HollaBack Breaks Guinness World Record!!

June 21, 2014• bySeattle Gay Scene

Oh, my...so many Divas on one stage for the HollaBack Thursday Guinness Book of World Record's event, "The World's Largest Drag Queen Show". Photo: Earle Hillman

Oh, my…so many Divas on one stage for the HollaBack Thursday Guinness Book of World Record’s event, “The World’s Largest Drag Queen Show”. Photo: Earle Dutton

Well, THAT was bloody exciting!

I’m referring to Thursday night’s big shindig at Neighbours for their new HollaBack Thursday party produced by Sinfinite Productions, aka Arden Turnbull & Jimmy Scarpello. The boys came up with a dilly of an idea: To break the Guinness Book of World Record’s record for “The Biggest Drag Queen Performance”. To pull it off, they had to convince at least FORTY queens to take part; the old record was 39.

Well, somehow, they managed to lure in FORTY TWO QUEENS and ONE DRAG KING (Ceasar Hart) to clinch the win and all led by regular HollaBack host, ISAAC SCOTT and four team leaders: Mark “Mom” Finley, Cherry Sur Bête, Jessica Paradisco and Alessandra Hunt. There was a packed house of excited fans to cheer the gals on as they took to the stage at midnight to begin the 11 minute long number which was a medley of various iconic gay dance hits from 40 years, including ABBA’s “Dancing Queen”, Cyndi Lauper’s “Girls Just Wanna Fun” and RuPaul’s latest hit, “Sissy That Walk”. Local media covered the event as well and it was all recorded to meet the requirements for the Guinness Book.

After the performance, Seattle’s own BenDeLaCreme took to the stage to congratulate everyone AND wish Happy Birthday to host, Isaac Scott and present the star with a naughty cake. (Sneaky DeLa also got a chance to plug TWO of her upcoming local gigs, next Thursday’s GENDER BLENDER, also at Neighbours, and her big annual 4th of July show at The Triple Door, FREEDOM FANTASIA…you need to check BOTH of those shows out.)

The gorgeous host, Isaac Scott of HollaBack Thursday/Guinness Book of World Record’s event, “The World’s Largest Drag Queen Show”. Photo: Earle Dutton

Both the men of Sinfinite had something to say about the success of the night.

Arden: 42 AMAZING Seattle drag queens and 1 AMAZING drag king are waking up this morning knowing what it feels like to break a WORLD RECORD! What an INCREDIBLE experience it was! Nearly 500 in attendance at HollaBack Thursdays last night to witness HERSTORY in the making! Jimmy and I can’t express enough what a pleasure and honor it was working with this group of entertainers! OMG WE DID IT!!!! A formal thank you to ALL of those who were involved will follow, but I just woke up and can’t stop thinking about how grateful I am to work in such an AMAZING community surrounded by incredibly talented individuals! Thank you so much to all those who helped organize and participate last night! SEATTLE FOR THE WIN!!!!

and

Jimmy: There are times when you stop for a moment to take it all in. THIS is one of those moments. Last night here in Seattle at Neighbours Seattle an incredible thing happened. A community came together to do something that has never been done before, ANYWHERE, in the entire WORLD…and not only succeeded but overachieved! “The Worlds Largest Drag Queen Stage Show” – 42 AMAZING Drag Queens and 1 AMAZING Drag King took to the stage at HollaBack Thursdays in a performance taking nearly 500 spectators on a journey through the past 40 years of Seattle Pride! SO MANY dedicated, driven, and talented people came together to make this happen. Arden and I would like to take a moment to thank EVERYONE involved; Adam McRoberts and Seattle Pride for the UNBELIEVABLE support you showed from start to finish; Pride Foundation- LGBTQ Community Foundation for your presence and support and all the INCREDIBLE work you do in the Pacific Northwest community; Michael and Les at Seattle Gay Scene; Steve Tracy, Chris Beisenherz and our entire Neighbours family; to Kevin Kauer and BenDeLaCreme for dropping by, looking forward to Gender Blender next Thursday at Neighbours; DJ Bret Law for the PERFECT performance mix and a night of incredibly fun music keeping the dance floor full; our gate keeper Rachelle; and our hostess EVERY THURSDAY at HollaBack Thursdays, hope your birthday was AMAZING Isaac Scott! And to the King and Queens of the evening….without you we wouldn’t have been able to pull this crazy stunt off…your drive and dedication to this, your willingness to come together with us to make history, words cannot express our gratitude! Please know that we admire each and every one of you and feel so incredibly honored to have shared this experience with all of you!

HollaBack is off for this coming Thursday, for Gender Blender, but returns the following week, Thursday, July 3.

AND, here’s a list of all four teams that participated in the number.

70s

1) Aunt Betty Malone

2) Cuntella Von Tease

3) Debrianna Merryfeather

4) Frida Laay

5) Gnom’E

6) Iona Trailer

7) Isabella Extynn St. James

8) LaTrina Bidet

9) Madison Lane