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Photos by Madison Kirkman
A fax machine almost took out Unicorn.
An electrical fire at Post Options on July 30 forced Capitol Hill’s most neon funhouse to close its doors indefinitely. That meant no carnival food, no pinball, no drag brunches and—most importantly—no steady income for the many drag artists, performers, bartenders, security, kitchen staff, and management who’ve made Unicorn the carnivalesque fixture of Seattle nightlife it is.
If you ask Fraya Love—the host and organizer of Unicorn Burn Relief Fundraiser, as well as a bartender and performer at Unicorn—who’s to blame, her answer is clear: “the IRS.” When do you need a fax machine aside from tax season?
Now, rather than dazzling on stage, the staff and performers have to “sit and wait while the insurance companies fight for who’s going to pay for every little thing,” Izzy Access, events manager and host of Mimosa’s Cabaret since 2018, said. “Insurance is a scam.”
The gloom of outdated technology and rapacious insurance companies did not find its way on Neumos’ stage at the fundraiser Sept. 25. An intimate crowd of Unicorn staff and community members welcomed in the evening, with performers and supporters mingling while flashes of gaudy fabric could be seen backstage.The opening number was vibrant shades of orchid and chartreuse set to Brittany Spears’ “Circus,” as Fraya Love steered the night to a sexy, spirited showcase of 21 drag and burlesque artists.
The patent leather boots and slinky floorwork were almost enough to forget that every performer out there was on a financial cliff, and the fundraiser was about survival. Bills are stacking up while Unicorn hopes against insurance frustrations to reopen by mid-October, “prospectively and optimistically,” as Love puts it.
“You can’t really just get another kitchen job for a month or two if you want to have a good reputation,” assistant kitchen manager Valerie Long says. “So we’ve just been sticking it out on unemployment.”
But unemployment doesn’t make ends meet like it used to.
“Unemployment is like ’90s money,” Long explains. “It’s not the ‘90s. I went to the fucking food bank today. It’s getting rough.”
Still, in between raffle pulls, lip-syncs, and tequila shots, there were vignettes of what makes Unicorn more than a bar. During one raffle drawing, bar regular Kara was the winning ticket holder. Love, without missing a beat, remembered Kara’s exact drink order and shouted it from the stage.
It was a small moment in a loud night full of extravagance, and a beautiful snapshot of how Unicorn serves as a place for community members to be known.
Kara was at the Unicorn the night of the fire. “We were playing games in the back, and I was like, ‘Does it smell like burning plastic to anyone else?’ I was trying to pay the tab while they were telling everyone to leave,” Kara says.
While a fan of their colorful interior, pinball machines and “surprisingly good” bar food, Kara mostly misses the “inclusive and accepting environment” that Unicorn created.
“We need to remember that we only have so many spaces right now that are not just queer, but open to everybody. Any bar [like that] is worth saving, especially right now,” she says.
With rising costs of living, Seattle’s queer nightlife has been whittled down by the pricing out of many queer spaces, performers and individuals. Unicorn—with its striped walls and carnival kitsch—has housed innumerable artists over the years, with all the fundraiser performers having some tie to the venue.
The night was a menagerie of endless talent, feather boas, tasseled pasties and tearaway pants, including performances from: Harper Bizarre, Amora Namor, Bruno Baewatch, Princess Pillow, Miss Texas 1988, Nico, Ladie Chablis, Ruby Mimosa, Queen Andrew Scott, Londyn Bradshaw, Glory Joel, Kimme Kash, Lüchi, Willy Nilly, Kara Sutra, Izzy Access, Tarzan, Lady Gugu, Kenzie the Kween, Porcelain, and, of course, Fraya Love.
“Never will you ever get to see these performers for $30 again—in this recession?” Love says.
Though an all-star night like this is unlikely to occur again, the lineup of talented artists looks forward to performing upon Unicorn’s reopening. Excitement grew as Izzy Access announced that the interrupted run of “The Wicked Wiz of Oz” will return.
“I’m hoping that the community is really going to come to support us when we open back up,” Long says. “I hope that going without Unicorn, people will be like ‘Oh wait, we love you!’”
Love brought the night to a close, encouraging individuals to support local drag and service workers and to contribute to a GoFundMe set up to support Unicorn staff if able.
With a final goodbye, Love instructed: “Brush your teeth, do your homework and we’ll see you next time.”
