Panti

Panti is a drag queen originally from County Mayo, Ireland.

Biography

Since 1996 Panti has been the hostess of the annual Alternative Miss Ireland pageant. Considered by many as the grande dame of the Dublin gay scene and the most influential of all Irish drag queens, Panti spent several years in Tokyo, (performing as part of double act called CANDIPANTI), she returned to Ireland in 1996. Panti co-created (together with Niall Sweeney, Tonie Walsh and Trish Brennan) and hosted several transgressive and popular performance based club nights - GAG, POWDERBUBBLE and H.A.M., in turn spawning sister clubs such as GRISTLE.

Panti hosted a weekly karaoke show called The Casting Couch at The Front Lounge, Dublin for several years. She often appears with drag queen Shirley Temple Bar at her weekly Bingo show in Dublin's best known gay bar, The George.

On November 30, 2007, she opened Pantibar, a new bar for the gay community in Dublin.

Mainstream stage career

In 2005, during the Dublin Fringe Festival, Panti played the part of Madame in 'Spurt! Sister! Spurt!' a play based on Jean Genet's, The Maids.
In May 2007, Panti wrote and performed her first play in the Dublin Gay Theatre Festival entitled 'In These Shoes?'
In September 2007, Panti returned to the stage with her new critically acclaimed [http://www.irishtheatremagazine.ie/home/fringeRevLinks.htm] irishtheatremagazine.ie. Retrieved October 17, 2007] show entitled 'All Dolled Up'.

Trivia

'Panti' is believed to be an abbreviation of 'Pandora Bliss'
Panti danced on stage in Japan with Cyndi Lauper during her 1994 Twelve Deadly Cyns Tour [ [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyndi_Lauper#Tours] ]
Panti appeared on the Maury Povich talk show in the US.

References

External links

* [http://www.alternativemissireland.com/ Alternative Miss Ireland Main Site]