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April 30, 2009

Pageant expected to draw crowd

By Rob Scott

SUNBURY -- As the middle child in a family of seven, Tequila Daniels -- not her given name -- craved the spotlight from an early age.

"I've always been the center of attention. I love it," she said. "If I had to run naked down the street (to get attention), I'd do it."

Now, just to set the record straight from the outset, Daniels is not a woman in the strictest sense of the word. "She" is a man who specializes in the art of female illusion, or impersonation, more commonly known as drag.

The irony of drag, according to Daniels' friend and fellow female impersonator Guadalupe del Fuego, for all its over-the-topness, is that "You're never the center of attention. You're always trying to top yourself, and you always have someone on your tail (trying to top you)."

Daniels and del Fuego, of Shamokin and Catawissa respectively, prefer not to use their real names. It helps maintain the illusion -- and not everyone who knows them knows they do drag.

Both will appear as guest stars at the Miss Gay Northeast Pennsylvania America 2009 pageant on Saturday at CC's Bar. Both are previous winners of the pageant -- del Fuego in 2008 and Daniels in 2007 -- and went on to compete at the Miss Gay Pennsylvania America pageant, with Daniels winning and moving on to compete for Miss Gay America.

Though drag is traditionally the province of gay men and CC's is certainly a gay-friendly bar, Daniels, del Fuego and pageant organizer/promoter James Wolfkill -- who passed away Tuesday -- resist the notion that the pageant is a gay event.

The show -- a mix of song and dance routines, Q&A sessions and, frequently, audience participation -- has sold out every year since its inception in 2006 and the audience is evenly split, they say: half gay, half straight. Young and old. One of the audience members, who's been to every pageant since 2006, is 80.

"It's the best damn show in town," said Daniels. "It's way better than some of those drag shows in Las Vegas."

Needless to say, it's not uncommon for some audience members -- namely straight men dragged to the show by their wives or girlfriends -- to squirm.

"If someone's very uncomfortable, we won't try to make them OK with it," said Daniels. "But we want them to have a good time like anyone else."

"It's important for everybody in life to come and experience new things," said Carmen Ciara, winner of the first Miss Gay Northeast PA pageant and Miss Gay America 2006. "If they don't enjoy it, they're free to leave. I've never seen anybody so uncomfortable with it that they left."

More often than not, they come around, said del Fuego. "I've heard straight men say they'd rather come to a drag show than a strip club."

Wolfkill established the Miss Gay Northeast Pennsylvania America pageant partly at the behest of his mother, who asked him, on her deathbed, to start up his own pageant. Years later, Wolfkill bought the franchise rights to hold the northeast pageant from Raving Diva Productions, the company that owns and promotes Miss Gay Pennsylvania America.

The late Wolfkill won several awards for the pageant, including promoter of the year and best preliminary pageant in 2007 and 2008.

The pageant at CC's is one of seven regional pageants across the state, preliminaries for the Miss Gay Pennsylvania contest, and one of the most popular in Pennsylvania.

"Some people have said the art form of female illusion is dying down," said del Fuego. "But I'm totally in disagreement."

Doors open at CC's at 6 p.m. Saturday, with the competition beginning at 8. There is a $10 cover.

CC's is located at 555 Klinger Road, a few miles outside Sunbury.

n E-mail comments to rscott@dailyitem.com.

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