The Busy Mom Beauty: Friday Night Drag Queen Show At Lips

Lips
227 E. 56th Street
New York, NY 10022
www.lipsnyc.com

For my mom's birthday last month I decided to take her out for a girl's night out just the two of us. My mom doesn't get out much and I wanted to do something both different and memorable. I could have taken her out for dinner and drinks, but I just wanted to do something outside of the box. So I decided to take her to Lips for dinner and a Drag Queen show. I decided on a Drag Queen show because I thought it'd be a lot of fun. I had to have Google every single Drag Queen show with dinner in the Manhattan area. I chose Lips because all the reviews on it were great. People really seem to like this place.

When we got there everything was dark outside and it only had a sign that said Lips in hot pink, which is good cause it kept the mystery going. My mom was so excited and asked what kind of place it was about a hundred times. Then as we're walking in you couldn't miss the hostess' big orange wig and her reaction was priceless. She looked at me and said "Oh My God are we watching a Drag Queen show!!!". She was super excited about it. Turns out she had always wanted to go to one, which is great for me.

So we checked in with the hostess and waited to be seated. The place is not too big, I'd say about a medium size room so you get a more intimate feel. Everything about the restaurant just screamed out glitz and glam. Since it was just my mother and I we actually got seated at a table for two right next to the stage. The hostess seated us and said look you have a VIP table. It was nice that we didn't have to share a table with other people since we were celebrating her birthday.

Once seated the menu is just like any other generic restaurant menu. Nothing screams out try me. Instead of ordering all this food, we decided to order just appetizers and share everything. We got the calamari and Mistress B sampler platter. The food wasn't bad at all. It didn't taste like something was heated up in the kitchen which was another plus. For drinks we ordered the Drag O Rita (which was a margarita), and I was very surprised when I tried it. They were made strong. Not that it tasted bad, but it had a lot of alcohol in it which was great.The food came out fairly quick I would say within fifteen minutes and then the show started about fifteen to twenty minutes afterwards.

This place was on schedule from the moment we walked in. They do about four shows a night. The first Drag Queen to perform sang a song about Vaginas and I couldn't stop laughing throughout the whole thing.
Once that act was done then they called everyone who was celebrating their birthdays to come on stage. Those people got a crown and received a slice of cake and got to take a picture with two of the Drag Queens. I didn't tell our waitress that it was my mom's birthday because she's a bit shy and she would've killed me if she had to go up there. So I knew better than to do that to her. Once they were done introducing all the birthday girls and making fun of them (in a good joking kind of way) then it was on with the show.

The songs they performed were a good variety. These drag queens performed songs from the 80s, 90s, and today's top songs. For example one Drag Queen performed a Boni Jovi song from the 80s, my waitress performed a song that was in the Clueless soundtrack, and towards the end of the show one of the Drag Queens performed Can't Hold Us by Macklemore. Also the performers interacted with the audience so everyone was part of the show. It just felt like we were all in one big party.

After the show you're able to take pictures with the Drag Queens. It does get crazy though because they're both performers and waitresses. So as they're trying to close out people's tabs they're also busy taking pictures as well. I don't know how these ladies do it, but kudos to them. Everyone did an amazing job and both my mother and I were impressed.

Altogether with the dinner and show everything took about an hour and a half. On the website they suggest making reservations about a week ahead of time. I booked my reservations about two weeks ahead of time just because I knew their busy days are always on the weekend. I was beyond happy with my decision. Everything that I read online was right on and Lips was awesome. If you're looking to go to a Drag Queen show then this is the place to go because you'll have a great time and you won't regret it.