Georgie’s Alibi Monkey Bar (mostly known as, “Alibi”) in Wilton Manors has a wide variety of entertainment seven days a week that audiences cannot get enough of, and one of their most well-known performers is Jennifer McClain. McClain has maintained a permanent residency with Alibi for the past 10 years which many people would consider a pretty impressive milestone. Performing is not only a full-time career, it’s a passion. Originally from Buffalo, New York, McClain moved to South Florida ironically the same year when Alibi first opened its doors. It was as if their paths were destined to cross. In addition to Alibi, McClain performs at other venues and bars throughout South Florida, but her shows at Alibi are where she feels most at home. I had the pleasure of chatting more with McClain about her performing career and her love for the LGBTQ community.

Let me start off by asking, what originally brought you to South Florida?

I had been working on cruise ships for several years, and I was seeing someone and decided that since we couldn’t work on the same ship, one of us would stay on land. He was docked in Port Everglades. So I figured, “Ok, I’ll head down to South Florida.” I moved down with little money, no car, and no idea what I was going to do. About a year later, I was hosting karaoke in bars and living in my own apartment and eventually grew into what I do now.

What inspired you to be a performer?

I always enjoyed singing and acting, and at one point even dancing, even though that is now long behind me! It all started in early high school. I was on a nationally ranked synchronized swim team  we were all coming back from a competition and we were sitting in the van singing along to Grease. One of the girls on my team had a brother who had just been in the show, and her mom was driving. She said, “You have a really good voice, you should tryout for the swing choir.” So, I went and auditioned, and I absolutely fell in love with performing. I took private lessons and did the shows all throughout high school and went on to pursue a degree in musical theatre.

If you never pursued musical theatre and performing, what path do you think life would have taken you?

Oh gosh, I don’t know. That’s a really good question. I never really thought about doing anything else. Although, I always enjoyed science and history, and my mom was a teacher, so I may have become a teacher. Who knows?

Can you tell me more about the kind of performances you do?

Most of my performances that I do, as far as the weekly shows, are audience request shows. I really like doing them because it makes me unique and different because I am going based off what audiences are requesting. Audiences are always made up of different people, so there is a variety of requests. It’s a unique experience, and I can sing songs from a variety of different artists and styles. I use background tracks for a lot of those shows, but there are some shows I sing with an accompanist, and they are brilliant. They can play anything as long as we have the sheet music for it.

When can people catch your shows at Alibi?

Saturday and Monday nights and every other Sunday Brunch. Saturday is just me. Although I do occasionally bring up a friend from the audience to sing with me. But on Mondays, I do a show called, “Cast Party.” That is where I officially have special guests. I have a lot of people from Broadway national tours that come through Fort Lauderdale join me that night. We’ve had people from Kinky Boots, Book of Mormon, Little Mermaid, some of the leads for Anastasia came out and sang. It’s a good way for them to kick off their shoes, hang out and sing with us. It’s a lot of fun.