JACOB

Can you define your drag persona and where did your inspiration come from?

​

"I’m still developing. I feel like I have 2 personas. Half of the time I’m a club kid playing with make-up and making shit out of anything I can find (at Christmas it was the decorations off my mum’s tree), the other half I’m in super feminine make-up & hair wanting to feel my supermodel fantasy. Fashion is huge inspiration for me. So are female hip hop musicians and queer artists. I was a teenage goth so that’s stayed with me too."

Can you describe your first drag performance?

​

"It was a lip-sync to ‘Fierce’ by Azealia Banks and ‘Philly the Blunt’ by Maluca Mala, which has this sound bite from the film Paris is Burning. It’s Octavia Saint Laurent describing how she already felt like a star, but wanted the wealth to equal that."

 

What would you say your persona brings to drag culture?

​

"I give lots of ass haha. But people also say I have lots of energy which I like. I’m never gonna half-arse any performance on stage. It’s offensive to the art form sorry. And you never know who’s watching. I got 3 gigs out of the video of my first performance that was put on Facebook."

​

What are the reasons you do drag?

​

"Not many people discover the thing they felt like they were put on this earth to do, but for me it’s performance. There’s no doubt in my mind about that. Doing drag is the opportunity for me to express the extravagant, camp, queer, feminine, sexual, dark, aggressive aspects of my personality that I don’t usually feel so confident showing on a normal basis. The more I do it the more I discover about my own identity. I feel that life is absurd and ridiculous, and so are our rigid notions of gender and sexuality. Drag is a great way to poke fun at this, and to disturb our ideas of what is considered acceptable behaviour."     

​

What do you do outside of drag?

 

"I’m a freelance professional dancer, mainly in contemporary dance theatre companies such as Vincent Dance Theatre and Gary Clarke Company. I’m also a member of a vogue house called the House of Decay (based between Manchester & London), and perform at Tunnel nightclub on Lower Briggate as part of the WERK team.   

Why do you think drag is so important right now within this era? I.e. Artistic landscape, Political Attitudes, Current events

I think it’s always been important, it’s just got a lot more visibility now because of TV. But it carries an important political message about accepting and loving who you are and being brave enough to present yourself to the world in whatever way you like. That you can go through a lot of shit but you can carve out a place for yourself in this world and feel that there is a reason why you’re alive. And on an artistic level its so beautiful and aesthetically interesting. A colourful, dramatic antidote to all that’s grey and mundane."  

What are your opinions on transgender and gender issues within drag culture? E.g female drag artists

​

"I think drag is the perfect arena to comment on these issues, and is a very obvious example of playing with gender. But it can be confusing for people with no experience of the LGBT community to understand what the differences are between drag and transgenderism.  Sometimes I’m shocked about how little people know, but also how little I know too. Drag is also traditionally exclusionary of females which is bullshit. Even referring to them as ‘bio’ or ‘faux’ queens so as to differentiate them. There’s nothing biological about a drag queen. There’s nothing biological about gender. Its all performance, and what varies is the degree of extremes. I honestly feel a lot of queens aren’t educated about transgender issues and because drag and transgenderism are so talked about right now that a lot of bullshit gets said that needs to be checked. Traditional gay bars or drag venues aren’t safe spaces for a lot of queer people – they are largely owned by white gay men serving other white gay men. It’s in the smaller more underground venues where you find all different kinds of people that accept all different kinds of drag. I don’t care about the person really, I care about how they perform, what they’re bringing, are they serious about it."     

​

What are your future aspirations within drag?

 

"To become much better at make-up and also to design my own looks. I have so many ideas in my head but not necessarily the means or the skills to execute these ideas well. I also want to start competitions and meet other artists just to build my experience and create opportunities for myself. I want to actualize all the performance ideas I’ve got. I want people to see that I do care about the art form and how nuanced & clever & crazy it can be, and that I’m not just another one jumping on the band-wagon (this has been said to me before)."

​

With the rise of popularity of drag, what efforts could be done to ensure drag stays true to its roots?

​

"It has to keep it’s sense of humour. It has to keep commenting on pop culture and contemporary issues, it has to be a way to deal with how shockingly awful life can be for people on the margins. But some things can be left behind. Such as the idea that it’s something only men can do best. That there are only some forms of drag considered valid or ‘proper’ drag. In America at the start of the 20th Century black drag artists were banned from balls and pageants because of obvious racism but also because drag was about emulating the show girls of Hollywood, who were all played by rich white actresses. Drag has moved on from then, and it will continue to become more open & inclusive. It has to, whether people like it or not."