The main floor of Gainesville’s University Club was washed in a purple and blue light, cut through by a bright spotlight trained on drag performers as they lip-synced and danced through each song.
The crowd on a Tuesday night is much smaller than on weekends, and the music is quieter. People huddle at the edges of the performing area, chatting and watching the performances throughout the night.
Loren Meza, a 24-year-old who mans the spotlight for the club, said he thinks of weeknights at UC as community nights, compared to weekends’ constantly changing crowds.
“This place has been a queer bar for 36 years,” Meza said. “I really feel that sense of how much of a safe space this place is, how it stuck around for 36 years.”
Meza often sets the spotlight on Benedict Down and Phylaxxis, regular performers at UC’s new drag king shows.
University Club’s weekly “Now That’s What I Call Tuesdays” show began a monthly drag king spotlight in January, called the Mascuerade.
The first Mascuerade show was founded by Gainesville performer Phylaxxis, a 35-year-old lab safety worker by day. The show was massively successful and was given a permanent home on the last Tuesday of every month, with Phylaxxis as its host.
Phylaxxis said they wanted to start a drag king-centered show at the club to increase representation because there were no similar shows in Gainesville.
“We just needed a space, because a lot of shows — even here in town, where I think we are pretty inclusive — do not have drag kings,” they said.
The drag king scene has seen a recent increase in popularity on both local and national scales, with reality shows like “King of Drag" airing in 2025 and bringing these performances to a larger audience.
Through their drag, performers take masculinity to its limits. They wear fake beards and muscles and accentuate their eyebrows and jawlines into a hyper-exaggerated version of what men are traditionally expected to look like.
Kings satirize every form of masculinity possible, dressing up as everything from Ken dolls to Michael Jackson.
“Playing with what it means to be a man — I think right now it's so important,” Phylaxxis said. “I think it's why so many people want to get into it right now, too. Gender equality is such a big topic.”
Humor surrounding gender stereotypes is an important aspect of these performances, and many of the drag kings lean into comedy and storytelling as part of their sets.
Inertia, who hosts the majority of Tuesday's drag shows, dressed as an office worker for this Tuesday’s Mascuerade and spent her time sitting at a table pretending to do paperwork.
University Club also hosts other nights focused on alternative drag, like Sinister Sundays, which highlight performances with more gothic themes.
“I didn't know that there was a space for alternative drag and drag queens and kings that were not just cis gay men,” said Stigmata Primadonna, a 26-year-old alternative drag artist in Gainesville.
Alternative drag spaces allow performers to explore gender expectations through aesthetics that aren’t always represented through traditional drag artistry.
“I love doing makeup,” Stigmata said. “I love cosplay, and I had no clue that it was accessible to me, too.”
These nights also provide a space for LGBTQ+ people who may not feel comfortable in the loud crowds of the club's biggest nights.
Gary Greenblatt, a 25-year-old who works the doors at University Club, said Tuesday nights are especially important to him because he’s able to find community without the pressure of dancing and large crowds.
“It let me get introduced to a club environment and meet people and just see drag consistently for the first time,” Greenblatt said.
Phylaxxis and other Mascuerade kings are working to make drag more accessible to everyone and form connections between performers across the state.
The shows feature performers from Jacksonville and Tallahassee alongside local talent, and all types of performances, from campy humor to full glamour, are welcome.
Contact Brandy Sumner at bsumner@alligator.org.
Brandy Sumner is an anthropology and English junior and this summer's music and performance reporter. This is their first semester working at the Alligator. In their free time they enjoy playing guitar, reading and writing.
