Disney Villians Ball – Event Review

I want to start this blog post in a very unusual way … with an apology! It goes to both the Tramshed Cardiff and the people who attended the Disney Villains Ball on Sunday the 31st of October. On the pinnacle day of the spooky season, I attended a night of drag performers where the whole premise was that it was celebrating the villains from Disney and if there ever was an opportunity to bust out a fancy dress outfit this was it, alas I could not but there is a fairly good reason for this! Going out in fancy dress has been almost a permanent feature of my life since about last Sunday and so after a week of dressing up as an array of wild characters (for example Mrs Brown, Frank N Futer and Beetlejuice to name a few), I had exhausted all of my outfits and personally, I have a rule of never wearing the same thing twice to one place. However, I did don the iconic sequin coat and so highlighted to campiness of the event rather than the spooky overtones. It was also a very last minute decision to attend this event (more of that later) and so it wasn’t even the case that I could throw something together! I am sorry to everyone that attended who expected me to wear something fabulous to this event but at least the queens and the rest of the fans really embraced the spooky-themed show!

The first thing that drew me to the Disney Villains ball was the wonderful cast of drag performers that they had brought together to help bring some of the most iconic Disney villains to life! With a plethora of Ru Pauls drag (both US and UK versions), a few local icons and very excitingly a drag king! It was almost as if Klub Kids had found out about my favourite performers and had tried their hardest to get everyone single one of them on this tour! We had performances from some Drag Race queens including Ginger Minj, Miz Cracker, Tayce and Victoria Scone and so I really wanted to book a ticket but kept forgetting to do so. I was then informed that they were giving away a few free tickets to this show (with a recommended donation to charity) then I knew it was an opportunity that could not be missed! I have to admit that my experiences with the Tramshed Cardiff have been very varied with the Jurassic Park inspired evening being familiar disappointing but the chaotic Bingo Loco was wild! I do think that any given night at the Tramshed relies heavily upon the production company working on each show so please don’t think that if you have had one bad experience at the venue that everyone show will be the same! But for a £10 donation to charity, it would be very difficult to walk away disappointed by the show. The amount of production that was put into this show was brilliant to experience with Disney songs being played and shown throughout the evening, a wonderful transition video from act to act and super fun customised videos playing in the background of each performer. I didn’t quite understand why we had countdowns at the beginning and during the interval that counted down from strangely forty each time. My other qualm is that due to the standing area being extremely flat, at times it was difficult to see the performers especially if they did any floor work during their numbers. Things such as Splits and dips etc have now become a drag staple that you will usually see at some point during any given drag show but I couldn’t see when these were done due to the taller people I’m the audience!

The entire event was hosted by the wonderful Motha Tucker who helped transition from one activity to another and helped to reign the audience in during the opening of either act of the show. They were bantering with the audience throughout and really highlighted that the majority of people were in fancy dress. This led to a super entertaining section of the show we’re five people were brought out audience and onto the stage to compete in a sort of runway/dance challenge. The costumes that were selected ranged from Michelle Visage to Princess Dianna to GottMik to a Devil where they all had thirty seconds to perform and show off their outfits. Despite not winning, I do think that the person who dressed up as Michelle Visage deserves praise due to how scarily accurate their costume was! The opening performance came from the wonderfully energetic Miz Cracker who had decided to go as Cruella to fit the Disney villains theme. Cracker had managed to include both costume and hair reveals which really helped to amp the audience up straight off the bat! The crowd went absolutely crazy when the icon Victoria Scone walked onto the stage and gave us incredible live vocals during her wicked parody number. We did not get to see Victoria sing live on Drag Race UK season three due to her early exit for medical reasons, but she is a very talented singer! Her performance seemed to be a homage to the drag race UK season two winner Lawerence Chaney which was a fun little nod to the running joke of those two being the same person!

Tayce started her act with an almost parade through the audience with had everyone in awe at how incredible she looked. I don’t think that Tayce was given enough praise of her season from how incredible her make-up skills were as she yet again looked absolutely stunning as she was paraded through the fans! She had come as Maleficent and gave us all the choreography that we have come to expect from the Welsh dragon. The crowd went wild before, during and after Tayce performance as not only was it incredibly but in fact, she grew up about thirty minutes away from this venue so it was an almost welcome home moment for her! Now only Awhora could grace the stage dressed as Captain Hook but still managed to look extremely fierce! This outfit then revealed into extremely beautiful lingerie that not only looked amazing but still managed to stay in the pirate-themed set! I was super excited to see the drag King performer Chiyo perform their section of the show and when it was announced that it would be Gaston inspired I was super impressed! Gaston is the perfect character to impersonate for a drag king as he is so over-the-top in his manly mannerism but also is an exaggerated caricature of masculinity. The final solo performance in this show was by the incredibly Ginger Minj who took on the role of one of all-time favourite villains Ursula from The Little Mermaid! Not only did Ginger look amazing during her set but she also included a subtle nod to the fact that this iconic character was inspired by the drag performer Devine! What I loved most about Ginger’s performance is that it was clearly carefully thought out as the medley of songs flawlessly transitioned into one another. It obviously started with Poor Unfortunate Souls but moved to Legs, written for Naomi Smalls on Drag Race season eight, when Ursula was talking about getting legs instead of a tail. She had included multiple references to her iconic ‘phone’ lip sync from all-stars six which I think will follow her around for the rest of her life! The whole show ended with a performance from all of the queens (including the host) of Let’s get the party started by Shirley Basssy which yet again is one of my current obsessions to listen to!

Overall, it did seem as if Klub Kidz had been oveehesrng my conversations by booking a collection of my favourite performers who all did a rendition of one of my favourite songs to close the show! It was pure camp and fun throughout with a super affordable ticket price! I would rate this evening 4.5 stars out of 5!