Campy Kings

Halloween may be gone for a year, but dressing up and performing like famous singers is a nonstop pursuit for one of San Diego’s longest-running shows.

“We are the oldest, continuously running drag-king show in Southern California, maybe North America.”

Rudy Ramrod says her campy San Diego Kings Club has outlasted every other male-impersonating troupe that she knows of.

Rudy salutes Billy Joe Armstrong, South Park’s Cartman, and Billy Joel when she performs in man drag. She notes that her drag Kings outlived three host bars — the Flame, Six Degrees, and Bacchus House.

“Our home base is now Numb3rs in North Park.”

When Rudy’s fellow dragsters — Smokey Gonzalez, Tony Technique, and Craven Morehead — salute Adam Levine, Dr. Dre, Drake, and Elvis, they wear glue-on mustaches and beards or use spirit gum and real human hair to sport fake facial hair.

Rudy, who prefers to refer to her performers only by their stage names, says Whiskey Dick is famous for his lounged-up versions of songs by Nickleback and the Killers.

“Whiskey Dick is our only performer with a real beard. He is the only of us who is actually transgender.”

Beards are easy. Boobs can be more difficult.

“Some of us have bigger chests than others,” Rudy tells the Reader. “Some of us aren’t that big and it’s no problem. But what a lot of people don’t know is that sometimes some of us put them in our armpits or use binders when we perform.”

Admittedly, the Kings Club has none of the production values of the drag-queen revues you might find at Lips.

In fact, Rudy says a Kings Club show is more rock ’n’ roll than a slick, over-the-top drag-queen revue.

“The drag Kings are more like rock stars. It’s a whole different energy flow. We are more laid back, ‘Hey, buddy, what’s up?’ But, god love them. It takes a lot to go up there with heels and wigs and glitter. They have to be larger than life because that’s what they do. Like rockers, we are more into T-shirts and jeans. We do impersonations but at a whole different level.”

The monthly Kings Club show is Saturday, November 21, 7–8:30 p.m. at Numb3rs.