For over 40 years, Wayne Smith has emulated the ability of Cher. Recognized for his stints in Dallas’ Oak Garden neighborhood, the place queer nightlife thrives, Smith, 61, is a staple of town’s bustling drag scene. Whereas his resemblance to Cher is uncanny, for queer and trans Dallasites, Wayne Smith is their very own native star.
I meet up with Smith on a current Wednesday night, hours earlier than he’s set to take the stage at Liquid Zoo, a divey, queer sports activities bar the place, 3 times per week, he emcees an occasion known as Cher-e-oke. He provides me a tour of his residence, displaying off his assortment of Cher costumes—extravagant wigs and sequined attire—which replenish an area the scale of a normal bed room. That is solely a fraction of his assortment; down the road, he retains a storage unit stuffed with greater than 300 outfits and equipment.
Smith doesn’t have a grand popping out story. “I used to be by no means in,” he says, recalling how, when he was in elementary faculty, he would make wigs out of black yarn and draw attire he imagined his icons would put on. When he was round 16, Smith determined to showcase his expertise for impersonation on The Gong Present, a televised recreation present that aired via the Seventies and ’80s. With the assistance of his brother, who was working as a flight attendant, Smith made his technique to Los Angeles, the place, dressed as Cher, he carried out each vocal elements for “All I Ever Want Is You” by Sonny & Cher.
“I had the lengthy black wig; we glued white sequins on a purple costume. It was cheesy, however again then, I suppose it was fairly,” Smith says. “I went on the air, and my brother was like, ‘Oh, he’s gonna win!’—till I went to flip the hair. I had by no means worn faux fingernails in my life, and the again of the nail bought caught within the wig and pulled it off on nationwide tv. I had to return to highschool the subsequent week.”
Smith was a pure on the earth of drag performing. As an grownup, he had transient stints as Marilyn Monroe and Dolly Parton on the now-closed La Cage aux Folles, a staple in Los Angeles’ homosexual scene. However one thing about Cher—her magnetism and music—all the time caught with him. Smith, who studied to be a clothes designer at Trend Institute of Design & Merchandising in Los Angeles and finally went on to design attire for each Diana Ross and Cher to put on at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, first met his icon in 1982.
“Cher bought her costume, and upped me and my brother to the entrance close to the stage, thanked me and signed the sketch of the costume, saying ‘All my love, Cher,’” Smith recollects. “That was my first time ever assembly her. Then the subsequent time, I ended up going procuring along with her. I needed to carry stuff, which doesn’t sound glamorous, however it was good to be along with her. She would share drinks with me out of the identical straw.”
Throughout the many years, Smith has adjusted his aesthetic to align with Cher’s many type eras. He research all of her albums and the corresponding wardrobes with nice fervor. Though he can’t choose a single favourite music—or outfit—of hers, amongst his high selections are “The Approach of Love,” which he as soon as carried out in Atlantic Metropolis for over 3,500 folks sporting a red-sequined costume and matching feathered headress, earlier than turning into a leather-based jacket, high-healed boots and fishnets; and “Imagine,” for which he helped with the advertising and marketing marketing campaign by lip-syncing the music at a number of homosexual bars throughout the nation.
“Cher was filming a film in Europe,” Smith says, “in order that they wanted to rent someone to do the promos for all of the homosexual bars and golf equipment in L.A., Dallas, New York, Miami. I went to all of them, and I had safety guards and the whole lot.” Since then, Smith has made a reputation for himself in a number of cities as one of many world’s finest Cher impersonators, however stays a Dallas staple. Cher-e-oke has gone on for over eight years at Liquid Zoo, and in addition at Alexandre’s, a down-tempo craft cocktail lounge the place Smith often enjoys the Liz Taylor cocktail, a mix of gin, violette liqueur and Lillet Blanc. (Smith’s favourite drink at Liquid Zoo is the Chertini, an apple Martini made with Pinnacle Whipped Vodka.)
Past the joys of entertaining—the power of a rapt crowd, the abundance of vibrant queer power—Smith does what he does to be a supply of consolation. One in every of his fondest reminiscences performing as Cher was a set on the Westin Lodge at Galleria Dallas the day after Sonny Bono died, when folks had been hugging Smith as if he had been the actual Cher. However for a lot of of his followers, consolation comes within the type of his “wine downs,” which he streams dwell on Fb and Instagram, as he will get into full Cher mode. “I’ve had folks contact me,” Smith recollects, “and say, ‘Thanks for doing that. My mother’s going via chemotherapy, and he or she watches your wine downs.’”
On the time of our interview, it was the week of Cher’s birthday. Smith is preparing for an epic efficiency that weekend at Liquid Zoo, which he calls “the island of misfit toys.” Folks from all around the world are coming to see him carry out, and he’s greater than prepared. Whereas he’s taken the stage at venues of all calibers, he calls that little dive bar residence.
“It’s only a loopy little place,” says Smith. “I’ve seen folks are available in there alone, and by the tip of the evening, they’ve bought buddies that they’re gonna have, most likely ceaselessly.”
