By Wynter Holden
Bartender Scott Pierce (a.k.a Pandora) is a quirky, outspoken and totally flaming queen who isn't afraid to let it all hang out. He loves to wear tight leather corsets, although he switches to muumuus in the hot summer. He digs beehive hairdos. And he wants to open a B&B in the Bahamas with his hubby. You can find Scott's "gender outlaw" alter-ego Pandora hosting drag bingo or gay movie night (think Mommie Dearest, coat hangers and Barbie dolls to beat) at Ice Pics in downtown Phoenix.
Chow Bella: How'd you get started as a bartender? Scott Pierce: My parents were big drinkers, so we always had a bar at my house. For big holiday gatherings, my cousins and I figured out that if we poured people drinks, they would give us money. We used to get my family shitfaced! I could make the fiercest martini at age 7.
CB: What did you want to be when you grew up? SP: I wanted to be Mrs. Wiggins.
CB: Who's that? SP: Are you old enough to remember The Carol Burnett Show? Mrs. Wiggins was the secretary with the big ass and the leopard-print skirt who spends all of her time filing her nails and sharpening pencils. That was my earliest aspiration. I [did] the receptionist thing, so I got that out of my system.
CB: Where'd you live before Phoenix? SP: I'm from DC. When Daddy Bush was in office, me and my friends used to write "eat my Bush" on tennis balls and throw them over the fence so his dog would get one and bring it inside.
CB: What's your favorite drink to make? SP: A specialty of mine called the "Discotini." Me and my friend Bev spent a really long, drunken day trying to create the perfect alcoholic concoction. It's three different colors, like one of those Bomb Pops you used to get from the Good Humor man, and tastes just like it.
CB: Wow. Where can I get one? SP: It's only something you can get where Pandora's working, or if someone's a really, really close friend I might give them the recipe.
CB: Ok, give us your best on-the-job story. I'm sure with your experience it'll be a killer. SP: My first time bartending in a gay bar was in Baltimore, at a place in the red-light district. There was this guy [in drag] who came into the bar like twice a month, on Friday. She'd come in with a suitcase, have two cocktails and then disappear with her suitcase. Half the bar would follow her. She'd come back to the bar two hours later with her suitcase, have another cocktail and then leave. So I'm wondering what the fuck is in this suitcase.
One day I got nosy and I followed her back to a booth. They had "Buddy Booths"; viewing booths separated by a curtain. You push a button and the curtain would drop down so you could see what the person next to you, on the other side of the curtain, was doing. If they approved your request to drop the curtain. She got in the booth and in her suitcase were sci-fi type dildos. People would get in the next booth and watch this bitch sit on them. Some of them were so big I thought they'd come out of her mouth! It was nuts.
