreet are generally thrown together with an opening put together by the person who actually has that show for that sunday.
Then everyone else picks one or two songs to go with the theme. I picked ET by Katy Perry, and Shewolf by shikera.
Here is a pic of the KT Perry Makeup. Enjoy! =)

Holy Shit!

I spent another wonderful sunday at Wallstreet Night club with Cassandra Terrace, a wonderful sister and best friend. We were there for the Annual Easter Sunday show with Noka Davors. She is such a sweetheart! I love her. My mother Viva Valezz was also there and she a great job too! There were so many great people that were at the show supporting. And great entertainment. Such a good show. =)

Pictures of Ciara

A few pictures added on here so populate Google search with my face!

Relived.

After a few busy weeks of two jobs, being a full time student, and doing drag. I am relieved that two shows have come and gone. And that I am still alive to talk about it.

This is one of the performances that I did for the show "Booger!" The reason that I am in a fat suit is because it's comical, entertaining. And because when people get Jealous of you, they throw words to try and bring you down. As childish as that is... Entertaining is political wherever you go. I got where I am today pretty fast, but it was not over night. I'd assume that with my being where I am, others feel the need to talk about me. But I embrace it, because if they aren't talking about me one way or another then they have forgotten about me.

The process of the concept came from Britney Spears new song, big fat bass. I loved the beginning in it, and thought it would be great to start the beginning with a big butt and then a big stomach to follow. The rest happened with more thinking. It's all about being creative when you can be. If you have a fun idea you have to try it first to see if it will work out.

Now that I have a week off of drag it's back to school work!

Thank you all for reading my blogs and I hope I served this art form justice.

Self Promotion.

Promoting yourself is a huge part of entertaining.

The big names in the columbus drag community are the West's. Nina, Virginia, and Natasha West and many many more make up the wonderfully talented and respectful West Famil. Nina West is a huge self promoter, she has a wonderful website. Nina West She is on facebook, and twitter. She also has one of columbus's largest gay bars run by ROYGBIV that she and Virginia West are the Show Directors of. Nina West just celebrated her 10 year anniversary in this entertainment industry. With a wonderful show themed after pee wee's playhouse, called Nina's Playhouse. The show was the real deal, set design was on key, Nina's interactive stage presence was like nothing that stage has ever seen.

I myself am going on three years in November. And I could not be any more proud of the work that I have done for myself. Or for what my drag sister Cassandra Terrace has done for me. A lot of people have paved the way for where I am today and I am very thankful.

I started promoting myself on facebook and youtube before I was known for any stage performances. Youtube was the best decision I made. Even though in the beginning there were some "booger" video's and awkward moments. I cannot take any of those down and pretend they don't exsist. However I have thought about it a lot, it is all about what I have become between the first video and the last video. It shows the transformation and development that I have made. When one of my videos got 30,000 views I knew that It was a good thing for me. That kind of agnowlegement is something that can't be explained, to have one video being watched over 30,000 times, I kind of wish I got a $1.00 every time someone watched a video of mine.

Self promotion beings awareness to yourself as an entertainer, if you promote yourself and the events you do, those people who see your facebook status's or tweets, or youtube videos. They will know what show you're doing next sunday, where they can find you on a thursday night, or a saturday night. Or which movie theater you're going to with your friends. They want to know your personal life a little bit. It makes you human, they can relate to someone who is interesting.

So if you are wanting to start a career in drag, or do it for camp. Do it they way that will be best for you. Always put your best foot forward and my advice is to promote yourself. So people know who you are and you don't know who they are. But get to know your fans as much as you can.

It's Today!

It's sunday! The show is tonight, and I cannot wait.

I have several hours of getting ready to do. I have to make sure all of my outfits packed and together for the show tonight. And I have suit cases down stairs and I keep most of my drag at Cassandra's house. SO I will have to go over there and collect some necessities then be at wall street at 5pm. I got off of work at 1pm and i'm relaxing a bit before I have to start packing and go over to wall street. When we get to wall street at 5pm we have to un pack, organize everything, and make sure we are rehearsed a few times for the opening and closing. Here's a hint to the opening. " Whip My " Yes, thats all you get. haha

I can also tell you that tonight I will be wearing a fat suit for one of my numbers, prob the first number that I do. Because changing would be easy from the second number to the closing. We sold out on all of our tables so we're looking at a pretty packed show! How exciting!

Here is to tonight!

I hope to see you all there.

OWU SHOW

Ohio Wesleyan University

We had a great time doing this fundraising event!

Cassandra Terrace and I were both the host's of the Annual Mr. & Misses Relay for Life. The event raised over $18,000 and at our show we raised over $200. The winners of Mr. & Misses Relay were "Uncle Gary" and "Sylvie."

Drag isn't just about performing on stage, it's what you make it to be. Previously I stated that some drag queens love to perform, and that others are pageant girls. Meaning that they just want to do the pageants to get a title and make a name for themselves that way.

I want to be all of the above. I love preforming on stage, I love putting on a gown and feeling like a million dollars. I love doing charity benefit shows. To raise money for CATF (Columbus Aids Task Force) as well as other causes like The Relay for Life. Which is an organization that donates money to cancer research and the cure.

Thank you Cassandra, Jo, and OWU

Few days away

In a few days Cassandra and I are going to go to OWU to host their show. We are prepared for just about any curve balls. The fun thing is going to be the walk after the show. But I can't wait to see how much money the University Raises, last year they raised about $15,000 this year, so I hope that we can increase it!

Cassandra and I are going to do a duet performance that is very funny and is a drag queen caddy conversation/ song that would remind someone of mary poppins.

I'd post a link to the song, but it's inappropriate and complete drag/ gay bar humor.

Thanks for reading!

Face.

The first step in doing drag is getting everything you will need for a transformation, creating the illusion is not easy and it takes a lot of practice. I made a youtube video that is a sped up version of me applying make up. In the video I specify that I would not be giving step by step instructions in the video, however. Today I will be writing the steps in this blog entry to give a better understanding as to what is happening. Some of the steps are not necessary for everyone's face when attempting to take on new techniques. Specifically I use a glue stick to glue down my eyebrows and most drag queens do that, but I use the same glue stick and I paste down my side burns and the natural hair line to the left and right side of my face above my side burns. What that does is open up my face more, so when I draw on my eyebrows they are actually being drawn over my hair.

The first thing, is that I talk for about 2:30 where I thank all of the people who view my channel on youtube and comment and send feedback.

I cover my eyebrows and sideburns with the glue stick and then dry them with a hair dryer. I then take a panstick foundation and blend it in with a foundation sponge. Then I use a combinational press powder and press and powder it into my face to prevent the foundation from looking greasy, it prevents facial lines from appearing, and helps cover more.

Then I draw on the eyebrows, contour, and draw on my lips.

New Show! April 3rd.

Today I was asked by Samantha Rollins to host another show at Wall Street Nightclub. The last show that I had there was the sunday before Pride.

This is the show poster from the first show that I ever had. It was a great time and we had a lot of fun prepping for the show. With that show we had plenty of time to make sure everything went together without any issues. However there will always be problems no matter how sound proof you think things are going to be.

NOW

I have to prepare for a show, with only two weeks to think of a theme, a cast, a poster, and costuming. How fun is this going to be? I have had some time to think about it already, and I think broadway is going to be the theme of this show. Because what queen out there doesn't already have a few show tunes up their sleeve that they are dying to pull out and perform to?

Here's to hoping it goes well!

Drawn In.

There is more work put into entertaining someone as a drag queen, than big hair and

drawn on eyebrows. There is a creative process that happens once you have an event

or booked show to perform in. If you have been performing for a while, you start to

develop a large collection of costumes, hair, and shoes. You also start to collect a fun

arrangement of songs that you can't wait to perform to. Wi

th each song I associate a

costume and I also start to think about the attitude that goes with that song.

Yesterday I got a confirmation about the relay for lif

e event that I will be hosing on

March 25th 2011 at ohio wesleyan university. This event is a fundraising drag competition.

Mr and Misses Relay for Life. The relay for life is a well known walk for cancer.

My best friend and drag sister Cassandra Terrace and I are both going to this event, she

will be my co hostess. She and I are making several new dresses, and outfits for this show.

There is more information to come about that event closer to the event.

Now on to BOOGER! The show is March 27th 2011. Thats two days after the show at

Ohio Wesleyan University and there are several productions in this show.

We started our first rehearsal on sunday, and now we will be having three rehearsals a

week until the day of the show. We will also have two dres

s rehearsals the last week of

week of the show. The more we rehearse the better we can get down the choreography

and make sure that everyone is on step and in sync with each other.

No Sex in the City

Drag can be complicated to your life as a man. Once guys start to realize that you do drag they can be put off by it, because they think you want to be a woman. Or they think they will be judged for being the boyfriend or husband of a drag queen.

So it's hard to have a social life outside of drag with boys, or get dates. People see me as Ciara Mist, not James. And with my facebook for Ciara, and youtube. That population that I have never met or seen, it's a common mis conception that I am a trans gendered person. But I have never had cosmetic surgery. Nor do I plan to.

I was talking to my friend Kyle (who is Selena Terrace) he and I were talking about how this is a good blog topic because it VERY common that once a gay guy starts doing drag it is their commitment to living single as long as your drag persona is alive.

But the way I look at it is that I need to do what makes me happy, drag has become lucrative enough, and I love the transformation. So I face it the best that I can. If someone cannot see that drag doesn't change who I am, and that I am still James, then they are not someone that I should try and have any sort of relationship with.

A Great Rehearsal!

Oh the rehearsals have continued!

We have been working really hard on an opening and closing number for Booger.

There is never enough time to rehearse the way we need to but we are working hard.

The opening and closing numbers are going to be a ton of fun, we have matching outfits for the opening. And for the closing we are going to each do a creative interpretation of the song, but be very androgynous. It's going to be a lot of fun once we get to do the show! I'd tell you more but I don't want to ruin anything.

Thanks for reading.

Body Language

BODY

BODY

BODY

When I first started drag I looked like a man in a dress... The reason for this is because I didn't know much about it. The best way to look the part is to remember a few things. HIPS, THIES, and a BUTT. If you aren't genetically or surgically shaped with an hour glass figure, you have to create your own. Using padding, typically couch cousins are great for this. They can with stand the pressure of panty hoes without making them flat.

I use four pads, two on my sides, and two on my rear end. It creates a body that is more fem and less masculine or boy-ish.

Before and after pictures!