‘Holiday Spectacular Spectacular’

Danny Ximo has an enormous wardrobe. But only half of the clothes belong to him.

The other half dresses Raffa, his female alter ego and star of The Raffa Show—a lip-synced cabaret of favorites by Marilyn Monroe, Liza Minnelli and Carmen Miranda, to name a few—that has the East End talking about the performer’s sparkling gowns, high-heeled pumps and killer legs.

“I’m not a drag queen. I’m a female impersonator,” Mr. Ximo explained during a telephone interview last week. “I’ll be in these short dresses with my long hair and women will be like, ‘Oh my God,’ and I don’t mean to sound arrogant or anything, ‘I love your hair and you have a better body than mine!’ And I’m like, ‘Wow, I just work well with it.’ I’m a slim guy, but I try to make it as easy as I can. I don’t go crazy. That’s why I don’t define myself as a drag queen.”

What Mr. Ximo does deliver is respectful, family-friendly entertainment, he said. Dressed as Raffa, he will return for a performance during Our Fabulous Variety Show’s “Holiday Spectacular Spectacular!” next weekend at Guild Hall.

It’s the vaudeville variety show’s biggest feat yet, according to co-founders Anita Boyer and Kasia Klimiuk. For the past four vaudeville variety shows, they had cast seven performers for each night of music, comedy and dance. This time, for the “Holiday Spectacular Spectacular!” the show has more than 20, thanks to collaborations with Danse Arts and A&G Dance Company.

“When we first did [Our Fabulous Variety Show] in 2010, everyone thought it would be a fun, one-time thing,” Ms. Boyer said during a telephone interview last week, “but I always knew I wanted to keep it going. We started off as a group of friends who just wanted to do something unique. We’re not that known yet. The dream is that people will know us.”

Last December, the group put on “Holiday Spectacular!” the weekend before Christmas. It wasn’t very well attended, Ms. Boyer reported. The group has learned its lesson since then, she said.

“We changed the date and we’re bringing back some favorites. And we’re performing at Guild Hall for the first time. I’m just beside myself excited,” she said. “It’s our favorite time of the year. If you think of Christmas and think of seeing a show at Christmas, what things come to mind are ‘The Nutcracker’ or the Trans-Siberian Orchestra. There’s standard shows that are put on. We take the traditional songs but do them with a little bit of a twist.”

Mr. Ximo will provide just that. The Argentina native—who moved to Sag Harbor 12 years ago and began performing in 2009—plans on breaking out several personalities during the variety show, including Carmen Miranda and her basket fruit hat, a personal favorite, he said.

“People are going to have laughs and see color and sequins and dance and it’s going to be fun. There’s always sequins and shiny stuff. I love that,” he said. “And I’m doing a number with Michael, Anita’s boyfriend. He’s going to be my man. The other day, we were practicing the song and then Anita asked me—Michael was kind of like, ‘How should I smile? Should I do this, should I do that?’—she asked me, ‘How would you like your man to be like?’ They are both great. They surprised me.”

The character Raffa—whose name was inspired by Italian singer Raffaella Carrà—took Mr. Ximo by surprise, too. Five years ago, she was born by accident, he said, and only became part of his life when he moved to the East End.

“For every Halloween, me and my friends, we’d dress in drag, to tell you the truth,” Mr. Ximo said. “And the owner of the Cigar Bar saw me singing and dancing one day and she just had this idea, ‘What about you do a show here?’ and I was like, ‘Well, let me consult this with my friends and, then, with my boyfriend. How would he react about this?’”

All of his pals urged him to go for it, Mr. Ximo said. And so he did. His first step was befriending a glue gun in order to bedazzle his costumes. The rest followed.

“It was something within myself. It only came out once I came here,” he said. “Now for Halloween, I do a mechanic or some kind of manly thing. Before, it was a huge event. ‘Oh my God, I want to dress up as a woman and work on it for months.’ Now that I do the show, it’s not that exciting anymore. I have friends come over and say, ‘Can we go into your closet? Maybe we can find something?’ I say, ‘Go ahead, just treat everything very carefully because I have a huge wardrobe—with my clothes and the Raffa clothes.”

There seems to be no end in sight—with both Mr. Ximo’s clothing collection and holiday-themed variety show, according to Ms. Klimiuk.

“Next year, it might be ‘Holiday Spectacular Spectacular Spectacular!” she laughed. “Oh, I’m only kidding. That’s a mouthful.”

Our Fabulous Variety Show will present the “Holiday Spectacular Spectacular!” on Friday, December 14, and Saturday, December 15, at 8 p.m., each night, at Guild Hall in East Hampton. Bonnie Grice and Reverend Rick Boyer will host. Advance tickets are $20, or $25 at the door. Proceeds will benefit WPPB 88.3 FM. For more information, visit ourfabulousvarietyshow.org.