Las Vegas Sun

March 19, 2024

‘The Mistress of Sensuality’ enlivens Golden ‘Ribbon of Life’ charity show

<em>Zumanity</em>'s Eighth Anniversary

Giuliano Bekor

Edie, Mistress of Ceremonies, in Zumanity at New York-New York.

We know HIV/AIDS by that title, but there are millions of other names connected to the disease.

For performer Edie of “Zumanity” at New York-New York, Joe is one such name. He was one of Edie’s earliest and closest friends in the dance community in Portland, where both toiled for Ballet Oregon.

“I was 19 or 20 and didn’t know much about anything, and Joe went off to New York to dance in the Joffrey Ballet,” Edie, known famously as “The Mistress of Sensuality,” said during a recent phone conversation. “I wanted to go, too, but I was too afraid to go to New York. But Joe went and ended up struggling as a student and got into a world he wasn’t prepared for.”

Joe went to work at a male strip club, far removed from his goal of becoming a highly trained ballet performer.

“He slowly got offered money to do certain things that had nothing to do with dance, he contracted HIV very quickly and died very quickly,” Edie said. “Treatments back then were not good, or not as good as they are now, and it was devastating. Devastating.”

Edie also remembers another friend who worked in Chicago a short time after that tragedy who also contracted HIV and simply vanished from his circle of friends.

“I’d call his house and his parents told me, ‘Do not call here again,’” Edie said. “He just went off to die.”

As the cross-dressing comic host of “Zumanity,” Edie is hosting the Golden Rainbow “Ribbon of Life” charity show again this year. The show is set for 1 p.m. Saturday at Tropicana Theater (tickets are $45 and available at GoldenRainbow.org, which links to the Trop ticket site, and also at the Tropicana box office).

Edie is co-MC’ing with Fox 5’s Sean McAllister. The show is customarily stacked with talent from across the VegasVille landscape, with performances produced specifically for this event. Joining the fray are artists from “Steve Wynn’s Showstoppers,” “Jubilee,” “Jersey Boys,” “Million Dollar Quartet,” “MJ Live,” “Legends in Concert,” “Pin Up,” “Vegas! The Show,” RagTag Entertainment, the Celebrity City Chorus and House Seats Presents.

Clint Holmes, Pia Zadora, magician Jan Rouven and vocalist Philip Drennen are among the individual performers who have signed on for “Ribbon of Life.” This performance marks the 29th annual installment of the show, as it has boomeranged around the city in such venues as the old Las Vegas Hilton, Paris Las Vegas Theater, Bally’s, the Smith Center and, last year, the Rio.

Edie has hosted so frequently that he’s lost track; we counted up to a half-dozen appearances for him, in character.

“I love, love, love, volunteering for this show,” Edie said. “For all of the performers, who are so busy doing our own shows already, to come together for this amazing cause is really wonderful. We’ve all lost friends because of HIV/AIDS; by now we have all been touched by it. But the awareness and treatment has advanced incredibly over the years, and there are many individuals who have contracted HIV but have been living normal lives for a long time.”

But there remains no cure, and this fundraiser is Golden Rainbow’s chief charity event each year. The organization provides funding and care for those who are suffering from the disease. As part of the organization’s lore, Golden Rainbow’s charity show was sparked by a member of the Las Vegas entertainment community who was banished to his garage after his family learned that he had contracted HIV. That is where he spent his last days.

“That story reminds me so much of what I experienced in my life,” Edie said. “We have come a very long way, but we can’t forget, and we have to be there to help, always.”

Follow John Katsilometes on Twitter at Twitter.com/JohnnyKats. Also, follow “Kats With the Dish” at Twitter.com/KatsWiththeDish.

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