Synthetic feathers, glitter and dollar bills filled the Russell House Ballroom Tuesday evening. Eight queens and two kings performed at the 20th annual Birdcage drag show, hosted by Carolina Productions and IRIS. Patti O'Furniture hosted the event and introduced each performer. O'Furniture, a USC alumna, received her drag queen debut at the Birdcage 18 years ago.
Over 200 students attended the event, and there was a strong dynamic between guests and performers. Performers frequently interacted with the audience by asking students to join them onstage to walk down the runway. Some performers sat on laps and doled out pseudo kisses to students. One such performer that interacted with event attendees was Audria Byrd, a fourth-year media arts and African American history student, as Queen TeQui'la Mockingbird.
During her performance of "In My Feelings" by Kehlani, Byrd walked up and down the aisles of student seating, occasionally singing or pointing to a single individual. After the show, Byrd mentioned that the song she chose was her favorite track on Kehlani's latest album.
"I feel like she as an artist, as a person really fits into my whole androgynous aesthetic," Byrd said.
Byrd was one of two student performers at Birdcage. TeQui'la Mockingbird and Butch Cassidick were winners of the Ms. Gaymecock pageant last fall, and as a result received offers to perform in Birdcage.
In Ms. Gaymecock, Byrd performed to "The Phoenix" by Fall Out Boy. She noted that most drag performers choose songs with female vocalists; but the lead singer of "The Phoenix," Patrick Stump, is a male musician. This further added to a level of androgyny that Byrd hoped to achieve in her performance.
"I also liked it poetically, thematically, because the song goes 'I'm going to change you like a remix / then I'll raise you like a phoenix,' and I'm like, 'oh, well that's kind of like me coming out as trans," Byrd said.
At Birdcage, Byrd started her performance wearing a yellow sweatshirt, baggy sweatpants and a backwards baseball cap. Mid-way through her song, she shed these loose clothes for a short black dress and sheer tights with gold accessories.
"Two outfits is a pretty standard drag trope. I don't know if anyone else did it tonight, but it's definitely something that I've seen people do before over and over. It was always in my plan, in my schema for this performance to have an 'over' outfit and then have this under it," Byrd said.
Post-Birdcage, Byrd seemed relieved that the event was over. She felt confident about her performance, but mentioned a more pressing issue on her mind was the upcoming deadline for her senior thesis.
Check out The Daily Gamecock's feature story on Byrd here: http://www.dailygamecock.com/article/2017/03/birdcage-performer-profile-audria-byrd-4d7j