00:00people don't know what a drag king is at all. people don't know that there are types of drag
00:04that aren't queens. drag isn't just, you know, cross-dressing and getting on a runway and
00:10lip-syncing to to britney. there's more to it than that. it's art.
00:22so when i get into drag, it's kind of like i just get into the zone
00:25and when i go in as myself and then i come out as piano.
00:38a drag thing which is someone that is neither trying to parody masculinity or femininity and
00:44maybe a blend of both. maybe just sort of like a an agender creature. there's also queens which
00:49are people who do king looks and queen looks. they tend to gravitate to the same spaces that
00:55kings do because they're generally more more friendly to people that are gender diverse.
01:10it's become very gatekeepy. it's very hard for drag kings and things to get booked.
01:14nowadays when people think drag, they think drag race. and if you're not a super hyper-polished,
01:17hyper-feminine queen, they don't want you. i have to say though, i feel like drag kings are on the rise.
01:40i identify as transmasculine specifically. i've been out for about a decade.
01:48yeah
01:57it's so funny. i feel like it's totally changed how i look at the world and how i move through
02:01the world. i'm so much more confident now and i don't think i ever realized that it was because
02:05of, you know, dysphoria.
02:17i'm really excited to be part of this. i was the runner-up on week four,
02:25so now i get to go to the finale and i'm really excited. it can be expensive when you're first
02:30starting out. makeup and clothes and this and that. but i don't think it has to be expensive overall.
02:36we have entered this era of the very polished drag artist and it is mostly due to drag race.
02:43this notion that you have to look this certain way. you have to spend thousands of dollars to do
02:48a competition. during quarantine, i was realizing that i really needed to be in touch with new york
03:03based kings or things because i didn't really know that many of the people in my area. i started
03:08following all these new york kings and i very quickly found the cake boys.
03:25i had to create that sort of horrible shape that danny devito wears.
03:30so i created this suit to go under it completely out of pillows that i just sewed together and put
03:36straps on. trying to get into this backstage was a trial. there were points when i was performing
03:42where i actually was having trouble lip-syncing because people were screaming so loud i couldn't
03:48hear the music. it was one of the most wild performance experiences i've ever had in my life.
03:54i do what i would want to see. it doesn't matter if other people don't like it. i don't try and
03:58pander to other people with my drag. if it plays it's great and if it doesn't, it doesn't matter
04:02because i made the art that i want to make.
04:32this has been one of the greatest experiences of my entire life is to be able to do this and show
04:37my art to people that appreciate it and meet so many absolutely phenomenal human beings.
04:42klondike deserved that win. oh my god she is incredible. i've had the time of my life. i'm
04:49really happy. the best case scenario would be a world in which it's just as easy to book a king
04:54or a thing as it is to book a queen. i want people who are drag kings and things to be able to make
05:00a career off of this the way the queens can instead of having it just be a side thing or
05:05just part of their their job or a hobby. we deserve to be able to make a career out of this too.
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