6/29/2023 0 Comments Over meet drag kingsWhen the season ended, Emily’s interest in drag did not, and she soon became a regular fixture at The Impy. “He was hosting viewing parties of Drag Race the TV show… and he’d do a spot before the show and then we’d watch the show and he’d do a spot after as well,” she says. Her manager, Daniel Kitty, invited her along to his gig at the Imperial. Her story with drag actually began at KFC, where she was working at the time. The pair host Lip Sync Heroes at The Imperial hotel. “Drag, for me, is more the performance side of things rather than the gender performance… it’s more like an art form really, and it’s about expression and about how you portray yourself through this kind of character and story that you create,” she says.įarren Heit, being photobombed by Ruby Slippers. Victoria Scone, 27, will complete against 11 other contestants in September and hopes “there’ll be a million more AFAB drag queens, drag kings, non-binary performers on the show in future”.įor Emily, drag is less about subverting gender and more about art. The TV series is hugely influential its American counterpart has been variously credited over the years with bringing drag into mainstream culture. Ru Paul’s Drag Race UK has just announced its first cisgender or AFAB (assigned female at birth) contestant will compete in the show later this year. This change is being mirrored in drag communities throughout the globe. They’re doing a really great job,” says Farren. “It’s great to see some girls getting out there and they’re killing it. While some queens are reluctant to accept diverse performers, The Imperial welcomes them with open arms. Trans and non-binary drag performers are also increasingly common. While drag has been traditionally dominated by gay men, lesbian women have been performing as drag kings since the early 1980s. Some drag queens may find it offensive that women are taking their escape and art form and just having fun with it,” she says. “They’ve kind of grown up with drag as an escape from the male world…. Her experience, especially at The Impy, has been overwhelmingly positive, but she acknowledges “there are definitely other drag queens, mainly older drag queens, who don’t really accept female drag queens into their spaces”. This atmosphere is especially important for Emily, who is a cisgender woman performing as a drag queen. Some drag queens may find it offensive that women are taking their escape and art form and just having fun with it. There are “a lot more bio queens and a lot more Indigenous queens as well, which back in the day you didn’t see a lot of around here,” he says. The Imperial “has always been an all inclusive venue” according to Farren, but since it changed ownership four years ago, “there’s been a lot more inclusivity”. “When I first started doing drag, no, there were no female performers,” he says. It’s MC’d by Farren Heit, a drag queen who has been performing for over 27 years and seen the scene evolve dramatically in that time. She’s performing at The Impy’s weekly ‘Lip Sync Heroes’, an open mic event held every Sunday from 7pm. It’s an extraordinary scene, but really, it’s just an average Sunday night at The Imperial – or The Impy as it’s tenderly called by its regulars. She’s at the Imperial Hotel Erskineville in a room filled with larger-than-life characters and lots, and lots of sequins. While most queens are traditionally gay men dressing up as women, Emily is a woman dressing up as a man dressing up as a woman! Unlike most of her peers, Emily is an AFAB (assigned female at birth) queen. Emily, known by her drag name Jenna Rogue, has all the makings of a classic drag queen – except for one notable difference. The 21-year-old is dressed to the nines in a floral dress and towering stilettos, glittering make up and a skyscraper wig. After a round of whooping and thunderous applause, the crowd falls silent as Emily Fitzgerald lip syncs the lyrics to Cher’s cover of Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! Blue and red lights flash around the room, reflected by a disco ball dangling from the ceiling.
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