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These days lesbians assume I am just another fag hag
who’s wandered into the George by mistake or to be “cool”. The het males hit on me and straight women are
threatened by my extreme girliness. In fact the only group on the scene who accept me for who and what I am
on first acquaintance are Drag Queens or “queeny”
types.
But this is not meant to be a gender theory lecture. I have only included the above to explain the underlying
catalysts for my ending up prancing around the stage in the George every Wednesday night at Terminal 3.
For those who don’t know, Terminal 3 is the George’s
most alternative night, hosted by Miss Vada Bon Reve, the self-proclaimed love child of Marilyn Manson and
Uma Thurman and winner of the 1999 Alternative Miss Ireland.
The idea is that you bring your three favorite records on CD or vinyl and Vada will get them played for you
in between her acts. And the acts of her various guests. This is where I come in. I have managed to
become almost a permanent guest by unspoken agreement.
IE I just show up every Wednesday, CD in hand and raring to go. No one has objected so far!
Doing Drag gives me a creative outlet that I would not otherwise have. I work 9 to 5.30 every weekday in my
little suits, in my little office, pretending to 75% of my co-workers that I’m straight. Same old, same
old. Day in, day out.
So when I was offered the opportunity to perform at Terminal 3 about three months ago I leapt at the
chance. The first song I did was “Living Dead Girl” by Rob Zombie. In hindsight it was probably not the best
choice. I could see the “What the fuck is THIS?” looks
on the crowds’ faces from the stage. But I got compliments afterwards from various audience members
and from some of the more established queens so I came right back the next week to perform Marilyn Manson’s
“The Dope Show” in a big furry coat.
After a few weeks of bringing my scary Goth act out on stage I decided to go for something a little more
crowd-friendly and I worked up a quite theatrical rendition of “Bad Girl” by Madonna. Boom! This one was
a crowd-pleaser. I even got asked for a repeat performance of the song, which I did four weeks later.
Since then I have tried various personas and styles on the stage including a rather successful Drag King
performance to “Say Hello, Wave Goodbye” by Soft Cell.
Nine weeks after my debut I was delighted to be offered the chance to perform at Gristle in the POD.
For this it had to be full S/M attire and make-up galore. The song: “100 Ways to Be a Good Girl” by
Skunk Anansie. A somewhat risky choice ‘cause it’s so alternative but having done it before in The George I
figured it was a safe enough bet. And I was right. I got a good reaction and managed not to fall off the
unfamiliar stage whilst sporting six inch stilettos. So things were going great but I had no stage name.
Various ideas had been suggested by my ever so helpful friends; the most amusing, if vulgar, of these being
“EnEmma”. My own favourite was “The Divine Miss Em” until I opened the centrefold of In Dublin magazine a
few weeks ago and found that title used as a headline for an article about Samantha Mumba.
But it was Vada who came to the rescue in the end and introduced me of her own accord as DialEmma one night
at Terminal 3 in reference to the fact that whenever another tranny is needed she can just DialEmma!
I thought it was cute and people started calling me
that around the pub so I’ve let it stick. And that’s how I became a Drag Artiste.
What the future holds for a bio-female Drag Queen I’m
not sure. For now it’s fun and despite the fact I may never make it as a “professional” I can at least say I
had my 15 minutes of fame and maybe that I challenged a few peoples’ ideas about gender
boundaries and definitions or just as importantly that I entertained
them. Oh, and watch out Miss Alternative 2001, here I come!
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