by Steve Desroches
Kiki Ball-Change spent Halloween night of 2017 wandering the streets of Hell’s Kitchen in full drag as Velma from Scooby-Doo. She wasn’t quite sure how she got there or really what she was doing. That is to say, the newbie drag queen was well aware that she’d arrived in New York City, having performed in drag for the first a few days prior in Montgomery, Alabama, at Club 322, and that she was exploring the city on All Hallow’s Eve alone while her more experienced drag sisters who had made the move to Manhattan worked that evening, leaving her with some time on her own. It was more one of those thoughts: How did I get exactly at this precise moment in life and what does it mean? It was the start of a whole new life.
The journey began in the Florida panhandle where Kiki was born and in Montgomery, the capital city of Alabama, where her family moved to follow her father’s job. A stage performer since the age of seven, Kiki initially had dreams of theater and Broadway, feeling the tug of New York City from a young age. After graduating from the University of Central Florida she moved home to save money for a move north. But for a young gay man, life in Montgomery was a bore. So she spent nights binge-watching RuPaul’s Drag Race, and became inspired. Drag in the South was very specific, and in a way, limited, says Kiki. But once she saw the variety of ways drag could be presented and expressed, Kiki was born.
“I was just so taken by what you could do with drag,” says Kiki. “I just devoured every season of Drag Race. One night I went and put some makeup on in the guest room I was staying in in my parent’s house, and I came downstairs and told them I wanted to be a drag queen. The first thing my mom said was, ‘Do you need a bra?’”
Armed with talent, ambition, and a touch of glorious naivete, Kiki decided to take Manhattan, and at first tried to pursue life as an actor. But as she soon learned, “auditions do not pay the bills.” And that’s when la vie en drag became not just a fun way to be on stage, but an actual craft and career. Riding a trajectory that moved at the speed of a comet, Kiki quickly became a working drag queen with almost nightly gigs in the clubs and cabarets of Hell’s Kitchen and the West Village. But then a trip to Provincetown would change everything.
Visiting in 2021, she took in as many shows as she could and was completely bowled over by Varla Jean Merman, who showed her that drag can be a fully formed cabaret show. Kiki had hitched a ride to Provincetown with photographer Ryan Rudewicz, a Cape Cod native who was traveling to town for his show at Studio Lacombe. Upon arrival she was completely blown away by the town as well as the generosity of performers like Merman who freely gave advice and support. She said, out loud to herself, that in a year’s time she’d be performing in Provincetown.
“I’m just in awe of Provincetown and that it exists at all, and for how long it’s been this magical place,” says Kiki. “I was so determined to perform there and come the summer of 2022 I did! My drag mother Miss Coco Peru helped me get connect with the Crown & Anchor and I did a couple of shows. I was so delusional, though. I’d thought I’d be there the whole summer next year, but that is not how it works.”
Indeed it is not. But Kiki has firmly dug two high heels into the sand of Provincetown, and her popularity continues to grow as she returned this past summer with Hoe Down! at the Crown & Anchor and is here this Spooky Bear weekend with Funny Ghoul, a Halloween cabaret full of live singing, holiday specific parodies, and wickedly funny comedy. While the title is of course a nod to the Barbra Streisand musical Funny Girl, this Halloween incantation conjures a variety of musical genres from Broadway to pop to hilarious mash-ups. In some ways Funny Ghoul is coming full circle for Kiki, as Halloween and the opportunity it provides for budding drag queens is how she got to the Crown & Anchor stage in the first place. Since Kiki’s become more intimately aware of Provincetown her curiosity about the town has seeped beyond just summer. And back in New York she’s heard story after story about the Bear-infused bacchanalia that is Halloween in Provincetown. And in recent years as Provincetown has grown exponentially as a Halloween destination so too has the amount of shows offered during the high homo holiday to entertain the large crowd that files onto the Cape tip eschewing locales like Salem or Sleepy Hollow for a more queer affair. And Kiki is looking forward to being a part of it all.
“I can’t wait to see what Provincetown is like on Halloween and see what there is to do, and who I’ll do,” says Kiki. “And then we’ll take it from there.”
Kiki Ball-Change presents Funny Ghoul: A Halloween Cabaret at the Crown & Anchor, 247 Commercial St., Provincetown, on Friday, November 1 and Saturday, November 2 at 6 p.m. Tickets ($35/$45) are available at the box office and online at onlyatthecrown.com. For more information call 508.487.1430.
