Backstage Beauties: Sizzle Reel

Outrageous characters with big personalities clash off-stage and in the dressing room while giving it their all each night at Darcelle XV, one of the hippest and longest running gay burlesque clubs in Portland, Oregon. Portland has a rich drag and performance art culture that encompasses everything from traditional female impersonation to new-school drag to queer burlesque. Since 1967, the female impersonators of Darcelle XV and company have been performing a Las Vegas-style cabaret full of sequins and sophistication. She may be in her 80s, but Darcelle XV still knows how to put on a show, and the locals consider it a Portland institution not to be missed.