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It was the moment Mahogany Knight had been dreaming
about and working toward for almost 20 years: She was onstage at San
Antonio’s legendary Saint show club, performing before a packed house
and a panel of prestigious judges. But when she ducked behind the curtain
for a quickie costume change — the seemingly simple removal of a blue
gown to reveal an eye-popping, tight-fitting sequined shift — she
couldn’t get the top dress off. “I had put too much Velcro on it,” she
says, “and, man, that was some sturdy Velcro!”
Luckily, one of her six backup dancers leaped to
Knight’s rescue, ripping the dress off. She missed only a couple of
words in her number, “I Just Wanna [expletive] Dance!” —
which segued into another costume change, this time a Las Vegas showgirl
getup complete with 6-foot-high feather headdress. “I received one of
the only full standing ovations of the night,” she says. Around daybreak, Knight traded her humongous
headdress for a glittering tiara (only slightly smaller) signifying that
her dream had officially come true: She is now Miss Gay USofA at Large
— the plus-size moniker for supreme drag queen. Knight, profiled by Illinois
Times years ago [see “The queen of
hearts” Feb. 12, 2004], says the coronation comes in the nick of
time. “I had planned to retire when I turn 40, so it was, like, now
or never. It was like taking it down to the wire,” the 39-year-old
says. Her win was aided by the aforementioned backup
dancers and $20,000 worth of costumes, props, hairspray and cosmetics.
She’ll bring some of that — including the headdress — to
the Station House (306 E. Washington St., 217-525-0438) on Saturday for a “Victory
Party” and drag show at 11 p.m.
Contact Dusty Rhodes at drhodes@illinoistimes.com
This article appears in Nov 8-14, 2007.
