Fabulous founder of Trix at Trax, Casey Trujillo aka Cassidy LeBlanc gets us hip to the program.
CT: Trix at Trax is a drag show I started in January of 2020. We stopped cuz of the pandemic for over a year but then I brought it right back. Trax Bar has been here for many, many decades.
HSV: I used to go there in the early ‘80s!
CT: Trax is an institution on Haight Street!
HSV: What brought you to SF? How long have you been here?
CT: 11 years this month. I was on Haight at Masonic for 8 years!
HSV: Next to Pipe Dreams! Shoutout to Pipe Dreams!
CT: I always loved SF from afar. The first time I discovered this city, I was on a choir tour when I was in college in Minnesota. It was springtime. I remember seeing all the beautiful rolling hills and cream-colored houses and the beautiful water surrounding the land. I absolutely fell in love. I set the intention that I was gonna move here after college, and five days after my last test I did!
HSV: What was the impetus for Trix at Trax?
CT: I guess starting with the origin story of me doing drag. I discovered my first queer family in college. A friend of mine, Dave, was starting to get into drag. I was really resistant to it! I was going to school for theater and I thought, “I’m an actor! I don’t want to do drag!” [laughs] Dave kept on asking me. Finally I surrendered to the experience. He put me in a smokey eye and a wig and I saw a side of myself that I’d been longing to see and experience for such a long time, and that’s when Cassidy LeBlanc was born.
HSV: Is the vibe different for you when you’re in the Haight, the hippie thing, the Grateful Dead, and all that?
CT: I’m a New Age hippie, so I feel like I fit right in! When I lived on Haight, I was very proud of that as an artist and drag performer because I felt like I was keeping the vibration of the counterculture movement and all of the beauty that has happened here on this street alive. What we do here is rough around the edges. I like to call it “the Coyote Ugly of Drag”. No matter the changes that have happened here on the street, there are people here who are very much keeping the spirit of Haight Ashbury alive. It’s deeply important to me to continue to hold that torch for everybody that came before me here. I’m so proud to do that. I’m so grateful to be part of the Haight-Ashbury community to keep everything live, funky, weird, fantastic, fabulous! One of my missions in life is to uplift people, lighten the load. Celebration is the name of the game. I’ll throw a party for the opening of an envelope!
FULL TRANSCRIPT
HSV: Hello People! It’s Friday December 1 and I am here at Trax Bar on Haight. These lovely people are coming by but we’re gonna go in and talk to Casey Trujillo who is doing “Trix at Trax” show. We’re gonna go talk to Casey right now and find out what is up! [pan to cute doggie]. Yay!
Alright! Here we go! Okay! [walk up to Casey putting on makeup] Well hello, beautiful!
CT: Hi! How’s it goin’?
HSV: Haight Street Voice! We want to know what’s going on and what you’re doing and the whole thing. Tell us: What is “Trix at Trax”?
CT: Yeah, for sure! So first off, my name is Casey Trujillo also known as Cassidy LeBlanc. And
where we’re at right now is Trax Bar, which has been here for many, many decades.
HSV: I used to go there in the ‘80s, maybe even the ‘70s [laughter]
CT: Amazing! This is like an institution on Haight Street.
HSV: It is!
CT: And what I’m getting ready for a drag show that I started called “Trip at Trax”. I started it in January of 2020 and of course there was a pandemic so we stopped it for about a year and a half. But then I brought it right back. So that’s what I’m getting ready for!
HSV: What brought you to San Francisco? How long have you been here?
CT: I will have been here 11 years this month, actually!
HSV: And you landed here, right? You told me that when we met.
CT: I did, I did. I was right there on Haight and Masonic for 8 years!
HSV: Next to Pipe Dreams! Shoutout to Pipe Dreams!
CT: Shoutout to Pipe Dreams, absolutely!
I always from afar loved San Francisco. The first time I ever discovered this city, I was actually on a choir tour when I was in college in Minnesota.
HSV: Wow!
CT: And I just remember it was a March spring evening that we came to the City. And I remember seeing all the beautiful rolling hills and cream-colored houses, and just the beautiful water surrounding the land. I absolutely fell in love and I set the intention that I was gonna move here after college, and five days after my last test, I did!
HSV: Yay!
CT: Yeah!’
HSV: What year was that, do you mind my asking?
CT: That was December of 2012.
HSV: Oh my god, so that is almost exactly 11 years ago!
CT: Yeah, exactly!
HSV: I’m bad at math!
CT: No, it is! It’s exactly 11 years as of this month!
HSV: Today is December 1 which I actually said outside. Happy December! Happy Holidays!
CT: Happy Holidays!
HSV: I’m undressing as we talk. It’s just my scarf, y’all.
So tell me, how did you start? What was the impetus for Trix at Trax?
CT: I guess starting with the origin story of me being doing drag. I discovered my first queer family in college at the University of Minnesota. And a beautiful friend of mine, Dave, was starting to get into drag and I actually didn’t want to do it. I was actually really resistant to it at first.
HSV: Really!?
CT: Yeah. I was going to school for theater and I thought to myself, “I’m just an actor! I don’t want to do drag or anything like that!” [laughs]
HSV: You were a bit snooty![laughter]
CT: Totally!
And Dave kept on asking me again and again and finally I surrendered to the experience. He put me in a smokey eye and a wig and I saw a side of myself that I had been longing to see and experience for such a long time, and that’s when Cassidy LeBlanc was born.
HSV: Cassidy LeBlanc!
CT: Cassidy LeBlanc! So after that, I moved to San Francisco and I started getting into the improv scene and I was doing improv for 4 or 5 plus years, character acting, and then also getting back into drag.
So the first drag show that I did in the City I remember was “Hella Tight” in Lower Haight. And that’s a show actually that’s just about to close.
HSV: Aww. [sadly]
CT: It’s like a Y2K ‘90s Pop Party host by a drag queen named Lindsay Slowhands.
HSV: Ooooh!
CT: Yeah!
HSV: Where is it, what part of Haight? I didn’t even know!
CT: Underground SF. They’re just about to end that show. It’s been about a decade of that show. Absolutely amazing.
HSV: And Trix at Trax is happening every …
CT: Every last Friday of the month.
So while I was living in the City I just started running the drag circuit and I have performed everywhere from the Castro Theater to City Hall in drag — and every in-between, like Oasis in SoMa and also all of the Castro bars like The Edge, I performed at Moby Dick …
HSV: Twin Peaks?
CT: Actually, Twin Peaks, I don’t know if I’ve seen drag there. But anyways lots of place in or around the Castro.
HSV: Let me ask you this, this being the Haight and this is the Haight Street Voice, is it fun for you to be in — I mean I know this used to be a gay bar but now it’s open to all freaks, we welcome all freaks here. Is the vibe different for you when you’re in the Haight as opposed to … you know what I mean, the hippie thing, the Grateful Dead, and all that?
CT: On my side, I would say that I’m a New Age hippie! So really I feel like I fit right in! When I lived here on the street for 8 years, I was very proud of that as an artist and a drag performer because I felt like I was keeping the vibration of the counterculture movement and all of the beauty that has happened here on this street alive!
HSV: You weren’t living ON the street. Sounded like you were homeless. But you meant living on Haight Street.
CT: Living on Haight Street, exactly.
HSV: Just to clarify.
CT: Yes!
HSV Okay. And if you WERE homeless, we wouldn’t judge either.
CT: Oh, no worries, no worries! That’s part of the flavor here in the Haight Ashbury.
HSV: So this brings out kind of a different part of yourself when you’re onstage? Do you feel like your hippie comes out more when you’re in the Haight?
CT: I mean, I feel like — and you’ll see the show, right?
HSV: Yes!
CT: I feel like what we do here is more rough around the edges. What I like to call it is “the Coyote Ugly of Drag” here. So it’s fun!
What I really love about this show is that there’s a pool table here, and we actually put a board on the pool table and the drag performers can actually not only dance on the stage that we will put up later, but also on top of the pool table!
HSV: I think I saw a video of you dry-humping the board …
CT: [laughter] Yeah! That makes sense! Yeah, that totally makes sense!
HSV: Okay! We’re gonna make this short and sweet cuz I know you’ve got to put your makeup on and I need to get a cocktail cuz it’s Friday.
CT: Yep!
HSV: What would you like to say to the Haight Ashbury community? Haight Street Voice is hyper-local with a global perspective, so it’s about this community but it’s also about communities everywhere. What would you like to say?
CT: What I’d like to say is that no matter the changes that have happened here on the street that there are people here, including myself, that are very much keeping the spirit of Haight Ashbury alive. And it is deeply important to me to continue to hold that torch for everybody that came before me here in Haight Ashbury. And I’m so proud to do that and I’m so grateful to be part of the Haight-Ashbury community to keep everything live, funky, weird, fantastic, fabulous!
HSV: I think a lot of people don’t know that there really was a gay culture here, like Sylvester in the ‘60s. It wasn’t just hippies. It was accepting “let your freak flag fly” “anything goes” … and it’s still here! It’s still here. I call it “the light that lit the ‘60s”.
CT: Yes! Exactly!
HSV: The light that lit the ‘60s — and you’re holding the torch!
CT: Exactly, 100 percent!
HSV: We are so looking forward to the show! I guess that’s it for now.
CT: I look forward to you seeing the show!
HSV: You know what we’ll do? We’ll do a photo: this is Before — and then we’ll do an After.
CT: Yes!
HSV: Yay! Bye! We love you!
PART 2
HSV: Hey again folks! I was trippin’ out that he uses …
CT: Glue stick!
HSV: Glue stick, which I have at home. I love that stuff! But you’re using it on your eyebrows, right?
CT: Yeah, to hide my eyebrows so I can draw on new ones!
HSV: So cool! It’s an old trick — what did you call it?
CT: It’s an old drag queen trick!
HSV: Drag queen trick!
CT: Oh yeah, for sure!
HSV: Wow. Oh, you know, let me ask you this: What would you like to say to the era of the Harvey Milks and sadly the AIDS thing, but their spirits are still here. Do have anything that you’d like to say? Well first of all, come on down to Trax!
CT: What I’d like to say is, “Thank you.” That’s the biggest thing that I’d like to say. There are so many people before me that have really put in so much work for LBGTQIA+ rights for us. And thank you for making San Francisco such a beautiful safe space. And thank you for all of the wisdom and knowledge that was gained through so much a time of adversity and death and hardship. I have a lot of queer elders that I talk to about the AIDS epidemic …
HSV: You know they housed a lot of them up here at the Episcopal Church right here on Waller.
CT: I remember seeing that. It’s really humbling to hear all of the stories of so many loved ones lost. I try to remind myself of that: To not take for granted what I have here now. Yeah.
HSV: In this edition — keep doing your makeup! I don’t want to make you late for the show — this is the Winter 2023-24 edition of Haight Street Voice #18, I can’t believe it!
CT: Eighteen? That’s amazing! That’s now a legal minor! [laughter]
HSV: It’s about Bill Graham who was the music promoter here in the ‘60s and all of that. San Francisco would not be the same without Bill Graham: The Grateful Dead, Janis Joplin — the whole thing. The Mime Troupe, he was supporting the arts, he was supporting music, anything goes, let’s bring people together. He was doing benefits for the Haight Ashbury Free Clinic because kids were coming from all over the world and they were lost. So my point is, this edition is dedicated to Bill Graham for that. It’s about the apple at the Fillmore. It’s about survival because he escaped Nazi Germany when he was 12, and he had to go to the apple orchard next store and steal apples to feed these young boys who were in school with him.
Long story short: It’s about survival, it’s about acceptance, it’s about fun, music, celebrating being alive, being grateful — all of that. I just wanted to say I’m really excited you’re in this edition is my point! I have covered some gay and LBGTQ and all of that, but this is Trax! We’re right here in the Haight, folks!
CT: 100 percent! That’s exactly what we’re trying to do here: It’s all about celebration. There are so many things in this world we can get hung up on that when we bog ourselves down and take away the best part of our spirit — for me one of my missions and purposes in life is to uplift people and lighten the load.
Celebration is the name of the game. Like I’ll throw a party for the opening of an envelope.
HSV: [laughter] So tell us now what’s going on with the makeup here. [CUT at 4:20]
[BACK at 5:00] This might be a good moment to tell them about your retreat.
CT: One thing that I’m SUPER excited about is I am starting my own retreat, it’s happening in Mendocino. It’s called “The DIVA Retreat” and “DIVA” stands for: Drag Is Very Affirming. It’s going to be a discover-your-own-drag-persona retreat space. It’s happening February 16th through the 19th at Spirit Camp by Albion, California up in Mendocino County. It’s going to be a great retreat for people that have ever been interested in drag or just want to get out and get into a community in a playful way.
HSV: I love it. How many are going to be in that? Is is sold out?
CT: The cap is at 15 people. We’re still accepting applications. You can just do that right on my website which is caseyftrujillo.com/diva-retreat.
[powder patting] I’m blending all of this out.
HSV: You blend. I’m sipping. [laughter]
CT: I love that!
[back to makeup application]
HSV: [10:38] What kind of other art do you do?
CT: [10:47 mark]: I’ve always been a performer ever since I was a little kid. I performed in the school plays, I was part of competitive speech, I was in band, I was in choir, I also dabbled a little bit in visual arts as a kid, but then I went to theater as well.
Being a performer is at the core of who I am. And then, like I said, when I came to San Francisco I ended up performing with an improv group. So then I was dabbling in improvisational theater as well, character acting. But through that process of drag and through character acting, I discovered that through the use of makeup, my body was merely canvas and the makeup was just paint. So that’s really where I stretched myself artistically in the body painting. I have been body painting for years. One of the things that I’m really proud of is that one of my body paints recently made it into Dan Savage’s “Hump Film Fest”, the porn film festival that goes nationwide. I painted 2 of my friends as a collective art piece, and it was touring all year this year!
HSV: Wow. Congratulations!
CT: Thank you!
HSV: That’s awesome.
What instrument do you play?
CT: Trombone. And sometimes I actually bring it out in my drag show. It’s really really fun.
HSV: Speaking of which, is this going to be a holiday-themed show?
CT: Yes! It will be a holiday-themed show!
HSV: And if you wanna see it, well, I’m gonna show it to you, Ladies & Gentlemen!
CT: It’s gonna be so fun! Peace!
HSV: And … out! [pan to closeup of Divine photo, Trax sign, the festive room] Alright y’all. Peace!
