[Club LaRay Talent Show (December 9, 1986)]
A drag competition at Chicago music and performance venue Club LaRay, followed by a DJ set featuring early House music with footage of club patrons dancing.
A drag competition at Chicago music and performance venue Club LaRay, followed by a DJ set featuring early House music with footage of club patrons dancing.
A talent show and drag competition at Chicago music and performance venue Club LaRay, followed by a DJ set featuring early House music with footage of club patrons dancing. Significant distortion throughout the tape.
A talent show and drag competition at Chicago music and performance venue Club LaRay, followed by a DJ set featuring early House music with footage of club patrons dancing.
A talent show and drag competition at Chicago music and performance venue Club LaRay.
A talent show and drag competition at Chicago gay club Club LaRay, as well as footage of the dance floor.
Club LaRay presents a “Battle of the Stars” with host Anita Baker (impersonator) and co-host Tasha Thomas. This video documents the performances throughout the night by queen impersonators of popular soul and r&b singers and groups such as Gladys Knight, Grace Jones, and The [male] Emotions.
Club LaRay was a Black, gay club in the Lakeview neighborhood of Chicago, IL. The club was owned by Ray “LaRay” Hill. The club was housed in a former theatre consisting of two bars, a dancefloor, and a staircase that went from the floor to the ceiling, dubbed the “Stairs to Nowhere”.
This tape contains three segments featuring a painfully unfunny Jerry Lewis impersonator. The first segment is the Lewis impersonator with a band. “Lewis†does some shtick, but doesn’t sing. The second segment is clips from what seems to be a fake talk show. The talk show may be real, but the host is really hamming it up with “Lewis”, giving the show the appearance of fakery. The final clip appears to be the impersonator doing some Lewis shtick at a comedy club. “Lewis” pretends to sing along with an opera recording. This point cannot be stressed enough: this Jerry Lewis impersonator is not funny!