It takes them more than an hour to cake on makeup, slip into skimpy costumes, pad themselves to enhance certain areas and perfect their provocative dance moves.
When they take the stage with their perfectly volumized hair and over-lined lips, they take on a Britney Spears-like persona. However, these performers are different — they’re men.
Ohio State welcomes them at the annual Divalicious Drag Show.
The show started five years ago and was first hosted by the Stadium Scholarship Program in Mack Hall. The hall’s residents, staff and resident advisers have helped initiate the show ever since.
In the last five years, the event has expanded. The first and second drag shows were held in the Mack Hall commons area, where tables served as a stage.
“The first drag show was said to be a bit of a flop,” said Dominic Lape, head of the planning committee and a fourth-year in special education.
Last year, the Ohio Union Activities Board joined in to help plan the event at Hitchcock Hall.
This year, a drag show committee of seven members from Mack Hall has been working since Winter Quarter to plan the event. They received funding from the Mack Hall Council, the Student Learning Grant and the Residence Hall Advisory Council.
Although the committee has worked hard to secure the venue and money for the event, the hardest part was finding amateur talent to perform, Lape said.
The event is light-hearted and wild at times, but it was initiated to expose students to aspects of the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community.
“We aim to educate students on this lifestyle in a very exciting and intense way that really keeps viewers on the edge of their seats,” Lape said.
Each year the event has a star performer in addition to amateurs who want to try out their skills. This year’s star performer is Michael Kramb, a recent OSU graduate who has been participating in the Divalicious Drag Show for four years.
Kramb, whose stage name is Natasha West, performed in various drag shows throughout college to help pay bills. Although he retired from drag after graduation, he said he continues to do benefit shows, such as the Divalicious Drag Show, to increase awareness about the gay community.
Drag is a form of entertainment meant to embrace femininity but also poke fun at and vent frustrations about societal discrimination, he said.
Kramb learned the transformation process of drag from observing other drag queens.
“Getting ready for a show starts out with the application of a lot of make-up,” he said. “Basically we erase our face and draw a feminine face.”
When Kramb is on stage, his Natasha West character takes full form.
“Her role is for entertaining an audience,” he said. “I enjoy being able to take an audience away from their normal lives and just have fun.”
Although Kramb embraces being a drag queen, he acknowledges that there are people who think it is a strange practice and refuse to open their minds to diverse facets of the gay community.
Lape said a show like this is hard to create without receiving any negative feedback, and those who cannot accept the drag culture just shouldn’t attend.
“No student at OSU should be stigmatized for wanting to experience something new and learn about a culture different from their own,” he said.
Those who have seen Kramb perform at previous shows say it’s an exciting experience.
“It really opens your eyes culturally and sexually,” said Kaitlyn Kappesser, a third-year in accounting who attends the Divalicious Drag Show annually.
What is interesting about this event is the fact the performers are male, “but they look like sexy chicks and can dance better than most girls,” she added. “Plus you always wonder, where’d their junk go?”
Performing alongside Kramb will be his friend and mentor, Anisa Love, a drag entertainer who performs around the Short North.
Gift cards will be given to winning performers, and more than $100 worth of gift cards will be raffled out to the audience.
The fifth annual Divalicious Drag Show will begin at 7 p.m. Friday in the Ohio Union Performance Hall.
