Lulu Luscious

The success of a drag performance set to Britney Spears' "I'm a Slave 4 U" rests on a few factors. You need a jungle vixen ensemble, a killer lip-synch (just like Britney's), sexy gyrations and—the essential ingredient to recall the glory of the 2001 VMAs—an albino python. 

But as Lulu Luscious found out, live pythons are really expensive.

"I called the reptile shop and asked about renting one," Lulu says, feigning indignation, "and it's something like $300 for two days! I'm not trying to spend $600 for a python!"

That didn't stop her, though. She went to the source where most people turn for cheap-to-free stuff: Craigslist. There she found a man trying to sell his python for $100 (technically against the website's rules). She persuaded him to let her rent the snake for the evening for $40. She even went to his house in Beaverton to meet the python, Zeda, and hang with it for a few hours. On the day of the show, the snake's owner drove Zeda—the car's heat on full blast—to Funhouse Lounge. "He didn't even charge me," Lulu says.

Lulu Luscious, 25, is a relatively new queen, but she knows how to hustle. Under the makeup, Lulu is James Luu, the son of Vietnamese immigrants who held him to strict standards, especially in his formative years at Parkrose High School. "Girl, I could whip out a 4 on an AP exam like nothing," Luu says. 

He hammered through double majors—communications and business—in college before moving to Vancouver, B.C., where he worked three jobs, one in his family's restaurant, one as a property manager and one translating contracts into Vietnamese. "I was just going off momentum," he says. "Then one day it hit me: You know what? This isn’t happy.” 

What did make Luu happy was drag queens. So on trips back to Portland, he transformed into Lulu Luscious and mingled in gay bars, picking up tips from seasoned pros and YouTube. Luu officially moved back last year, and has been performing as Lulu with the same zeal his parents instilled in him, becoming a standout in Portland's drag circuit. 

For example, the look and lip-synch aren't enough for Lulu. She's learning to sing, which she does live, and she's recruited backup dancers to help her with energetic choreography and the occasional lift. She makes her own costumes, including an elaborate mermaid tail, and has a fierce hair game—her extra-long bangs are pulled back to show off a natural hairline.

Being Lulu Luscious is now essentially a full-time job. When not onstage, she hosts small gatherings—let's call them Fuckerware parties—where she sells sex toys. And like a true drag queen, she's always plugging: In a recent performance, she slipped into black lace and sang her own remix of LMFAO's "Sexy and I Know It" while throwing dildos and lotions to the crowd.  

But there's more to Lulu than determination and dildos. She's a benevolent queen, giving back to the community that gives her life. On Friday, she'll host a Pride Northwest benefit at Toast & Pho, where she'll wait tables and sing karaoke for the dinner shift. That would be beneath some queens, but Lulu has humility.

"Let's be honest," Luu says. "At the end of the day, I'm just another gay boy trying to get by and live life."

SEE IT: Lulu Luscious is part of Dine Out for Pride NW at Toast & Pho, 103 NW 21st Ave., 274-0888. 5 pm Friday, Sept. 26. Twenty percent of all proceeds benefit Pride Northwest.

WWeek 2015