Weimar New York Variety Show Encompasses Drag Queens, Divas, and Artistic Derelicts

"It's so trite, but for a culture that's so awash in love songs and Harlequin romances, you would think that we would be the most loving society ever to walk the face of the planet, but that's not my experience," Dax adds with another burst of tears.

Once the weeping subsides, Dax picks his head up off the table with a little smile. He apologizes, noting that Adam Feldman, a Time Out New York writer who noted his outbursts in print ("not just a little misting around the eyes, but all-out choking sobs"), might come to the San Francisco show. "I hate that," Dax says of his sobbing. "I have a knack for doing that in interviews." But then, what would a cabaret director be without a little theatrics of his own?