The first event of the 2017 season in Cherry Grove was Cherry’s “So You Want a Job?” competition, on the eve of Mother’s Day, May 13, hosted with flair by 2016 winner Jizzabella, and the winner was Kimmee Moore, from Sayville, Long Island, who was there was her mother. Sporting the kinkiest of boots made for walkin’, Kimmee climbed up on the bar to dance during her pairing of “You’ll always come back to me” and “(Who) Run the World (Girls)” and, wearing very little, all of it black, clinched her win with Nicole Scherzinger’s “(Let’s get a little) Wet.” Stacy was the DJ and the pre-show was by stripper Cherry Mash.
The baker’s dozen of contenders was first narrowed to five, who offered a second number apiece. The other semi-finalists, mostly Fire Island virgins, were Godiva Romance, from Barracuda—Sheila E.’s “The Glamorous Life” (“Without love, it ain’t much”), with striptease; Boston’s Dusty Morehead Moretti, strutting the stage; Ivy Ferrera, in revealing cut-offs; and Stonewall’s pistol-packing working girl Crimson Kitty (“Nine to Five”), who returned as Liza Minnelli, in gayest rainbows, for “Maybe this Time.”
Jizzabella favored us with Cher’s “Strong Enough,” Faith Hill’s “The Way You Love Me,” and sing-alongs of “It’s Raining Men” and the Backstreet Boys’ “I Want It that Way.”
The remaining contestants were singer Androgyny; Byanca Raye, paying tribute to Whitney Houston with “I Will Always Love You;” Bella Biscotti, singing “I Know Where I’ve Been,” from “Hairspray,” with soul; California’s Shuga Cain, in stars and stripes, pairing a tearful monologue and “God Bless America” with “I Was Born that Way,” “Telephone,” and “Bad Romance;” LeeLee Heavenly, declaring “I’m Every Woman” and giving us dance with high kicks and splits; Rockbar’s Shirley U. Jest, singing a hot “Use What You Got,” from “The Life;” Stonewall and the Dominican Republic’s Lola Michelle Kinky, pairing Adele’s “Hello” and Madonna’s “Vogue;” and Long Island’s Syn, in colorful clown costume and surgical mask, concealing fangs, on hand for eerie hilarity and “Lady Marmalade.”