A little makeup and a gift of impersonation go a long way for local native
Jeffrey Kash walks into the Illusions nightclub in Uniontown, bundled against the February cold in a plain cream-colored sweater pulled over an Abercrombie & Fitch T-shirt and jeans. An outgoing man, his is a face that would not stick out in a crowd, but his everyday appearance cannot mask his personality.
After embracing the club’s owners, Shannon Matty and Katina Stewart, he grabs a quick kiss from his mother before taking a seat near the stage of the club’s show bar. There, he busily sets about putting pen to paper, taking notes.
Behind a red curtain, a performer starts applying foundation and powder to his face and neck, followed by eyeliner and mascara. Bathed in the lights of a makeup mirror in a cramped dressing room, he covers his fair complexion in a combination of blush, lipstick and other cosmetics, while poring over a myriad of gowns to make sure that his entrance will be breathtaking.
He is questioned about lighting, music and the set list, all the while staring into the mirror and awaiting the public that has gathered.
Two hours later, a figure emerges from a dressing room, dazzling in a black cape draped over a shimmering silver gown with spaghetti straps, high heels and a flowing auburn wig.
It is Kash, ready to entertain the crowd as Ms. Eda Bagel, a “gender illusion technician.”
Most people would call him a drag queen.
Not another pretty face
Kash, 25, a Daisytown native who now calls Pittsburgh his home, for the past six years has entertained crowds as Ms. Eda Bagel at clubs large and small throughout the country, but he finds the crowds in Uniontown some of the most inviting and welcoming.
“I’ve been from New York to San Francisco, and I love coming here because the audiences are highly appreciative and such an open group,” he said. “We’re here to entertain people of all backgrounds, races and orientations.”
His talents have drawn the attention of writers, club owners and admirers all over, including a film crew hired by the VH1 music network. Film crews followed Kash during three days in early February as part of the special “Boys Will Be Girls,” which will show the art and lifestyle of drag entertaining.
According to Michael Sutton, casting director for the film crew K2 Productions in New York, the show will feature five drag queens from the northeastern United States. Each has a different story to tell, though all are intensely passionate about their work.
Kash was the first person chosen to be profiled for the documentary, even though none of the songs he performs are from artists typically seen on VH1.
In fact, many of the performers he pays homage to during his shows were dead long before music videos became a staple of today’s television viewing.
“Initially, we didn’t know what to do with him, but he is such a perfectionist, so passionate, and entertaining beyond belief,” Sutton said. “Jeffrey has taken this to a much different level.”
Sutton and his casting crew first met Kash during a scouting session late last year while searching for the right people for the documentary. For Sutton, Kash was a breath of fresh air from all of the other drag queens he encountered during his travels.
“I never want to see another Cher again,” Sutton said. “While I have seen so many Tina Turners, Madonnas and other people on VH1, Jeffrey has an affinity for classy old comediennes, and he takes this very seriously.”
However, VH1 production staffers in New York decided at the last minute to edit Kash out of the special because he did not perform songs from artists that VH1 typically airs.
He is known for his performances of songs by Ethel Merman, Gwen Verdon and Lily Tomlin, but he is most recognized for his uncanny resemblance to and impersonation of Carol Burnett.
While Kash and other drag queens take their performing seriously, Sutton said a large part of the documentary focuses on the misconceptions that people have about female impersonators. Often, he said, people feel that drag queens like to spend their entire day dressed in drag or that they would like to be women, when in fact dressing in drag is only a small part of these performers’ very active and full lives.
“Dressing in drag is hot, miserable and you have to wear a lot of makeup,” Sutton said. “It’s not comfortable or something that people could handle all day long.”
Drag has saved or helped save people’s lives, Sutton said, as a lot of shy people suddenly have found confidence and poise while performing. They have searched far and wide for the best way to express themselves, and drag has served as their outlet, he added.
Life’s a drag
While growing up in Washington County, Kash often longed for the glamour and beauty of the 1940s and 1950s but knew that his family could not afford the items he so desired.
“There was nothing glamorous about my life or the people who raised me, but I always wanted that glamour. I just thought it was amazing,” he said. “So, I decided to create it myself.”
He brags about his “drag room,” a 14- by 14-foot area in his Pittsburgh apartment, filled with dresses, more than 300 pairs of shoes, countless handbags, wigs and all the proper accoutrements required to make the transformation from man to woman appear flawless.
Kash showed the film crew a typical weekend of his life, which included spending time with his parents at their Daisytown farm, shopping at Saks Fifth Avenue in downtown Pittsburgh and entertaining friends at a dinner party at his apartment.
While he has created his own style of drag performing, he also has helped a number of people along the way. During the past four years, he raised more than $300,000 for area churches and charities, including the Pittsburgh AIDS Task Force and the Hungarian Reformed Church of Duquesne. His goal is to raise $1 million in 10 years. His family and friends believe he will achieve his goal, and then some.
He also works for a Pittsburgh tradeshow display and marketing corporation and has many interests outside of drag performing.
Dressing as a woman is not his lifestyle. It’s just part of a character he plays as an entertainer.
“I came in here tonight as a boy, and I will leave here tonight as a boy,” he said. “Being in drag is just one part of my life.”
Kash serves as show director at Illusions, where he often is found on Saturday evenings. He prides himself in putting his all into everything he sets out to accomplish, and the stage shows he coordinates are no exception.
“For many people, drag shows are like Las Vegas revues. They are something you don’t see every day of your life, and I try to do something special week after week,” he said.
Flattered and humbled to be chosen for VH1’s documentary, he said performing as Ms. Eda Bagel has been one of the most rewarding experiences of his life.
“When I walk out and see people clapping and cheering and waiting to see me, what else could I do to get that kind of attention? I’ve wanted to be successful and respected, and I feel that I am doing that with this,” he said. “I found something I am good at, and I definitely enjoy it.”
‘Mama Bagel’
For Carolyn Kash, known affectionately as “Mama Bagel,” watching her son perform on stage is enjoyable. The consummate stage mother, she pushed Jeffrey to attend dance class and to become involved with theater. And, she’s not afraid to pull few punches after one of her son’s performances.
“I tell him if I like it or not. I tell him what numbers worked, what outfits worked and what performers worked,” she said. “I tell him to shy away from swearing, because Eda must always be a lady.”
A teacher for 30 years, she watched her son perform when he was a student at California Area High School and then when he went to the University of South Dakota as a musical theater major.
Carolyn Kash also serves as surrogate mother to more than 30 drag queens who are alienated from their own families because of their lifestyles. She said her son and others like him too often face danger that they should not have to encounter because of their differences.
“Being gay is not a life choice. No one chooses it,” she said. “We never raised our children to be homophobic. We raised them to tolerate everybody.”
She said her son loves performing in Uniontown because he is accepted and loved, feelings every performer wants from an audience. Always the proud parent, she said Jeffrey has crossed social and religious barriers and has found a way to entertain.
“One of his cousins told us at dinner that only Jeffrey could do this, in a world that doesn’t treat gays well,” she said. “His fans love him, the church loves him, his minister loves him, and even little old ladies love him.”
Curtain call
Though Eda Bagel is undoubtedly the star of this show, the rest of the best drag queens of this area are nothing to ignore, either. From Jezebel Bebbington D’Opulence’s rendition of Tina Turner’s “Proud Mary” to Tamara Knight’s flowing red floral frock while performing a Taylor Dayne number, the show features hits that date as far back as four decades to those as current as Christina Aguilera’s 2002 hit “Dirrty.”
The evening concludes with a trio performance of Eda Bagel, Tamara Knight and Kourtney Browne that includes “Little Shop of Horrors” and a medley of songs featured in the movie “Sister Act.”
The two-hour show features 14 numbers, six drag queens and Jeffrey donning eight different ensembles that would stun even the snobbiest fashionistas. The audience, filled with gay and straight couples, gay and straight audience members and several members of Jeffrey’s family, responds with cheers, flowers and several standing ovations.
Through it all, his smile never ceases, and his teeth are never streaked with lipstick.
“Thank you,” he says to the audience. “Without you, I would just be a boy in a dress.”
Eda Bagel is slated to appear Sunday at Hugo’s restaurant in Centerville at 3 p.m. for a benefit for the Daisytown United Presbyterian Church.