When was the first time you did drag?
I actually did drag
for the first time while I was in college at the University of Florida. I did
it on a dare for Halloween, like everybody else.
How did you feel?
I felt like everybody
else when they first do drag. I thought I was the dolly. I thought I was every
inch today's woman. I look back at those pictures and realize I could not have
been more wrong. I had this red gown that I made, this big tube I glued
together (I still can't sew for shit). I had a jet black China-doll wig and I painted with
this white, white face, thinking I was everything with these black gloves on,
navy blue tights and white sandals.
I entered a talent
show at the bar in town. I did well enough that I won. I was a musical theatre
major, so I had a little bit going for me. The bar had a deal going, so that if
you won the talent show, you got an invitation to a number that Saturday night.
That tells you how long ago this was - they not only paid you if you won the
talent show but they paid you to perform that Saturday night too. But then you
had to sit out the next week. In the end, I ended up winning 6 or 7 of those
talent shows. I was getting $50 for winning the talent show and another $75 for
performing the following Saturday night - like I said, it was a long time ago,
when they used to pay drag queens.
The guy that owned the
bar thought about it and said to himself "It's cheaper for me just to hire
this bitch and put her on show cast, than to keep paying that kind of money for
2 little damn numbers." So he asked me if wanted to work on show cast.
When I was at University of Florida, I had 2 part-time jobs. I worked at a
Subway sub shop and I was a drag queen. And that was how I worked my way
through college.
I had no drag
mother. My drag just kind
of crawled up from the earth like a mushroom.
How did you learn how to drag?
Being a theatre person
gave me the place to start. I did my make-up like theatre make-up, showgirl
make-up, not drag make-up. But this was a college town and they were used to
seeing a lot of bugger drag. The fact that this was bugger drag, but a little
more polished than some. I was really lucky because I worked with a group of
entertainers that were really helpful. Many of those girls are still doing it
today. I see them sometimes in the different bar-rags and think to myself
"Oooohhh, they're still alive!"
I did that for 2 1/2
years.
How did you create your drag name?
This is like the third
drag reincarnation I've had. When I worked in Gainesville, I was doing drag as
Maxine DelRio.
I was part of a
friend's act with 2 other musical theatre people. We used to get together and
do all the old Bette Midler stuff and the Andrew Sisters, stuff like that. We
were "the unique song-stylings of the inimitable DelRio Trio - Patty,
Maxine and Laverne". We thought we were it! Eventually I went off on my
own and I kept the name Maxine DelRio ... with my blonde hair and my Nordic
self.
The bar that I was
working in was going very very strong into hormones and silicone and it became
all about becoming a woman. That's fine. That was their journey. Two of the
queens I used to work with have now completed their surgeries and live as
women. That was the focus then.
I was 21 years and 155
pounds and kinda pretty. Imagine me skinny with bones! At that time, everyone
was talking to me about getting 'work', going to Orlando and getting tits and
touching up the face.
That is not what I
wanted to do. So I thought, "I'm done here". I finished school and
put it all in a box. I got out of drag for almost 17 years.
Seventeen years later,
I am living in Orlando and there is a fundraiser show for the Lake County Aids Resource
Alliance at one of the
bars up in Lakeland. It sounded like fun and a good cause, so I thought
"Why not hall the old girl out?" I did and had a great time.
Afterwards, the guy who owned the bar came up and said "Would you be
interested in another booking?" And I said, "Sure". It was good
money. A couple of months later the show director got into a big huge fight,
walked out in a huff and the bar manager asked me to take over as Show
Director. Did that for 6 years - Show director for a bar called Attitudes in Leesburg. The bar was sold
eventually, so that job ended. But one of the people who used to come to our
show all the time, bought a bar called The Night Zone. The owners contacted me and asked me to host
Saturday night shows. Then I did that for another 6 years.
I never had to go
through normal hoops of trying to wrangle a guest spot at the Parliament House . . . hanging around all the regular
drag queens and fetching their drinks, hanging our till 3 o'clock in the
morning, sucking up to them hoping they will like me enough to give me a shot.
I got booked because I was always more interested in working the mic, working
the crowd, acting the fool, carrying on . . . not because I'm the goddess of
femininity. Also, I don't show up late and I don't cause drama.
That is one of the
good things about RuPaul's Drag Race. It showed it's okay to be a man in drag.
You don't have to have breasts, your own waist length hair, hormones, silicones
or your adam's apple shaved. It can be about the theatre of it. We're actors,
or as Divine Grace puts it, 'we're clowns'. And that's good too.
What is one of your pet peeves in doing drag?
Drag Queens who bring
an entourage backstage.
If you had a talk show who would be your first guest?
Divine Grace. She's
intelligent, funny as shit and knows what she's talking about.
When was the first time you did drag?
I did it on a dare for Halloween, like everybody else. I actually did drag
for the first time while I was in college at the University of Florida.
How did you feel?
I felt like everybody
else when they first do drag. I thought I was the dolly. I thought I was every
inch today's woman. I look back at those pictures and realize I could not have
been more wrong. I had this red gown that I made, this big tube I glued
together (I still can't sew for shit). I had a jet black China-doll wig and I painted with
this white, white face, thinking I was everything with these black gloves on,
navy blue tights and white sandals.
I entered a talent
show at the bar in town. I did well enough that I won. I was a musical theatre
major, so I had a little bit going for me. The bar had a deal going, so that if
you won the talent show, you got an invitation to a number that Saturday night.
That tells you how long ago this was - they not only paid you if you won the
talent show but they paid you to perform that Saturday night too. But then you
had to sit out the next week. In the end, I ended up winning 6 or 7 of those
talent shows. I was getting $50 for winning the talent show and another $75 for
performing the following Saturday night - like I said, it was a long time ago,
when they used to pay drag queens.
The guy that owned the
bar thought about it and said to himself "It's cheaper for me just to hire
this bitch and put her on show cast, than to keep paying that kind of money for
2 little damn numbers." So he asked me if wanted to work on show cast.
When I was at University of Florida, I had 2 part-time jobs. I worked at a
Subway sub shop and I was a drag queen. And that was how I worked my way
through college.
I had no drag
mother. My drag just kind
of crawled up from the earth like a mushroom.
How did you learn how to drag?
Being a theatre person
gave me the place to start. I did my make-up like theatre make-up, showgirl
make-up, not drag make-up. But this was a college town and they were used to
seeing a lot of bugger drag. The fact that this was bugger drag, but a little
more polished than some. I was really lucky because I worked with a group of
entertainers that were really helpful. Many of those girls are still doing it
today. I see them sometimes in the different bar-rags and think to myself
"Oooohhh, they're still alive!"
I did that for 2 1/2
years.
How did you create your drag name?
This is like the third
drag reincarnation I've had. When I worked in Gainesville, I was doing drag as
Maxine DelRio.
I was part of a
friend's act with 2 other musical theatre people. We used to get together and
do all the old Bette Midler stuff and the Andrew Sisters, stuff like that. We
were "the unique song-stylings of the inimitable DelRio Trio - Patty,
Maxine and Laverne". We thought we were it! Eventually I went off on my
own and I kept the name Maxine DelRio ... with my blonde hair and my Nordic
self.
The bar that I was
working in was going very very strong into hormones and silicone and it became
all about becoming a woman. That's fine. That was their journey. Two of the
queens I used to work with have now completed their surgeries and live as
women. That was the focus then.
I was 21 years and 155
pounds and kinda pretty. Imagine me skinny with bones! At that time, everyone
was talking to me about getting 'work', going to Orlando and getting tits and
touching up the face.
That is not what I
wanted to do. So I thought, "I'm done here". I finished school and
put it all in a box. I got out of drag for almost 17 years.
Seventeen years later,
I am living in Orlando and there is a fundraiser show for the Lake County Aids Resource
Alliance at one of the
bars up in Lakeland. It sounded like fun and a good cause, so I thought
"Why not hall the old girl out?" I did and had a great time.
Afterwards, the guy who owned the bar came up and said "Would you be
interested in another booking?" And I said, "Sure". It was good
money. A couple of months later the show director got into a big huge fight,
walked out in a huff and the bar manager asked me to take over as Show
Director. Did that for 6 years - Show director for a bar called Attitudes in Leesburg. The bar was sold
eventually, so that job ended. But one of the people who used to come to our
show all the time, bought a bar called The Night Zone. The owners contacted me and asked me to host
Saturday night shows. Then I did that for another 6 years.
I never had to go
through normal hoops of trying to wrangle a guest spot at the Parliament House . . . hanging around all the regular
drag queens and fetching their drinks, hanging our till 3 o'clock in the
morning, sucking up to them hoping they will like me enough to give me a shot.
I got booked because I was always more interested in working the mic, working
the crowd, acting the fool, carrying on . . . not because I'm the goddess of
femininity. Also, I don't show up late and I don't cause drama.
That is one of the
good things about RuPaul's Drag Race. It showed it's okay to be a man in drag.
You don't have to have breasts, your own waist length hair, hormones, silicones
or your adam's apple shaved. It can be about the theatre of it. We're actors,
or as Divine Grace puts it, 'we're clowns'. And that's good too.
What is one of your pet peeves in doing drag?
Drag Queens who bring
an entourage backstage.
If you had a talk show who would be your first guest?
Divine Grace. She's
intelligent, funny as shit and knows what she's talking about.
