Drag Queens Find 'Home' At The Hideout's 'Big Queer Variety Show'

Derry Queen’s Big Queer Variety show is held monthly at The Hideout and brings together the most talented LGBTQA+ performers in the city. The Chicago Reader said the show’s theatrics “transcend traditional expectations of drag.”
“His show includes acts ranging between stand-up and sketch, all of which take him at least a month to churn out. Many of the acts rely on gags and pranks pulled on the audience to engage interest. Sound bites are perfectly edited to sync with videos, dubbed over and remixed to present surreal, larger-than-life conceptual pieces that usually stun the crowd. This is a rising form of art that incorporates Internet lingo, social commentary, and pop culture references into one drag number.”
“When you see a drag mix, which is a wide variety of performance in one number, is usually when you see online viral sensations,” says Derry.
“The energy is infectious and it’s what transforms online followings to people coming out to see a live show. It’s what packs Derry Queen’s show at the Hideout, where people sit knee to knee in folding chairs watching a drag number in which Mr. Krabs from SpongeBob SquarePants seduces a dollar bill to ‘I Can Hear the Bells’ from Hairspray.”
Read the full editorial on Chicago’s drag queen scene by The Chicago Reader‘s Meggie Gates.