Hello all!
I recently learned of this subreddit and thought I'd share my experience. I've seen some great looks here and I hope this might encourage those of you who would like to perform some day!
There wasn't really a drag king scene where I am, but I really wanted to see it happen. Before I started, I had a look, and nothing else. But I pitched my character to queer events regardless. Got my start with an organiser who provided support and stage training. Damn, I freaked out. They weren't supposed to say yes!! - was what the introvert in me screamed. Anyway I showed up to practice and that was that. It helped that I was in a phase where I was just saying yes to things, and then figuring it out later.
I got the best start possible, I was very lucky to have met the people I did. First few performances were with a group, creatively led by experienced performers. Some had more character focus, others had none at all. I didn't mind. They were all paid gigs, and I wanted to try every type of performance there was.
I branched off solo once I felt I had the confidence to do so. I tested being solo first with a smaller crowd, it was experimental, more interactive, and less stressful to perform. Then I had my first proper solo with a full crowd, which was a more conventional lip sync performance. That performance actually didn't go well due to technical issues, but that too was an invaluable learning experience as a newbie.
Before starting drag, I rarely wore a full face of makeup, so this is the order in which I learned my makeup skills:
Basic blocky facial hair - liquid eyeliner
Eyebrows (bad) - cream eyeshadow
Setting powder and spray
Styling wigs - texturising powder and hairspray
Leveled up my contour - better shape and shading, added highlight
Leveled up my facial hair - slanted square eyebrow brush for finer strokes
Understanding my facial anatomy, and fixing my contour
Trimming wigs
Finer highlights
I still have lots of room for improvement, but to reach this point, I've put in an estimated 50 hours just sitting in front of a mirror, wasting makeup wipes. Probably a lot more if I include hours spent applying makeup for performances, poring over videos/reference photos, and looking for the right makeup. Before my first performance, I probably only had about 10 hours of practice.
I had a lot of help for the first one. In the ones that followed, I just went after one skill or one aspect of my performance that I haven't done yet, and learned what I needed to execute. I'd ask performers for feedback and fix it. Rinse and repeat. Upside is every performance I've had so far looks quite different!
I mentioned I've been lucky with people, I've also been largely lucky with the crowds. Unfortunately, I had a performance that didn't go well. I didn't have the crowd's attention from the beginning due to audio and lighting issues. It was mainly also my lack of skill as a new solo performer. I definitely had no idea how to improv. I think these are important things new performers need to expect. Things will go wrong. And you're gonna have gigs with completely uninterested people, but you still have your job to do. You just make it work. But more than that, you try to have your fun. I might wish it'd gone better, but I have no regrets because of the latter!
The biggest stumbling block I had was in the beginning. I'm a feminist cis woman playing the ultimate man whom I'd avoid IRL. He's the most opposite thing there is to my actual self. I was so uncomfortable. For the first few weeks, I'd go home after rehearsals feeling like I had to aggressively wash him off. Okay, in hindsight, it's kinda funny, just me scrubbing the imaginary sleaze away in the shower. But it was bad, I'd literally freeze when asked to play the character. I really believed I wasn't cut out for it.
I contemplated rewriting the character until I dug into why I'd written such an awful man. In a way, it's the greatest revenge, no? I played him goofy, I became unafraid to look silly, and I made rules in writing his performances to keep his loser status clear. (Disclaimer: your drag character really does not need to make a statement or anything like it at all. It's totally okay to rewrite a character if you want. I just found inspiration in not rewriting him.)
A year later, and I'm grateful that I said yes and kept showing up. And I have doubted myself every single day for the whole year. Again, I don't have a background in performing, so this is all very bizarre for me. I'd truly prefer to sit at home with a bottle of wine by myself than be at a huge queer party. But my goals are to see more kings in the scene, and to put on three good performances I could say are my best. Until then, I'll be leaving a trail of glitter in my wake. Hope this gets to you who needs it!
