After several injuries at the end of 2013, I decided that dancing was not for me. I was getting ready to graduate college and needed some volunteer hours. I was asked to volunteer at an event, and a house photographer handed me a camera. I was at the local Emmy’s the next thing I knew, capturing great shots. After that, I started receiving photography bookings from the same nightclub owners and promoters who used to book me on the dance floor.

I worked very closely with the Drag community between 2013 – 2020, and House of Chuck Magazine highlighted over 300 events in the Drag community and worked with top LGBTQIA+ entertainers, celebrities, and promoters. After the government overturned the ban on same-sex marriage in 2015, The LGBTQIA+ community entered its golden era; then, commercial capitalism started to take over. The year after, in 2016, The Pulse Nightclub Shooting brought more attention to the safety of the LGBTQIA+ community in the nightlife scene.

This series of events caused many STL LGBTQIA+ promoters to lose business and compete against each other. By the end of 2016, nearly every STL LGBTQIA+ nightclub and promoter was out of business, causing nearly every entertainer in St. Louis to lose the ability to perform on stage. Before the end of 2016, around October, House of Chuck Magazine created a live LGBTQIA+ variety series filmed every Monday and Tuesday at the Grey Fox Pub. The series concluded after five seasons, within three years, in August 2019. The series remains one of the many origin stories of “The Maximum Exposure Fashion Series.”

That same month House of Chuck Magazine celebrated its 100th production with the release of season four of The Maximum Exposure Fashion Series called “MadHouse in Chicago.” The story highlights my time in the Drag Community. The season featured three of our top entertainers from our LGBTQIA+ variety series. In October 2021, the series celebrated its fifth anniversary. It was the first LGBTQIA+ variety series to be filmed in front of a live audience and then released on YouTube, social media, and the House of Chuck Magazine website.

I called the show “MadHouse” because working in The Drag Community was like working in a madhouse. At the end of season four of The Maximum Exposure Fashion Series, Chuck Pfoutz meets Danielle Washington Patterson and Lydia Reed Madison, and we all know what happens next. The season marked the end of the Chuck Saga. The house of Chuck Magazine then entered into a new era telling untold stories from the Past, Present, and Future events. To find out where we are going, we must first find out where we came from; nothing takes the past away like the future.