High Profile’s High 5: An All-Star drag queen comes home, and drone nerds steal the show

On Friday night, Plastique Tiara will stalk the stage in Louboutins and glittering angel wings that span 20 feet, one of six former contestants appearing in RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars Live (Music Hall at Fair Park, 8 p.m.). But once upon a time, the performer behind the persona, Duc Tran Nguyen, was just another student in Southlake.
“It was pretty chill,” Plastique told me, upending my expectations. Born in Vietnam, Nguyen moved to America at age 11 with his family, and he went to school in Sacramento and Houston, both spots where the young Nguyen didn’t fare so well. At Southlake Carroll ISD, however, out-of-the-box expression was a bit easier. “I could pretty much do my thing,” Plastique said. “I found my group in the arts classes.”
Plastique was living in Dallas when she met drag queen extraordinaire (and current RuPaul’s Drag Race Global All-Stars cast member) Alyssa Edwards, who became a mentor. “She looked at me and said, ‘You are gonna be a star,’” Plastique said. Edwards was right: In 2019, Plastique landed on Drag Race’s 11th season, seducing fans with wild performances and sly anime references, and then (of course), she moved to Los Angeles.
This weekend marks a triumphant homecoming. The live show will be familiar to fans of the reality series, Plastique told me, “but the performances are times 10,000.”
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At one point, sparks fly from her boobs.
“I’ve always been a Dallas girl,” she said.
Last Tuesday, a mystical sighting over the skies of Los Angeles led me to do something I’d never done: Tune in to America’s Got Talent. Sky Elements, a drone-show act from Coppell, was vying for a spot in the semifinals. I’d seen a viral clip of their appearance earlier this season, when the magically shape-shifting lights, including the image of Simon Cowell’s face, became so overwhelming that Cowell himself smacked the golden buzzer, thus assuring the crew would advance to the next round.
Tuesday brought the quarterfinals, but could the boys pull it off again? Drones swooped across the sky like a cicada invasion, then began to spark with wonder: A big top, flags, the face of host Terry Crews. Actually, all the judges saw their faces in the sky: Cowell, Howie Mandel, Heidi Klum, Sofía Vergara, who actually looked so little like the actual Sofía Vergara that the judge had to ask someone, “Is that me?”
“The judges’ images were over 300 feet tall,” chief pilot Preston Ward told me via email, “larger than the Statue of Liberty.” Those 1,000 drones took 300 hours to program. So OK, it’s understandable if they couldn’t get Vergara’s sumptuous brows exactly right.
Sky Elements began in darkness four years ago, after Ward lost his daughter. It was in the months after that he saw his first drone show, a light-bulb moment. “Grief is like a fire,” he told me, “you can let that fire burn you down to anger or sadness. Or you can let grief fuel you and lead you to your purpose in life.”
Well, now I was invested. Wednesday brought the results show, a nail-biter. With only minutes left in the show, the crew from Coppell was still on the stage, waiting to hear their fate. Beside them stood a ballerina and a breakdancer who had lost a leg to cancer. Only one of these acts would advance.
Ward looked nervous. The whole crew looked nervous, standing there in matching blue shirts and black jackets like mechanics at an auto store. Then Crews announced the winner:
“Skyyyyy Ell-uhhh-mentsss!”
Guess I have to tune in for the semifinals.
If you’ve never had a cruller (a Dutch-style doughnut with icing) from Carte Blanche Bakery, the beloved spot on Greenville Avenue that closed in June, I suggest you go to La Rue Doughnuts in Trinity Groves any time after Aug. 29, when chefs Casey and Amy La Rue reopen their bakery under a new name in a new spot. If you’ve already had the cruller, then you’re probably already going.
This Saturday, the Frisco Convention Center hosts the Prego Expo, a touring event for new and expectant parents, some of the most anxious people on Earth (we say that with love), so maybe it’s a good idea to unwind, learn and buy some stuff. Among the exhibitions will be the 40-foot RV Barb, the Breast Express, which the breastfeeding website Pumpspotting describes as “a nursing and pumping oasis” and “a luxury lactation lounge on wheels,” and I approve.
I never saw Flash Gordon, but I went to college with a bunch of dudes who sure did (over and over). The 1980 movie is a sci-fi camp classic, and the Texas Theatre, along with Dallas Comic Show, is bringing actor Sam Jones to town for an intro and Q-and-A session along with a 7 p.m. screening on Friday. Jones is the titular character, aka the man with the golden locks, aka the guy who wears a shirt that actually reads, “Flash.”