00:05Hello, I'm Max Pleasure.
00:07Today I'm going to show you my makeup and hair tricks
00:10for creating a drag king look.
00:11And I'm going to take you beyond the glam
00:14and tell you a little bit about the amazing drag scene
00:17that we have here in Brooklyn.
00:20So the first thing I do is moisturize,
00:22because that's really important.
00:24I like to do a glitter lip,
00:27which is a trick that I've learned
00:28from burlesque performers and drag queens.
00:32It's definitely the thing that people get the most excited about.
00:35Like, what about the mustache? Whatever. It's fine.
00:37And people are always shocked when I say,
00:39it's just some glue and then loose glitter put on top.
00:42And then I get glitter all over everything.
00:44But that's okay.
00:45Today is Saturday morning drag brunch.
00:49It is a drag brunch of nonstop shows for, like, three hours.
00:54So this is Neutrogena Healthy Skin Primer.
00:59I truthfully don't know a lot about makeup.
01:01The transformation wasn't really what drew me to drag in the first place.
01:06The thing that drew me was being able to get on stage
01:09and tell a story and choreograph dances and build props.
01:14That's the stuff that really excites me.
01:17The makeup part actually scared me for so long.
01:20My first few times in drag when I was in college,
01:23I didn't wear facial hair because it scared me too much.
01:26So next I do the contouring.
01:28I don't really change the shape of my face.
01:31I kind of just exaggerate the highs and lows that I already have.
01:36Contouring is also a necessary part of the process
01:39because it helps your face not get lost in stage lighting.
01:43There's so many misconceptions about drag kings.
01:47I get really excited when I have the opportunity to set the record straight.
01:50So a drag king is a performer that performs a masculine persona or illusion.
02:00And a drag queen is a performer that does a feminine one.
02:04Those definitions are purposefully very vague.
02:06And even I almost find those too restricting.
02:10So here I'm making more of a masculine like triangle eyebrow.
02:15And I'm kind of following like where my natural arch is.
02:20And really making my eyebrows bigger and thicker.
02:25Those are definitions rooted in the idea of the gender binary.
02:28You're either a man or a woman.
02:30Like drag is the transformation from one to the other.
02:33And those definitions are kind of fading out as our understanding of gender and gender identity expand.
02:42When I first started drag, it was in college.
02:45And I was like, oh, well, I'm a woman, so I have to be a drag king.
02:49That's not really the case.
02:51There are plenty of women who are drag queens, who identify as women.
02:57But the gender identity that you have day to day does not have to control the drag illusion that you
03:05choose to perform.
03:07So the last step of my makeup process is the mustache and goatee, which I apply with face paint and
03:14a toothpick.
03:15This is one of the techniques that has not changed at all since 2016.
03:20I usually don't pick out my brunch looks until the last second because I really, you know, want to see
03:26how I'm feeling.
03:27Today, I'm going to go for my yellow suit.
03:30It was custom made for me by my friend Ten Yards Clothing.
03:35It's one of my favorite looks to wear.
03:38So the very last step is the hair gel.
03:41But instead of gel, I'm going to use lube.
03:45Using lube keeps the wet look longer.
03:48And that's kind of what I'm going for.
03:50Like the really greasy, I'm a rock star who's on tour and hasn't had access to a good shower in
03:57weeks.
03:57Like that's kind of what I'm going for.
04:00And that's the look.
04:05Our next performer is a good man.
04:07It's true!
04:08Please put your hands together for Max Lesnar!
04:14Being a drag king has really expanded my understanding of what my own gender identity is.
04:21And what I want my presentation to be.
04:24I was like, oh, like Max Pleasure is a character that I put on and he's a rocker type.
04:29So like, these are my rings that I'm going to wear in drag.
04:32And then it reached to the point where I just wore that jewelry all the time.
04:37And then from there I was like, wait, no, I actually, I like being this way a lot.
04:43I don't know.
04:44Being Max Pleasure taught me a lot about how I want to be.
04:48It's about confidence.
04:50It's about entering a room and knowing that I'm an integral part of what's happening there.
04:57And I've learned a lot about not just being like a person or a man or a performer.
05:04I've learned so much about being part of a group, helping people.
05:08I would not be the person that I am today if it wasn't for being Max Pleasure and being a
05:13drag performer.
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