What a drag

what even is gender, you know?

I believe my Long Covid has gone.

However something else was definitely up with my body. I talked with my older sister earlier in the year, and then made an appointment with my Doctor.

She confirmed that I’m going through “early” perimenopause. I now have hormone patches and gender dysphoria for that. The hormones make a world of difference. The irrational rage is gone, my anxiety is the lowest it’s been in many years, and I can sleep so well now… but the gender dysphoria sucks. Being non-binary but dealing with The Change is a bit of a doublethink challenge.

Not long ago, I went along innocently to one of my best friend’s burlesque shows.

In high school I was in the big annual school productions (chorus roles only), and in the Shakespeare club. My shining moment of glory, my biggest most challenging part, was playing Corrin the Shepherd in our excerpt medley from As You Like It in sixth form.

“all I know is the property of rain is to wet, and fire to burn; that good pasture makes fat sheep; and that a great cause of the night is lack of the sun!”

“The greatest of my pride is to see my ewes graze and my lambs suck.”

I had to look up the quote to get the words but I can still remember how I did the delivery and the laugh from the audience over ‘my lambs suck’.

Then, me and two of my best friends joined our local amateur theatre society and suddenly I had a main role in a one-act play. Then I had the memorable role of the one Irish student in a send-up of Enid Blyton boarding school stories. We did Wyrd Sisters by Terry Pratchett and I had I think, six or seven minor parts - robber, chamberlain, player, random member of rabble… that’s what I remember.

It was at the Karori Dramatic Society that I realised while I love performing, plays aren’t really for me. While I love performing, love the writing in stage plays and generally adore Shakespeare, the endless rehearsals got me down. I’d be bored of the script by the time the curtain went up on day one.

But all these years treading the boards gave me some good basic skills. I can project my voice. I know how to be a background actor, I know a bit about how theatre works.

So, seeing the performers at the Cabaret Coven’s Marvel Vs DC show wasn’t just wildly entertaining, it was an inspiration.

I want to be a drag king.

My mind was immediately buzzing with ideas for acts, for personas, for songs I could use for those acts.

The show was incredible. I screamed myself hoarse. Afterwards, I found it hard to sleep, imagining how fun it’d be to somehow act out the Mariner’s Revenge Song by the Decemberists, but make it burlesque. (FTR I think it’s a group act, with a queen for the mother part and people who can hold up ‘everyone scream now’ signs for the whale attack part. Maybe one day!)
How much fun?
so much.

Then the brilliant news, Hugo Grrl, New Zealand’s premiere Drag King performer was hosting ‘how to’ workshops. So I signed up, toddled along and learned a few things. The first was a very good Drag King 101 and the second, a guided make up workshop. I went rather cartoony with my look, as it’s the first time doing a serious amount of makeup on myself in many, many years, and also, because it was a learning experience.

That said, I don’t hate my look. It’s a good start, and I’m sure I’ll get better with time.

So with that minimal amount of prep, and a lot of big ideas, I’ve booked my first drag king performance in December. This will be soon after returning from overseas, so I’m a little tentative in case I get sick of something over there, but I’m excited as hell.

I’m toying some with drag king names, but I think I’ve settled for the moment on Dick Slay-son which is a play on my Batman fan ways. We’ll see if it sticks.

Updated 14 Sept

Well, didn’t hit publish on this post for whatever reason, and now I have formally debuted my drag king persona, Dick Slayson. I kittened (aka, stage crew, props wrangler) for Cabaret Coven’s Bowie Vs Queen show and had a brilliant time.

Tried the make up without the facial hair, or eyebrow pasting down, just to see how I liked it…