Photo of the Day: Gold Rush

Today’s photo is from that glorious time before COVID where gatherings of large number of people in a small space seemed…fun, and not a way to juice your R-value. This picture was from a London drag contest, The Gold Rush hosted by Miss Taylor Trash¹. I think this was Season 3 of the Gold Rush, which featured performers who went on to some fame. But, like most of the audience, I thought the real star of the season was the winner, Indy Nile².

Indy’s break out set was from “Musical Instruments” week. The prior week, each contestant was given a random musical instrument that they had to build a full five-minute piece around. Indy got maracas, and he turned it into a masterpiece. There are two performances in London drag that I will always remember: Charlie Wood’s finale at NADC, and Indy Nile’s Maracas. To understand the photograph, you should watch the performance.

The moment you realize you are watching a genius at work.

The photograph is about a third of the way through the set, as we, the audience realize just how good this piece is. Indy peels back layers, revealing a new gag each time. The pleasure of the auidence was palpable, and you can see the excitement in the face of the person in the middle of the image. They are no drag newbie; they are the official videographer for Gold Rush. And still, Indy works his magic on them.

1. Miss Taylor bills herself as “London’s only Southern Belle-end.” For me, it lead to a lot of cognitive dissonance between Taylor’s performance in character and the fact that through elementary and middle school, many of my classmates were aspiring Southern Belles. There were aspects of the character that hit far too close to home, but also bits that were clearly mangled through the the British world view. None of this is to dissuade you from going to her shows - they are good fun. ↩

2. Indy seems to have no presence on Instagram any longer as Indy. I’ll point you to Gabriel Harris for content. ↩