By Karen Parr-Moody

CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. – “Beauty equals pain.”

The famous drag queen RuPaul spoke those words 20 years ago and they still ring true today, as DixieNormus Garofalo – no, that’s not her real name – has discovered.

Tim Garofalo’s drag queen alter ego, DixieNormus Garofalo, is getting her pink glitter heels ready to hit the stage and “tear it up” in the annual Drag Idol competition here.

This beauty pageant takes place at 7 p.m. Friday, Feb. 21 at Clement Auditorium at Austin Peay State University, 601 College Street. Tickets are $5 at the door and go on sale 30 minutes prior to the show.

During Drag Idol, four drag queens will vie for the title in this show hosted by the university’s Gay-Straight Alliance. The winner will go on to perform in the GSA’s spring show on April 11.

Garofalo said that getting into costume can be “a little painful, a little uncomfortable” – especially the part about using Gorilla duct tape to create the illusion of having cleavage or wearing six pairs of dance tights to smooth out his legs.

He will also wear a three-pound, 27-inch tall headdress for his last act. He describes that as the “grand finale, ‘Thank you for coming, I’m glad I won,’” headdress.

Garofalo is a six-foot-two-inch fellow with muscular arms and tattooed forearms. He has never entered a drag competition before, but he is busting out the E600 glue to make sure his bling stays firmly put on his costumes.

“I’m coming for blood,” he said, laughing. “If you want to get me on the stage for the first time and finally let me live my dream, I’m coming for you.”
Garofalo grew up on a Clarksville farm and still rides four-wheelers for fun and fishes with his dad each week. His transformation from his everyday reality to that of a glitzy drag queen will be one to watch.

“Once the hair goes on and the eyelashes are glued down, she’s pretty sassy,” Garofalo said of the character he has created. “She’s a quick-tongued Southern girl. She’s always gonna give you an answer. You may not like it, but you’ll always get an answer.”

Matthew Combs, a veteran drag queen, is the volunteer organizer for Drag Idol (he and Garofalo work together as hair stylists at Lee’s Salon). Combs has been channeling a drag character he calls Anna Freeze for 12 years; as Freeze, he won the Miss Stonewall 2012 title in Hopkinsville, Ky.

“If there’s anything I can do to help the community come together, then I’m doing my part,” Combs said of his work on Drag Idol on behalf of APSU’s Gay-Straight Alliance.

Anna Freeze has been introduced in drag shows as the “the cold-hearted diva,” Combs said, adding that he enjoys stepping outside of himself to become a different character.

“She’s just a load of fun.”

This is probably going to be the biggest Drag Idol in its three-year history based on the number of tickets sold in advance, Combs said.

And while the event is slated to begin at 7 p.m., there’s one proviso, he added with a laugh.

“In drag time, it’ll start around 7:15.”

Karen Parr-Moody began a career as a New York journalist, working as a fashion reporter for Women’s Wear Daily, a beauty editor for Young Miss and a beauty and fashion writer for both In Style and People magazines. Regionally, she has been a writer at The Leaf-Chronicle newspaper and currently writes about arts and culture for Nashville Arts magazine each month.