Drag King Hugo Grrrl says “It’s Time” to Step Away from Drag
After almost seven years of drag, the iconic Drag King Hugo Grrrl is semi-retiring to find his love for the arts again. George Fowler, known as Wellington’s Drag King Hugo Grrrl, announced to his 14.9k followers on Instagram that he would be leaving drag for the foreseeable future, instead working at South Pacific Pride in Auckland, crafting, playing with pets, and just being ‘boring’. Hugo told Massive,
“I can’t wait to take a break. I’ll definitely make weird art and costumes again but I really wanna take a break so I can fall in love with that again.”
Hugo is a household name in Wellington drag, performing, producing and writing. He was the first trans man and drag king to compete on a drag reality show, winning House of Drag in 2018.
After so much grinding, a well-deserved break is needed. “I wanna take the hustle out of it and have an assessment of the bits of it that I love,” Hugo said. “I will definitely do the odd gig; I will play dress up till I die.”
Hugo is now working for South Pacific Pride as Associate Director of Pride Pledge and Winter Pride in Auckland. He said his role is quite broad, “I desperately need that, from going from the mess and variety of art to sitting at a desk, having the variety is really important.” Other than work, Hugo is excited to get stuck into some crafts even though “none of it is good.”
“If you monetise your hobbies, you never truly enjoy them.” Hugo said Covid-19 had impacted his drag career too much and led him to semi-retiring. Many of his projects weren’t able to happen, including an Auckland season of The Glitter Garden and a custom burlesque show for Wellington on a Plate. “When you pour your heart and soul into things and it doesn’t come through, it’s time to assess what’s serving you.”
“It’s more than just linguistically difficult, it’s just heartbreaking. It’s really difficult to have hope or excitement for shows.”
“It was super hard before but still worth it cause the art was awesome, but now there’s just no semblance of financial [or emotional] security.”
His last project was The Shit Show: A Completely Crappy Cabaret, performed at Fringe Festival’s opening weekend. “It was a good way to go out.” The show was “a heavy commentary on how things are going cause the last few years have been a shit show,” Hugo said. At the last performance, Hugo was “very ready to go … I got off stage and was like ‘yup I’m definitely ready, I’m tired’.” While he is ready for a rest, drag has given Hugo so many memories. He couldn’t pick one highlight of his drag career, but a favourite was performing The Glitter Garden at Circa Theatre. The audience was usually a mix of ages but one morning show was only school kids. “It was a mess of a show, they were so into it and so loud. There’s a point in the show where I have the most melodramatic campy tantrum and I’m like ‘no I give up I’m not doing it anymore’.” Usually, the audience would play along by saying “no don’t,” said Hugo. But at this show, a “chant started, they all go ‘don’t give up, don’t give up’”.
“It was pretty magic.” Hugo felt drag has done “everything” for his identity over the past seven years. “The drag to trans pipeline is really real cause drag is a really safe place to figure some shit out and have fun while you do it.”
“I don’t desperately need drag like I did once upon a time.”
