With the Holiday season in full swing, we lucky, and cold, Twin Cities folks are surrounded by all the wonderful Holiday events our city puts together. There’s the New Standards Christmas Show, A Christmas Story at the Guthrie and a ton of other performances to add to the season’s spirits. Walking up to the Cedar Cultural Center on Friday night, I did not know that I was about to expand my horizons with BenDeLaCreme and Jinkx “All I Want for Christmas is Attention” Holiday show. I stumbled upon this show by dumb luck. I was scheduled to cover “Kolyada Winter Songs From The Black Sea”, but mixing up the night I got a bit more Holiday Cheer than I had bargained for. I had had no experience with proper drag queen shows, and thanks to the Cedar’s staff report that lack of experience corrected.
For those of you unfamiliar with BenDeLaCreme and Jinkx, I’ll fill you in. BenDeLaCreme is an award-winning Drag Queen based out of Seattle. She has been performing since the early 2000s in live drag shows. On top of that, she has also helped to establish and run a theatrical production company. On season six of RuPaul’s Drag Race competition show, she placed fifth and was voted Miss Congeniality by viewers. Jinkx is a longtime theater performer who has performed in all sorts of roles. With a voice as powerful as any, she brings true, raw, talent to the stage. It’s probably why on the same Drag Queen competition show, she placed first.
Now that you’re filled in on who these lovely ladies are, I walk through some of the details of their Christmas show while doing my best to avoid any giveaways or spoilers out of respect for the artists and their upcoming audiences. The show examines the dynamic of two best friends with opposing views of the holiday season. BenDeLaCreme is stuck in the ideas of holiday tradition. Having been privileged with wonderful Christmas’ growing up, she is blind to the negativity that the holidays bring for others. Jinkx is one of those girls who had a rough time with Christmas growing up and therefore wants nothing to do with the holidays.
Throughout the course of the set the two work through understanding each other’s views on the season while also sidetracking to interests they have in common. The most common interest being men. The show was beyond raunchy in the classiest of ways. The punchlines delivered hit as hard, if not harder than comedic moments from classic Christmas movies such as Elf and A Christmas Story. The duo has ironically made a tradition out of touring with their holiday special and I highly recommend making it part of your holiday tradition.
