Drag performer extraordinaire Gidget Galore says it is just an honor to be nominated for a WAVE award over the years.
“I mean that sincerely, it really is just an honor to be nominated,” Galore says. “That means someone had to take the time to physically write your name in so clearly you’ve had some impact on people or created a memory in someone’s mind to be recalled, ‘Oh, yeah. I really like that girl.'”
While Galore has placed in the WAVE’s Top 3 Favorite Local Drag Performer many times over the years, this year is the first time she has topped the list.
“My heart burst,” she says. “I’ve been second place many years before behind the likes of Ginger Minj and Darcel Stevens, I’ve been up there but this is the first win so I feel fabulous and very grateful.”
The past year has been a challenging one for Galore. Just like it did for every other entertainer, the pandemic shutdown all of the venues Galore used to perform in.
“During the pandemic, if an entertainer wanted to continue to work, you had to adapt and adapt quickly,” Galore says. And adapt she did.
Galore and Minj started creating virtual shows out of Galore’s home, converting her two-car garage into a makeshift television studio.
“For safety reasons, we quarantined together for six months because we knew it was safer to stay together and not keep travelling back and forth,” Galore says. “We basically just locked ourselves in here and it was so much fun. I don’t think there’s one inch of my home, yard, the neighbor’s pool that we have not photographed or been videoed in.”
Galore took her virtual talents to her Drag Queen Story Hour gig at the LGBT+ Center, placing third for Most Prideful Event and placing first and third for Favorite Theatrical Show with her and Minj’s TV Land Live series. Third place for their pre-pandemic take on “Rosanne” and first place for their socially distanced holiday return of “The Golden Gals: A Christmas Musical.”
“We love doing the TV Land Live series so much and can’t wait to bring all the shows to a live audience this year. We aren’t cutting any show,” Galore says. “Next is ‘Dezigning Women,’ We know that we want to do ‘Gilligan’z Island’ when it’s beach weather and ‘The Munsterz’ are coming in October.
The WAVE-winning “The Golden Gals” are also making a comeback in 2021 with scheduled shows in May at the Clermont Performing Arts Center.
“Thank you so much from the bottom of my heart,” Galore says. “It means the world to me and I can’t wait to keep entertaining the most fabulous city in the world.”
