but god damn I killed it doing karaoke-burlesque for the local Pride event 
genuinely lost count of how many strangers sought me out later to say I was their favorite performance of the night. (nobody else was actually singing, mind. I actually pitched that to make myself less nervous lmao, and it worked!) I felt a little awkward with how many of them were straight men (the "local" still weighs as much as the "Pride" around here, half the crowd was allies showing up for friends/family) but none of them were especially weird about it except maybe the one guy who I thought was just out running with his dog until he stopped next to me. just tossed out a compliment and turned around tho 🤷♀️
anyway overall this was exhausting and exhilarating in equal measure, and also between tips and a small troupe fee (neither of which I knew I was getting!) I walked out with nearly $90 for 5 minutes on stage. so that's something I need to think about,, 
genuinely not sure if the difference in lighting is real or just inconsistent auto-compensation, all I could see was the spotlight 😆
