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Big Hair and Generous Hearts Easy to Find at Zoey Awards
July 29, 2007
by Taylor Pero
Oh, what a night it was! There was so much going on I can’t remember it all, but each and every happening was an event in and of itself. My only concern is for next year, when it’s time for the second annual Zoey Awards. How will they top what happened the evening of July 21?
Let’s start with what is closest to my heart: WE WON! I’ve sent e-mails to everyone I know and some I don’t, proudly proclaiming that I am now a writer for Kansas City’s number one, award-winning publication in its field. Like Queen Elizabeth. I figured that she, being the top queen, so to speak, should know about all her glamorous sub-queens here. Like Dame Elizabeth Taylor, who dominates among U.S. queens and loves us gays. Like comedienne Kathy Griffith, who also loves us queens, and my housekeeper, who would love to be a queen, but isn’t.
And to think I almost didn’t go! I had my reasons, though. First I lost a veneer from my right canine. How could any self-respecting queen go out in public with a missing tooth? Then my real-estate mogul friend had to cancel at the last minute because he’s Kansas City’s next Donald Trump. Then I couldn’t find the Athenaeum building. Then I asked a handsome blondish man and his partner where my tickets were by commenting that they were the two best-looking men at the door, so why not start with them? One looked familiar, but I didn’t realize it was singer-celebrity-gay-heartthrob, George Michaels! Oh, I was so embarrassed! I later slipped him my card because you never know, and I’m only about 60 years older then he is. Worse things could happen.
The awards show is the brainchild of Zoe Kelly, whose alter-ego, sans makeup, is Kelly Moore. Moore’s calling is counseling and teaching the developmentally disabled through a Kansas City company, Concerned Care. You can read all about Kelly/Zoe in the July 13 issue of Camp at www.campkc.com.
There’s one thing about a bevy of beautiful, bountiful queens that boggles the mind. There is no extreme to which they will not submit in transforming from their daily, dare I say manly public and corporate image. They arrived in droves by limousine, automobile, airplanes, one on a bus, I think, and possibly by rickshaw and a donkey cart. Nothing would deter them from making a spectacular entrance on the arm of their husband, beau or trick after being saluted and interviewed by Kansas City’s own Flo, taking the place of Joan Rivers on the red carpet at the Oscars.
Never before have I seen so many over-six-foot lovelies bejeweled, bedecked and bedazzling. Some hair designs were by Marie Antoinette. Had to be. Only she could have thunk them up. On some they reminded me of the I Love Lucy episode when she becomes a chorus girl with a headdress so tall she can’t walk down the stairs without it going sideways. You’ve got to love the KC lovelies, though. They are a fiercely determined army, equipped with sewing machines, fabric swatches, sequins, rhinestones, hair extensions, wigs and more wigs, and seemingly inexhaustible imaginations when slapping on the makeup, overdoing the lipstick, and just plain scaring the horses.
So, OK already! What do I really think? It’s good. All of it good. In my distant past life as a denizen of Hollywood, I attended the Academy Awards debacle more than once. The sentiment permeating the atmosphere was one of palpable competition, hate and envy. I saw the most famous in the world with faces frozen in anger because someone else was getting more attention than they were. The smiles were seemingly gracious when a camera was aimed at them, and a millisecond later they were livid because their moment before millions was over.
Such was not the case at the Zoey Awards. Everyone was there for a good time -- to rekindle friendships and applaud one another for the first-rate fund-raising and awareness-building that they contribute willingly and freely (as in with no pay) to the gay as well as straight community in their own back yard. These wonderful people spend uncountable hours helping others raise their standards of living and thinking, and they do it out of love for their fellow man and woman. Consider what our world would be without this cadre of creative, talented souls blessed with energy and good humor who make us smile and laugh at ourselves, entertain us beyond expectation, and bring a level of God’s love to an otherwise bleak and uncertain planet.
The Zoey Awards celebration has begun, and long may it last as future generations of like-minded individuals join with others in rejoicing in their true humanity, identity, creativity, charity and who knows what magnificent contributions to the world they inherit from us.
Thank you, Zoe. It was a blast!
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The Zoey Award Winners
Best Event
Aids Walk
Best Charity Promoter
Missouri Gay Rodeo Association (MGRA)
Best Gay Friendly Company
Concerned Care Inc.
Best Publication
Camp
Best Columnist
Mike Sugnet
Best Photographer
Tim Cargill
Best Website
www.kansascitygaypride.org
Best Outreach
Lesbian, Gay and Transgender Community Center
Best Gay Business
Out There
Best Spiritual Outreach
Spirit of Hope, MCC-KC
Best MC
Mandy Barbarell
Best Drag Comedian
L'Oreal
Best Theater Company
Late Night Theatre
Best DJ
Roger at Missie B?s
Best Bar Owner
Michael Burnes (Missie B?s)
Best Barback
Chris Blake (Sidekicks)
Best Restaurant (tie)
Bell Street Mamas
Sharp's
Best Showbar
Missie B's
Best Bar Manager
Brandon Massey (Sidekicks)
Best Pageant Promoter
Reba
Best Bar
Sidekicks Saloon
Best Bartender
David Doyle (Missie B's)
Best Male Vocalist (tie)
Cowboy Steve
Eddie Lowery (aka Gina Blake)
Best New Starlet
Kyla Breeze
Best Male Impersonator
River Rain
Best Female Impersonator
Victoria DePaula
Best Female Vocalist
Missy Koonce
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