Each year, Lottie Jane Mabee Hall and John Mabee Hall team up to put on a week of events called Mabee Week to celebrate the cooperation and unity between the two halls. This week of events was kicked off with a spring formal hosted by Lottie Jane, and closed with the Toilet Bowl, a football game hosted by John Mabee. While these two events bookend Mabee Week each year, the events that make up the actual week change yearly. Events vary greatly in nature, from Glow Bowling to Sushi Night. This year for Mabee Week the two Hall Governments decided to bring back an event from the past — the Drag Show.
“Mabee He’s Born With It, Mabee It’s Lottie Jane,” a name-play off of the annual Lottie event “Mabee She’s Born With It,” was one of the closing events for Mabee Week. The Lottie Jane Hall Government teamed up with the John’s Hall Government to choose six boys to come to Lottie, allow the Hall Government girls to dress them up in drag, and put on a drag show in Tyrrell Hall. The event was originally put on back in the early 1990s, which the Lottie Jane girls discovered when they found an old photo album of Hall Governments past. With a little convincing, the John boys agreed to help bring this event back.
The boys were each given an outfit, a song and a drag persona. The Lottie Jane girls spent over two hours prepping the boys’ makeup, getting them dressed and ushering them over to Tyrrell for the show to start.
To start off the show, each of the queens were to come on stage and perform a song and dance number. John Queena, aka Burke Hanh, wearing a stunning pale dress and leather jacket, performed the classic Journey song “Lovin’, Touchin’, Squeezin’.” Next came Nicki Noise, aka Nolan Chung, donning a crop top, short skirt, and fishnets and performing “Out Tonight” from the Broadway classic Rent. Following Nicki was Stacey’s Mom, aka Brennan Murphy, who rocked it in a bold and bright red dress and performed “Single Ladies.” Then came Juulez, aka Matthew Rogers, who wore a bedazzled black dress and performed the Rihanna classic “Only Girl.” Finally, to end the talent portion of the show, Jasmine, aka Adil Hirani, rocking a bright red skirt and black lace top, came in with another Rihanna showstopper, “S&M.”
The talent portion was followed by a quick question and answer session. Each of the contestants had to answer a unique but simple question about themselves, such as “What’s your favorite color?” and “What’s your favorite swear word?”. Given the showcase of talent and the answer they gave, it was then up to the audience to decide which Queen ruled the show. It was a close call, with Nicki Noise and Jasmine almost tied, but Nicki came out victorious in the end.
The members of the Lottie Jane and John Mabee Hall Governments hope to continue this event in Mabee Weeks to come, hoping to make it bigger and better each year.