A 21st birthday mixed with a "Thirsty Thursday S*** Show" can be one of the best nights of your life. I remember when my brother turned 21. Michael is one of my friends I met while being in a show called "This Is Our Youth" and we later became closer by being casted in a show called "Psycho Beach Party." The show required that four of our actors dress in drag. Drag, in the simplest terms, is when you wear the clothes that the opposite would wear. Putting on make-up, fake beards, high heels, or whatever your persona may be. And that's where I started to get interested.

Now, believe me, I could never dress up as a woman, and I applaud the men that do. I hate make-up, even stage make-up. It just dries out my face and it is absolutely terrible on me, especially eyeshadow! Michael played the part of a famous actress in the 60s named Bettina Barnes. For this process, Michael had to spend about two or three hours on his make-up for the stage. I can barely spend one hour on homework. It's why I eat Easy Mac, it takes like fifteen minutes or less. He used eyeliner, fake eyelashes, lipstick, mascara, powder, and much more. He was like a one-man army with make-up as his ammo and fighting for the fabulous and the free. Anyways, he was determined to look like the prettiest girl on stage, and he was. Along with two other men having to dress in drag, Alexander Laughlin and Bryce Korf, who had to go through the same process. Alex had it a little easier since he was playing a young teenager that didn't wear much make-up, but he still needed the features to make it seem as if he had just started experimenting with it. He would wear blush, some mascara, eye shadow, and contour his face. Bryce would do kind of the in-between of the two, he played the mother of Alex, so his makeup didn't require as much as Michael but more than Alex.

We also had a woman playing a man, Grace Foiles, who played a legendary surfer. She went so far as to adding chest hair! It was my favorite part watching her put it on. Yeah, some of you think it's gross. Ew, he enjoyed watching someone put hair on their chest. So what? It's better than liking a Meghan Trainor song. Grace got to shows an hour early to prep for the show and each and every one of them did an amazing job with makeup, hair, and getting into the mindset of a man/woman. A lot of people think that only lesbians and gays dress up in drag but it's not totally true. A lot of straight men have dressed in drag before and done an excellent job of it. It's a science, a hobby, a show!

For Michael's 21st birthday we went to a drag show in the Jazzhause in Lawrence, KS. The show consisted of Drag Queens and Kings' lip-syncing and dancing around the room ending in one big dance party. I can say honestly that I've never seen anything like it before and how hard these ladies and men worked on their performances and dance moves. Amanda Love, the host of the show called "Thirsty Thursday S*** Show" gave a great parody of the song "Hands to Myself" called "Drugs by Myself" which was written by her. She was a little tipsy so not every word came out but that made the song enjoyable and funny. After the show it made me think about how dressing up in drag isn't just a hobby for people. It's a passion, a dream come true. I've dressed up as a woman once and it was in the best show I had ever done.

In conclusion, Michael got wasted, "Psycho Beach Party" became a show that I will always remember, drag is a dream come true for some, and if someone's dream is to dress up as a woman/man, then follow that dream. We all have dreams, big and small, the hard thing is pursuing them. Those men were willing to put countless hours of their lives into looking like a woman, and they did it better than some of the women I know. Ouch, someone get some ice for that very vague burn aimed at no one! Hard work and dedication pay off in the end. And by the end of this birthday party s*** show, walking down Mass street with a couple of drunk buddies, I couldn't be happier about having eye shadow on.