SETAC Fundraiser with Singing, Dancing & Dragging TravelNigel
January 11, 2012

Randall Powell with the big red piano

We went to The Palm nightclub to see and hear the benefit show put on to support SETAC, the gay, lesbian, bi and trans support group in Puerto Vallarta. It was a great evening with lots of talent on display.

Our host for the evening was Randall Powell, whose day (night) job is as a performer doing a piano lounge show at The Palm on Sunday nights and hosting the other shows run at the Palm other nights of the week. Randall is a big boy and lets people know it.

Randall enjoys costume changes too.

The first guest was Miss Beverley Fairfax – a rather buxom woman. She was wearing a glittery dress that Geordie thought would serve us well as a Christmas table cloth. Beverley sang live giving us a romantic version of Merry Christmas Darling.

Dixie Leonard

After Miss Beverley we were treated to a wonderful lip-syncing performance by Dixie Leonard. She did an incredible job on "And I Tell You I Am Not Going" from the movie/musical Dreamgirls. She was also the most elegant lady of the evening.

Dixie was followed by Joanna, another performer who does her own singing. Most of the songs are parodies of familiar songs probably written by Joanna. One example is her version of Patsy Cline's "Crazy" with the words, "Crazy, I'm crazy for being so...crazy!" It was all downhill from there. But she was lots of fun and did both women and men's voices.

Joanna was followed by Miss Tammy Whynotte (although she certainly had the same stature and eye-shadow as Miss Dixie Leonard).  Hmmm! Geordie and I were impressed that she was so good at lip-sync. We even debated whether she was lip-syncing or live, but thought it had to be the first because it was hard to imagine her having that incredible range – and yodelling too!

After Tammy we were treated to the powerful voice of Kim Kuzma. Unlike some of those other girls, Kim is a real woman although she did tell a story about being in the ladies washroom where she met a woman who obviously thought that Kim was in the wrong bathroom. Kim is from Vancouver but lives in Palm Springs when she's not touring or working the clubs in Puerto Vallarta and other communities around Banderas Bay.
 

Finally, during the show the host encouraged people to help fill a jug with money for SETAC. There was also a 50/50 draw which brought in 3,100 pesos and one lucky guy won half of it. However, in a generous show of spirit,  the man who won donated all the money back to the center. Classy! I didn't get his picture.

The show closed with "Merry Christmas to all and to all a good life."