Champaign-Urbana residents gathered at Urbana’s Gallery Art Bar on Friday for a Halloween-themed drag show filled with dancing, lip-syncing and some jaw-dropping split jumps and death drops.
Gallery Art Bar worked with Amy Myers Productions to bring performers Starr Banks, Asiannah B. Carrington, Squeaky C. Banks, Max E. Pad, Apollo Summers and Zoë Meltdown to Urbana from cities such as Chicago and Indianapolis.
Myers, who was a DJ for the show, said she takes pride in finding talented and dedicated drag queens and kings who put on great performances.
“My shows with Amy Myers Productions are always high energy,” Myers said. “You’re going to get the best of the best. You’re going to get dancing, walking on their hands backward, death drop splits — they’re not just going to walk around to a ballad and collect their money.”
Adults of all ages filled the venue, cheering loudly for each drag queen and king, and held out dollar bill tips for the performers to accept as they danced through the bar.
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“This is my first smaller town show that I’ve got to do in a long time, so it felt good to have the crowd be energized to see drag,” Starr Banks said. “I feel like living in a bigger city, they can kind of get a little bored, and it felt like a prize to perform here because I know that people might not get to see drag as often here.”
Each drag queen and king performed three times, with different looks every time they came on stage. At least one of their performances needed to be Halloween-inspired, but otherwise, they had complete artistic freedom for their costumes, dancing and music choices.
“I’m a Black alternative performer, which is unique in itself, especially in a small town like this, and I like to perform more unique songs that people might not have heard,” Meltdown said.
The performers came on stage in various intricate costumes, with some Halloween looks being skeleton, bat or killer-inspired. They also incorporated songs like Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” or China Anne McClain’s “Calling All the Monsters,” as well as audio clips from movies like “Jennifer’s Body” into their spookier performances.
Squeaky Banks, who performed songs including “Ghost” by Ava Max and “vampire” by Olivia Rodrigo, said most performance choices are made in the moment.
“A lot of my stuff is improv, or I’ll listen to the song and see things I want to do,” Squeaky Banks said. “But, I’m a very impromptu performer. I like to vibe and feel how it is with the audience.”
Drag king Max E. Pad stunned the crowd when he came out for the final performance wearing a glittery red superhero suit and giant maxi pad that acted as his collar and cape, dancing to “Hero” by Enrique Iglesias.
“I lean into the camp part of it because I promise you if I try to be sexy, it’s just going to turn out funny, so the inspiration for most of my stuff is let’s get camp,” Max E. Pad said.
Myers is in the process of opening a gay bar in C-U but said that Gallery Art Bar has been a supportive and dependable venue for queer events like Friday’s drag show in the meantime.
“Gallery’s been doing queer nights and having queer spaces for the community, and not a lot of places in Champaign-Urbana do that,” Myers said. “It’s just important to have these safe spaces and these nights for the community and any allies that want to come out and support.”
