As I mentioned, I really struck gold being in Los Angeles last week when two of my pals' long-running shows that I have never actually seen in person happened to be going on. On Wednesday, Damian and I drove over to the legendary Casita del Campo to witness the equally legendary comedy stylings of "Chico's Angels," featuring three angelic drag personas and one slab of beef paying homage to the "Angels in Chains" episode. I've heard that none of the actresses from the original series have any use for the parody -- either thinking they're being made fun or simply not being receptive to even hearing about it -- but it's hard to see it as anything but a love letter to the cultural phenomenon of the late 1970s.
Since I'm friends with Danny Casillas -- who plays delightfully ditzy Frieda Laye -- I sort of assumed I would enjoy his persona the most. But all three actors -- Danny plus Oscar Quintero as Kay Sedia, the self-absorbed and curvaceous former Miss Tijuana Natural Springs Water and Ray Garcia as Chita Parol, the smart and assertive Angel who has both a personal and professional rivalry with Kay -- have such chemistry that I pretty much forgot Frieda was my amiga and got swept up in their over-the-top antics ... which is to say nothing of Cade Christensen en los shorts de Peter Rison!
On Friday my friends Greg and Jim met up with us at Marix, the famed West Hollywood Tex-Mex restaurant I frequented when I was residing down the street on Croft Avenue. Marix was closed for a few years after the pandemic due to a dispute with the landlord that also involved neighboring Basix, my old coffee hangout. So it was a real treat to see it thriving again -- in large part due to our adorable waiter named Bobby!
Kate Jackson, Jaclyn Smith and Cheryl Ladd are slated to reunite next month in Los Angeles for the first time in ages -- and what a shame it is that their Latina counterparts won't be included in the festivities.
From there we headed east to the Renberg Theatre at the LA LGBT Center, where we got to see Dennis Hensley's fundraising laughfest "The Mismatch Game." As luck would have it, Nadya Ginsburg was there as Cher; Drew Droege was Tanya Roberts (speaking of Angels!); Julie Brown was the late Queen Elizabeth, a last-minute decision because it had just come to her attention that Bjork, whom she had planned to play, had been caught doing B(j)lackface years ago; as well as a gaggle of other hilarious performers. Because it was Friday the 13th -- and two days before St. Paddy's Day -- the theme was Bad Luck of the Irish, although the outsize amount of money raised begged to differ!
