It seems like a normal Thursday night. It's 11 p.m. and makeup is scattered all over the bathroom counter. Multiple powders are being used, lipstick is being swapped and makeup advice is being shared.\nSeems like a normal night out for the girls, right?\nWell, sort of. \nThe only difference is these girls are, well, not girls. They're drag queens.\nThe popularity of drag queens has increased in Bloomington so much that Bullwinkle's Cocktail Lounge, a prominently gay and lesbian bar, holds amateur drag nights and drag shows every Monday and Wednesday night.\nSophomore Jimmy Kollars, 22, will debut in his first drag performance tonight at Bullwinkle's. Kollar's interest in drag performances sparked last year when he first saw the diva's do their thing.\n"I love to entertain," Kollars says, "so I think it would be so fun to go up there and have fun."\nHe's received advice from other drag queens such as Erica Storm, who is helping Kollars with his makeup, and Alana Steele, who's making a pair of black, vinyl daisy dukes for his debut show.\nKollars, whose drag name is Veronica Shields, says one important makeup tip he has learned is to not apply cosmetics like a woman. \n"The facial structure of a guy is very different than a woman," Kollars says. "We are using the makeup as an art to create a different facial structure."\nJason Ervine, 22 and an entrepreneur, has been helping Kollars with his makeup. Ervine, who debuted as Erica Storm Aug.4 at the first Bullwinkle's amateur night, met Kollars earlier this year when he expressed an interest in doing drag. Ironically, Ervine admitted he was frightened by drag queens at first. Then he befriended a few queens who happened to be roommates of his boyfriend. \nErvine, a visual artist, started practicing with makeup and performing in drag as an extension of his artistic creativity. And although he performs in drag, he insists he doesn't perform because he wants to be a woman -- a misconception, he says, that the general public has about drag queens. Ervine says he has been most inspired by fellow drag queens Alana Steele, Melissa Stone and Renne' Saans.\nErvine said his biggest goal is to be handed a title by Alana Steele, his role model in the drag industry. Ervine will be competing for a such a title in Pittsburgh later this year. \nSome makeup tips that Ervine has shared with Kollars have included using a glue stick over the eyebrows, which makes it easier to apply makeup.\n"If I'm going for dark lips, I will line my lips with a Sharpie marker and then I will fill it in with a red color," Ervine says. "And duct tape becomes your best friend."\nErvine, who drives to Indianapolis every Sunday to watch idol Alana Steele perform, will be traveling to Little Rock, Ark., for the Miss Gay America pageant where Alana Steele will be competing for the grand title.\nJunior Chris Grooms, 22, will be traveling with Ervine to Little Rock, where both will be painting faces for the pageant.
Grooms, whose drag name is Bianca Defy, made his drag debut in the 2002 Miss Gay IU Pageant, which he notes as his biggest performance. Grooms adds he will be competing for the next Miss Gay IU pageant in April, and simply says that doing drag is a fun hobby. \n"It's a healthy habit to have," Grooms says. "It's definitely better than other habits."\nAlthough the entertainment side to performing in drag is purely fun, Ervine admits there is a downside. \n"Everyone does it for a different reason," he says. \n"The one thing I found with people starting to do drag is that sometimes they are insecure with themselves. When they are up there they gain acceptance that they are not able to gain as themselves, which has many problems because they get used to that attention."\nErvine claims he's not one of those people.\n"I am 100 percent against that. The first thing I ask before I help someone is if they are confident as a person," he says.\nErvine and Grooms say they believe that Kollars will do fine during his debut. Although Kollars is nervous about his show, he said he is more nervous about tripping in his 5-inch stiletto heels or forgetting the words to the two songs he has chosen to perform: "Free Your Mind," by En Vogue and "It's All Coming Back to Me Now," by Celine Dion. \nKollars says his friends have been incredibly supportive of his decision to pursue this flashier side of the gay entertainment industry. Kollars says he shopped for his size 12 dresses at Hot Topic, Goodwill and Deb and has ordered his size 13 shoes from the Frederick's of Hollywood website. He says shopping in Bloomington for dresses and shoes has not been awkward at all.\n"The girls in Deb have been very supportive and even want to come to the shows," Kollars says.\nKollars said he has been influenced the most by Sugarbear Blackman, a fellow drag queen and the 2002 title winner of Miss Gay IU. \nEven though he does not want to pursue being a drag queen professionally, Kollars says he hopes that people don't have any misconceptions about drag queens. \n"They're not freaks," he says. "I get that a lot … they (people) turn away from you and some people are totally freaked out by it. They say that drag queens are selfish and bitchy."\nKollars says that his experience so far, though, has hardly been a drag.
