From the looks of things, there wasn’t a single person at Thursday night’s drag show not having a good time.

On stage, Vanessa Taylor, looking for all the world like a 1940s pin-up model, is lip-syncing to danceable R&B while the crowd, packing the stage half of Bali Satay House, 2424 Lincoln Way, is cheering nonstop, waving drinks and shouting to the performers.

During numbers, the line for patrons to tip extends from the stage all the way back to the sound booth – about 15 people long. Between numbers, host Taylor heckles and banters with the crowd – jokes go both ways here.

Why, then, was this the final show at Bali Satay House, home to Ames drag since fall 2005?

“I don’t want to have an image that this place is a gay bar,” said owner Iwan Muljadi.

“I want to cater to everybody in this town.”

Taylor, who organizes the show, blames this fear of acquiring a negative image for her difficulties in finding a steady location. Even at the new home of Bali Satay, her contract was reduced to one show a month – until last spring, there had been one show a week. With the difficulties, and the lure of greener pastures elsewhere, she decided to make Thursday’s show the final one at the Bali Satay House.

Taylor has always been confident in her ability to pack venues with her show, for which she employs several other drag queens.

“I’m not afraid to go to any bar and say, ‘Give me your slowest night, and I will have you packed.'”

Before Taylor moved the show to Bali Satay, it had been held at Boheme Bistro, 2900 West St., where it regularly drew crowds of more than 100 people.

However, Boheme owner Peter Sherman eventually reduced the frequency of the shows from monthly to twice a semester. However, his motives for doing so differed from Muljadi’s.

“Of course people think this is a gay bar – I don’t care about that,” Sherman said. “In terms of homophobics, I think any place that has nude art on the walls is gay.”

Sherman said he was mostly concerned over legal matters – particularly building capacity issues. Several shows drew in full-capacity crowds, and one, held during a blizzard, saw dozens of people lined up around the building, waving dollar bills in the snowy air.

Taylor has plans to move to a larger city and seek a busier drag scene, but doesn’t want to neglect Ames. She said she would love to travel to Ames once a month if she could find a venue to host a monthly show.

“Ames has been very good to me. I’ve had some very loyal fans,” she said.

Taylor’s assistant show manager, David Miller, senior in operations and supply chain management, said he and Taylor were investigating the possibility of hosting the show at Outlaws, 2522 Chamberlain Ave.

Although he no longer wishes to host Taylor’s drag show, Muljadi bears Taylor no ill will.

“I’m happy if he can go somewhere,” Muljadi said.

“I want him to make something.”