On being show director and casting talent
Hello good people of earth. It is officially fall, my favorite time of year. And I cannot tell you how excited I am for cooler weather. I keep walking past my closet with all of my cute sweaters, hoodies and jackets, gently touching the door and whispering, “Soon, my babies. Soon!”
I have been in the drag show business for more than 30 years now, and I have been the show director for the Caven bars for almost nine of those years. And I love my job.
Well, I love my job about 95 percent the time.
I think the hardest part of my job is finding nice ways to tell someone that I will not be booking them for our shows.
You’d think that would be easy for a self-proclaimed villain like me, but I actually hate it.
We only have so many guest spots available to work in the Rose Room, and it is hard to find a balance between fan favorites that I KNOW will put on a great show and giving chances to entertainers that MIGHT put on a great show. The struggle is real for newer entertainers looking for a “chance,” but there are also a lot of seasoned queens that just are not a good fit for our show.
For me personally, it is a constant battle between “I know” and “I hope.”
So much time, energy and thought goes into who I book as a special guest. Some are no brainers — showgirls that I have booked in the past that I know will kill it on stage. Crowd favorites that show up and show out. Queens that are so talented that the crowd feels lucky to have seen them.
But what they do onstage is not the only thing that I consider when booking an entertainer for our show. Work ethic and how you act backstage with other entertainers goes a long way in my decision-making.
If you make the dressing room feel weird because of a bad attitude or being disrespectful of our time or the opportunity you are given, then you probably won’t get a second booking. To be completely honest, that has only happened a couple of times in all of my years doing shows.
My biggest pet peeve is how differently people treat you once they find out that you are the person who does the bookings. Like I said before, I did shows a long time before I was the keeper of the keys, so to speak.
Years ago, if our cast had been a totem pole, I was the one on the bottom. All of the other Rose Room cast members were either state or national titleholders, and many of the special guests that would get booked saw that and gave respect accordingly.
And I totally get that! They worked hard for their crowns and deserved every bit of that respect. My issue, though, was that I became the butt of many of their jokes and reads because, to them, I was a nobody.
Fast forward to all these years later and now it’s, “Hey Sis, can I get a booking.” I cannot stand being called “SIS” if we ain’t ever been friends!
About a year after I became show director, there was a queen at the bar that had recently done an incredible talent number in a pageant. I walked up to her, out of drag, ready to offer her a weekend in the Rose Room. I started the conversation with hello then told her I saw her talent number and that she was amazing. She turned to me and said
“Duh!” then whipped her head away from me, leaving me with a face full of wig and disrespect.
I was like, “Well, never mind.” Some choices get made for you.
About 10 minutes later, a mutual friend of ours walked up and introduced me to her, saying, “This is Cassie Nova, the show director here in the Rose Room.” Her eyes grew large with excitement, and she goes into a big spiel about how it has always been a dream of hers to work in the Rose Room and how she can’t wait for a booking.
She either chose to ignore our previous interaction or didn’t remember. She wrote down her number, after snatching an order pad away from the bartender without a bit of acknowledgement to said bartender. She even drew hearts around her name and kissed it, leaving a perfect red lipstick print on it. She handed it to me with such a sense of reverence.
I just nodded, said thank you, sat it on the bar and walked away.
I do not care how talented you are, if you have a stank-ass attitude, in the words of the iconic Nat King Cole: “You’re unbookable! In every way, you’re unbookable! That’s where you’ll stay!”
I may be remembering that song wrong.
I will say that I have put my personal feelings aside a few times and booked entertainers that I may not have cared for personally but that I knew would be good in the show — within reason. I take my other castmates’ opinions very seriously. They help me decide who to give a chance to and who to tell “Thank for your interest, but I have nothing for you right now.”
That tends to be my go-to answer for someone that I am not going to book in the near future: “Thank you for your interest, but I have nothing available right now.” That is my honest answer; I mean, things change; entertainers grow.
It’s a no for now, but not necessarily forever.
I have had to tell entertainers that push me for more of a “now and why not” answer. If pushed, I will have to be brutally honest and tell someone that they are not Rose Room quality yet. I hate having to do that, but I also don’t want to give a false sense of hope where there is none.
I know there are many people that hate that I am the one making those decisions for our show and think that I don’t have the credentials to do this job. To those people I say … nothing. I say nothing.
Everyone has an opinion. I know what I do, and I am crazy proud of the shows we have — not just in the Rose Room but at all of our bars. There is always room to grow and do better. I know the legacy and prestige of the Rose Room, and I don’t take that lightly. Our shows and entertainers are of a higher caliber. So are our special guests.
To those who want to get booked in the Rose Room: Let your talent speak for you. We are listening.
Remember to always love more, bitch less and be fabulous! XOXO, Cassie Nova