Sunday night was always drag night.
Back when one of our owner-management team was just coming out, that was just simple truth. Whether at Edmonton’s Betty Ford Recovery Show (The Roost, hosted by their reigning Prom King and Queen), or in Calgary at Boystown or Detour, or in Vancouver at the Odyssey’s Feather Boa, Rob always knew that Sunday shows were a guaranteed good time.
Small wonder then that when EVO opened in 2013, rebuilding the Sunday drag scene in our city was one of his first goals. Sunday drag in Edmonton had ebbed and flowed over the years (read about one of the peak moments that happened with the Stardust Lounge here) but aside from long weekends, there hadn’t been a regular weekly show for a few years. In the spring of 2014, that changed with the launch of the Sunday Revue.
You could tell there was a renaissance happening in Edmonton drag. Houses like the Queens of the Orient and Homocidal were growing in popularity and raising the bar (albeit in very different ways). The Playgirls (less a house and more a troupe of incredibly talented friends; later the EVOgirls, and then Les Girls) were still the standard of drag excellence. Edmonton’s ISCWR wasn’t a drag house but Court queens were still hugely active in our space. And there was a growing group of artists who were starting to exploring their drag but needed the platform. Talk to Twiggy and she’ll tell you that back in the day, it wasn’t easy to get into bar shows; you had to pay your dues. The Sunday Revue though, it was a new show, and EVO itself was a new venue still, having only opened the September previous. We were going to grow together, the bar, the show, and the performers.
April 27, 2014, we held our first Sunday Revue. The cast was small: Tequila Mockingbird, Gogo Fetch, and Jesse Hannibal (prior to Jesse joining Homocidal). The audience was mostly out-of-drag dragoons, but Sunday drag was back in Edmonton, and the shows and audience continued to grow.
That first year, our stage saw so many performers. Back then, this was an unpaid show, free to attend, and still really was just about the drag community finding its footing and supporting itself. In the spring of 2015, with almost a year of Sunday shows having happened, and of course, other shows other nights and other venues, Tequila said to Rob, you should do a Stiletto Awards, celebrating the year in drag, and we did. The 2015 Stiletto Awards saw Rosell Kristina not only win Performer of the Year but get crowned the first ever Miss Evolution.
Some changes happened over the next few years. To pay the performers, Sunday cover was first $2, then $5, then $10. To encourage new performers, we had a period where we had two shows every Sunday, a 9pm free show for noobs, then the later paid show for the more established. Rob had hosted most, if not all, of the first year, but soon, performers were clamoring to not only host but produce. Different theme shows were held: comedy, country, battle of the divas, etc, and eventually, showcases focussed on trans/non-binary artists or drag artists of color. Check out a gallery of some Sunday Revue images here!
Now, here we are in 2024, and suddenly, it been ten years since our first ever Sunday Revue. From a scene of maybe thirty regular drag performers, we now have a thriving scene of easily over a hundred. And that’s in part due to this little Sunday show. And in part due to the amazing audience and community that loves and supports their dragoons and their little gay bar.
