Not enough can be said about The Monstrous Ball, an evening of art, fashion, drag and queer culture up the ying-yang. Highlights include a kickass rendition of “You and I” by Kimberly Persona à la Gaga, ladybear extraordinaire Fay Slift edging toward glory, Brendan Healey in a skirt (yes please!) and all the little monsters and freaks you could possibly imagine.
 
The drag and extraordinary stage shows aside, the performance art curated by Ecce Homo was what made the evening so thrilling. I think most interesting is the timid way we (Canadians) interact with performance art. Tyson James performed Yoko Ono’s Cut Piece, in which he wore a black dress and a Yoko look-alike invited audience members to snip off chunks of the gown. I stayed for the duration of the performance and went up for three pieces. It was excruciating how tentative people were to take part.
 
My personal highlight was seeing a friend take part in Nina Arsenault’s rendition of The Artist Is Present. Nina looked like a freaky goddess, and audience members were invited to sit across from her. As my friend's session moved past a quarter of an hour people were heard to make pointed comments: “He’s still there?” Anyone who says performance art is bullshit should experience something like this. You could see Nina’s heart beating terrifyingly fast. I was scared watching! Such is art!