The San Francisco Eagle, filled with leather men, drag queens, beary muscled gogo dancers and a diverse array of other people, seemed like a gay film casting director's wet dream. With some added decorations of life-size Tom of Finland cutouts and a red neon vixen hung above the balcony, the scene could have been a set for the HBO series Looking.
But it was a real night, with one white-gowned diminutive queen at its center, as Moni Stat celebrated turning 30.
"It was a lovely evening room what I saw," said Moni Stat in a phone interview the week after the party. "I had a lot of fun. Almost all the people I wanted to see were there. It was so good to have people I've admired, and from different worlds. I think that's a testament to who I really am."
At times sincere and at other times witty and casual, Moni Stat balances the elegance of upscale drag with a sense of humor and self-deprecation. "First and foremost, I am a stupid clown. At the end of the day, the makeup and jewelry come off."
"I've always believed in attracting the different kinds of people. No matter which part of the community you're coming from, drag, club kid, I'd rather you just have fun. I can hang out at any bar. You can put me in a dive bar and I still have fun."
Moni politely declined to provide his full name with a succinct, "We don't want to got there." He did offer his first name, Dino.
By day, Dino works in the corporate office of a national hotel chain, where he dresses in "man drag" with an equally eclectic style as his drag persona. "I am a clothes horse," he admitted. "I love fashion and clothes. I grew up raiding my mom's closet for Dior, Halston and Chanel. In or out of drag, I like to go out."
Raised in the tiny island of Guam, Dino is the child of a Filipino-Chinese mother and a French-Turkish father, where, he says, "I grew up with a silver spoon in my mouth. I grew up with nannies and a driver and a security guard."
But don't expect upper crust snobbery from this queen. "I started going to nightclubs at age seven. So I can thrown down with the lowest."
One of Moni's first influences was his mother, "a strong gorgeous Filipino woman," he said, who also came out as a lesbian. "She understood the rebel part of me."
Moni's family moved to the Bay Area when he was 16. They first moved to Hillsboro, and he lived in San Francisco later since age 19, when he studied at the Academy of Arts in Design.
"Life throws you a curveball and you never go into the degree you think you'll use," said Moni, who acknowledged that there is, however, a great deal of design to his drag outfits.
So, what are the preparations needed before Dino becomes Moni Stat and performs yet another wild lipsynch number at a club?
"For me, it's backwards," said Moni. "The look will come first, then the number. That's always my downfall as a performer. Instead of rehearsing, I'm running around town scouring for bits and pieces for costumes."
A few of those pieces were impulsively removed on another night at the Eagle a few months back at the monthly Charlie Horse show. Moni Stat, at the peak of performing to Annie Lennox's "Little Bird," climbed atop the bar for an impromptu stage dive into the crowd.
"I was wearing this big giant headpiece," said Moni. "I wasn't really planning on crowd-surfing. But I felt like really pushing the boundaries. I'm the kind of performer who will think three seconds ahead. I am a horrible organizer. I always think on the fly.
"Frankly, I was watching the number before me and got bored. Nothing was happening."
To say that Moni Stat spiced things up would be an understatement. As one of the original Charlie Horse performers for Glen "Anna Conda" Hyde's raucous drag night, Moni Stat's been known to take the stage covered in fake blood while brandishing real butcher knives.
"I came into the scene when Trannyshack was big," said Moni of Heklina's irreverent drag night. "I was this little art school fag who was dabbling in drag. My first few gigs were given to me by club performers. I would have to hustle by working the door. I had people watch me grow. Heklina had me as a regular performer each week for two years. That's how I grew and learned how to do things. She opened my eyes to see that drag didn't have to be so formal."
That irreverent performance style is often matched by a blunt attitude as well. "My whole mentality is, if I am bored with your number, I will leave. Other queens say, 'Why do you always leave?' I say, 'It's simple. I can't stand your number.' "
When it comes to performance, Moni Stat wants more. "Just lip-synching is not enough. Drag should be fun and spontaneous art; whatever you make of it. It's not just about being pretty. That's easy. It's just a bunch of hair and make-up. It's what you bring to the performance."
Moni prefaces a comparison to great art with a modest self-description. "I'm just another clown. But Picasso was a genius because he learned the rules. I had to learn how to do hair and make-up properly before I can go fuck everything up."