It's 9:30 p.m. in the Club David dressing room, and the nervous energy is palpable.

Alex Feeliner wants to make sure he looks nerdy enough for his performance of "Cooler Than Me." Sexton Urmum Valentine is trying to make sure that bright pink glitter is evenly spread throughout his beard and mustache. And Oliver Clozoff is just hoping he can see through his Deadpool mask well enough to avoid falling off the stage.

Stressing about a performance is to be expected, but this isn't just any performance. This is an attempt to bring something back, something that's fallen away over the last half decade.

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And if they can get it all right, if they can show people what they've been missing, they can create their own beginning, carve out a new niche in the city.

Sioux Falls' first drag king show in five years — which Quinn Kathner and many others have been working toward since last June — is almost here.

They're ready to start, and they're not interested in stopping anytime soon.

Setting the stage

Kathner is the president of Sioux Falls Pride, a position she's held since August 2018. She notes that she's the first openly lesbian president of the organization — and also, with a laugh, that she "vomits rainbows."

Above all else, though, she's trying to make Sioux Falls a safer place for its LGBTQ community.

"It's all about creating that visibility for the community," Kathner said. "Knowing that our community has a place to come through and feel loved and trusted."

In that vein, she's been especially devoted to making sure this drag king show gets off the ground — after all, she's performing.

Kathner was at a drag show in Minneapolis in June when she saw a performance by Damien D'Luxe.

"I just remember looking up and seeing them perform and saying to myself 'I'm going to do that,'" Kathner said.

But the drag king scene in Sioux Falls, while not completely dead, wasn't exactly vibrant either. There might be a performer or two at some drag queen shows, but there hadn't been a drag king-focused show in at least five years.

Facebook groups were made, people started talking and eventually it became clear that some sort of event needed to happen.

In coordination with Club David and Martina Shakers, a well-known Sioux City drag queen, the plan to put on a drag king show as part of Sioux Falls Pride's Winter Pride events came into view.

"I'm passionate about elevating the Sioux Falls drag king community," Kathner said, "setting a stage for this dialogue and this performance genre."

The demand was so high to be part of the show, she said, that several kings had to be turned away, with interest coming from Rapid City to Des Moines.

In the end, eight drag queens and two drag queens were set for the show, and Kathner said future events are already in the works.

Previously:Club David hosts first drag king show in five years this weekend

“I’m very passionate about creating that safe space for everybody," Kathner said, "where they can come and do drag, or they can come sit in the corner and be an introvert.”

Spirit gum and Savers

A week before the show, the nerves and anxiety that will fill the dressing room are nowhere to be found in Katie and Christine Morgan's basement, where an impromptu dress rehearsal is taking place.

Four of the performers are present — Kayla Harris, Ashlee Reck, Katie Morgan and Quinn Kathner. Over the next three hours, they'll take on the personas (respectively) of Sexton Urmum Valentine, Oliver Clozoff, Alex Feeliner and Maddix Wild.

Gathering around two card tables, the group workshops makeup techniques, debates over whether to listen to Queen or Cardi B and makes numerous not-safe-for-work jokes.

As Katie Morgan is pulling hair left over from her last haircut out of a plastic bag and finely chopping it into a size usable for facial hair, Harris is removing her Amazon-purchased beard from its packaging. Both will attach them with spirit gum, and neither is excited about the removal process.

Meanwhile, Reck is describing the various methods by which she obtained parts of her costume, including the jacket (she got it from a friend's mother who worked with the Trans-Siberian Orchestra, who were no longer using it) and her boots (she got them from Savers).

It's not all makeup and jokes, though. Later in the day, several of the performers are talking about struggles with issues like anxiety and depression and the importance of speaking with therapists who have experience with LGBT cases.

As the rehearsal nears its completion, however, the mood has lightened. Kathner has passed out lottery tickets to everyone, which someone calls "a Quinn tradition."

And Harris talks about her 80-year-old grandmother Kay Davis, a former South Dakota state representative who came to a drag show with her and loved it.

"Do you want to see her picture?" she said, digging into her wallet.

'An amazing experience'

Inside the dressing room, three more drag kings have arrived from out of town. Sarah Keppen, the president of the Black Hills Center for Equality, Gracie Dobbs from Rapid City and Janey Iriarte from Sioux City.

Keppen, who is wearing an LED-lit jacket and tie as Holden Oliver Love, has been performing since Aug. 2018.

"It's about wanting to connect with people across the state," Keppen said. "Having the opportunity to perform with them, it's an amazing experience."

Dobbs is preparing for the first half of James Gemini's performance in an understated costume, his plain pink shirt and slacks standing out among the glittered beards and comic book character attire of the rest of the kings.

But it's all part of the show — James' performance in the second act has him take on a darker, more steampunk-inspired look for a performance of The Doors' "People Are Strange."

Dobbs only started performing in November but said she won the Rapid City Center for Equality's newbie ball.

"I'm excited about the whole thing," she said. "For me it's just a whole other way to express myself. I've seen kings that sing, dance, strip, do that."

As she says "do that," she points to Reck, who is currently showing off the flexibility and contortions you can perform with 16 years of dance experience.

And then there's Iriarte, who will be performing two Bruno Mars songs as Victor Victoria Goldstein. She's been performing for 22 years, seven of them as a drag king, making her by far the most experienced one in the room.

"I think it's a privilege to be asked to perform," she said. "I love seeing the new faces, conversing and helping."

It all comes together

With the beginning of the show minutes away, drinks are finished, final costume alterations are made, and the performers take one final deep breath.

Clozoff kicks the show off as Deadpool, while Feeliner's "Cooler Than Me" and Valentine's "Body Like A Back Road" get good reactions from the crowd, but the opinion in the dressing room at intermission is that reaction has been subdued for now.

"I think the crowd's finally warming up a bit," said Christine Morgan as the dressing room filled back up.

As a charity bachelor auction breaks up the show's two halves, the performers get feedback and look toward their second song.

Christine Morgan and Harris, without a hint of joking, have an extended discussion about the best, most performative way to fling a pair of underwear into the crowd — whether throwing it like a slingshot it or simply tossing it would have a better effect.

And then, after a moment of silence, Christine asks if anyone else is concerned about what could happen with the mixture of a packed nightclub and South Dakota's new constitutional carry bill, signed two days prior and set to take effect on July 1.

Most of them share her worries.

The crowd has indeed warmed up, as Clozoff's performance of "I Write Sins Not Tragedies" gets everyone singing along, and Goldstein continues the excitement with "Uptown Funk."

From James Gemini to Holden Oliver Love, the crowd is loving every minute of it, and by the time Wild performs Katy Perry's "Peacock" and drags an unsuspecting friend on stage, Martina Shakers has called it "the best king show I've ever been to."

When it finally comes to an end, there's group photos, an impromptu dance session on the stage, and finally a retreat back to the dressing room.

The nervous energy that filled the room is gone, replaced by the electricity of a successful theater performance as people network, change back into their clothes and relax for the first time in hours.

"Down there," Kathner said, "is the change that's going to make everything come together."