The Misfit’s Guide to Queermas Miracles: Taylor Mac Makes Diamonds from Coal

We must have been really nice this year. Maybe we got a special, COVID-era pass for our usual sun-baked naughtiness from the jolly man up North, the only bearded man all Miamians truly love. Maybe it’s some sort of technical glitch.

But whether Santa’s servers crashed or Mrs. Claus’ emails were hacked, the fact is we’re getting a gift so amazing this December, it’s hard not to feel undeserving.

Taylor Mac’s Holiday Sauce… Pandemic!, the new virtual reimagining of Mac’s beloved seasonal show-stopper, is coming to Miami this December 12 like a dazzling vaudeville meteor come to break the atmosphere of our monotony and pain in these pandemic times. A present ‘straight’ from the Island of Misfit Toys. Gaudy like a Lady Gaga dress at the VMAs yet glamorous like Liza Minelli in a bathrobe. An uncanny queermas gift full of fabulous contradictions. Paradox in a pandemic, wrapped up in extravaganza, sissy tinsel and fir.

As we near the end of 2020, Mac’s show teaches us what to do with all our coal, how to make cherished treasures and queer inventions from the refuse of our pandemic times … to mourn, without ever pausing the music. And always —always— to sing along.

For all our tired and pandemic-weary hearts, Mac’s new virtual variety show is surely one of 2020’s welcome gifts, a show that blends together all the contradictions of this most unusual year, and the even more unusual holidays that loom large on the horizon.

Taylor Mac performs “Taylor Mac’s Holiday Sauce” at the Curran in San Francisco. Photo: Little Fang Photography

Because, let’s face it, aside from Mac’s show —and with some more or less notable exceptions— we’ve been getting nothing but coal in our collective stocking this year.

As we near the end… of 2020, Mac teaches us what to do with all that coal, how to make new and cherished treasures from the refuse of our pandemic times; laugh and grieve through the countless losses; mourn without once pausing the music; and always —always— to keep singing along.

For our tired and pandemic-weary hearts, Mac’s virtual variety show is surely one of 2020’s most welcome gifts, a show that brews and blends the contradictions of this most unusual year, and the even more unusual holidays now looming large on the horizon.

For the full and unabridged guide to performing these and other queermas miracles, you’ll have to catch the show yourself.

Holiday Sauce… Pandemic! premieres live online this Saturday, Dec. 12 at 7 PM EST, followed by a fabulous after-party chock full of surprises, including a clandestine coronation, performances by Miami drag queen superstars, and special appearances from the cast of Holiday Sauce…After its global premiere, Holiday Sauce… Pandemic! will be available on-demand from Dec. 13 to Jan. 2 on a pay-what-you-can basis. All proceeds will benefit the establishment of the new MDC Pride Scholarship for LGBTQ+ students.

Taylor Mac performs “Taylor Mac’s Holiday Sauce” at the Curran in San Francisco.
Photo: Little Fang Photography

Out here, in the bland and harsh reality of our muggle world assailed, coal transforms into diamonds under very specific and mostly boring conditions most of us learned in grade school, or through that tired cliche: diamonds are made under pressure, the crushing weight and all-consuming heat of the Earth’s rotating mantle.

Holiday Sauce… Pandemic! is very much a part of this world, but its origins seem conspicuously trans-planetary, perhaps intergalactic. Its methods for the miraculous transmutation of the coal of our collective longing, decidedly otherworldly; involving more glitter and glamour than darkness, more freeing release and catharsis than crushing constraint and contraction; music, theater, and randoms acts of fabulousness, certainly under extreme conditions, but without the pressure and heat.

Taylor Mac performs “Taylor Mac’s Holiday Sauce” at the Curran in San Francisco.
Photo: Little Fang Photography

In the face of our growing, collective desperation for any hint of the hope, connection, and joy we’ve lost in the fog of relentless tragedies and cruel twists of fate, Mac —who uses ‘judy’ as pronoun, not a name— seems to implore us to give up the ghost and the searching, embrace the pain and learn to love the struggle, and do it shamelessly.

Holiday Sauce… Pandemic! is very much a part of this world, but its origins seem conspicuously trans-planetary, perhaps intergalactic. Its methods for the miraculous transmutation of loss and longing, otherworldly; involving more glitter and glamour than darkness.

From the icy grip of our mortal coil judy offers no quick and easy exits, no frivolous escape into a tinseled and sequined world apart, but the true, fabulous freedom that comes from the radical embrace of this one, the world we have, the life we’re living, and the strength to strive courageously for every undreamed alternative.

“What I’ve learned by touring and performing and living a life as a performing artist is that when something bad happens, it’s also an opportunity for something incredible to happen… I call it incorporating calamity,” says Mac. “And it’s about transforming it—when something horrible happens, you turn it into something useful.”

The result, as you might have guessed, is far from a calamity. In fact, it’s precisely the kind of magic that has catapulted judy to the very peaks of success. The globally-renowned playwright and performance artist has collected more awards than a little black dress collects lint, including a MacArthur Genius grant and the 2020 Ibsen Award, known as the “Nobel Prize of Theater,” judy’s most recent award, and crowning achievement.

Ultimately, however, Mac is more than the brightest superstar in today’s queer theater constellation. After all, stars may give off light but they offer little in the form of heat for earthly spectators, and warmth is at the very heart of judy’s miraculous queermas mission.

Taylor Mac, photographed by Little Fang Photography

“What I’ve learned by performing and living a life as a performing artist is that when something bad happens, it’s also an opportunity for something incredible to happen. I call it incorporating calamity, and it’s about transforming it—when something horrible happens, you turn it into something useful.” 
— Taylor Mac

Inside Mac’s gift-wrapped vaudeville surprise you’ll find a virtual diamond-making workshop cum virtual variety show, a show-stopping tour-de-force tailor-made for a soot-filled year and led by the show’s incredible cast—a brilliantly talented, ragtag contingent of maverick creators and gender misfits, drag mothers, and elder queens.

In its total sum, the cast embodies the tradition of chosen family, a queer model for constructing kinship beyond the bounds of circumstance and obligation, genetic bloodlines, and other ‘natural’ decrees. A family united by the power of their chosen bonds, and a common cause: a commitment to rebuilding community and connection in the face of a global pandemic.

Unafraid to face the darkness of the pandemic mine for our collective benefit, eager to show us news way to make light from the depths of our subterranean darkness, they sing loud at the exit of the mine so we follow their voice OUT and breathe once more the fresh air of the future (through our masks, of course).

“That’s what the show is about—how communities are torn apart but also rebuilt. It comes from AIDS activism, where an entire queer community is devastated by the epidemic, the government’s response, and that of their families. Meanwhile, they’re building themselves, gathered to fight this thing together and take care of each other.”
– Taylor Mac

As a tribute to Mac’s drag mother, each institution presenting Holiday Sauce will honor a local LGBTQ+ elder, collectively known as the Queens—another way the show honors the tradition of chosen family and queerly creates new networks of kinship and support.

Immediately following the show’s premiere, we’ll hold a campy coronation of our beloved Queen, the local LGBTQ leader Gawen (muggle name, Luigi Ferrer) at Sash and Sashay, a fabulous after-party and drag show extravaganza in Gawen’s honor.

Starring superstars from Miami’s own drag pantheon like Karla Croqueta (also the host) and Adora, surprise guests from the Holiday Sauce cast, the after-party will also serve to raise funds for the launch of the MDC Pride Scholarship, a new initiative of the Miami Dade College Foundation to help LGBTQ+ students reach graduation.

Mac’s one-of-a-kind celebration of the songs you love, the holidays you hate, and the power of chosen family premieres live online this Thursday at 7 p.m. EST.

Don’t miss this perfect blend of music, burlesque, and random acts of fabulousness. You’ll find your heavy heart and lumps of coal transformed into a mountain of diamonds.

Live on Zoom
Saturday, Dec. 12 at 7 p.m. EST

Holiday Sauce Pandemic was conceived and performed by Taylor Mac. Music Director and Arranger, Matt Ray. Set and costume design by Machine Dazzle. Production Director, Jeremy Lydic. Makeup Design by Anastasia Durasova. Creative Production by Pomegranate Arts and Producers Linda Brumbach & Alisa E. Regas.