今日吃瓜

鈥淥xford Street, the atmosphere here isn鈥檛 the same as it used to be that鈥檚 for sure. You鈥檇 walk the streets in the old days, and you鈥檇 run into people you knew. The whole street had this community feel about it, you didn鈥檛 need to be in a venue to have a good time, but now even before COVID it鈥檚 starting to get really quiet.鈥� Charisma Belle tells Star Observer.

For more than a hot minute now Charisma has been a regular fixture at Oxford Street鈥檚 Universal Bar, entertaining punters with her on stage finery. Speaking about her favourite nights at the venue, it is one with the drag community at it heart which immediately springs to the performers mind.

鈥淥n a Wednesday night we run Slay 4 Pay, which has been running for years now. All those competitions are quite crazy, they鈥檝e helped bring in a new crowd of drag performers, and the grand finals are always crazy and wild.

鈥淏ut really, I always ask for crazy things and where other venues would be scared or say no straight away, Universal will pretty much make anything we ask for happen.鈥� Charisma adds with a chuckle.

鈥淭here is an element when you are in a room with people, drag is so spontaneous you know. You just can鈥檛 replace the feeling that live entertainment gives you. Being there in the moment is a lot different to watching something online.”

听The point that Charisma makes is an important one, and one that Universal licensee Dillon Shaw is as keen to drive home.

鈥淎round us there are so many little theatres and venues closing down that are such an important part of Sydney.

鈥淚 really worry about the culture changing, I feel like if we don鈥檛 invest more money and time into thinking outside of the box we could become a really bland city.鈥�

Dillon鈥檚 background is a little different to Charisma, having been with the venue for six years. Dillon previously worked for The Oxford Hotel and helped run day parties for a number of years.

鈥淚鈥檝e always worked in night life, that鈥檚 my thing.

鈥淥耻谤 I Remember House parties, have always been such a great community event. It鈥檚 such a beautiful inclusive crowd, a great cross section of the people coming together and really enjoying the music and the party atmosphere.鈥�

听Recently launched at Universal was Premiere. Billed as鈥榓 night filled with booze, food, drag and entertainment鈥� featuring 鈥榩erformances from some of the city’s most seasoned听drag听queens.’

鈥淲e came up with the idea upstairs of doing drag and dine, it鈥檚 an immersive experience with three courses and a show. It鈥檚 in the nightclub that would normally hold 800 people, but we鈥檝e only got 80 up there.鈥�

Dillon pauses for a second, the concludes by saying, 鈥淩ight now, it is so important to give people a reason to celebrate, to come out and feel comfortable but also to get all our beautiful entertainers on stage again.鈥�