I suppose it is rather appropriate that this series of Trannyshack historical bulletins should end with one on Vinsantos, as he himself nearly brought about the club's own end many years ago; but more on THAT later.
Vinsantos first appeared on the Trannyshack stage back in December 1999 for the annual Punk Rock Christmas show. His take-no-prisoners, dead ringer impersonation of Wendy O. Williams (by way of sledgehammering half a dozen 36" televisions to pieces while wearing only an oily, blonde mullet wig and a pair of panties made out of dental floss and a carefully placed 7" vinyl record) certainly grabbed everyone's attention. During the following year Vinsantos brought his own unique, theatrical intensity onto the Trannyshack stage, often incorporating his own lighting, film projections, live music, and live animals (and sometimes all at once). In fact it was for one of his earliest co-hosting nights, "His Satanic Majesty's Request" from January 2001, that Vinsantos and I first incorporated outside non-Stud lighting. He built a lightboard from spare parts, mounted it on a small piece of plywood, and voilá – instant atmosphere! Though used infrequently over the next year and a half, by the summer of 2002 Trannyshack shows regularly used such effects; I've been hovering around that grimy back corner of the Stud Bar practically ever since.
After a solid year of raising the art-bar on the Trannyshack stage (via memorable numbers to Coil, The Cure, Slayer, Aerosmith, Legendary Pink Dots, and The Tiger Lilies among others), Vinsantos nabbed the crown at the 5th Annual Miss Trannyshack Pageant in November 2000. The winning number began with a 'live backstage' intro video in which the audience witnessed the stress from a year of solid performing take its toll on Vinsantos via a drunken breakdown and falling-out with his manager. Though eventually stumbling onto the stage and proceeding to lip-sync to "Alabama Song" by Marianne Faithful, Vinsantos was dragged off so as not to embarrass himself any further. The video screen then followed Vinsantos' escape from the club and his shameful return home. But during a sobering shower/breakdown scene, Vinsantos' guardian angel Squeaky Blonde appears encouraging him with words of wisdom to get redressed, head back to the club, and finish his number. Of course by this time Vinsantos had actually changed his outfit, climbed on top of a giant, 8' tall wholly mammoth (a circus performer friend on all fours wearing stilts and completely covered in brown faux fur) and was beginning to re-enter the auditorium via the back of the house. Followed by a large pin spot, and waving his then-new personal insignia – The Drag Flag, Vinsantos marched through the crowd, leaped back on stage, and finished his lip-sync to Pink Floyd's "In the Flesh", complete with video loops of atomic bomb explosions going off behind him. I still don't think I've seen anything quite like it since. Being in charge of carrying him offstage, getting him undressed, and also redressed into a rubber body suit in under 3 minutes (there was LOTS of lube involved), I also think it's still the single most stressful moment of my entire life.
But perhaps the most infamous moment of Vinsantos' Trannyshack life would have to be from another Punk Rock Christmas show; this time in 2001. Though I can't recall the song the number was performed to, I do remember standing on the go-go box, reading an anti-Capitalist/Christmas manifesto which Vinsantos himself had written earlier that day. Dressed as a priest, I pleaded with the audience to dispose of any and all corporate-label clothing they were wearing, and throw it forward. There was a very dry and dead Christmas tree on stage you see, covered in marshmallows, broken ornaments, and lighter fluid. The moment the first pieces of clothing were tossed, Vinsantos set the tree on fire. He then proceeded to blow balls of flame over the audiences' heads, somehow fitting in lip-syncing all the while. By this time the tree was a veritable bonfire, the flames more than just licking the ceiling, and now using the still-being-thrown clothing as further fuel. Panic quickly ensued. Though bar-owner Michael McElhaney practically leaped from the bar to the stage in a single jump to extinguish the fire, Vinsantos relit it as soon as Michael turned his back. Needless to say, by the end of the number Vinsantos himself was dripping in extinguisher foam, and a plethora of curses from Mr. McElhaney. We all had the stench of charred acrylic and polyester in our noses for days.
Accomplished as a filmmaker, musician, singer, producer, writer, and businessman, as well as hands-down one of the greatest performers ever to grace the Trannyshack stage, Vinsantos is a Renaissance Tranny if there ever was one. Aside from co-hosting shows dedicated to Satan and Pink Floyd's "The Wall", perhaps the most legendary of themes Vinsantos created in the past were his two previous Tokyo Tea nights, complete with Ikebana, paper lamps, flower lights, dangling Ukiyo-e, and a usable bridge that went from the runway to the countertops at stage right. This third and final staging of Tokyo Tea is, I believe, a celebration/damnation of contemporary Japanese culture and society; I'm sure the staging and performances will be more than up to par with the past two.

Tonight's show is, in a way, the final Trannyshack, as the last four weeks are dedicated to recreating some of the greatest performances of all time. It is more than appropriate to end this final run of co-hosts with Vinsantos, but not (as I originally suggested) because he himself almost ended the club, but rather because no other queen over the years has better represented what Trannyshack is all about: being as irreverent and iconoclastic as possible, even if the target of your aesthetic is irreverence itself. Though always keeping his 'sixth toe' well-immersed in tranny traditions, Vinsantos' penchant for both the high brow and the low-end, for both hysterical theatrics and professional composure, helped redefine what "drag" is in San Francisco. I hope you'll all be able to come down to the show tonight and help us thank him for all his years of dedication, humor, pathos, and unquestionable talent.
- Bobby Barber