Tag: drag queen

Mr. Charlie Brown, the reigning queen of Atlanta drag queens, has taken her final bow. The performer died Thursday night at Piedmont Hospital from complications following heart valve replacement surgery. He was 74. For 50 years, the self-proclaimed “Bitch of the South” entertained Atlantans with his bawdy brand of comedy, withering audience monologues, and risqué musical numbers on stage at Lips Atlanta, the Atlanta Eagle, Underground Atlanta, Illusions, and dozens of other nightlight spots.

Serving Sunday brunch is one thing. Pulling off a drag show is another. But serving back-to-back brunches for hundreds of guests while nine high-octane drag queens perform in full costume, higher-than-heaven hair, and a full set of lights and music? That, in the words of performer and maître d’ Evelyn Caldwell, “is just madness.”

Al Clayton's photographs, on display at Chamblee's EBD4 gallery, celebrate the campy hedonists who made Atlanta a playground for nonconformists 40 years ago.

Lips, which opened a location on Buford Highway in 2013, dazzles with over-the-top costumes, glittery decor, divas, and dirty jokes.

Former Atlantan RuPaul may 
be our national claim to drag queen fame, but locals give props to his 
compatriot, Charlie Brown—a performer in our gay scene for more than four decades.

Drag queen Lena Lust (nee Lester West) has worked in more than seventy Atlanta clubs since gradually moving down South from Chicago during the seventies.