Okay, Storytime:

Back in I think 2001 or so, Ag, my fairy godfather Mark, Johnnie and I all went to Toronto together.  And I had one of my most favorite Toronto memories during this trip.

One evening, Mark, Johnnie and I decided to go to Woody's THE gay club in Toronto (Ag was tired and stayed in the hotel).  Woody's is also the gay bar where they filmed the gay bar scenes in the Showtime TV show, Queer As Folk.

This particular evening was a weeknight, a Monday I think, and that night is when new episodes of Queer As Folk aired.  So Mark, Johnnie and I are just sitting around this table together, talking.  There's a big screen TV along one way that I was facing.  There's some drag queens hanging out in a corner to the left of the TV.  There's a pool table with some guys playing.  There's bars on the walls to my left and right, and both have customers sitting at them, as well as customers at other tables like the three of us.

The TV was on, playing some show, but the volume was down and it couldn't be heard over the hubbub of the bar itself.  Then, at the top of the hour, the theme to Queer As Folk came on.  The bartenders turned the volume up a bit and the entire bar got silent.  I mean, so silent you could hear two ice cubes in a glass somewhere in the bar clink together.  And the entire bar watched the show.

Unlike here in the states, the Canadian station airing this broke for commercials.  As soon as it went to commercial, the normal bar noise resumed.  And when the show started again, like flipping a switch, it got silent again.  This was amazing to me as I witnessed it.

But then in this episdoe, there's a scene: the two lesbians have split up and are living separately.  The baby Gus is fussy and the way he always calms down is to listen to his mom's ex sing to him.  So mom calls and asks her to sing to him. And she does. 

Unfortunately, for some idiotic reason, you can't watch the clip here, but ONLY on YouTube...fucking copyrights.  So anyway, go watch it and then I have some comments below.



So the bar is silent, as I said.  However, when Melanie sings the second line, a lone drag queen in corner sings (and respectfully, not obnoxiously or campy or anything) right along with Melanie, "I say a little prayer for you."

The next line, "I'm brushing my hair now", all the other drag queens join in and the whole corner is singing...but kinda softly, like Melanie is, just as if they too were singing it to the baby.

the Next line, "wondering what dress to wear now." I hear someone behind me and to my right join in and sing that song with them.

And then on the second, "I say a little prayer for you." All over the bar, people are singing that chorus out loud, but again, softly, as if to a baby.

And from the next time, "Forever, forever" the entire bar, myself, Mark and I'm pretty sure Johnnie too, were all singing along.  An entire bar full of customers, joined together in singing a song along with a TV show, all enjoying ourselves, but no one being overly loud or disruptive.

And when Melanie choked up and stopped singing, the bar did as well.  The entire bar went back to silence.  I know that several of us in the bar, myself included, went "awwww" quietly when Gus was making his lil cooing noises and as they said goodbye.

And then they cut to a party scene.  But everyone was still silent watching it...until the next commercial when it went back to normal bar noise at the normal bar volume.

I have never heard or seen, and certainly not gotten to participate, in anything like it before. And I'm pretty sure I never will again.

Good times, good memory.

POLT