Break out the lipstick and dust off the platform heels — the divas of drag are coming to the Maintenance Shop.

Iowa State’s Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender and Ally Alliance will host two drag shows for the organization’s spring fund-raiser, “A Royal Drag.”

Des Moines-area drag queens, men who perform onstage dressed as women, and drag kings, women who entertain audiences dressed as men, will lip-sync and dance their way through the evening.

Drag shows have been an annual occurrence at the M-Shop, says Eric Yarwood, M-Shop coordinator. He says Saturday’s shows won’t be the same as previous performances hosted by the Alliance in past years, however. You never know what to expect at a drag show, he says.

“[The shows] caused an uproar, then the shock value kind of wore off,” he says. “It’s always fun and always different.”

The Alliance will host two shows Saturday, at 7:30 p.m. and 11 p.m.

Julia McGinley, fund-raising coordinator for The Alliance, says holding two shows will allow the M-Shop to accommodate larger, more diverse audiences. During the second show members of the audience will be invited to join the performers and become a part of the act.

“The first show [will have] seating and will be a little tamer,” McGinley says. “Drag shows can get kind of ‘out there.’ “

The shows will feature between five and seven performers each. The majority of the impersonators are drag queens, McGinley says.

“It’s a lot harder to find kings. There are queens all over the place,” she says. “The performers will not be the same [for both shows]. If they are, they’ll do different numbers.”

Many of the performers featured Saturday make a career out of entertaining at drag shows, appearing in bars in Des Moines and Iowa City as well as across the nation, McGinley says. Other drag kings and queens perform for benefits or on special occasions.

Ross Wallace, whose stage name is “Selena Sakowitz,” is looking forward to entertaining the audiences at Saturday’s shows. Wallace has been performing for four years and is a promoter for teen shows at Des Moines nightclub The Garden.

Wallace says his performances vary on the reactions he receives from members of the audience, so he doesn’t have a set routine for each show.

“I do more comedic stuff — the fun, the whimsical,” Wallace says. “I go out there and make people laugh.”

Wallace says one of his favorite routines is a lip sync performance to Pink’s “You Make Me Sick.”

“I have a pink wig, a purple top hat costume and platform thigh-high boots for that,” Wallace says.

McGinley says past drag shows have attracted a mixed audience, and she is certain both shows will sell out.

“[Usually] 60 percent of the crowd is straight people,” she says. “You wouldn’t think many people want to watch a bunch of people dance around, but it’s entertainment for the Iowa State campus.”

The audience at a recent drag show at Boheme Bistro, 2900 West St., included everyone from students to parents to college professors, McGinley says. She encourages students to bring their parents to the show.

“It’s probably something they’ve never seen before,” she says. “You have to have an open mind to go to the show, but it really appeals to such a diverse crowd.”