Trannyshack
Encyclopedia
Drag (clothing)
Drag is used for any clothing carrying symbolic significance but usually referring to the clothing associated with one gender role when worn by a person of another gender. The origin of the term "drag" is unknown, but it may have originated in Polari, a gay street argot in England in the early...
club taking place at DNA Lounge
DNA Lounge
DNA Lounge is a late-night, all ages nightclub in the SoMa district of San Francisco owned by Jamie Zawinski, a former Netscape programmer and open-source software hacker. The club features DJ dancing, live music, burlesque performances, and occasionally conferences, private parties, and film...
in San Francisco. It was started by drag queen
Drag queen
A drag queen is a man who dresses, and usually acts, like a caricature woman often for the purpose of entertaining. There are many kinds of drag artists and they vary greatly, from professionals who have starred in films to people who just try it once. Drag queens also vary by class and culture and...
Heklina
Heklina
Heklina is the stage name of Stefan Grygelko, who has performed as a drag queen in San Francisco's alternative drag show Trannyshack and beyond from 1996-present.Heklina is half-Icelandic and named herself after the Icelandic volcano Hekla...
in 1996 as an offshoot of Klubstitute, and was a weekly fixture at The Stud bar in San Francisco for 12 years, drawing large crowds on a regular basis. The Tuesday night performances at The Stud ended on 12 August 2008, with Trannyshack resuming as a monthly event at DNA Lounge
DNA Lounge
DNA Lounge is a late-night, all ages nightclub in the SoMa district of San Francisco owned by Jamie Zawinski, a former Netscape programmer and open-source software hacker. The club features DJ dancing, live music, burlesque performances, and occasionally conferences, private parties, and film...
in March 2010.
Trannyshack history
Lady GaGa
Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta , better known by her stage name Lady Gaga, is an American singer and songwriter. Born and raised in New York City, she primarily studied at the Convent of the Sacred Heart and briefly attended New York University's Tisch School of the Arts before withdrawing to...
, Gwen Stefani
Gwen Stefani
Gwen Renée Stefani is an American singer-songwriter and fashion designer. Stefani is the lead vocalist for the rock and ska band No Doubt. Stefani recorded her first solo album Love. Angel. Music. Baby. in 2004. The album was inspired by music of the 1980s, and was a success with sales of over...
, Mary Wilson
Mary Wilson (singer)
Mary Wilson is an American singer, formerlymember of the Motown female singing group The Supremes during the 1960s and 1970s. Wilson was the only singer to be a consistent member of the group in its eighteen-year tenure...
of the Supremes and more. In the early years of the club, Ana Matronic
Ana Matronic
Ana Matronic is the female lead singer for the Scissor Sisters.Her stage name is said to be due to "a deep and abiding love of robots"...
of the Scissor Sisters
Scissor Sisters
Scissor Sisters are an American band "spawned by the scuzzy, gay nightlife scene of New York" who took their name from a sexual position between two women also known as tribadism...
lived in San Francisco and performed frequently at Trannyshack before moving to New York in 1999.
Trannyshack ended as a weekly Tuesday night show on August 12, 2008 with "The Final Tuesday". Heklina has said that she stopped presenting the show after it became so successful that it was being copied by other shows: "I felt like if everyone's trying to copy me, maybe I should try to do something different." The Trannyshack name has become so popular that Heklina has filed six cease-and-desist letters against other clubs using the name.
Miss Trannyshack Pageant
The Miss Trannyshack Pageant is no longer held in a nightclub. In 2004, Trannyshack Founder and Promoter Heklina teamed up with event producer Juan Garcia of Beatbox Events to move the event from the clubs to the Regency Ballroom and take this event to a whole new level. Together with Juan Garcia the help of drag phenomena and co-hostess Juanita More!, they have turned this little contest into a giant spectacle and late-night dance party complete with celebrity judges, live performances, concert-like production and special effects.Until 2007, which marked the final Miss Trannyshack Pageant, this annual offsite event has been a fierce pageant-style competition for the title, Miss Trannyshack. Candidates for the pageant are recruited from Trannyshack, the popular weekly show at the Stud Bar in San Francisco. Every week a new theme is presented as inspiration for new and returning talent to perform to eager viewers. Guests look forward to a mix of everything from lowbrow trash, “old-school” traditional drag performances, avant-garde and highbrow installations and gritty punk-rock shows in a dance-club setting. Trannyshack favorites are transformed into stars and work towards entering and winning the coveted title, Miss Trannyshack at the annual Trannyshack pageant.
Special Trannyshack events
Trannyshack also holds the annual Trannyshack Reno bus trip. Hosted by Trannyshack veteran Peaches ChristPeaches Christ
Peaches Christ is an American underground drag performer, emcee, filmmaker, and actor. Peaches currently resides in San Francisco where his Backlash Production Company and Midnight Mass movie series are based....
and held over Easter Weekend, participants are encouraged to dress and act as outrageously and/or provocatively as possible and imbibe alcohol heartily over the course of the weekend. During the ride from San Francisco to Reno
Reno, Nevada
Reno is the county seat of Washoe County, Nevada, United States. The city has a population of about 220,500 and is the most populous Nevada city outside of the Las Vegas metropolitan area...
, the tour bus makes several pit stops in relatively conservative places such as Placerville
Placerville, California
Placerville is the county seat of El Dorado County, California. The population was 10,389 at the 2010 census, up from 9,610 at the 2000 census. It is part of the Sacramento–Arden-Arcade–Roseville Metropolitan Statistical Area.-Geography:...
and Donner Pass
Donner Pass
Donner Pass is a mountain pass in the northern Sierra Nevada, located above Donner Lake about nine miles west of Truckee, California. It has a steep approach from the east and a gradual approach from the west....
, designed partially to get a rise out of small-town locals and unsuspecting travelers, all in real life scenes reminiscent of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert. The culmination of the event is a special Trannyshack show at a Reno nightclub, followed by Easter Sunday brunch the next day at a local casino.
Trannyshack also holds the annual SS Trannyshack chartered boat cruise on San Francisco Bay, usually held in September, although the event has not been held since 2004; however, it has been announced that the event will be revived for the 2009 Folsom Street Fair
Folsom Street Fair
The Folsom Street Fair is an annual BDSM and leather subculture street fair held on the last Sunday in September and caps San Francisco's "Leather Pride Week"...
.