Portland’s legendary drag venue, Darcelle XV Showplace, has struggled financially since the death of the former owner, Walter Cole, who passed away at age 92 in March of 2023.

The new owner, Jeremey Peck, shared his vision for the future of the showplace with OPB.

This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

Jess Hazel: Tell me a little bit more about your memories of Darcelle XV and about your friendship with Walter Cole.

Jeremey Peck: My time with Darcelle goes all the way back to my 21st birthday, actually. She walked the floor before the show. She pressed the flesh. As a matter of fact, I still have a picture, a Polaroid picture of Darcelle and I together that she signed on my 21st birthday, and the recording. She used to give you a little 2-minute tape of her singing Happy Birthday to you. I still have both of those items with me to this day, and I’m 55 years old now.

Hazel: What motivated you to continue on that legacy?

Peck: I started doing drag after I left the Air Force and I honed my craft. I worked in dive bars from here to everywhere. I never ever made it to Darcelle’s stage myself, but I belonged to the Imperial Sovereign Rose Court here in Portland. We would always hold our voting and everything else like that at the club. And Darcelle was always there. I spent hours and hours and hours talking to Walter about the area — Old Town — where our club is at, and how it used to look when he bought the club.

Hazel: And Darcelle was performing right up until almost the last day. Will you be performing regularly and can you tell us a little bit about your drag persona?

Peck: Sure, I’ve started performing at the club. I’ve gotten all of the other areas of the club, I think, under better control. We’re moving along in the correct direction business-wise. As far as my drag persona, her name is Brandy. I’m what you would call a traditional drag queen. I am female personified. I don’t try to overdo it with my makeup. My makeup is quite demure. If you look at me next to a whole bunch of other drag queens, you could spot me. As far as my performances go, I don’t move as quickly as I used to. So if you see me do a death drop, just call 911, that means I’m actually dead. But when I get on stage, I want to connect with my audience just like Darcelle did. Any good drag performer should do that.

Hazel: So the venue was struggling financially after Cole died. How do you hope to turn things around?

Peck: When I took over the company, nobody lost their job. I kept everybody on. I brought on some new people, some new blood. Next month we’re going up to two Sunday brunches because we’re so popular. We’re kind of packing the house, we’re revitalizing our menu, which has been stagnant for several years. I’ve brought back a couple of elements that I enjoyed when I came to Darcelle’s. One was getting the performers up and mingling with the audience — start that engagement with our audience when they walk through the door.

Hazel: So you spoke briefly about Old Town, this neighborhood where the Showplace is, and we’ve heard a lot about the struggles in Old Town, this doom loop of downtown Portland. How do you think about the neighborhood in relation to the venue? Could drag help save Old Town?

Peck: So we’ve been a staple in Old Town for 58 years, OK? Darcelle’s is not going anywhere. Can we help revitalize the neighborhood? I absolutely think so.

Hazel: Portland’s seen as a friendly city for LGBTQ folks, and Oregon has legal protections in place. But other state legislatures have introduced laws to restrict drag performances, and the Trump administration has made rolling back rights for transgender people a policy priority. What does it mean to continue to be a source of queer joy and art in the face of all that open hostility?

Peck: I’m gonna go back to the 80s and the 90s, when we as a queer community were under attack on a daily basis from the federal government. The federal government languished while our people died. We as a community banded together. We had ACT UP, we had the Radical Faeries. We had so many groups that banded together and said, ‘no, we’re not gonna take this.’ Eventually, the government listened, but unfortunately, it was way too late for an entire generation of my gay, lesbian, and bisexual friends. And it still hurts me to this day.

My advice to younger drag kings and queens, any performer out there, I really want to say to them: “Keep going. Don’t let society or politics or anything else come into your art.”

Hazel: Kind of refocusing on that aspect of fun that drag brings to things...

Peck: And that’s actually one thing that Darcelle actually did very, very well! She brought comedy and humor and a joy for life to the gay and lesbian community throughout the Pacific Northwest and points beyond. And that’s what I intend to do. Darcelle XV and Company will be open, and if you need a safe place to be, come see us. We’ll treat you like family.

News Source : https://www.opb.org/article/2025/03/26/drag-queens-darcelle-xv-showplace-jeremey-peck-kings-performance-lqbtq-queer-gay-art-artist-culture/