Dedicated to Kerry Benson.
To set the scene, imagine Beacon Bar, haunted by purple neon lighting and an electric atmosphere in the air. Eight people strut into the room, enveloped in cheers and snapping fingers. Orfeas, the host, introduces them one by one, and the audience gets our first glimpse. Particular standouts include Sadi St’ Ick (she/they), whose floral explosion captured feminine beauty in what can only be described as a masterclass in drag. Billie Viper (they/she/he) proved that blondes not only have more fun, but also that they’re hot, especially when sweeping through Beacon Bar in leather shorts and snake boots, and Burt Cocaine’s (he/him) rock star look was better than any high.
The opening number, choreographed by Lyss and Alex, was an erotic daydream that peaked with a florgy (floor orgy). Like an artful witch, she concocted the perfect combination of sex, weirdness, power, and femininity, with the number rendering the audience breathless. As for the solo performances, after seeing everyone serving in the dressing room, the only thing higher than my expectations was how high Blue Monday (she/they) could kick her legs. I was especially spellbound by their rainbow eyeshadow paired with trails of blue diamonds across their face. Up next, Molliver Twist’s (they/them) performance left me begging “please sir, I want some more”, with their cunty Gregor Samsa’s (from Kafka’s Metamorphosis) look pushing the boundaries of drag in the best possible way. Pushing said boundaries further with a serenading cover of ‘Make Me Wanna to Die’, Venus Vertigo (she/they/it) had us all swooning in the crowd. Their all-black ensemble, accompanied by thigh-high boots and black lace gloves, reminded me why I find goth girls so hot. The Beast of Laid Road (it/its) electrified the room with its ferocious energy and powerful choreography (again by Lyss), with a reaction from the crowd that has been compared to 60s Beatlemania. To conclude, Chilly Baltic’s (she/her) performance gave me chills, especially her crowd work and energy. She had matched her emerald dress and with impeccable jade eyeshadow, and I was too green, but with envy at her pretty she was.
Gagging for more, I interviewed some of the stars of the show.
How did you come up with your drag name?
The Beast of Laid Road: I love creatures and monsters and I love the aspect of drag that is so weird and androgynous. It’s based on the Beast of Bray Road (the road where the creature haunts), but I’ve made it the Beast of Laid Road [as in getting laid].
Sadi St’ Ick: My drag name was actually suggested by my dad. He’s always reposting Drag Race and gay club events on Facebook. He doesn’t like sports and Drag Race, Dragula, or just any kind of drag event is his shit. Honestly, my parents are such LGBT allies, I was raised around more gay people than straight people.
Molliver Twist: My drag name is Molliver Twist because my name is Molliver and it’s really fun to say “please sir can I have some more” in an English accent.
Chilly Baltic: Mine is an inside joke from high school. I was sat outside with friends at lunchtime and one of them went “it’s a bit chilly Baltic isn’t it” and everyone was like ‘oooooh…’ It’s very Scottish as well, which I like. She’s an ice princess/ice queen, frozen in ice and has been thawed out and ready to serve cunt.
Have you done any competitions that showcase your performing skills?
The Beast of Laid Road: Yes.
Sadi St’ Ick: I did a spelling bee when I was five and it really set me up for this.
Venus Vertigo: I won Drag Walk last year.
Why do you do drag?
Blue Monday: I have always been much more conscious of my mind than my body, and what I can create and imagine matters far more to me than what my body looks like. Drag is very freeing in that people are not looking at you as a person, but as a fantastical being, a performer who bends the definitions of gender into something surprising and new. In my bluest of Mondays, in those times I have hated myself and my own body, I have found solace in creating art that twisted the human body and made demons out of all of us. In coming out as a transmasculine guy, I have finally been able to embrace the part of me that wants to create and perform with my own form. Drag is an extension of my creativity, it is something that separates people’s expectations from the assumptions that come with my body. I am not there to be a boy or a girl existing amongst others, I am there to perform, to bring a show, and to deliver unto them the unexpected. It is wonderful freeing to be unpredictable.
Venus Vertigo: Drag in my mind, is a performance of gender. I’ve never felt any connection to gender but some connection to femininity, but because I’m non-binary I feel like I have to perform androgyny. As an afab non-binary person, I've always felt this pressure to perform femininity, or once I came out as non-binary, to perform androgyny. This never felt like a choice to me, but something that I had to do to be accepted in society. Through my drag, I'm able to perform gender in any way I want to. I can freely display hyper-femininity with a touch of otherworldliness. Instead of being cautious of my femininity, I'm able to lean into it completely. Drag is an outlet to perform all my femininity at once.
Molliver Twist: I also agree. Drag, to me, is a way of expressing the performative nature of gender. My general style of makeup and dress takes a lot of inspiration from drag and as I’m non binary, just existing in drag makeup makes me feel performative with my femininity. This helps ease dysphoria as it allows me to make my gender expression an intentional stylistic choice. Doing drag also allows me to just be weird and inventive and explore aspects of myself through makeup and performance.
Sadi St’ Ick: Drag, to me, is a liberating opportunity to express a different but still very much personal and genuine aspect of gender. As a queer, trans person I do not feel that there will ever be a point in which I will truly stop learning more about myself and my identity through meaningful exploration. Drag gives me the free space to delve into that part of myself with a mind-set that is expressly focused on pushing personal limits. Throwing convention to the wind is exciting and alleviates the familiar pressure of needing to conform. By actively seeking to push completely beyond the boundaries of heteronormativity, my expression of identity becomes absolutely authentic. Drag really allows us to outwardly express the beauty of our own internal oddness. I love having an excuse to look strange, and fashionable, and artsy, and big, and bold. It’s nice to dress as I do and get praise for it – who doesn’t love a bit of praise? I’m quite eccentric generally and I dress eccentrically generally, and it’s so nice to take that even further and see how far that can go and become everyone else’s problem.
Chilly Baltic: Drag for me is essentially a big ‘fuck you’ to society and gender norms. The whole point of it is to say “actually fuck this we don’t need to have gender norms and gender binaries – I’m a man in a dress, what does it matter?”. It’s a form of protesting: ever since Stonewall, it’s been drag queens and trans women; even today in clubs and gay spaces. Even just being in drag is a protest in an artful way, yet it puts a smile on everyone’s face. There’s something about that form of protest that is just magical – on both sides. For both the audience and performer, nothing matches the energy of a drag show. I guess for me, drag is vulnerable in a sense - I’m exposing the intricacies of my identity, who I am as a person, and my artistic point of view, all for entertainment, both that of myself and an audience. In that moment when the performer starts their number, you’re removed from your worries for a while, and that’s the ultimate goal Playing with gender? That’s the essence of drag! It’s a way for you to explore the extremities of your gender identity, or remove gender from your identity entirely and do it in a way that’s artful, fun, and while you lip-sync along to your favourite song.
The Beast of Laid Road: It’s such a fun way to express gender in a way that you normally could never. I’m a trans guy, but I’m very binary in how I present myself, so I love having a very androgynous character and being able to have more femininity (which I wouldn’t feel comfortable with normally). It’s so fun to explode with gender, whether it’s masculine, feminine or androgynous, and being able to collide it all into something that isn’t the norm.
Billie Viper: It’s just freedom, really. The freedom to explore gender, character, and so on - the idea of creating that alter-ego is really important to me. Being on a bit of an… ahem… journey with gender at the moment, I think having this other persona will be such an opportunity to experiment with everything - so expect Billie to go in a lot of different directions! The confidence aspect is huge too. Like, for someone who’d struggle to make eye contact with you in the street, getting to perform in front of a screaming crowd is really quite amazing. So, yeah, although Billie’s just a baby performer for now, I’m so excited to see where we could go next!
How did you get into drag?
Chilly Baltic: In quite a traditional way, because obviously I was gay and my friends were like “how have you not watched Drag Race?”. I started with season six and went from there, then I watched the whole thing. Then I started watching drag shows in Glasgow and I thought “I could… I could give it a go”. I bought a dress, and here we are.
The Beast of Laid Road: I think just being a queer person it’s part of your culture, I never really sought it out until now (it’s my first time doing drag) and I’ve always wanted to do it. It was really fun and I definitely want to do more.
Who is your inspiration for your drag?
Chilly Baltic: For lip-syncing, I channel Monet X Change, especially the Pound the Alarm death drop, but for fashion, I’d say Gottmik. She’s fabulous, she really is.
Sadi St’ Ick: I’m going to sound like such a wanker but all of my queer chosen family and friends back in London. I’m friends with a lot of people who are genre-pushing and love being experimental. They’re very DIY, artsy, and fun, they’re all about letting themselves go and having a good time. I’m difficult to pin down in the sense that I kind of like to throw myself at lots of different art forms, and they’re the people who allow me to do that, and enjoy it, and it feel happy.
The Beast of Laid Road: Weirdness. Like when you Google ‘monster drag’. And Rocky Horror of course!
Where can we find more of your work and support your drag?
Sadi St’ Ick: Give me a fiver and call 1-800-Wendy for a good time. Or just follow @sadi.st.ick on Instagram.
Chilly Baltic: Mine is @chillybaltic_
The Beast of Laid Road: Follow @thomasrkscott
Billie Viper: I forgot to take photos but @billie.viper
By Anna (she/her)