Carolyn and me, mid-show
3 Dollar Bill, BrooklynSept. 2025
Field notes · a night out
I Went to a KPop Demon Hunters Drag Show in Brooklyn and It Was Incredible
In the week leading up to my birthday, my friend Carolyn and I met up at 3 Dollar Bill in Brooklyn for a KPop Demon Hunters themed drag night, right in the middle of the week. It turned out to be one of the best drag shows I’ve ever been to.
Before the curtain
Tonight’s running order
There are certain nights in New York City where you stop and think: What exactly am I doing with my life right now?
For me, apparently, the answer was going to a KPop Demon Hunters themed drag show in Brooklyn on a Thursday night.
And honestly? It was one of the best drag shows I’ve ever been to.
This was during the week leading up to my birthday, when my friend Carolyn and I decided to meet up at 3 Dollar Bill in Brooklyn for a KPop Demon Hunters themed night.
If Carolyn sounds familiar, she should. She’s the same friend I went with to my KPop Demon Hunters sing-along day in New York City that August, so apparently KPop Demon Hunters has become its own recurring category of our friendship.
And considering it was the middle of the workweek, there was something particularly funny about the two of us deciding that yes, a Thursday night drag show in Brooklyn was a perfectly reasonable thing for two adults to be doing.
Act I · The cast
KPop Demon Hunters, but make it drag
I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect from a KPop Demon Hunters themed drag show.
What we got was so much better than whatever I had pictured.
There were four performers throughout the night, and what struck me most was how completely different they were from one another. Nobody felt interchangeable.
The fashion
One brought incredible fashion.
The humor
Another leaned heavily into humor.
The surprise
Another performance was provocative and creative in a way that I genuinely wasn’t expecting.
Lady Celestina
Phenomenal. Between the costumes, performance and overall commitment to the characters, she completely sold it.
I know I’m biased because I love KPop Demon Hunters, but even removing that from the equation, this was just an exceptionally good drag show.
Tagged in my stories that night: @ladycelestina · @shiahonyc · @itssnixbitxh · @eugenerideher
Act II · The song
And then they performed “Your Idol”
This was probably my favorite performance of the entire night.
“Your Idol,” the Saja Boys’ song from the movie, is already my favorite song from KPop Demon Hunters, so admittedly, they had me from the beginning.
One of the performers came out dressed as one of the Saja Boys. The performer was a trans man who, during the performance, removed his shirt and revealed the scars from his top surgery.
And then came one of the most creative moments of the night.
In KPop Demon Hunters, the demons have markings across their bodies that are referred to as their “patterns.” During the performance, he incorporated an ultraviolet light to illuminate his own scars as the song referenced patterns.
Move the light across the dark
Drag your finger or mouse over the panel (or use the arrow keys). Some things only show up under the right light.
The crowd went insane.
It was provocative, but not just for the sake of being provocative. There was something incredibly clever about taking an element from the movie and reinterpreting it through his own body and experience.
It was bold. It fit the song. It fit the character.
And it was the kind of performance that could only really exist in a space like this.
Honestly, the video does a much better job of explaining this moment than I ever could.
Intermission
Suddenly, the entire bar
knew the same dance
The drag show was the main reason we were there, but somehow one of my other favorite memories happened between the performances.
At some point, “Gabriela” came on. At the time, I barely even knew the song (it’s KATSEYE’s, and it had only come out that June).
What I definitely did not know was that apparently everyone else in the building knew an entire dance to it.
People had been standing around, drinking, talking and doing their own thing. Then “Gabriela” started playing and suddenly everyone was moving together.
It was basically a gay flash mob.
I remember looking around completely fascinated because I had somehow missed the memo that there was choreography involved.
And this is one of the things I love about gay spaces. The way gay people dance is just on another level.
There is this combination of creativity, confidence and collective participation that is difficult to explain until you’re standing in the middle of it. Nobody had to announce that it was time to do the dance. The song came on and everyone just… knew.
Except me.
- Re
- The “Gabriela” choreography
- To
- Everyone in the building
- Received
- Everyone
includingexcept me
Act III
Why I love nights like this
We met some people. We danced. We watched some genuinely incredible performances.
But what stayed with me most wasn’t really any one individual thing.
It was the atmosphere.
I’ve always loved gay spaces because there is a particular kind of creativity and connection that exists within them. On a good night, people aren’t simply standing in the same room together. They’re participating in something together.
That’s what this night felt like.
You had drag performers taking characters and music from KPop Demon Hunters and completely reinventing them. You had an audience that was fully invested in what they were watching. You had an entire room spontaneously breaking into choreography because somebody played the right song.
It was weird.
It was creative.
It was a Thursday.
And it was awesome.
Curtain call
Sometimes the videos really do tell the story
Normally, when I write about an experience, I want the words to do most of the work.
For this one, I don’t. The performances were the experience.
So if you’re reading this post and scrolling past the videos, go back and watch them. The costumes, choreography, humor, crowd reactions and sheer amount of creativity happening on that stage are what made the night as memorable as it was.
After the show
After plenty of drag shows, maybe my favorite
I’ve been to plenty of drag shows over the years.
This might have been my favorite.
Yes, my existing KPop Demon Hunters obsession probably gives it an unfair advantage.
But I’m okay with that.
If you want to go
- The venue
- 3 Dollar Bill, 260 Meserole Street, Brooklyn, NY 11206. It calls itself Brooklyn’s premiere queer nightclub, live music and performance venue.
- This night
- “KPOP DEMON HUNTERS,” Thursday, September 25, 2025, 8 PM to 2 AM.
- Finding the next one
- Themed nights are listed on the club’s events page, with tickets sold through Eventim.
