Alice Vol. 7 No. 2

Illustration/ Wesley Picard
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It’s Friday night in Tuscaloosa. Every
popular bar has a wrapped-around line,
and the sound of black booties hitting the
paved sidewalks is the heartbeat of this college
town. If you walked past World of Beer, at first
glance it would look like any other weekend.
The mutterings of apologies can be heard as
patrons slide past and make their way back to
their seats from the bar, spilling liquid on the
already sticky floor. There’s laughter and side
conversations about the weekend ahead and
the week behind them, while others pick their
favorite filter and snap a picture to document a
night they won’t remember. Above it all is the
music coming from the DJ booth, setting the
pace for the night ahead.
The DJ booth is a singular fold-out table
with a black tablecloth draped on top. There’s
a board with flashing lights and what seem to
be a million buttons. Behind the table, plugging
in wires and adjusting her headphones, is a
girl with long blonde hair and a tight black
dress. Some of the patrons are commenting on
her appearance, others on her song choices or
transitions. Suddenly, the bar is filled with a
waterfall of voices all singing along when she
plays their favorite Top 40 song. Tiffany Stout
could be any other girl walking past on the
quad, but tonight she is DJ Smokeshow.
Stout described her persona on stage as
an adaptation of Paris Hilton, a global icon
and female DJ, “When you’re a girl, you get
criticized your whole life. Paris Hilton has
also been judged her entire life, and she is a
female DJ, smart, wealthy, successful. That’s
everything I aspire to be.”
Stout grew up on Hilton’s reality TV series,
“The Simple Life,” and she loved the way
that Hilton had the confidence to poke fun at
herself. When Stout talked about becoming
DJ Smokeshow, she compared it to a masked
superhero because she would not describe
herself as the type to be super extroverted.
Nothing truly changes, but she has a
different level of confidence and is even more
comfortable as DJ Smokeshow than she is being
Tiffany Stout.
Tiffany Stout, known professionally as DJ Smokeshow, shows
off her electrifying style.
“DJing is like breathing to me. I feel like a
completely different person, and it makes me so
happy,” Stout said.
When Stout was a sophomore in high school
living in Tallahassee, Florida, she dreamed
of the day she could take part in the culture
of crowded bars, neon lights and performers
that filled her hometown. One day after school,
her dad took her to a music store downtown
that she had been to a hundred times before.
They walked around the store, absentmindedly
wiping dust off a few classic vinyl records. She
noticed her dad standing in a corner and walked
over to see what he was looking at.
“You want it?” her dad said, motioning to an
amateur DJ board. They talked it over, and not
long after, Stout started practicing after school.
She would catch herself daydreaming in class,
her hands mimicking the motions she had
practiced on the board the night before.
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