I tend to prefer drag in one of two flavors: I like watching old girls get dolled up to sing their pre-Stonewall favorites (Marlena's Saturday-night revue is usually a good example). I also enjoy drag that's postmodern and hyper-ironic (cf. Trannyshack). What I absolutely don't like is watching smooth young things pretending to be Ashlee Simpson or Hillary Duff.

The principle at work here? Drag that lacks either a sense of humor or a sense of history is insufferable.
 
This weekend, I attended two drag shows in San Francisco: "Golden Girls Live" at Mama Calizo's Voice Factory on Thursday night, and the Hot Boxxx Girls at Aunt Charlie's on Friday. Both would seem to satisfy my basic requirements for good drag: one's funny, the other's old-school. But "Golden Girls" ended up being a major disappointment.

I'd been to see "Golden Girls Live" twice before. The show used to be performed in the cramped living room of a house on Grove Street in Hayes Valley; the audience would squeeze in, drink cocktails, and watch four drag queens (led by Trannyshack's Heklina in the Bea Arthur role) recreate two "Golden Girls" episodes, line-for-line. "Golden Girls Live" doesn't really interpret the original TV show, but ritually re-enacts it, complete with transitional music and '80s commercial jingles during the set changes. And with the right audience, the show takes on the air of irresistible camp tribute.

But this time, "Golden Girls Live" moved from its living room digs into a larger space. And the new space changed the entire vibe: it was far less intimate, and the performers seemed to lose focus in a more expansive environment. (Of course, it probably didn't help that the four ladies spent the entire show competing with a group of drunken, braying assclowns in the audience—easily the most obnoxious drunks I've encountered this side of an East Lansing frat bar.)

In short, the show was a bit of a disaster. Over on Grove Street, "Golden Girls Live" had been modest but memorable; at Mama Calizo's, the larger space somehow amplifies the show's mediocrities. Here's hoping that these ladies wise up and move "The Golden Girls" back to where any good TV show belongs: the living room.

Go here for live footage from Friday night's drag show at Aunt Charlie's.