Drinking and smoking have never been so healthy.
Foxes chugging beer. Scantily clad nurses serving shots through an IV tube. And well-known Wakefielder Dougal Rattray sparking up a cigarette on stage.
This year’s Des Collines Health Foundation’s Masquerade Ball left audiences in stitches Feb. 18 with outrageous costumes, dirty jokes and a suite of quirky performances that were both weird and wonderful. The event raised close to $25,000 for the Health Foundation.
“Have you had your medicine yet?” asked a bearded man dressed in a sexy nurses outfit to host Megan Throop, who was clad head-to-toe in a lizard onesie. Before she could answer, the nurse was pouring alcohol down her throat as the crowd counted her chugging time. Three seconds.
While the between-performance shenanigans kept people entertained, the songs, skits and dances are what brought more than 100 people out to the Wakefield community centre — nearly all of them wearing some interpretation of the variety show’s “Metamorphosis” theme.
The Foxy Farmer’s group, consisting of Sean Butler, Genevieve Legal-Leblanc, Juniper Turgeon, Jay Mckechnie, Tessa Lockhead, Ginger Howell and Alex Mckay-Smith, defended their 2020 Golden Toilet Bowl Plunger title, as their dance, featuring a group of foxes chasing around some flirty fowls, wowed judges for a second year.
The Urinal Men, featuring Bob Gibson, Doug MacDonald and Rattray, sent the crowd into a fit of laughter during their skit that ended with all three men holding each other’s penises so that Rattray could light his cigarette, which he did inside the community centre.
The real highlight of the night though was The Devil in Disguise, consisting of Anne Winship, Cynthia Gunn, Deborah and Jay Thomson and Oliver Drake. The performance started dark and mysterious, with a group of black robes carrying a coffin onto the stage. It ended with Elvis Presley rising from the dead before whipping the group into a frenzy of 50s rock.
The weekend fundraiser brought in nearly $25,000 for the Des Collines Health Foundation, raising the total since 2018 to $75,000. Money raised this year will go towards purchasing automated chairs that help long-term care patients transition in and out of bed.
“This is exactly the kind of project the foundation aims to help fund,” said organizer Stephanie-ann Brisson, “One that aims to improve quality of life for the residents of this community that are in need of medical care and assistance.”
This year’s gala was the first event since 2020.