Review: Legendary Drag Performer Jackie Beat Brings Her 21st Annual Holiday Show ILLUMINATI OR NICE To The Laurie Beechman And Is She A NAUGHTY Girl!

Heigh-Ho Friends & "Family"! Bobby Patrick your RAINBOW Reviewer here. Putting the silent T in CABARET to bring you all the T.

So my angels, since taking in the act of a drag legend is right up Bobby's rainbow alley, we took ourselves to the Laurie Beechman (at the West Bank Cafe) to see what we'd only ever heard about for years, before Friday night. Jackie Beat, who was booking gigs and drag mothering little dragons long before the days of Drag Race, mounted the stage for her 21st Annual Holiday Show ILLUMINATI OR NICE to the delight of a completely packed house. Ms. Beat's stock and trade, it seems, is comedy riffing with the audience, tales of woeful travels, drag friendships, drag rivalries and, most especially, song parodies... and with such a wealth of holiday music to choose from my little elves, this festive season is shooting FISH in a barrel for the BEAT. No song was safe, no holiday memories too sacred, and nothing would escape the fangs of Jackie's take-no-prisoners style of comedy. A good thing too, as she needed to come out strong after making the audience wait nearly half-an-hour past curtain-up-time for her entrance. Apparently, there were wig issues that caused the delay, and after seeing the Cruella on crack number on her head, we kind of got it.

All was forgiven fairly quickly as, having just flown in from New Zealand, Beat declared her jetlag would ensure that her show would be even more UN-PC than usual. This had to be an understatement, my pets, because the darkness of her monochromatic hair, dress, and makeup was nothing compared to the dark humor that had the audience eating out of her evil talon. Nothing of the season, songs, the audience and even herself were safe from the bitter Beat. Warning the audience with her first number, a send-up of Santa Claus is Coming To Town, she openly sang that she doesn't learn her shows, makes it up the night before, and intends to make all the pretty, thin "real girls" cry. This was a mercy killing of sorts, though, a kind of preemptive self-immolation (what? Bobby knows words?!) that explained the presence of the music stand that took more and more of her focus as the show progressed. Comedy must be developed, dear readers, and often those purveyors of funny work out their written material in front of an audience before they have fully committed to their bits. Bobby gets it - to a point - and I don't want to rain on Beat's Beak, but it is a disconnect when so much of one's singing is done nose down into pages of a loose-leaf notebook. On the other hand, she was singing to recorded tracks, so there was no convenient musical director on stage to prompt Ms. B back on track should she trip up. On the other hand, Christmas comes but once a year and we all know when it is, so expecting proper prep prior to a hard go-date is not asking too much - write, rehearse and learn your words. On the FINAL hand though, she made a lot of comedy out of her own disadvantages and made the audience love her for it.

None of this is to say that La Beat and her song send-ups were not hilarious... on the contrary. Yours truly and the rest of her audience on the night were aching with laughter most of the time. She is also a very good singer and a funny B!+ch. She plays with the audience and plays TO the audience... when she's not reading lyrics. Her song parodies are sharp and clever, like her cocaine laced DO SOME BLOW, DO SOME BLOW, DO SOME BLOW. She talked smack about her drag sisters, Lady Bunny, Sherry Vine, and Joey Arias and she ripped people in the crowd for various Holiday fashions, getting up to go to the bathroom, or the lady who insisted on holding up her phone to vid record the ENTIRE performance. Everyone was grist for Jackie's mill and she was ready to black everyone's eyes with her black humor.

All in all, though we find a few items on our DING list to beat up The Beat about, Jackie's show was monumentally funny for 69 of her 76 minutes, losing a bit of steam near the end, but, as we said, she was still working things out and presumably there will be smoother sailing for the rest of her shows; all of which are completely sold out, so who cares what Bobby says anyway. But we will say...

Oh My Darlin
Oh My Darlin
Oh My Darrrrrrrlin Jackie Beat
You Are Famous
You Are Brilliant
But Your Show Is Incomplete

Learn Your Words
You Silly Bitch
You're A Pro And That's The Sitch
Make Connection
It's Perfection
Lift Your Eyes And
You'll Bewitch

And to quote Jackie Beat herself, "What's the point in saying something that mean if it doesn't hurt the person it's directed at." In any case, the show is a laugh riot and worth a look and Bobby gives Beat 3 ½ Rainbows out of 5 for all the funny.

Jackie Has A Webby: HERE
Tweet Her On Her Tweeter: HERE
And Follow Her InstaG: HERE

All Things Laurie Beechman Theatre can be learned: HERE

*Photos By My Boss, Stephen Mosher

To post a comment, you must register and login.