Before I'll tell about a certain club in Phnom Penh, I would like you to read from the Wikipedia:
"Drag queen (in drag means being in disguise of the opposite sex, queen - queen) - determining the stage character created by artists, usually male, less female, presenting caricatures of female figures using effective clothes and strong make-up. Men's characters played by women, the opposite of drag queen, are drag king.
The first movie in the history of cinema, in which the drag queen performed, was the Polish film 'Upstairs' (1937), in which Eugeniusz Bodo, as Mae West, sang the song "Sex appeal". The first foreign film in which the drag queen appeared was the American film Glen or Glenda (1953) directed by Ed Wood.
The makeup, costume and choreography of drag queens are often exaggerated or caricatured and distinguish them from "ordinary" women, in order to achieve a satirical or dramatic effect. The element of the performance is often the similarity to well-known women of the stage, sometimes their parody.
Drag queens are not always gays or transvestites, as for a drag queen the purpose of dressing is to entertain the audience, not to satisfy their sexual needs.
Madamme Zaza:
Many people mistake drag queen with transvestites and this is a very big mistake! Even in the dressing room, doing makeup or dressing clips and a wig feels like a guy and think like a guy.
RuPaul:
I never pretended to be a woman. How many women have you seen wearing seventeen-centimeter heels, one-and-a-half-meter wigs and tight dresses? I do not dress like a woman, I dress like a drag queen!"
In Thailand and Cambodia, clubs with drag queen performances attract both sexes and all sexual preferences. Performances of individual "stars" are often rewarded with frantic applause. And enthusiastic viewers give their favourite ones one or five dollar bills.
It seems that the ladies have even better fun than the guys!
The fun is even grater, because the show starts often after 11pm when the club's customers have already drank a lot ...
In Phnom PenhWe we went i to a club named POC (Pride of Cambodia).
Our company at the table was honored by a co-owner - a Khmer named Toula (it's a male name here!). The conversation was very interesting because he told us about the business in Cambodia run by a foreigner and about the pros and cons of this resulting (we drew conclusions for themselves).
After 23:00, the show began, in which, to our surprise, Toula appeared as one of the stars.
After an hour-long performance, Toula rejoined us by inviting us for a drink.
It was a very nice and enjoyable evening.
Our guest - Iwona left the club very pleased ...
