Yep.  This is how I spent my Friday night.

It was a totally procrastinated cum spur of the moment event.  A couple of friends put this on my radar simply as a drag version of the Golden Girls, called Golden Gurls.

I promised to attend.

Links were sent so I could easily purchase my ticket, my friends know me so well.  Regardless, the apathy still set in.  I swear, in my past life I was a Roman named Procrastinates.

Well, after yesterday’s Bruce Springsteen debacle, I needed a boost…this was it.  And here’s an online ticket sales opportunity that delivered.

Same day.

Granted, we’re obviously talking different levels of entertainment here, but entertainment that is accessible certainly has a premium.

My Little Buddy was the one that originally suggested I attend, and like every other show she has suggested it was a gem – albeit a raw one.  And as far as recommendations from her go, it was up against some pretty stiff competition, from sure things like machete Star Wars to decidedly locals only events like musical versions of Road House and Heathers as well as Lost Boys:  Live.

Are you sensing a high camp theme?

Add in that with the Little Buddy, one can always count on a cheery and gabby pre-show dinner or drinks and you don’t even have to lure me with the fact that this is in a decommissioned church.  Camp needs its inherent irreverence, eh?

The experience last night took me back to the early 90s in Long Beach when I would hit my local gay dance bar for their Beer Bust on Sundays.  They were a dance bar, but being two stories, the dance floor was upstairs and the ground floor level was a basic bar where you could play pool, watch an occasional performance by a local band or just Stand & Model for the other guys.  If you were really unlucky (me, obvs) then some gross old man would favor you with a cheesy pick up line like, “OK, I’ve got to ask what cover I’ve seen you on”.  FFS, at least I’m not that guy.

The upper level wasn’t just for dancing…not that there wasn’t plenty of that on Friday and Saturday nights, but on Sundays you paid $5 for your cup at the door and drank for hours and the upstairs was transformed into a showplace for acts like The Campers and The Del Rubio Triplets.  I’m posting a pic of them on the right, but you really should at least click the Del Rubio Triplets link because it’s a clip of them on…The Golden Girls.

Can I bring shit full circle or can I?

Man.  I just got sad thinking about them.

The Del Rubio Triplets had a 50+ year career in entertainment.  That I was seeing them in their golden years for $5 (along with all you can drink shit beer) at a gay bar in the LBC was a pretty crazy thing.  But that’s what camp is, right?

They were camp versions of themselves.

Anyway, you know Bette Davis would have been even more of an icon if she would have gotten to that same level of awareness…the last Del Rubio sister died at age 89 in 2011 and it both amazed me and saddened me to hear that news.  Amazed because I was seeing her and her sisters perform in their early 70s and saddened because their death reminds me of the youth I playfully misspent and have left only in my memory.

Anyhoo…that’s just a little reminiscing to set up how much I appreciate these little culture outings that my Little Buddy sets up for me.

The play itself – well, what can I say?  Minimalist scenery and propage.  Questionable writing and dialogue.  Cues…what are those again?  Professionalism and showmanship might be words that every member of the cast missed on their SATs…but it was a blast to observe.  Go see it, if you can.  For every wrinkle in the production, they make it an inside joke and let you in on it as the audience.

Camp.  To.  The.  Core.

It only runs through tonight, 9/17, but I am assured that the Golden Gurls will be back for their annual holiday show, so if you can’t make it tonight then you can see them at Christmas.

Love and Pizza, yo.