Drag: Conquering culture one shimmering heel at a time
Sporting a blond wig and a white belt top, then a crop top, necktie and spike choker, or a giant purple ruffled coat. Wowing the audience with a stunning performance that made me want to cheer myself hoarse and get up there and shake my little ass with them on that stage at the same time. Dragsters are fucking iconic.
Back then was my first time watching Faux Femm (aka Kiran Morar) perform. But now, they are greeting me from the other end of a zoom call, talking drag, art, and queer expression, in the hope that I can absorb some of their coolness for myself.
Wellington local drag queen, Faux Femm is one of my old Massey RAs. They hosted the unforgettable hall drag night (where I actually got to shake my ass in a dance off). They log onto the zoom call with a grin and a cheery “Hello”. I want to know what dragster’s secrets are. What makes them able to walk onto a stage like they own it, stun everyone, then vanish into the smoke machine mist?
For Faux Femm, it all started with some fake lashes, a pair of heels, and a whole lot of determination.
"I just started trying to get into drag myself and doing the shoddiest, most awful version of it."
Their love for drag shone through Faux Femm’s face and voice, I felt like I could listen to them talk about it forever.
"I remember very early on doing Poison Ivy looks and Maleficent looks. They were shoddy, of just black lace and cotton on robe and then duct taping the horns to my head."
But no one can make it alone, and creativity can sure be helped along with a healthy dose of critique. This was where fellow Welly queens, Maria Richmond and Foxy Cleopatra, came in. "Whether it be, 'You probably need to wear a bigger lash', or 'You should probably do your base a little bit better'."
The drag community helped Faux Femm perfect their look. And for the spicy queen, this is what being an iconic dragster means. Being talented but also helping the "baby dragsters" coming up beneath you, no matter how long you’ve done drag for.
"Even very famous dragsters are people who still actively participate on community pages, and they book local performances."
They particularly talked about Harlie Lux, a queen who just moved to Melbourne. "She is undeniably iconic in the scene, for her kind of 1920s to 1950s glamour and her ability to just lip sync so immaculately."
Faux Femm says Harlie is someone who can do wigs all day long and has community rates for drag performers. "She made it attainable for the younger dragsters to be able to access her for wigs, and not to break their bank doing it."
Drag king, Amoeba Geezer (aka Willem Koller), is approaching their second dragiversary in a different aesthetic. They sport stunningly creepy black and white face paint, a dog leash, and a different mustache each time they take the stage.
Amoeba Geezer has been a reoccurring character on my insta feed a long time. Now I am meeting them in my second home, Tussock Cafe on the Pukeahu campus, just after the lunch rush.
We get talking about how they started out in drag after watching RuPaul’s Drag Race from twelve years old. "I didn't do a lot of planning before I started drag. I just kind of jumped into it," they say.
Amoeba Geezer says they started without much of an idea of who they really wanted to be. But you gotta start somewhere. "I feel like is kind of the only way you can do it."
The evolution of Amoeba Geezer’s drag persona was pushed by the desire to keep trying new things. "I thought I was gonna do much more clowny, mime, hero stuff for the majority of my drag career. But as I've gone on, it's become a lot more varied."
"I've moved more into alternative punky horror stuff than I ever thought I would at the beginning."
They go on to enthuse about vampires, one of their biggest inspo’s, for the next five minutes. "I'm just like the biggest vampire fan ever," Amoeba says with a cheesy smile.
"Vampires are so queer as well … and are such an example of masculine flamboyance. Like if you look to vampire film history, the costuming really lends itself to drag king aesthetics."
For Amoeba Geezer, to be iconic is to be remembered.
"The most beautiful people are the people that you remember. And I guess that's how I think about the word iconic. It's something that is original and unique. Like a brain worm, you can never forget it."
Both dragsters say that drag allows them to channel their other passions into an art that celebrates their queer identity.
Faux tells me, "Theater and makeup and fashion – there is such a lineage of queer driving forces and queer bodies. But usually, they are adjacent or background characters. Whereas drag really centralizes the queerest possible person.”
Amoeba feels similar, "I love looking to examples in queer history and stuff like that. I think if you look into other eras, it's really fruitful to see things that you want to draw from."
They say drag "encapsulates so many elements of creativity. You have to be like a painter, a makeup artist, a fashion person. You have to be able to tell a good story”.
Finishing my conversations with these talented dragsters, I think I have discovered the secret to being as iconic as they are. Being iconic is taking your true self, whatever that may be at the time, and turning that shit up to eleven.
The fake lashes are definitely a big help, too.