January 29, 2024 • 61 mins
In recent years, Kingston drag shows and performers have enjoyed renewed popularity. While many may be new to drag, hosts Johnny and Ange discover the art form has a deeper and richer history in Kingston than one might think. In this episode, Kingston's preeminent drag entertainers and hosts of the What's the Maple Tea?! podcast, Tyffanie Morgan and Rowena Whey, drive the discussion from drag's past to present, and from gender expression to art form and entertainment. Along the way, they cover drag lexicon, dispel drag misperceptions, and even detail the drag show experience and etiquette.
Hosts:
Angela Stever alegnarevets@gmail.com
Johnny San john@kingstonlive.ca
Links:
What's the Maple Tea?! podcast https://themapletea.ca
Tyffanie Morgan https://tyffanie.com
Rowena Whey http://rowenawhey.com
Find drag shows in Canada http://dragshow.ca
Find drag shows and live music events in Kingston http://kingstonlive.ca/
Audio production by Soundwise http://soundwise.audio
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:20):
Music Sounds good.
Don't touch the mic.
Don't touch.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
You can, if you want, just say the ASMR, everything's
flew around here.
Okay, here we go.
Follict shaped objects Um Neh,no Neh.
I think we're gonna have fun.
Okay, I think we're gonna havefun, let's just get into it.
(00:47):
Let me do this.
Okay, this is.
Speaker 4 (00:48):
Kingston Live.
I'm Johnny, san and Steve ishere, hello, and we would like
to welcome Tiffany, morgan,hello, sleepy and Rowena Way.
Hello, hello, hello.
Thank you for joining us today.
Thank you so much for having usthere's already a great energy
in the room when they asked meto do this interview.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
They're like do you want to interview Dread Queens?
I was like yes, bitch.
I just finished watching all ofRuPaul's Drag Race, so I'm very
like in the mode right now Allof it.
Speaker 1 (01:16):
so you didn't have a life for months, Exactly For
months.
Decades.
Speaker 2 (01:20):
Thinking about who I would be in Snatch Game.
Oh, I know, think about that.
I might ask you later becausethat's a big thing.
Speaker 4 (01:28):
I think your exact words when I asked you was
Sleigh Bitch.
Yeah, I can say that SleighBitch?
Speaker 2 (01:33):
Yeah, johnny, you sound so funny.
Say it to Fermi one more timeyou can play this back.
Speaker 4 (01:39):
No, actually I think it's gonna be an interesting
discussion because I knowactually very little about Drag,
apart from just a casualobserver.
Ange obviously knows it verywell.
Speaker 2 (01:49):
I dove head first into the culture.
Speaker 4 (01:51):
Let's just start with what is Drag.
How would you explain it tosomebody who is unfamiliar?
Speaker 1 (01:59):
I mean you've been doing it longer than I have so
why?
Don't you talk about what youthink Drag is?
And I'll talk about the modernexpression of Drag.
Speaker 2 (02:06):
Oh my god, did you just throw some shade?
She does, yes, okay, this isoften.
Speaker 3 (02:12):
I am abused.
I am abused by Ruby.
Wait, no, I've been doing well.
It would be 24 years.
It come March it would be 24years come March and Drag has
evolved over the decades thatI've been doing it.
Stephanie you're like the OG,I'm the OG.
Speaker 4 (02:34):
Yeah, in this area.
Speaker 3 (02:36):
Yeah, I'm the longest kind of running performing Drag
artist in Kingston and the area.
I guess so too, probably yeah.
Speaker 1 (02:45):
Mostly let's not make any big claims, but yeah,
mostly.
Speaker 2 (02:49):
I am the first pop.
I know what was going on inNapaNee.
Things could have beenhappening.
Speaker 1 (02:52):
Well, that's the thing.
There are some performers fromkind of around Southeastern
Ontario who've been performing,I think, longer, like maybe
Dynasty.
Speaker 3 (02:59):
Is she from Southeastern Ontario?
Speaker 1 (03:01):
Yeah, she is, yeah, she is.
So from Kingston, we won't saythat, but from Kingston.
Speaker 3 (03:07):
But yeah, the original pop artist in Drag,
queen of Canada.
We'll just drop that there too.
But how to describe Drag?
Drag was it started off inKingston as a way to.
It was a fundraising sort ofthing too.
So during the AIDS crisis inthe 80s and early 90s I know my
(03:31):
drag mother, the people who, theperson who mentored me into
Drag they started doing Draghere at the Gay Clubs, raising
money for Kingston AIDS Project,which became ours.
But just now I can't rememberTrelis as well.
So they kind of started.
So Drag started off as kind oflike an altruistic kind of way
(03:53):
to raise funds in a fun andentertaining sort of way.
But yeah, it is in itself an artform.
That is, I find, empowering.
So like when I first saw myfirst drag show in person, you
know, because there was thosemovies right In the 90s, because
I'm from there.
But there's those movies in the90s like Tuang Fu or Priscilla
(04:15):
Queen of the Desert or somethingwhich portrayed Drag, but it
wasn't really like true, likeyou know, kingston sort of drag.
So it was very empowering and Ifell in love with it and that's
why I started it.
It really at the beginning itwas really gay men dressing as
(04:36):
in women, attire sort of thingand lip-syncing to women's songs
.
That's kind of how it started,but it has evolved.
And now this is where you jumpin there the new generation.
Speaker 1 (04:49):
The new generation.
No, that's very much where Dragstarted.
I mean, drag has been aroundfor centuries.
It's been.
It was used in Shakespeare,it's used in ancient Chinese
culture.
A lot of like Kabuki was alsoperformed in Drag.
It's been around forever.
It's not anything new.
The new expression of Dragreally is performative gender
(05:10):
expression.
So people performing asdifferent genders or heightened
genders or no genders, kind ofto make a social statement about
the fact that gender is asocial construct and it doesn't
actually have any significantimpact on who we are in a
(05:32):
society, but it's just somethingthat we've created in order to
better represent who we are.
And so Drag really is aheightened form of gender
expression that's used in aperformative, often comical
aspect.
But I like to say that Drag isall art forms.
Oh yes, because as a dragperformer, you are not only
(05:55):
doing gender expression.
So in my case, in Tiffany'scase, dressing up as women.
I don't like to say that we'redressing up as women, we're
dressing up as female genders,but also doing makeup, fashion,
lip syncing, dancing, singingcomedy, improv, all of these
(06:16):
different things hosting.
it really is just everything,yeah.
Speaker 3 (06:20):
And oh sorry.
Speaker 2 (06:22):
I was just going to say I've noticed because you
talked about lip syncing I'venoticed a lot of drag performers
that shows I've been going torecently singing themselves,
something that you're justseeing.
You're obviously you guys aredoing the shows more than me.
I shouldn't have used the wordguys.
I hate that.
That's something we can talkabout later.
Speaker 3 (06:40):
You do.
Speaker 2 (06:43):
Always defaulting to the masculine Bro, bro, dude,
but is that something that yousee more people singing as
opposed to lip syncing, or still, it's definitely something that
.
Speaker 1 (06:56):
I think is becoming more acceptable in drag Right.
A friend of mine calls it lipsyncing live Okay.
Speaker 4 (07:03):
Why would that not be acceptable Is just sort of not
part of the tradition.
I guess not the tradition, yeah.
Speaker 1 (07:10):
And generally, like, the performers are men who are
queens or, historically, thereare men who are queens.
Your voice is deeper and so ifyou're singing, you're not like
whoo, like imitating a woman,because it was female
impersonation is what dragqueens were doing.
But, like so many people comeinto this art form from
(07:31):
different backgrounds now, andso there are people who are
singers who do drag, and thereare people who are actors who do
drag or comedians who do drag,or just regular people who do
drag.
Speaker 3 (07:42):
It's singing live, as a drag artist has been around
for a long time as well.
Speaker 1 (07:48):
A lot of cabaret acts .
Speaker 5 (07:50):
A lot of cabaret acts .
Speaker 3 (07:52):
I know a lot of artists from Toronto that do it.
Since pandemic though, like Ithink, and because the
inspirations of RuPaul's whiledoing RuPaul started singing in
the 90s, I had an album, sort ofthing.
So out of the pandemic erawhere we pivoted to doing drag
shows online sort of thing, tolip sync to someone's copyright
(08:17):
music which shut you down on thelive streams right.
And I saw a lot of people doingtrying to start doing like some
karaoke or something like thattoo.
So that was really interestingto see that branching out,
because drag was for the longesttime in the little local gay
bars, right, and it waslip-syncing to whatever famous
(08:40):
female pop artist it was at thetime.
But now it's starting to becomea different brand, or Madonna,
depending on what era you'refrom.
I'll talk with you, tiffany, orsuddenly, Rowena, like you, we
were doing a drag paint night.
(09:01):
For goodness sakes.
Speaker 1 (09:04):
Everything.
Speaker 3 (09:05):
Everything.
Just add drag to it, and thereyou go.
Speaker 2 (09:08):
Well, there's drag story time for kids.
I think a lot of people thinkit's drag as an adult thing and
x-rated thing, but it's reallyfor everybody.
Speaker 1 (09:17):
It is, it is.
My favorite thing about storytime is when I walk into a room
and all of the kids just thinkthat I'm a princess.
Yeah, I'm like.
Many of them are too young tounderstand that it's drag.
Most of them know that I'm likea man, not a woman, but they're
just like look at how prettyshe is and I'm like thank you,
(09:39):
you can tell me, I'm pretty allthe time.
Speaker 3 (09:41):
Oh, that is so cute.
I always enjoy it because thishas happened once or twice,
Twice for sure, Definitely oncethat some young toddler will be
like oh how is RuPaul?
I'm like great, I'm assuminggreat in the mansion.
I don't know, rupaul, sorry.
Speaker 4 (10:01):
Well, with the story time and I wanted to get into
this too, because obviously, asdrag has become more popular and
more mainstream, there's beenpushback from certain groups.
Have you encountered anyprejudice in the area in that
regard?
Speaker 1 (10:16):
Not really in Kingston.
In the story times that I'vedone in Kingston, I will get a
little bit of online backlashsometimes, but people online are
anonymous and they don't haveto show their faces and do all
these things.
I got some backlash when I wasdoing one in Napa Nhi in person
last summer and I'm the type ofperson who just takes it in
(10:37):
stride.
I know that what I'm doing isright.
I know that I'm not causingharm.
All I'm doing is teachingpeople.
I'm literally sitting therereading a story about love and
acceptance.
I don't know how that could bebad.
The problem that they have isthe fact that I am.
They think that I am either agay person who's causing trauma
(11:01):
or they associate me with thingsthat they fear.
Right now, there's a huge fearagainst people who are
transgendered.
With a large portion of thecommunity, that's not a
justifiable fear, but dragqueens are very visible and are
often associated with that.
When you're knocking downtransgendered individuals, you
(11:24):
start with the drag queens andthen you move from there.
But I mean, how do you dealwith that?
You just you tell them thatthey're wrong, you try to
educate them and when they don'tlisten, you try to educate them
again, and when they don'tlisten, you walk away.
Speaker 2 (11:39):
Yeah, there comes a point where you have to just
walk away.
It's like smacking your head upagainst a brick wall.
Yeah sometimes, you know, andit's only on you to educate as
much as you want to right so.
Speaker 3 (11:52):
Yeah, and and sometimes I feel like there's a
bit of a privilege almost for me, because I am very privileged,
(12:17):
because I find that somethinglike I have done story time and
and I haven't had such thebacklash, is that some of the
other Um, actor, sorry, sorrydrag artists have, uh, in the in
this community, and I sometimeswonder if there is a a like, a
(12:37):
privilege, because you know, mydrag is, is is kind of seen as
um, I don't know how to describeit matronly.
You know, you would, you wouldbe young and young and you're
like, yeah, I'm totally okaywith the kid hanging out with,
with tiffany, versus Some sortof I feel like there's a bosom.
Speaker 1 (13:11):
There's a drag king here in kingston.
Dare to live, femme.
Um, when they do a lot of storytimes, out in get an aque and
brockville and they have gottenso much hate.
They've had active protests attheir story times they had to
hire security.
Speaker 3 (13:29):
So someone tried to burn down the, the library in
brockville.
Speaker 1 (13:31):
Someone tried to burn down the library.
There were threats to burn itdown and there have been bomb
threats at other places becauseof story time, but but someone
went on to dare to live.
Femmes, instagram and I mean weall have a public persona when
we're doing story times and weall have Our actual drag
personas, like when we'reperforming in adult shows.
Like they're different, like Idon't show up in risqué, like
(13:56):
spandex and leather.
When I'm doing a story time, Iwear a long dress that's fully
covered and like it's verydifferent and dare does the same
.
But someone took one of hisscantily clad photos from
instagram and was like this iswhat you're showing, your
children.
Speaker 3 (14:12):
The photoshop it was a bad photoshop, but it yeah.
Speaker 1 (14:16):
People.
People will search for a reasonto hate.
Speaker 3 (14:19):
Of course, but I talk about the privilege.
But still, like, whenever I'mdoing a story time, I'm always
checking my accents.
Speaker 1 (14:27):
Yeah, you know you never know, one of those kids is
gonna tackle you.
Speaker 3 (14:33):
But like and whenever you're having a drag story time
, like it's all with parentalconsent, you know like they're
not, we're not just jumping.
You know, just like surprise,jump out of behind the bush.
Speaker 1 (14:50):
You don't have to bring.
Kids if you don't want to butother parents can make the
choice to do that if they wantto.
Yeah, that's.
The thing that I've neverunderstood is why people are
against having them.
Speaker 2 (15:04):
And there's more, there's more A friend of mine
whose little guy has beenobsessed with drag since he was
like four or five like, and hewas trying to find places to go
but he was not old enough to gointo the show.
So now here we fast forwardprobably seven or eight years.
Those opportunities areavailable to him in this
(15:25):
community.
I love it, amazing yeah.
Speaker 4 (15:28):
I'm gonna back up slightly and just show my
ignorance and ask what is a dragking?
Speaker 1 (15:33):
you mentioned that a moment ago, so so a drag queen
is someone who dresses up as afemale gender, whether that be a
man, woman, non-binary,transgender individual dressing
up as a woman.
But a drag king is someonewho's dressing up as a male
gender.
Okay, okay.
Speaker 2 (15:48):
So what do you think about people who say like faux
queen or something like that,like when, yeah, they're they're
old.
Speaker 1 (15:55):
They're old terms that we're trying to kind of
phase out.
It was.
It started out as, like bioqueen and a fab queen and faux
queen and it's essentially justthe drag community isolating out
women who perform as queens andit really is isolating and it's
(16:18):
Segregational and it's biasedand it comes from a part of
saying that their art isn't goodenough because they're already
women.
But we have quite a fewPerformers in Kingston who are
female, who perform as queensand they're just as talented, if
not more talented, than many ofthe other performers and
(16:41):
they're doing drag Of course,with the exception of the.
It's just other people trying todiminish what they're doing and
, like I, put on significantlyless makeup than some of the
women who perform as drag queens.
And, like my, hair stylingskills are probably worse than
(17:02):
many of the women who perform asdrag queens.
Also, my outfits, I mean.
I mean, it's anall-encompassing art form and it
doesn't have a limit to whatgender you have to be to do it
and it's been that way forever.
Speaker 3 (17:14):
in a day, like I remember, when I first started
doing drag, going to the clubsin Toronto and stuff, I'd be
like, oh my goodness, that'samazing drag performer.
And then finding out that it'sit's a woman as well, I was like
, well, she's a woman, but yeah,I was.
You know, it was, uh, it was.
It was nice to see that, it wasnice to see that kind of
(17:35):
Variation there and they, thatvariation did not exist really
back back in that day.
But today, like here in King,oh my gosh.
Speaker 1 (17:42):
Well, some of my favorite drag queens are
transgender women who do drag,and mostly just because I love
when they Many of them havecaught in breast implants and I
love when they just gobble upthe money with their boobs.
Speaker 2 (17:58):
I'm always willing to throw a few bucks in.
Oh my gosh, let's talk aboutsome shows that you have coming
on, because you you mentionedone, um, so I want to say the
comedy of errors.
Well, there's something in,yeah, so it's a comedy of drag
errors.
Speaker 1 (18:16):
It's, uh, it's a new comedy variety show that we're
going to be doing, but it'sgoing to be all drag, but it's
essentially going to encompassall forms of comedy and all
forms of drag.
So, uh, performers are open todoing lip syncs, but, uh, with
some sort of comedy aspect, alsolive singing.
I myself do a lot of livesinging parodies.
(18:37):
So I'll write parodies to songsand then I'll sing them.
We have an artist coming in whois an improv actress.
Sketch comedy actress fromsecond city in Toronto, nice.
Um.
So she's coming down hillaryyas to perform and There'll
probably be some a lot ofaudience interaction and mic
work and it is an all ages showat the broom factory, february
(19:01):
17th.
Yes, it's a saturday get yourtickets family day weekend.
I know you're not working.
Speaker 4 (19:08):
Actually I'm gonna give a shout out here because,
speaking of the broom factoryFew months ago was we have a
weekly meeting with kingstonlive.
We talk about what's going onand who we might want to speak
with.
And rob brought up maybe we doa drag feature at some point and
I was like no, maybe, maybe,and we sort of left it at that
and I think it was like twoweeks later I was at the makers
(19:31):
meetup and I met the two of youand then it was like the next
day I said to rob, I think weshould do the drag feature.
Speaker 5 (19:37):
I think this needs to happen.
Speaker 4 (19:39):
But yeah, I just want to give a shout out to, because
this is organized by thekingston canadian film festival.
The makers meet up.
It happens every month.
I think the first one was what?
November, when we met, was thatit?
Speaker 3 (19:49):
first one was in november I skipped December and
then I went to.
I went to the january one.
That was fun.
Speaker 2 (19:55):
So that was my first one, and, um, yeah, that's where
we met.
So what that?
Speaker 3 (20:00):
we, we, we survived the weather, the snow, exactly
torrential rain.
It was a rough day it was arough one, for sure.
Speaker 4 (20:07):
If you are in any creative artistic domain.
Yes, check out the makersmeetup.
Uh, that's through kingstoncanadian film festival.
I believe it's the firstTuesday of each month.
Speaker 1 (20:18):
That makes sense.
Yes, that sounds right.
I have no idea what time it'sat, but it's four o'clock.
Four o'clock, yeah, firstTuesday of each month at the
Broom factory.
Speaker 2 (20:28):
Sorry, you'll have to edit that out.
Yeah, I can do that, thanks, oryou can just leave it there.
Speaker 3 (20:34):
I was like waiting for a moment.
This is your moment to cough,my moment to shove.
Everybody get it out, okay.
Speaker 1 (20:42):
I have been waiting.
I've been waiting to do it.
Speaker 4 (20:46):
I want to talk about music.
How do you select the musicthat you perform to?
Speaker 1 (20:51):
Well, I mean tiffani's been performing to
share for the last 20 years.
Speaker 2 (20:54):
So it's really easy for her.
Speaker 3 (20:57):
Hey consistency is key right, you know what I.
Speaker 1 (21:01):
I don't enjoy any performance more than seeing
tiffani perform Share Actuallyperforming ABBA.
Share doing ABBA.
Share performing ABBA oh.
Speaker 2 (21:12):
Ever since Mamma Mia 2 came out, mad at.
Speaker 1 (21:15):
Ever since Mamma Mia 2 came out, she has been
performing Share, performingABBA, every single show and,
honestly, I've seen the sameperformance probably a hundred
times at this point and I stilllove it.
Amazing, it's amazing yeah.
Speaker 3 (21:29):
I think I think it's mostly ABBA.
How do you choose the music?
That's a really good question.
Like when I first started off,I was, I think it's whatever
music that you're really into atthe time.
So when I first started doingdrag, I was really into the club
scene.
So there was a lot of clubmusic that I was doing or
remixes of songs and stuff, likemy first Conte Patrio by Donna
(21:53):
Summer, remix by oh wow, I can'tremember his name now, but yeah
, that was like my firstperformance at Club 477.
And I got the little standingovation which then hooked me
into drag for the rest of mylife.
But yeah, and then it slowlykind of evolves to what your
tastes are like.
Speaker 1 (22:15):
Standing up to leave does not count as a standing
ovation.
Stop, stop.
Speaker 3 (22:20):
That is rude.
But I think what's really Likeif I give any advice to any drag
artist out there is to do musicthat you're impassioned about.
But you know you feelpassionate about that you
actually enjoy and like doing,because if you're going to be
doing music that you don't liketo do, it's going to get very
(22:41):
tired very quickly.
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (22:45):
I echo a lot of that.
It's music that impassions you.
Whenever I'm choosing aperformance song, especially a
new performance song, it'susually something that either I
feel like I can really embodythe energy of the song and the
attitude of the song I'm a veryemotive performer and for me I
have to feel the emotion of thesong, otherwise it doesn't work
(23:07):
for me, or I have some way thatit tickles my funny bone Because
I really like doing a comedicperformance or doing some sort
of mix of that song with spokenword or with other music.
That makes it a little bitfunnier for me.
So if I find a song and I likehear it on the radio, I'm like,
oh, that really works, thatworks really well.
(23:29):
But then sometimes you just havethemed performances.
So a few years back I did a VH1Diva live performance where I
did all of the songs from theVH1 Diva's live show in one show
and that was my performance.
So I had to learn all thosesongs.
Yeah, it's kind of whatevermakes you feel it's an art form,
(23:49):
whatever makes you feelartistic.
Speaker 2 (23:51):
Ever get on stage with something new.
You're never doing that again.
Speaker 1 (23:57):
Every time, every time it's like karaoke.
Speaker 2 (24:00):
Sometimes you pick a song and you're like, oh, the
crowd is not into this, okay,but what is it?
Is it the music, or is?
Speaker 4 (24:05):
it the performer Like why doesn't it land?
Sometimes it just doesn'ttranslate.
Speaker 3 (24:11):
That's a good question.
Speaker 2 (24:13):
Yeah, as somebody who's done stand-up comedy for
over a decade, that's toughBecause I can do the same show
back to back.
One crowd loves it, the nextcrowd doesn't.
Speaker 1 (24:22):
That's me whenever I do Broadway.
I do a Broadway number andthere'll be like two people in
the back row going yes, queen,and then everyone else is like
why is she doing an 11 minuteMean Girls Original Broadway mix
Stop with the Mean Girls.
Speaker 3 (24:37):
Oh my God.
Speaker 1 (24:39):
Which I have now done twice, and the first time I did
it everyone was like blank face.
The second time I did it,everyone's like.
This is so funny.
And like it's different.
I will say, though, as a dragperformer, you have to know.
The one thing you're requiredto know as a drag queen is all
of the lyrics and all of themannerisms to Whitney Houston's.
(25:00):
It's Not Right, but it's Okay.
The Thunderpuss Remix.
Speaker 2 (25:03):
Okay, why the left disney my?
Speaker 3 (25:06):
face is just dropped.
Speaker 2 (25:07):
What.
Speaker 3 (25:08):
Sorry if you're a drag queen who dances?
You need to know that.
Speaker 1 (25:13):
Yes everyone must know it, it is a requirement.
Speaker 2 (25:16):
She's like back to shit.
Speaker 3 (25:18):
Oh my God, I feel so old because I remember when that
dropped at Fly Night Club anddropped for the first time.
Oh my God, Thunderpuss, I missThunderpuss.
Speaker 2 (25:28):
Let's talk about drag mothers for a minute.
Yeah, maybe this is just anassumption, rowena.
Was it easier for you to find adrag mother than it was for you
, tiffany?
Speaker 1 (25:37):
I don't have a drag mom.
Speaker 2 (25:39):
You don't have what?
Okay, so now this isinteresting.
Wait, I'm going to back upagain.
What is drag mom?
Yes, yes, I think I got a senseof what it is but, please
explain, just for the recordDefinition.
Speaker 3 (25:50):
Well, I'll give my definition.
Well, I mean, there's a largeprocess.
Speaker 1 (25:54):
You have to find an operating room first and you
have to surgically cut the child.
Speaker 3 (25:59):
No, no, I'll let you talk.
That was all fells.
So a drag mother is a term thatwe use for our mentor who
usually puts you into the dragfirst time, sort of thing, and
there's like culturaldifferences even across Canada,
(26:21):
sort of thing.
So in Kingston, for instance,drag mother Jazz Morgan is my
drag mother and she got me intodrag for the first time, painted
my face, got me into my firstshow, sort of thing, and then I
take her last name and in someother circles there's a few
other, or your drag mother, andthen you can also take other
(26:43):
last names of other people whoput you into a drag show for the
first time and stuff.
But really it's kind of amothering kind of mentor kind of
role, sort of thing.
It's not something to be takenlightly.
Speaker 1 (26:57):
No, it's essentially taking ownership of helping
someone develop their dragcareer, their drag persona,
their identity as a performer,and showing them the ins and
outs of the community.
Showing them the ins and outsof all of the different aspects
of drag, because a lot goes intojust becoming a drag queen.
(27:17):
Beyond the makeup, I mean,there's body shaping, there's
pick and close, there's stylingwigs, there's figuring out what
kind of performances you want todo.
Sometimes your drag motherswill teach you dance moves, and
I didn't have any of that.
Speaker 2 (27:33):
Yeah, so you just like.
That's interesting to mebecause I feel like there's
usually somebody that introducesyou.
Speaker 3 (27:41):
That was true back in the day, like back in the day
when I first started doing drag.
That was before YouTube, beforeYouTube, and the only way you
could learn how to do drag waslearning from someone else,
Right?
So?
Speaker 5 (27:56):
interesting To do the makeup, to do all that.
Speaker 3 (27:58):
You had to learn it from someone else, and then
YouTube came out, right.
Speaker 2 (28:23):
When you mentioned the name thing, that was
interesting, because I've neverheard of that taking on the name
.
That's very interesting.
Let's talk about how you cameup with your names.
We know how you got your lastname.
Well, let's talk about the fullname.
Speaker 3 (28:35):
Oh yeah, that was my first time doing drag, so Jazz,
she.
So we all got together a wholegroup of new prospective artists
at this apartment, so it waslike within a block of Club 477
and we're all getting our makeupdone.
So she sat me down probably onthe floor right here too, the
(28:58):
sort of situation.
She sat me down.
She's like you're not lookingin the mirror until you're done.
I'm like, okay.
She's like, have you figuredout a name?
I'm like I'll figure out a namewhen I see myself in the mirror
.
And so you know, I don't know,half an hour or something like
that.
Later she's paint me and she'slike, oh, puts the wig on me
borrowed wig from one of my dragsisters.
Oh God, it looked terrible.
(29:18):
Anyway, we have to think thiswas early 2000s, but she's, you
know.
I turned around, looked intothe full length mirror and I'm
like, oh my gosh, I'm Tiffanyfrom the 1980s, with that big
reddish hair and all that.
And I'm like, oh well, I guessI'm Tiffany, morgan, that's.
Speaker 2 (29:40):
All right, beautiful, whatever you are.
Speaker 1 (29:45):
Yeah, so I was.
I'm a proud drag.
Immaculate conception is what Icall this off.
Really, I'm just a child of theinternet so I didn't have a drag
mom, so I watched a whole bunchof tutorials and I learned how
to do drag that way.
I had people who inspired me todo drag, like people I saw in
the community and anex-boyfriend I had that did drag
(30:07):
although I didn't learn thatuntil later.
But I saw them performing and Iwas like, oh, that's really fun
, like maybe I can do that.
So I came up with my drag name.
Actually, like in abrainstorming session in a
subway tunnel in Edmonton with afriend of mine we're just
sitting there.
I was like I want my last nameto be Wei W-H-E-Y, because at
(30:28):
the time I was a personaltrainer.
I'm really into fitness and Iwas like Wei protein is the one
protein I'm not allowed to eatbecause I'm lactose intolerant.
So I was like Wei.
Speaker 2 (30:38):
I'll have this, one Wei or another, exactly.
Speaker 3 (30:42):
So the which Wei, I can't.
It's great marketing, greatmarketing.
Speaker 1 (30:46):
And then I was trying to figure out a pun that went
with Wei and I really loved thename Rowena because of one of my
favorite movies, Mr Holland'sOpus, a great musical movie
about music teacher, and Rowenawas the Broadway starlet who
tried to steal the man from hiswife and I really felt that.
(31:06):
So I became Rowena Wei, whichis a really stupid pun that no
one ever gets.
But it's just like Rowena Wei.
Speaker 2 (31:16):
Rowena Wei Okay, when either?
Speaker 4 (31:22):
of you, or have you drag mothered anyone else?
How does somebody get into this?
Speaker 1 (31:28):
I mean, you've been a drag mom, a couple times.
Speaker 3 (31:30):
Yes, yes, I don't know where half of them are but
they've all stopped doing dragor they moved on.
Speaker 2 (31:38):
I realized they couldn't live up to their mom,
they couldn't live up to theexpectations of mama.
Speaker 3 (31:43):
That's probably more true.
Speaker 1 (31:46):
A lot of people start doing drag and then stop doing
drag because it's a lot.
It's a lot of money to do it,it's a lot of time commitment.
It's often hard to get showsbecause the scene is so small
and people who book showsgenerally book their friends.
So unless you're really in thescene, it's hard to break into
(32:07):
it, which is why we have openstage now.
Speaker 3 (32:12):
And also a lot of people get into it just to
explore themselves too.
Quite often you'll have a 20year old who'll get into it, but
then by the time they're 25,they're like well, I think I'm
good with that, I think I'm goodwith that, and then put box it
away and then take it out everynow and again.
Speaker 1 (32:34):
Real life takes over.
Speaker 3 (32:34):
And that's okay too.
That's totally okay too, but wejoke around that it's more.
I'm a little bit of an oddity.
You are an oddity for so long,because quite often people will
just kind of box it away.
Speaker 1 (32:50):
They're like, okay, hang up their wigs, hang up
their wigs.
Speaker 3 (32:54):
And it is competitive .
Yes, it is competitive to getthose shows, but I think
anything in the arts iscompetitive.
Speaker 1 (33:01):
Performance spaces, performance slots, are limited,
just in general.
Speaker 3 (33:05):
Well especially for drag artists.
It's only been recently that wehave all these different venues
asking us to come and do dragshows or do drag events, because
when I first started you wouldonly get the gay bar when we had
a gay bar asking us.
The grad club was always a verywelcoming sort of thing and
there was a lot of venues whowould not return the phone calls
(33:28):
.
We won't say who those are, buttoday, like now, they're
calling us.
They're like hey, we heardabout these drag things.
Speaker 2 (33:36):
We heard all those things were being sold there.
Speaker 1 (33:40):
There was some money to be earned here.
So I have had people that I'veput in drag and have performed,
but I don't have any dragchildren at the moment.
I have nurtured a lot of dragcareers and helped start a lot
of drag careers, but I'm not adrag mom at the moment.
(34:01):
I have one child who'scurrently gestating, wanting to
be born, but we have not madeher debut yet.
Speaker 3 (34:13):
And you have a brand new daughter.
I have a brand new daughter,Pee-Pee Ann Morgan.
You forgot about your daughter.
Shout out to Pee-Pee Ann.
I did not forget about my dragdaughter.
Speaker 5 (34:22):
She won't let me forget.
Speaker 3 (34:25):
But Pee-Pee Ann Morgan, yes, Shout out to
Pee-Pee Ann Morgan.
But I also feel like I'm a dragmother to all the drag artists
in town here, because there'salways something.
After doing this scene for solong, there's always something I
can impart on people.
But I've always said too thatdrag, at least in Kingston, was
a jack of all trades.
(34:46):
Master of nothing.
You have to know how to domakeup.
You have to know how to book aplace.
You have to know how to set upaudio.
You have to know how to mixsome music.
You have to know how to choreoLike you have to do a lot of
stuff.
Speaker 1 (35:01):
But I'm sorry, did you just say you have to know
how to choreograph?
Speaker 3 (35:04):
Hey, I've done choreography.
Even if it's just some jazzhands Is jazz hands up, jazz
hands down?
That's choreo.
Speaker 4 (35:14):
This is interesting because throughout this
conversation I've been comparingdrag queens, as you've been
speaking, to more traditionalmusicians and the process they
go through from learning thecraft to becoming a performer.
And it seems correct me if I'mwrong, but it seems very
different to me becausemusicians, a lot of them.
(35:35):
I think a lot of people wouldbe surprised to know how many
performers are actually veryintroverted, but drag queens
correct me if I'm wrong seem tobe very extroverted.
Is that correct?
No, Okay, okay.
Speaker 1 (35:47):
So a lot of people who do drag.
I think Tiffany and myself areexceptions.
We're both fairly social.
You're probably moreintroverted than I am Probably
am.
Yeah, the majority of dragperformers are actually very
introverted people and they usedrag as a way to be more
extroverted and be more out inpublic.
(36:08):
But often if you go up to adrag performer outside of their
actual performance, they're veryshy.
They're not the most talkative.
It's drag is their way ofbecoming larger than life.
Speaker 3 (36:20):
Interesting.
Okay, yeah, and I'm justthinking, trying to relate it to
a live musician or somethinglike a guitarist or something
For a drag artist.
You first have to focus ongetting on the stage for a first
sort of thing, and then youlearn your craft, and then you
learn your craft versus yeahGuitars.
You'd be learning the guitarfirst for a very long time
(36:42):
before you actually get up onthat stage.
Speaker 1 (36:44):
Why don't we make people be good before we let
them be on stage?
That's okay, I'm kidding.
Speaker 2 (36:51):
Well, there's a vulnerability when you're just
being 100% yourself.
I grew up acting and I feltlike on stage I always act, act.
And the moment I had to just dosomething as me, I got really
nervous and I was like, what isthis?
Why am I feeling this?
And I was like, oh, it'sbecause I'm being vulnerable.
(37:11):
I'm just doing this as Angela,not as Arlene in this play or
whatever it may be.
So I think when you talk abouta drag performer coming out of
their shell or being moreextroverted when they're all
dressed up, I totally can seethat.
Speaker 1 (37:27):
And a lot of drag performers come from performing
backgrounds.
I mean, that's how they startdoing acting or musicals or
music or singing or whateverthey do, and then they find drag
as a way of doing that moreregularly but with additional
(37:48):
art forms.
Speaker 4 (37:49):
Yeah, so that's interesting, because musicians,
you're like in a basement withan instrument for years and then
suddenly you're on a stage.
Oh, I have to be a performernow.
Speaker 1 (37:58):
Yes, yes, completely different thing we're a
performer first.
Speaker 3 (38:02):
Yeah, yeah, and I'm like, oh, you want to sing too.
Speaker 1 (38:05):
Okay, let's look we have the gremlin in the basement
situation too.
When you're learning yourmakeup I mean you practice you
sit in your bedroom and youstare at your mirror and you're
like, how do I become betterlooking with makeup?
And some people just never getthere and that's their drag
persona.
Tanya Rowena I was going topoint to you, Rowena, I'm like,
(38:27):
oh really.
Speaker 3 (38:27):
Oh, you're going to point to me, are you?
Okay, I'm all about the budget,makeup, hello.
But I'm going back to thatquestion though, too, because I
do feel that I'm an introvert,like because with introverts you
could be an extrovert for a fewhours, right, but then
afterwards I'm at home, I'm onthat couch, I'm decompressing
(38:50):
for the next like eight, twodays.
Eight hours, two days.
Speaker 1 (38:54):
I do think that I'm one of the rare drag performers
who is an extrovert the being onstage talking to people, seeing
people doing things.
I could do it for hours andhours and hours, because it's
what gives me energy.
It's your personality.
Speaker 5 (39:09):
It's my personality, yeah.
Speaker 1 (39:11):
And that's like my drag persona is me just a little
bit bigger.
Speaker 2 (39:16):
Exaggerated.
Speaker 3 (39:17):
I'm not saying it doesn't give me a high, Like
hello, Like you can leave a showjust feeling so pumped, so so
pumped.
Speaker 2 (39:24):
But then I do need that downtime back, Like you go
right to bed and you're like howdo I sleep Exactly?
Speaker 3 (39:30):
I can't sleep right away.
Speaker 2 (39:32):
I have two or three hours where I'm sitting on the
couch eating food because I didnot eat before the show because
corsets and dancing late nightyeah.
Speaker 3 (39:40):
Late night.
Speaker 1 (39:41):
Late night I sit on the couch and I I watch two
hours of TV and I stare at myphone, Watch all of the videos
of me performing over and overand over again.
Oh God.
Speaker 4 (39:52):
I want to go back to venues.
We mentioned venues a momentago.
What makes for a good dragvenue?
Liquor.
Speaker 1 (40:01):
Liquor, liquor, yeah, liquor.
It really depends on the show.
So different styles of showskind of require different venues
.
A stage is not really anecessity for drag.
A lot of drag is bringing theshow to the audience.
Like when you're performingmusic, you're on stage and the
(40:23):
the experience is seeing themusicians play and hearing the
music they're producing.
When you're, when you'rewatching a play, you're watching
the play, but drag is aboutinteracting in most senses.
So a lot of performers don'tstay on stage, even if we give
them one because they'reinteracting with the audience
(40:46):
and they're making jokes andthey're letting you into the
show, and oftentimes performerswill bring people on stage as
part of the show.
So you don't need a venue withanything except for sight lines,
because you have to be able tohave the audience see you as
you're walking around.
Yeah, and that's the big thing,okay.
Speaker 3 (41:08):
Yeah, yeah, it's.
Yeah, we have.
We.
We set up quite often differentstyles of.
I do love myself a theaterstyle kind of seating, we're
lighting and all that stuff allup on the stage with the
lighting, with everything I.
I prefer that.
But you can do a show in a cafewhen drag artists is walking
(41:28):
around amongst the tables, likea brunch or something like that.
Speaker 1 (41:32):
But yeah, you can do it at any any kind of venue, as
long as there is some sightlines and and the audio like oh
my gosh, oh yeah the audio isthe most essential thing because
, especially if you're lipsyncing, you don't want people
to hear you Like smacking yourlips and saying words while
you're lip syncing.
So the music is generally veryloud.
Speaker 3 (41:54):
It is.
Yes, it tends to be quite loud.
And plus for that drag artists,because if they are going out
into the audience sort of thing,they have to be able to hear
the music as well, that they'relip syncing.
Speaker 2 (42:06):
Now, when y'all come out into the audience, that's
when I lose all of my money.
Speaker 3 (42:09):
So let's talk about.
Speaker 2 (42:11):
Let's talk about tipping for a second, your buddy
somebody cuz I feel like a lotof people in Kingston.
Maybe they'll hear this andthink you know I should check
out a drag show.
What's the etiquette whentipping?
Speaker 3 (42:23):
Tipping is fairly new to Kingston In the US.
Speaker 1 (42:29):
In the US, where, like, drag was a lot bigger,
yeah, or in the big citiesToronto, there was a lot of
tipping.
In Toronto, I mean in theStates, you can tip a dollar,
hmm.
So people will generally likethrow money at people, which is
fairly easy.
In Canada, the minimum is fivegenerally because we don't make
it hail.
Speaker 3 (42:46):
We don't.
We don't throw the coins.
Speaker 1 (42:49):
So if you want to tip a queen, hold money up and they
will come to you, or you can goto them and give it to them.
Etiquette if you like what yousee, give it money.
Generally that's because asperformers, we don't make very
much.
Like booking fees for dragqueens are generally not
Equitable with live musicians orwith actors and all these
(43:11):
things, and so, especially ifit's a large cast of performers,
the booking fee is not verymuch.
I know Tiffany and I have beentrying to work to Repair this a
lot by actually like asking forbooking fees from venues, which
is something new the past fewyears, which is really nice, but
generally that's where tippingcame from is drag queens didn't
get paid very much and so theaudience would pay.
(43:34):
But Now what it is is you tipin order to get an extra show.
That's kind of just yours.
So if you hold up money,performers will generally come
with you like come to you andthen interact with you in some
way, whether that be like makinga part of their song or Giving
you a lap dance, depending on.
(43:55):
Your performer is not if it'sdirty depending if it's a $50
bill.
Generally etiquette, the onething I will say is, if you're
gonna give a queen money, don'ttake it away and make them like
play with it, like just give itto them yeah.
Speaker 2 (44:14):
That would make me walk away.
Yeah, I don't need you.
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (44:17):
Yeah, so yeah, tipping.
When I first started off itthere wasn't really tipping in
Kingston.
I remember my first tip.
I was doing a show in Halifaxand I'm like, oh, what do I do?
What do I do?
Take it around.
Speaker 2 (44:33):
What's a mama?
Speaker 3 (44:37):
Yeah, I think it's a moment for that drag artist to
you know, show some appreciationfor the person giving you,
giving you the money, likewhether or not it's some eye
contact, holding it, you know,whatever it is sort of thing.
Speaker 1 (44:49):
So this is why there was a break a long time ago in
Kingston.
Speaker 3 (44:56):
But and it is funny too, because I remember when we
they first started tipping andand suddenly going to the bank
with a whole bunch of five.
So I fight on the bills andthey're like, and I'm like, I'm
a drag queen, thank God, moneyis plastic.
(45:17):
Now Let me tell you, thank God,his money is plastic.
Speaker 1 (45:20):
I remember buying a TV with my tips from drag.
It was $900 in five dollarbills.
Speaker 4 (45:28):
Was it in a briefcase ?
Speaker 1 (45:31):
It was in my wallet, like my wallet was bursting, but
it was a great feeling.
They're like.
They're like I guess this isaudio eyes bulging out of their
heads like Do you?
Speaker 3 (45:48):
take it out in here Now that you lick your fingers.
He's just five ten.
Speaker 1 (45:53):
Well, that's the thing is I had to count it out
for them, no, and then they hadto count it out again, and so it
was the longest transactionever.
But every time I pay with fivedollar bills, I am sure that
people think I'm a stripper.
Speaker 4 (46:11):
It's like making a big purchase with Canadian tire
money yourself.
Tell us about maple tea.
Speaker 3 (46:25):
What's the maple tea?
Speaker 1 (46:26):
What is the maple tea Rowena podcast podcast where we
talk about everything Kingstondrag, canadian drag and
everything that we want to,mostly just because we are
unable to stay on a script.
Yeah, we're not, yeah, and wejust kind of get off topic, but
it is our podcast that we justdid our hundredth episode right
(46:46):
before Christmas.
It started out as a Canada'sdrag race review podcast during
the pandemic because we weren'table to leave our houses and the
first season of Canada's dragrace was airing, so we were like
, well, why don't we talk aboutit?
It's a good time for us tocatch up.
Really, it's just our therapy.
(47:07):
We just talked to each otherlive, and that's what makes it a
little different is that werecord it live so people can
watch us as we record it and cansend us messages and talk to us
.
But then we also post it, thatlive, unedited podcast.
Speaker 3 (47:25):
So edit it.
Okay, edited it has.
I take the.
I take the little the frontback.
Speaker 1 (47:33):
Make sure the levels are all, but she never edits out
what I say, which I'm sure, ifsomeone goes back and listens to
all these episodes.
Speaker 3 (47:42):
I'm sure you'll be cancelled in ten years time.
I'm sure I'm sure I don't thinkit'll take ten.
Speaker 1 (47:49):
If I haven't been cancelled yet.
No, but we've also.
We we interview like dragperformers.
Speaker 3 (47:55):
That's been fun.
That's been fun.
Talk about some of the dragperformers that we know.
Speaker 1 (48:00):
So mostly performers from Canada's drag race, but
we've interviewed winners ofCanada's drag race Isis Gature,
jimbo, who won all-stars thisyear, and a few like.
One of my favorite interviewswas Bombay.
Oh my gosh, absolutely justChaotic, in the best sense of
the word.
(48:20):
Talking about lard Like just so, so fun, yeah, yeah but yeah,
yeah, yeah, I we started it.
Speaker 3 (48:32):
Yeah, it was a pandemic.
Speaker 5 (48:33):
It was a pandemic yeah.
Speaker 3 (48:34):
I was like well, I know how to podcast as the first
podcast in drag queen of Canada.
Check out the breakfast withTiffany.
I went to tell the pod camps butyeah, I was like I have the
equipment and everything.
I'm like let's do this, let'sdo this.
It's just potty ass, let's justdo it.
And that was kind of the moment.
(48:54):
It was just okay, let's just doit.
Put it together.
Mark Blevis, thank you so muchfor doing.
Our intro and extra was well,out there in the world.
I'm gonna try to claim as theirown.
Don't get me started likeRussia and Belarus are basically
trying to block all gay contentthese days, so they they always
(49:16):
put some sort of copyright on.
You're like there's copyrightand you're like what copyright?
Speaker 1 (49:25):
Intro music was made for us like and.
Speaker 3 (49:28):
I like, okay, whatever.
However, you want to block gaycontent coming into Belarus or
Russia, sure.
Speaker 2 (49:35):
So RuPaul's Drag Race ?
I've thought about this myself,john.
Just to put this into some sortof context for you.
Thank you any listener who'snot RuPaul fan.
They play a game called snatchgame, and during snatch game
they impersonate someone famous,and so you must have put some
(49:57):
thought into, if you were onsnatch game, who you would be
impersonating.
I.
Speaker 1 (50:02):
I mean, we have both May or may not have applied for
drag race at some point in time.
Okay, and one of the questionson the application is who would
you do for such game?
Because part of the applicationprocess is you have to record
yourself as that person doingsnatch game allegedly, if you
know, legibly, if we have apleasure right.
(50:22):
So snatch game is like matchgame, like the old TV show where
celebrities would try and matchwith contestants.
I Kind of have gone up and downover the years.
I'm not great with like voices.
I can do like actingimpressions, but I'm not great
with doing voices, which isweird because I'm a singer, so
you would think that I'd be ableto match those things.
(50:44):
But all of my impressions comeout as old lady, southern
Jamaican, or even my Britishturns out southern and Jamaican.
It's really bad.
So I want to do if I were to doit, kathleen Turner.
Speaker 3 (50:59):
Oh well, right now, with that voice, how well is it,
kathleen?
Speaker 1 (51:02):
Turner, mostly just because her voice is a little
deeper.
She's very sultry, her style isvery shushky.
Her style is very similar to mystyle as a performer, just to
kind of in attitude.
For most of her movies she waslike the sultry vixen, except
for, I guess, mommy dearest,which is the other side of my
(51:23):
attitude, the hateful bitch.
So yeah, that's who I would be,kathleen.
Speaker 2 (51:29):
Turner?
Okay, what about you, Tiffany?
Speaker 3 (51:31):
Well, I have this theory that the best way, the
best kind of character that youcan do, is something someone who
people don't really know,historical character and then
you're able to make it your own.
So, in my world, if I was to doit allegedly, I would want to
try to do Laura Secord, ahistorical figure which you can
(51:55):
have so much fun with, becausethe whole idea is now Canadian
historical figure.
Speaker 2 (52:00):
Yeah, that's right.
Speaker 3 (52:01):
Yes, Canadian historical figure, but it's to
add the comedy to it.
So you know, be like LauraSecord, be like, okay,
fitzgibbon, blah, blah, blah orsomething.
Would you like some chocolates?
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (52:14):
You can have so much fun with that you can work it,
you can have so much fun withthat.
Speaker 3 (52:17):
Yeah, so that's my thought, because when we look at
some of the amazing snatchgames like Giselle, oh yeah, she
was Marie Curie.
Speaker 2 (52:28):
Marie Curie, she just became like an alien in the
thing because she got likeradium and radiation poisoning
and sickness and, like some goodones are like people who we
don't know anything about, likea historical figure yeah, it's
kind of like you know about them, but then you get to make it
your own because we're not soattached to them that we're like
, oh, they're not hitting thevoice or they're not hitting the
whatever, Exactly because ifyou were, if you were like I'm
(52:50):
doing Britney Spears, peoplewould expect 100% kind of
Britney Spears Like you eitherhave to be really good.
Speaker 1 (52:58):
Or you have to do something that's you in a like,
just as a different character,or do something that no one
knows anything about.
Speaker 2 (53:07):
Yeah, okay, I'm never going to be able to get to it
in my head.
That's so weird.
It's such a weird one.
I love it, all the chocolate.
Speaker 1 (53:15):
All the chocolate, all the chocolate, all the
chocolate, all the chocolate.
Speaker 3 (53:22):
Well, if you want to go see a drag show in Kingston,
go visit dragshowca.
Dragshowca, your source fordrag shows in Kingston, and your
source for Tiffany Morgan andtheir source.
Well, yeah, that's it.
That's it.
Yeah, that's the funny thingtoo.
Oh, I'm just going to sharethis story then.
So, yeah, rene is going to rollher eyes at this story.
(53:45):
But so the moral of the story is, whenever someone online, just
randomly online, says submit avideo, you should submit a video
.
So when RuPaul's Drag Racemaybe the second or third season
or something like that, theywere, really they were looking
for drag artists and at thattime we were talking early 2000s
not a lot of drag artists wereonline.
(54:06):
Like, I think MySpace wasaround at that point, but not a
whole lot of drag artists wereon MySpace.
I have my own website, I havemy own website, tiffanicom, and
I got this random email.
Then they were producers from ashow called RuPaul's Drag Race
and they're like, oh, we wouldlove for you to submit an
(54:28):
application video, because backthen it was just an application
video and I was like, oh, okay,and I'm like, oh, I think I've
heard about this RuPaul's DragRace.
And I talked to a few otheronline drag artists from Toronto
, which was like two, andthey're like oh yeah, we got
that too.
Blah, blah, blah.
And then the consensus was like, well, you know, drag on
(54:51):
television.
How long is that going to last?
For we're like what's what's?
I'm like, oh no, I'm not goingto submit a video.
I'm not going to submit anapplication video, Because I'm
like, oh, it'll end, It'll becancelled next week.
Speaker 2 (55:04):
Fast forward, fast forward 20 years.
Speaker 1 (55:07):
Global empire.
Speaker 3 (55:07):
Global empire Because over 50 seasons, yeah, yeah,
many franchises, and I'm like Ishould have done that Submit the
application?
Speaker 2 (55:17):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (55:18):
Just send the video to the mystery person online,
just do it.
Speaker 2 (55:22):
Solid advice for anyone, in any situation, in any
situation.
Speaker 3 (55:25):
Some random person's like I'm a producer of blah blah
blah Submit a video, sure, sure.
Oh gosh, that's not actualadvice.
Speaker 2 (55:34):
Yeah, no, we want to roll back on that.
Speaker 4 (55:38):
Well, quite often we'll wrap up the podcast by
usually we have bands, we havemusicians in here and I'll ask
them if they have any advice foraspiring musicians.
And I think you've kind ofanswered this question.
But yeah, is there any advice?
Someone listening an aspiringdrag performer out there?
What would you say to them?
Don't do it, no.
So that's the joke answer.
Speaker 5 (56:00):
That's what every drag performer says so drag is a
lot.
Speaker 1 (56:05):
It will consume all of your money and all of your
time.
So if you're starting out todrag, get an outfit from a
discount shop that you feelamazing in.
Grab some dollar store makeup,if you don't have any, and paint
your face a few times and wearthat outfit and go to a drag
(56:25):
show in drag and see if you likethe feel of it, because if you
don't enjoy that experience, youprobably won't enjoy doing drag
.
And then, once you've done that, talk to some drag performers
and they will get you into ashow.
They'll get you into the scene,they'll give you advice and
you'll slowly get to be a partof the community.
(56:47):
And when you're ready toperform, come to the open stage
the first Wednesday of everymonth at the crowd club, because
it's open.
Anyone can perform Like an openmic, but for drag, that's so
cool.
Speaker 3 (56:59):
Yeah, advice for someone getting into drag for
the first time don't do it.
But if you decide no, I am,when it comes to drag or any
kind of thing artistically thatpeople are interested in the
first and foremost thing that Isay is just jump in and start
(57:20):
doing it.
If you want to do a podcast, ifyou want to become a musician
or something, just don't jumpinto it.
Don't really think about itthat much, just get into it,
just start doing it and you'llstart learning those skills
while you're doing.
And I think that's always kindof been my way of doing things
(57:44):
With podcasting.
I was like just jump right inand start doing it.
Don't feel that you need tohold back because there's quite
a few drag artists who haven'tmade it yet to the scene.
I'm looking at you, rowena, oneof your children, that.
I'm like they just need to geton the stage.
Just jump in.
(58:05):
Two feet.
Jump in and you'll learn it asyou go.
Speaker 1 (58:10):
Don't be afraid to be busted, because everyone is
busted at the beginning, andthen you'll grow, and it's okay,
because Tiffany is still busted.
Speaker 3 (58:21):
And make sure you get photos of that, because you may
be on Drag Race one day andthen they will use it.
They'll use the busted photo Ihave a.
Oh sorry, go ahead, I'm tryingto.
Whenever I think about that,I'm like where's my first photo
of drag?
And I'm like I don't think Ihave it.
I think it's in some photoalbum somewhere.
Speaker 2 (58:42):
I just had a vision of you, rowena, giving away tips
, but in a rowboat in thesummertime it's like rowing away
with Rowena way and you're justgiving your drag tips I didn't
have a mama, I didn't have amama.
Speaker 3 (58:58):
I pulled myself up with my own.
Speaker 1 (59:02):
I'm going to do it.
Speaker 3 (59:02):
I'm going to do it.
Speaker 1 (59:04):
You know what I have my canoeing licenses.
I've got my levels, I'm goingto get a rowboat and I'm going
to do some really rowena waywith Rowena way.
I'm going to be in the front ofthe boat just videotaping me
praying that I don't tip overthe rowboat.
Speaker 2 (59:21):
Got some waterproof equipment.
Speaker 3 (59:24):
Oh, my God.
Speaker 2 (59:24):
Tiffany Morgan and Rowena Way.
What a pleasure to meet youboth today.
Speaker 1 (59:28):
It was so nice to meet you here.
Thank you so much for having us.
Speaker 5 (59:33):
This has been Kingston Live.
We encourage you to rate us onyour listing platform of choice
and subscribe where possible Forshow listings, artist info and
all things.
Kingston music.
Check out KingstonLiveca.
Kingston Live was produced inKingston by Soundwise, hosted by
John Sanfilippo and Ange Stever, voiceovers by Riley J'Borre
and John Sanfilippo, writing andresearch by Peter Sanfilippo.
(59:56):
Executive producer, rob Howard.
Kingston Live is a member ofthe Canadian Live Music
Association.
We'd love to hear from you.
Email us atpodcastofkingstonliveca.
Music Sounds good.
Don't touch the mic.
Don't touch.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
You can, if you want, just say the ASMR, everything's
flew around here.
Okay, here we go.
Follict shaped objects Um Neh,no Neh.
I think we're gonna have fun.
Okay, I think we're gonna havefun, let's just get into it.
(00:47):
Let me do this.
Okay, this is.
Speaker 4 (00:48):
Kingston Live.
I'm Johnny, san and Steve ishere, hello, and we would like
to welcome Tiffany, morgan,hello, sleepy and Rowena Way.
Hello, hello, hello.
Thank you for joining us today.
Thank you so much for having usthere's already a great energy
in the room when they asked meto do this interview.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
They're like do you want to interview Dread Queens?
I was like yes, bitch.
I just finished watching all ofRuPaul's Drag Race, so I'm very
like in the mode right now Allof it.
Speaker 1 (01:16):
so you didn't have a life for months, Exactly For
months.
Decades.
Speaker 2 (01:20):
Thinking about who I would be in Snatch Game.
Oh, I know, think about that.
I might ask you later becausethat's a big thing.
Speaker 4 (01:28):
I think your exact words when I asked you was
Sleigh Bitch.
Yeah, I can say that SleighBitch?
Speaker 2 (01:33):
Yeah, johnny, you sound so funny.
Say it to Fermi one more timeyou can play this back.
Speaker 4 (01:39):
No, actually I think it's gonna be an interesting
discussion because I knowactually very little about Drag,
apart from just a casualobserver.
Ange obviously knows it verywell.
Speaker 2 (01:49):
I dove head first into the culture.
Speaker 4 (01:51):
Let's just start with what is Drag.
How would you explain it tosomebody who is unfamiliar?
Speaker 1 (01:59):
I mean you've been doing it longer than I have so
why?
Don't you talk about what youthink Drag is?
And I'll talk about the modernexpression of Drag.
Speaker 2 (02:06):
Oh my god, did you just throw some shade?
She does, yes, okay, this isoften.
Speaker 3 (02:12):
I am abused.
I am abused by Ruby.
Wait, no, I've been doing well.
It would be 24 years.
It come March it would be 24years come March and Drag has
evolved over the decades thatI've been doing it.
Stephanie you're like the OG,I'm the OG.
Speaker 4 (02:34):
Yeah, in this area.
Speaker 3 (02:36):
Yeah, I'm the longest kind of running performing Drag
artist in Kingston and the area.
I guess so too, probably yeah.
Speaker 1 (02:45):
Mostly let's not make any big claims, but yeah,
mostly.
Speaker 2 (02:49):
I am the first pop.
I know what was going on inNapaNee.
Things could have beenhappening.
Speaker 1 (02:52):
Well, that's the thing.
There are some performers fromkind of around Southeastern
Ontario who've been performing,I think, longer, like maybe
Dynasty.
Speaker 3 (02:59):
Is she from Southeastern Ontario?
Speaker 1 (03:01):
Yeah, she is, yeah, she is.
So from Kingston, we won't saythat, but from Kingston.
Speaker 3 (03:07):
But yeah, the original pop artist in Drag,
queen of Canada.
We'll just drop that there too.
But how to describe Drag?
Drag was it started off inKingston as a way to.
It was a fundraising sort ofthing too.
So during the AIDS crisis inthe 80s and early 90s I know my
(03:31):
drag mother, the people who, theperson who mentored me into
Drag they started doing Draghere at the Gay Clubs, raising
money for Kingston AIDS Project,which became ours.
But just now I can't rememberTrelis as well.
So they kind of started.
So Drag started off as kind oflike an altruistic kind of way
(03:53):
to raise funds in a fun andentertaining sort of way.
But yeah, it is in itself an artform.
That is, I find, empowering.
So like when I first saw myfirst drag show in person, you
know, because there was thosemovies right In the 90s, because
I'm from there.
But there's those movies in the90s like Tuang Fu or Priscilla
(04:15):
Queen of the Desert or somethingwhich portrayed Drag, but it
wasn't really like true, likeyou know, kingston sort of drag.
So it was very empowering and Ifell in love with it and that's
why I started it.
It really at the beginning itwas really gay men dressing as
(04:36):
in women, attire sort of thingand lip-syncing to women's songs
.
That's kind of how it started,but it has evolved.
And now this is where you jumpin there the new generation.
Speaker 1 (04:49):
The new generation.
No, that's very much where Dragstarted.
I mean, drag has been aroundfor centuries.
It's been.
It was used in Shakespeare,it's used in ancient Chinese
culture.
A lot of like Kabuki was alsoperformed in Drag.
It's been around forever.
It's not anything new.
The new expression of Dragreally is performative gender
(05:10):
expression.
So people performing asdifferent genders or heightened
genders or no genders, kind ofto make a social statement about
the fact that gender is asocial construct and it doesn't
actually have any significantimpact on who we are in a
(05:32):
society, but it's just somethingthat we've created in order to
better represent who we are.
And so Drag really is aheightened form of gender
expression that's used in aperformative, often comical
aspect.
But I like to say that Drag isall art forms.
Oh yes, because as a dragperformer, you are not only
(05:55):
doing gender expression.
So in my case, in Tiffany'scase, dressing up as women.
I don't like to say that we'redressing up as women, we're
dressing up as female genders,but also doing makeup, fashion,
lip syncing, dancing, singingcomedy, improv, all of these
(06:16):
different things hosting.
it really is just everything,yeah.
Speaker 3 (06:20):
And oh sorry.
Speaker 2 (06:22):
I was just going to say I've noticed because you
talked about lip syncing I'venoticed a lot of drag performers
that shows I've been going torecently singing themselves,
something that you're justseeing.
You're obviously you guys aredoing the shows more than me.
I shouldn't have used the wordguys.
I hate that.
That's something we can talkabout later.
Speaker 3 (06:40):
You do.
Speaker 2 (06:43):
Always defaulting to the masculine Bro, bro, dude,
but is that something that yousee more people singing as
opposed to lip syncing, or still, it's definitely something that
.
Speaker 1 (06:56):
I think is becoming more acceptable in drag Right.
A friend of mine calls it lipsyncing live Okay.
Speaker 4 (07:03):
Why would that not be acceptable Is just sort of not
part of the tradition.
I guess not the tradition, yeah.
Speaker 1 (07:10):
And generally, like, the performers are men who are
queens or, historically, thereare men who are queens.
Your voice is deeper and so ifyou're singing, you're not like
whoo, like imitating a woman,because it was female
impersonation is what dragqueens were doing.
But, like so many people comeinto this art form from
(07:31):
different backgrounds now, andso there are people who are
singers who do drag, and thereare people who are actors who do
drag or comedians who do drag,or just regular people who do
drag.
Speaker 3 (07:42):
It's singing live, as a drag artist has been around
for a long time as well.
Speaker 1 (07:48):
A lot of cabaret acts .
Speaker 5 (07:50):
A lot of cabaret acts .
Speaker 3 (07:52):
I know a lot of artists from Toronto that do it.
Since pandemic though, like Ithink, and because the
inspirations of RuPaul's whiledoing RuPaul started singing in
the 90s, I had an album, sort ofthing.
So out of the pandemic erawhere we pivoted to doing drag
shows online sort of thing, tolip sync to someone's copyright
(08:17):
music which shut you down on thelive streams right.
And I saw a lot of people doingtrying to start doing like some
karaoke or something like thattoo.
So that was really interestingto see that branching out,
because drag was for the longesttime in the little local gay
bars, right, and it waslip-syncing to whatever famous
(08:40):
female pop artist it was at thetime.
But now it's starting to becomea different brand, or Madonna,
depending on what era you'refrom.
I'll talk with you, tiffany, orsuddenly, Rowena, like you, we
were doing a drag paint night.
(09:01):
For goodness sakes.
Speaker 1 (09:04):
Everything.
Speaker 3 (09:05):
Everything.
Just add drag to it, and thereyou go.
Speaker 2 (09:08):
Well, there's drag story time for kids.
I think a lot of people thinkit's drag as an adult thing and
x-rated thing, but it's reallyfor everybody.
Speaker 1 (09:17):
It is, it is.
My favorite thing about storytime is when I walk into a room
and all of the kids just thinkthat I'm a princess.
Yeah, I'm like.
Many of them are too young tounderstand that it's drag.
Most of them know that I'm likea man, not a woman, but they're
just like look at how prettyshe is and I'm like thank you,
(09:39):
you can tell me, I'm pretty allthe time.
Speaker 3 (09:41):
Oh, that is so cute.
I always enjoy it because thishas happened once or twice,
Twice for sure, Definitely oncethat some young toddler will be
like oh how is RuPaul?
I'm like great, I'm assuminggreat in the mansion.
I don't know, rupaul, sorry.
Speaker 4 (10:01):
Well, with the story time and I wanted to get into
this too, because obviously, asdrag has become more popular and
more mainstream, there's beenpushback from certain groups.
Have you encountered anyprejudice in the area in that
regard?
Speaker 1 (10:16):
Not really in Kingston.
In the story times that I'vedone in Kingston, I will get a
little bit of online backlashsometimes, but people online are
anonymous and they don't haveto show their faces and do all
these things.
I got some backlash when I wasdoing one in Napa Nhi in person
last summer and I'm the type ofperson who just takes it in
(10:37):
stride.
I know that what I'm doing isright.
I know that I'm not causingharm.
All I'm doing is teachingpeople.
I'm literally sitting therereading a story about love and
acceptance.
I don't know how that could bebad.
The problem that they have isthe fact that I am.
They think that I am either agay person who's causing trauma
(11:01):
or they associate me with thingsthat they fear.
Right now, there's a huge fearagainst people who are
transgendered.
With a large portion of thecommunity, that's not a
justifiable fear, but dragqueens are very visible and are
often associated with that.
When you're knocking downtransgendered individuals, you
(11:24):
start with the drag queens andthen you move from there.
But I mean, how do you dealwith that?
You just you tell them thatthey're wrong, you try to
educate them and when they don'tlisten, you try to educate them
again, and when they don'tlisten, you walk away.
Speaker 2 (11:39):
Yeah, there comes a point where you have to just
walk away.
It's like smacking your head upagainst a brick wall.
Yeah sometimes, you know, andit's only on you to educate as
much as you want to right so.
Speaker 3 (11:52):
Yeah, and and sometimes I feel like there's a
bit of a privilege almost for me, because I am very privileged,
(12:17):
because I find that somethinglike I have done story time and
and I haven't had such thebacklash, is that some of the
other Um, actor, sorry, sorrydrag artists have, uh, in the in
this community, and I sometimeswonder if there is a a like, a
(12:37):
privilege, because you know, mydrag is, is is kind of seen as
um, I don't know how to describeit matronly.
You know, you would, you wouldbe young and young and you're
like, yeah, I'm totally okaywith the kid hanging out with,
with tiffany, versus Some sortof I feel like there's a bosom.
Speaker 1 (13:11):
There's a drag king here in kingston.
Dare to live, femme.
Um, when they do a lot of storytimes, out in get an aque and
brockville and they have gottenso much hate.
They've had active protests attheir story times they had to
hire security.
Speaker 3 (13:29):
So someone tried to burn down the, the library in
brockville.
Speaker 1 (13:31):
Someone tried to burn down the library.
There were threats to burn itdown and there have been bomb
threats at other places becauseof story time, but but someone
went on to dare to live.
Femmes, instagram and I mean weall have a public persona when
we're doing story times and weall have Our actual drag
personas, like when we'reperforming in adult shows.
Like they're different, like Idon't show up in risqué, like
(13:56):
spandex and leather.
When I'm doing a story time, Iwear a long dress that's fully
covered and like it's verydifferent and dare does the same
.
But someone took one of hisscantily clad photos from
instagram and was like this iswhat you're showing, your
children.
Speaker 3 (14:12):
The photoshop it was a bad photoshop, but it yeah.
Speaker 1 (14:16):
People.
People will search for a reasonto hate.
Speaker 3 (14:19):
Of course, but I talk about the privilege.
But still, like, whenever I'mdoing a story time, I'm always
checking my accents.
Speaker 1 (14:27):
Yeah, you know you never know, one of those kids is
gonna tackle you.
Speaker 3 (14:33):
But like and whenever you're having a drag story time
, like it's all with parentalconsent, you know like they're
not, we're not just jumping.
You know, just like surprise,jump out of behind the bush.
Speaker 1 (14:50):
You don't have to bring.
Kids if you don't want to butother parents can make the
choice to do that if they wantto.
Yeah, that's.
The thing that I've neverunderstood is why people are
against having them.
Speaker 2 (15:04):
And there's more, there's more A friend of mine
whose little guy has beenobsessed with drag since he was
like four or five like, and hewas trying to find places to go
but he was not old enough to gointo the show.
So now here we fast forwardprobably seven or eight years.
Those opportunities areavailable to him in this
(15:25):
community.
I love it, amazing yeah.
Speaker 4 (15:28):
I'm gonna back up slightly and just show my
ignorance and ask what is a dragking?
Speaker 1 (15:33):
you mentioned that a moment ago, so so a drag queen
is someone who dresses up as afemale gender, whether that be a
man, woman, non-binary,transgender individual dressing
up as a woman.
But a drag king is someonewho's dressing up as a male
gender.
Okay, okay.
Speaker 2 (15:48):
So what do you think about people who say like faux
queen or something like that,like when, yeah, they're they're
old.
Speaker 1 (15:55):
They're old terms that we're trying to kind of
phase out.
It was.
It started out as, like bioqueen and a fab queen and faux
queen and it's essentially justthe drag community isolating out
women who perform as queens andit really is isolating and it's
(16:18):
Segregational and it's biasedand it comes from a part of
saying that their art isn't goodenough because they're already
women.
But we have quite a fewPerformers in Kingston who are
female, who perform as queensand they're just as talented, if
not more talented, than many ofthe other performers and
(16:41):
they're doing drag Of course,with the exception of the.
It's just other people trying todiminish what they're doing and
, like I, put on significantlyless makeup than some of the
women who perform as drag queens.
And, like my, hair stylingskills are probably worse than
(17:02):
many of the women who perform asdrag queens.
Also, my outfits, I mean.
I mean, it's anall-encompassing art form and it
doesn't have a limit to whatgender you have to be to do it
and it's been that way forever.
Speaker 3 (17:14):
in a day, like I remember, when I first started
doing drag, going to the clubsin Toronto and stuff, I'd be
like, oh my goodness, that'samazing drag performer.
And then finding out that it'sit's a woman as well, I was like
, well, she's a woman, but yeah,I was.
You know, it was, uh, it was.
It was nice to see that, it wasnice to see that kind of
(17:35):
Variation there and they, thatvariation did not exist really
back back in that day.
But today, like here in King,oh my gosh.
Speaker 1 (17:42):
Well, some of my favorite drag queens are
transgender women who do drag,and mostly just because I love
when they Many of them havecaught in breast implants and I
love when they just gobble upthe money with their boobs.
Speaker 2 (17:58):
I'm always willing to throw a few bucks in.
Oh my gosh, let's talk aboutsome shows that you have coming
on, because you you mentionedone, um, so I want to say the
comedy of errors.
Well, there's something in,yeah, so it's a comedy of drag
errors.
Speaker 1 (18:16):
It's, uh, it's a new comedy variety show that we're
going to be doing, but it'sgoing to be all drag, but it's
essentially going to encompassall forms of comedy and all
forms of drag.
So, uh, performers are open todoing lip syncs, but, uh, with
some sort of comedy aspect, alsolive singing.
I myself do a lot of livesinging parodies.
(18:37):
So I'll write parodies to songsand then I'll sing them.
We have an artist coming in whois an improv actress.
Sketch comedy actress fromsecond city in Toronto, nice.
Um.
So she's coming down hillaryyas to perform and There'll
probably be some a lot ofaudience interaction and mic
work and it is an all ages showat the broom factory, february
(19:01):
17th.
Yes, it's a saturday get yourtickets family day weekend.
I know you're not working.
Speaker 4 (19:08):
Actually I'm gonna give a shout out here because,
speaking of the broom factoryFew months ago was we have a
weekly meeting with kingstonlive.
We talk about what's going onand who we might want to speak
with.
And rob brought up maybe we doa drag feature at some point and
I was like no, maybe, maybe,and we sort of left it at that
and I think it was like twoweeks later I was at the makers
(19:31):
meetup and I met the two of youand then it was like the next
day I said to rob, I think weshould do the drag feature.
Speaker 5 (19:37):
I think this needs to happen.
Speaker 4 (19:39):
But yeah, I just want to give a shout out to, because
this is organized by thekingston canadian film festival.
The makers meet up.
It happens every month.
I think the first one was what?
November, when we met, was thatit?
Speaker 3 (19:49):
first one was in november I skipped December and
then I went to.
I went to the january one.
That was fun.
Speaker 2 (19:55):
So that was my first one, and, um, yeah, that's where
we met.
So what that?
Speaker 3 (20:00):
we, we, we survived the weather, the snow, exactly
torrential rain.
It was a rough day it was arough one, for sure.
Speaker 4 (20:07):
If you are in any creative artistic domain.
Yes, check out the makersmeetup.
Uh, that's through kingstoncanadian film festival.
I believe it's the firstTuesday of each month.
Speaker 1 (20:18):
That makes sense.
Yes, that sounds right.
I have no idea what time it'sat, but it's four o'clock.
Four o'clock, yeah, firstTuesday of each month at the
Broom factory.
Speaker 2 (20:28):
Sorry, you'll have to edit that out.
Yeah, I can do that, thanks, oryou can just leave it there.
Speaker 3 (20:34):
I was like waiting for a moment.
This is your moment to cough,my moment to shove.
Everybody get it out, okay.
Speaker 1 (20:42):
I have been waiting.
I've been waiting to do it.
Speaker 4 (20:46):
I want to talk about music.
How do you select the musicthat you perform to?
Speaker 1 (20:51):
Well, I mean tiffani's been performing to
share for the last 20 years.
Speaker 2 (20:54):
So it's really easy for her.
Speaker 3 (20:57):
Hey consistency is key right, you know what I.
Speaker 1 (21:01):
I don't enjoy any performance more than seeing
tiffani perform Share Actuallyperforming ABBA.
Share doing ABBA.
Share performing ABBA oh.
Speaker 2 (21:12):
Ever since Mamma Mia 2 came out, mad at.
Speaker 1 (21:15):
Ever since Mamma Mia 2 came out, she has been
performing Share, performingABBA, every single show and,
honestly, I've seen the sameperformance probably a hundred
times at this point and I stilllove it.
Amazing, it's amazing yeah.
Speaker 3 (21:29):
I think I think it's mostly ABBA.
How do you choose the music?
That's a really good question.
Like when I first started off,I was, I think it's whatever
music that you're really into atthe time.
So when I first started doingdrag, I was really into the club
scene.
So there was a lot of clubmusic that I was doing or
remixes of songs and stuff, likemy first Conte Patrio by Donna
(21:53):
Summer, remix by oh wow, I can'tremember his name now, but yeah
, that was like my firstperformance at Club 477.
And I got the little standingovation which then hooked me
into drag for the rest of mylife.
But yeah, and then it slowlykind of evolves to what your
tastes are like.
Speaker 1 (22:15):
Standing up to leave does not count as a standing
ovation.
Stop, stop.
Speaker 3 (22:20):
That is rude.
But I think what's really Likeif I give any advice to any drag
artist out there is to do musicthat you're impassioned about.
But you know you feelpassionate about that you
actually enjoy and like doing,because if you're going to be
doing music that you don't liketo do, it's going to get very
(22:41):
tired very quickly.
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (22:45):
I echo a lot of that.
It's music that impassions you.
Whenever I'm choosing aperformance song, especially a
new performance song, it'susually something that either I
feel like I can really embodythe energy of the song and the
attitude of the song I'm a veryemotive performer and for me I
have to feel the emotion of thesong, otherwise it doesn't work
(23:07):
for me, or I have some way thatit tickles my funny bone Because
I really like doing a comedicperformance or doing some sort
of mix of that song with spokenword or with other music.
That makes it a little bitfunnier for me.
So if I find a song and I likehear it on the radio, I'm like,
oh, that really works, thatworks really well.
(23:29):
But then sometimes you just havethemed performances.
So a few years back I did a VH1Diva live performance where I
did all of the songs from theVH1 Diva's live show in one show
and that was my performance.
So I had to learn all thosesongs.
Yeah, it's kind of whatevermakes you feel it's an art form,
(23:49):
whatever makes you feelartistic.
Speaker 2 (23:51):
Ever get on stage with something new.
You're never doing that again.
Speaker 1 (23:57):
Every time, every time it's like karaoke.
Speaker 2 (24:00):
Sometimes you pick a song and you're like, oh, the
crowd is not into this, okay,but what is it?
Is it the music, or is?
Speaker 4 (24:05):
it the performer Like why doesn't it land?
Sometimes it just doesn'ttranslate.
Speaker 3 (24:11):
That's a good question.
Speaker 2 (24:13):
Yeah, as somebody who's done stand-up comedy for
over a decade, that's toughBecause I can do the same show
back to back.
One crowd loves it, the nextcrowd doesn't.
Speaker 1 (24:22):
That's me whenever I do Broadway.
I do a Broadway number andthere'll be like two people in
the back row going yes, queen,and then everyone else is like
why is she doing an 11 minuteMean Girls Original Broadway mix
Stop with the Mean Girls.
Speaker 3 (24:37):
Oh my God.
Speaker 1 (24:39):
Which I have now done twice, and the first time I did
it everyone was like blank face.
The second time I did it,everyone's like.
This is so funny.
And like it's different.
I will say, though, as a dragperformer, you have to know.
The one thing you're requiredto know as a drag queen is all
of the lyrics and all of themannerisms to Whitney Houston's.
(25:00):
It's Not Right, but it's Okay.
The Thunderpuss Remix.
Speaker 2 (25:03):
Okay, why the left disney my?
Speaker 3 (25:06):
face is just dropped.
Speaker 2 (25:07):
What.
Speaker 3 (25:08):
Sorry if you're a drag queen who dances?
You need to know that.
Speaker 1 (25:13):
Yes everyone must know it, it is a requirement.
Speaker 2 (25:16):
She's like back to shit.
Speaker 3 (25:18):
Oh my God, I feel so old because I remember when that
dropped at Fly Night Club anddropped for the first time.
Oh my God, Thunderpuss, I missThunderpuss.
Speaker 2 (25:28):
Let's talk about drag mothers for a minute.
Yeah, maybe this is just anassumption, rowena.
Was it easier for you to find adrag mother than it was for you
, tiffany?
Speaker 1 (25:37):
I don't have a drag mom.
Speaker 2 (25:39):
You don't have what?
Okay, so now this isinteresting.
Wait, I'm going to back upagain.
What is drag mom?
Yes, yes, I think I got a senseof what it is but, please
explain, just for the recordDefinition.
Speaker 3 (25:50):
Well, I'll give my definition.
Well, I mean, there's a largeprocess.
Speaker 1 (25:54):
You have to find an operating room first and you
have to surgically cut the child.
Speaker 3 (25:59):
No, no, I'll let you talk.
That was all fells.
So a drag mother is a term thatwe use for our mentor who
usually puts you into the dragfirst time, sort of thing, and
there's like culturaldifferences even across Canada,
(26:21):
sort of thing.
So in Kingston, for instance,drag mother Jazz Morgan is my
drag mother and she got me intodrag for the first time, painted
my face, got me into my firstshow, sort of thing, and then I
take her last name and in someother circles there's a few
other, or your drag mother, andthen you can also take other
(26:43):
last names of other people whoput you into a drag show for the
first time and stuff.
But really it's kind of amothering kind of mentor kind of
role, sort of thing.
It's not something to be takenlightly.
Speaker 1 (26:57):
No, it's essentially taking ownership of helping
someone develop their dragcareer, their drag persona,
their identity as a performer,and showing them the ins and
outs of the community.
Showing them the ins and outsof all of the different aspects
of drag, because a lot goes intojust becoming a drag queen.
(27:17):
Beyond the makeup, I mean,there's body shaping, there's
pick and close, there's stylingwigs, there's figuring out what
kind of performances you want todo.
Sometimes your drag motherswill teach you dance moves, and
I didn't have any of that.
Speaker 2 (27:33):
Yeah, so you just like.
That's interesting to mebecause I feel like there's
usually somebody that introducesyou.
Speaker 3 (27:41):
That was true back in the day, like back in the day
when I first started doing drag.
That was before YouTube, beforeYouTube, and the only way you
could learn how to do drag waslearning from someone else,
Right?
So?
Speaker 5 (27:56):
interesting To do the makeup, to do all that.
Speaker 3 (27:58):
You had to learn it from someone else, and then
YouTube came out, right.
Speaker 2 (28:23):
When you mentioned the name thing, that was
interesting, because I've neverheard of that taking on the name
.
That's very interesting.
Let's talk about how you cameup with your names.
We know how you got your lastname.
Well, let's talk about the fullname.
Speaker 3 (28:35):
Oh yeah, that was my first time doing drag, so Jazz,
she.
So we all got together a wholegroup of new prospective artists
at this apartment, so it waslike within a block of Club 477
and we're all getting our makeupdone.
So she sat me down probably onthe floor right here too, the
(28:58):
sort of situation.
She sat me down.
She's like you're not lookingin the mirror until you're done.
I'm like, okay.
She's like, have you figuredout a name?
I'm like I'll figure out a namewhen I see myself in the mirror
.
And so you know, I don't know,half an hour or something like
that.
Later she's paint me and she'slike, oh, puts the wig on me
borrowed wig from one of my dragsisters.
Oh God, it looked terrible.
(29:18):
Anyway, we have to think thiswas early 2000s, but she's, you
know.
I turned around, looked intothe full length mirror and I'm
like, oh my gosh, I'm Tiffanyfrom the 1980s, with that big
reddish hair and all that.
And I'm like, oh well, I guessI'm Tiffany, morgan, that's.
Speaker 2 (29:40):
All right, beautiful, whatever you are.
Speaker 1 (29:45):
Yeah, so I was.
I'm a proud drag.
Immaculate conception is what Icall this off.
Really, I'm just a child of theinternet so I didn't have a drag
mom, so I watched a whole bunchof tutorials and I learned how
to do drag that way.
I had people who inspired me todo drag, like people I saw in
the community and anex-boyfriend I had that did drag
(30:07):
although I didn't learn thatuntil later.
But I saw them performing and Iwas like, oh, that's really fun
, like maybe I can do that.
So I came up with my drag name.
Actually, like in abrainstorming session in a
subway tunnel in Edmonton with afriend of mine we're just
sitting there.
I was like I want my last nameto be Wei W-H-E-Y, because at
(30:28):
the time I was a personaltrainer.
I'm really into fitness and Iwas like Wei protein is the one
protein I'm not allowed to eatbecause I'm lactose intolerant.
So I was like Wei.
Speaker 2 (30:38):
I'll have this, one Wei or another, exactly.
Speaker 3 (30:42):
So the which Wei, I can't.
It's great marketing, greatmarketing.
Speaker 1 (30:46):
And then I was trying to figure out a pun that went
with Wei and I really loved thename Rowena because of one of my
favorite movies, Mr Holland'sOpus, a great musical movie
about music teacher, and Rowenawas the Broadway starlet who
tried to steal the man from hiswife and I really felt that.
(31:06):
So I became Rowena Wei, whichis a really stupid pun that no
one ever gets.
But it's just like Rowena Wei.
Speaker 2 (31:16):
Rowena Wei Okay, when either?
Speaker 4 (31:22):
of you, or have you drag mothered anyone else?
How does somebody get into this?
Speaker 1 (31:28):
I mean, you've been a drag mom, a couple times.
Speaker 3 (31:30):
Yes, yes, I don't know where half of them are but
they've all stopped doing dragor they moved on.
Speaker 2 (31:38):
I realized they couldn't live up to their mom,
they couldn't live up to theexpectations of mama.
Speaker 3 (31:43):
That's probably more true.
Speaker 1 (31:46):
A lot of people start doing drag and then stop doing
drag because it's a lot.
It's a lot of money to do it,it's a lot of time commitment.
It's often hard to get showsbecause the scene is so small
and people who book showsgenerally book their friends.
So unless you're really in thescene, it's hard to break into
(32:07):
it, which is why we have openstage now.
Speaker 3 (32:12):
And also a lot of people get into it just to
explore themselves too.
Quite often you'll have a 20year old who'll get into it, but
then by the time they're 25,they're like well, I think I'm
good with that, I think I'm goodwith that, and then put box it
away and then take it out everynow and again.
Speaker 1 (32:34):
Real life takes over.
Speaker 3 (32:34):
And that's okay too.
That's totally okay too, but wejoke around that it's more.
I'm a little bit of an oddity.
You are an oddity for so long,because quite often people will
just kind of box it away.
Speaker 1 (32:50):
They're like, okay, hang up their wigs, hang up
their wigs.
Speaker 3 (32:54):
And it is competitive .
Yes, it is competitive to getthose shows, but I think
anything in the arts iscompetitive.
Speaker 1 (33:01):
Performance spaces, performance slots, are limited,
just in general.
Speaker 3 (33:05):
Well especially for drag artists.
It's only been recently that wehave all these different venues
asking us to come and do dragshows or do drag events, because
when I first started you wouldonly get the gay bar when we had
a gay bar asking us.
The grad club was always a verywelcoming sort of thing and
there was a lot of venues whowould not return the phone calls
(33:28):
.
We won't say who those are, buttoday, like now, they're
calling us.
They're like hey, we heardabout these drag things.
Speaker 2 (33:36):
We heard all those things were being sold there.
Speaker 1 (33:40):
There was some money to be earned here.
So I have had people that I'veput in drag and have performed,
but I don't have any dragchildren at the moment.
I have nurtured a lot of dragcareers and helped start a lot
of drag careers, but I'm not adrag mom at the moment.
(34:01):
I have one child who'scurrently gestating, wanting to
be born, but we have not madeher debut yet.
Speaker 3 (34:13):
And you have a brand new daughter.
I have a brand new daughter,Pee-Pee Ann Morgan.
You forgot about your daughter.
Shout out to Pee-Pee Ann.
I did not forget about my dragdaughter.
Speaker 5 (34:22):
She won't let me forget.
Speaker 3 (34:25):
But Pee-Pee Ann Morgan, yes, Shout out to
Pee-Pee Ann Morgan.
But I also feel like I'm a dragmother to all the drag artists
in town here, because there'salways something.
After doing this scene for solong, there's always something I
can impart on people.
But I've always said too thatdrag, at least in Kingston, was
a jack of all trades.
(34:46):
Master of nothing.
You have to know how to domakeup.
You have to know how to book aplace.
You have to know how to set upaudio.
You have to know how to mixsome music.
You have to know how to choreoLike you have to do a lot of
stuff.
Speaker 1 (35:01):
But I'm sorry, did you just say you have to know
how to choreograph?
Speaker 3 (35:04):
Hey, I've done choreography.
Even if it's just some jazzhands Is jazz hands up, jazz
hands down?
That's choreo.
Speaker 4 (35:14):
This is interesting because throughout this
conversation I've been comparingdrag queens, as you've been
speaking, to more traditionalmusicians and the process they
go through from learning thecraft to becoming a performer.
And it seems correct me if I'mwrong, but it seems very
different to me becausemusicians, a lot of them.
(35:35):
I think a lot of people wouldbe surprised to know how many
performers are actually veryintroverted, but drag queens
correct me if I'm wrong seem tobe very extroverted.
Is that correct?
No, Okay, okay.
Speaker 1 (35:47):
So a lot of people who do drag.
I think Tiffany and myself areexceptions.
We're both fairly social.
You're probably moreintroverted than I am Probably
am.
Yeah, the majority of dragperformers are actually very
introverted people and they usedrag as a way to be more
extroverted and be more out inpublic.
(36:08):
But often if you go up to adrag performer outside of their
actual performance, they're veryshy.
They're not the most talkative.
It's drag is their way ofbecoming larger than life.
Speaker 3 (36:20):
Interesting.
Okay, yeah, and I'm justthinking, trying to relate it to
a live musician or somethinglike a guitarist or something
For a drag artist.
You first have to focus ongetting on the stage for a first
sort of thing, and then youlearn your craft, and then you
learn your craft versus yeahGuitars.
You'd be learning the guitarfirst for a very long time
(36:42):
before you actually get up onthat stage.
Speaker 1 (36:44):
Why don't we make people be good before we let
them be on stage?
That's okay, I'm kidding.
Speaker 2 (36:51):
Well, there's a vulnerability when you're just
being 100% yourself.
I grew up acting and I feltlike on stage I always act, act.
And the moment I had to just dosomething as me, I got really
nervous and I was like, what isthis?
Why am I feeling this?
And I was like, oh, it'sbecause I'm being vulnerable.
(37:11):
I'm just doing this as Angela,not as Arlene in this play or
whatever it may be.
So I think when you talk abouta drag performer coming out of
their shell or being moreextroverted when they're all
dressed up, I totally can seethat.
Speaker 1 (37:27):
And a lot of drag performers come from performing
backgrounds.
I mean, that's how they startdoing acting or musicals or
music or singing or whateverthey do, and then they find drag
as a way of doing that moreregularly but with additional
(37:48):
art forms.
Speaker 4 (37:49):
Yeah, so that's interesting, because musicians,
you're like in a basement withan instrument for years and then
suddenly you're on a stage.
Oh, I have to be a performernow.
Speaker 1 (37:58):
Yes, yes, completely different thing we're a
performer first.
Speaker 3 (38:02):
Yeah, yeah, and I'm like, oh, you want to sing too.
Speaker 1 (38:05):
Okay, let's look we have the gremlin in the basement
situation too.
When you're learning yourmakeup I mean you practice you
sit in your bedroom and youstare at your mirror and you're
like, how do I become betterlooking with makeup?
And some people just never getthere and that's their drag
persona.
Tanya Rowena I was going topoint to you, Rowena, I'm like,
(38:27):
oh really.
Speaker 3 (38:27):
Oh, you're going to point to me, are you?
Okay, I'm all about the budget,makeup, hello.
But I'm going back to thatquestion though, too, because I
do feel that I'm an introvert,like because with introverts you
could be an extrovert for a fewhours, right, but then
afterwards I'm at home, I'm onthat couch, I'm decompressing
(38:50):
for the next like eight, twodays.
Eight hours, two days.
Speaker 1 (38:54):
I do think that I'm one of the rare drag performers
who is an extrovert the being onstage talking to people, seeing
people doing things.
I could do it for hours andhours and hours, because it's
what gives me energy.
It's your personality.
Speaker 5 (39:09):
It's my personality, yeah.
Speaker 1 (39:11):
And that's like my drag persona is me just a little
bit bigger.
Speaker 2 (39:16):
Exaggerated.
Speaker 3 (39:17):
I'm not saying it doesn't give me a high, Like
hello, Like you can leave a showjust feeling so pumped, so so
pumped.
Speaker 2 (39:24):
But then I do need that downtime back, Like you go
right to bed and you're like howdo I sleep Exactly?
Speaker 3 (39:30):
I can't sleep right away.
Speaker 2 (39:32):
I have two or three hours where I'm sitting on the
couch eating food because I didnot eat before the show because
corsets and dancing late nightyeah.
Speaker 3 (39:40):
Late night.
Speaker 1 (39:41):
Late night I sit on the couch and I I watch two
hours of TV and I stare at myphone, Watch all of the videos
of me performing over and overand over again.
Oh God.
Speaker 4 (39:52):
I want to go back to venues.
We mentioned venues a momentago.
What makes for a good dragvenue?
Liquor.
Speaker 1 (40:01):
Liquor, liquor, yeah, liquor.
It really depends on the show.
So different styles of showskind of require different venues
.
A stage is not really anecessity for drag.
A lot of drag is bringing theshow to the audience.
Like when you're performingmusic, you're on stage and the
(40:23):
the experience is seeing themusicians play and hearing the
music they're producing.
When you're, when you'rewatching a play, you're watching
the play, but drag is aboutinteracting in most senses.
So a lot of performers don'tstay on stage, even if we give
them one because they'reinteracting with the audience
(40:46):
and they're making jokes andthey're letting you into the
show, and oftentimes performerswill bring people on stage as
part of the show.
So you don't need a venue withanything except for sight lines,
because you have to be able tohave the audience see you as
you're walking around.
Yeah, and that's the big thing,okay.
Speaker 3 (41:08):
Yeah, yeah, it's.
Yeah, we have.
We.
We set up quite often differentstyles of.
I do love myself a theaterstyle kind of seating, we're
lighting and all that stuff allup on the stage with the
lighting, with everything I.
I prefer that.
But you can do a show in a cafewhen drag artists is walking
(41:28):
around amongst the tables, likea brunch or something like that.
Speaker 1 (41:32):
But yeah, you can do it at any any kind of venue, as
long as there is some sightlines and and the audio like oh
my gosh, oh yeah the audio isthe most essential thing because
, especially if you're lipsyncing, you don't want people
to hear you Like smacking yourlips and saying words while
you're lip syncing.
So the music is generally veryloud.
Speaker 3 (41:54):
It is.
Yes, it tends to be quite loud.
And plus for that drag artists,because if they are going out
into the audience sort of thing,they have to be able to hear
the music as well, that they'relip syncing.
Speaker 2 (42:06):
Now, when y'all come out into the audience, that's
when I lose all of my money.
Speaker 3 (42:09):
So let's talk about.
Speaker 2 (42:11):
Let's talk about tipping for a second, your buddy
somebody cuz I feel like a lotof people in Kingston.
Maybe they'll hear this andthink you know I should check
out a drag show.
What's the etiquette whentipping?
Speaker 3 (42:23):
Tipping is fairly new to Kingston In the US.
Speaker 1 (42:29):
In the US, where, like, drag was a lot bigger,
yeah, or in the big citiesToronto, there was a lot of
tipping.
In Toronto, I mean in theStates, you can tip a dollar,
hmm.
So people will generally likethrow money at people, which is
fairly easy.
In Canada, the minimum is fivegenerally because we don't make
it hail.
Speaker 3 (42:46):
We don't.
We don't throw the coins.
Speaker 1 (42:49):
So if you want to tip a queen, hold money up and they
will come to you, or you can goto them and give it to them.
Etiquette if you like what yousee, give it money.
Generally that's because asperformers, we don't make very
much.
Like booking fees for dragqueens are generally not
Equitable with live musicians orwith actors and all these
(43:11):
things, and so, especially ifit's a large cast of performers,
the booking fee is not verymuch.
I know Tiffany and I have beentrying to work to Repair this a
lot by actually like asking forbooking fees from venues, which
is something new the past fewyears, which is really nice, but
generally that's where tippingcame from is drag queens didn't
get paid very much and so theaudience would pay.
(43:34):
But Now what it is is you tipin order to get an extra show.
That's kind of just yours.
So if you hold up money,performers will generally come
with you like come to you andthen interact with you in some
way, whether that be like makinga part of their song or Giving
you a lap dance, depending on.
(43:55):
Your performer is not if it'sdirty depending if it's a $50
bill.
Generally etiquette, the onething I will say is, if you're
gonna give a queen money, don'ttake it away and make them like
play with it, like just give itto them yeah.
Speaker 2 (44:14):
That would make me walk away.
Yeah, I don't need you.
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (44:17):
Yeah, so yeah, tipping.
When I first started off itthere wasn't really tipping in
Kingston.
I remember my first tip.
I was doing a show in Halifaxand I'm like, oh, what do I do?
What do I do?
Take it around.
Speaker 2 (44:33):
What's a mama?
Speaker 3 (44:37):
Yeah, I think it's a moment for that drag artist to
you know, show some appreciationfor the person giving you,
giving you the money, likewhether or not it's some eye
contact, holding it, you know,whatever it is sort of thing.
Speaker 1 (44:49):
So this is why there was a break a long time ago in
Kingston.
Speaker 3 (44:56):
But and it is funny too, because I remember when we
they first started tipping andand suddenly going to the bank
with a whole bunch of five.
So I fight on the bills andthey're like, and I'm like, I'm
a drag queen, thank God, moneyis plastic.
(45:17):
Now Let me tell you, thank God,his money is plastic.
Speaker 1 (45:20):
I remember buying a TV with my tips from drag.
It was $900 in five dollarbills.
Speaker 4 (45:28):
Was it in a briefcase ?
Speaker 1 (45:31):
It was in my wallet, like my wallet was bursting, but
it was a great feeling.
They're like.
They're like I guess this isaudio eyes bulging out of their
heads like Do you?
Speaker 3 (45:48):
take it out in here Now that you lick your fingers.
He's just five ten.
Speaker 1 (45:53):
Well, that's the thing is I had to count it out
for them, no, and then they hadto count it out again, and so it
was the longest transactionever.
But every time I pay with fivedollar bills, I am sure that
people think I'm a stripper.
Speaker 4 (46:11):
It's like making a big purchase with Canadian tire
money yourself.
Tell us about maple tea.
Speaker 3 (46:25):
What's the maple tea?
Speaker 1 (46:26):
What is the maple tea Rowena podcast podcast where we
talk about everything Kingstondrag, canadian drag and
everything that we want to,mostly just because we are
unable to stay on a script.
Yeah, we're not, yeah, and wejust kind of get off topic, but
it is our podcast that we justdid our hundredth episode right
(46:46):
before Christmas.
It started out as a Canada'sdrag race review podcast during
the pandemic because we weren'table to leave our houses and the
first season of Canada's dragrace was airing, so we were like
, well, why don't we talk aboutit?
It's a good time for us tocatch up.
Really, it's just our therapy.
(47:07):
We just talked to each otherlive, and that's what makes it a
little different is that werecord it live so people can
watch us as we record it and cansend us messages and talk to us
.
But then we also post it, thatlive, unedited podcast.
Speaker 3 (47:25):
So edit it.
Okay, edited it has.
I take the.
I take the little the frontback.
Speaker 1 (47:33):
Make sure the levels are all, but she never edits out
what I say, which I'm sure, ifsomeone goes back and listens to
all these episodes.
Speaker 3 (47:42):
I'm sure you'll be cancelled in ten years time.
I'm sure I'm sure I don't thinkit'll take ten.
Speaker 1 (47:49):
If I haven't been cancelled yet.
No, but we've also.
We we interview like dragperformers.
Speaker 3 (47:55):
That's been fun.
That's been fun.
Talk about some of the dragperformers that we know.
Speaker 1 (48:00):
So mostly performers from Canada's drag race, but
we've interviewed winners ofCanada's drag race Isis Gature,
jimbo, who won all-stars thisyear, and a few like.
One of my favorite interviewswas Bombay.
Oh my gosh, absolutely justChaotic, in the best sense of
the word.
(48:20):
Talking about lard Like just so, so fun, yeah, yeah but yeah,
yeah, yeah, I we started it.
Speaker 3 (48:32):
Yeah, it was a pandemic.
Speaker 5 (48:33):
It was a pandemic yeah.
Speaker 3 (48:34):
I was like well, I know how to podcast as the first
podcast in drag queen of Canada.
Check out the breakfast withTiffany.
I went to tell the pod camps butyeah, I was like I have the
equipment and everything.
I'm like let's do this, let'sdo this.
It's just potty ass, let's justdo it.
And that was kind of the moment.
(48:54):
It was just okay, let's just doit.
Put it together.
Mark Blevis, thank you so muchfor doing.
Our intro and extra was well,out there in the world.
I'm gonna try to claim as theirown.
Don't get me started likeRussia and Belarus are basically
trying to block all gay contentthese days, so they they always
(49:16):
put some sort of copyright on.
You're like there's copyrightand you're like what copyright?
Speaker 1 (49:25):
Intro music was made for us like and.
Speaker 3 (49:28):
I like, okay, whatever.
However, you want to block gaycontent coming into Belarus or
Russia, sure.
Speaker 2 (49:35):
So RuPaul's Drag Race ?
I've thought about this myself,john.
Just to put this into some sortof context for you.
Thank you any listener who'snot RuPaul fan.
They play a game called snatchgame, and during snatch game
they impersonate someone famous,and so you must have put some
(49:57):
thought into, if you were onsnatch game, who you would be
impersonating.
I.
Speaker 1 (50:02):
I mean, we have both May or may not have applied for
drag race at some point in time.
Okay, and one of the questionson the application is who would
you do for such game?
Because part of the applicationprocess is you have to record
yourself as that person doingsnatch game allegedly, if you
know, legibly, if we have apleasure right.
(50:22):
So snatch game is like matchgame, like the old TV show where
celebrities would try and matchwith contestants.
I Kind of have gone up and downover the years.
I'm not great with like voices.
I can do like actingimpressions, but I'm not great
with doing voices, which isweird because I'm a singer, so
you would think that I'd be ableto match those things.
(50:44):
But all of my impressions comeout as old lady, southern
Jamaican, or even my Britishturns out southern and Jamaican.
It's really bad.
So I want to do if I were to doit, kathleen Turner.
Speaker 3 (50:59):
Oh well, right now, with that voice, how well is it,
kathleen?
Speaker 1 (51:02):
Turner, mostly just because her voice is a little
deeper.
She's very sultry, her style isvery shushky.
Her style is very similar to mystyle as a performer, just to
kind of in attitude.
For most of her movies she waslike the sultry vixen, except
for, I guess, mommy dearest,which is the other side of my
(51:23):
attitude, the hateful bitch.
So yeah, that's who I would be,kathleen.
Speaker 2 (51:29):
Turner?
Okay, what about you, Tiffany?
Speaker 3 (51:31):
Well, I have this theory that the best way, the
best kind of character that youcan do, is something someone who
people don't really know,historical character and then
you're able to make it your own.
So, in my world, if I was to doit allegedly, I would want to
try to do Laura Secord, ahistorical figure which you can
(51:55):
have so much fun with, becausethe whole idea is now Canadian
historical figure.
Speaker 2 (52:00):
Yeah, that's right.
Speaker 3 (52:01):
Yes, Canadian historical figure, but it's to
add the comedy to it.
So you know, be like LauraSecord, be like, okay,
fitzgibbon, blah, blah, blah orsomething.
Would you like some chocolates?
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (52:14):
You can have so much fun with that you can work it,
you can have so much fun withthat.
Speaker 3 (52:17):
Yeah, so that's my thought, because when we look at
some of the amazing snatchgames like Giselle, oh yeah, she
was Marie Curie.
Speaker 2 (52:28):
Marie Curie, she just became like an alien in the
thing because she got likeradium and radiation poisoning
and sickness and, like some goodones are like people who we
don't know anything about, likea historical figure yeah, it's
kind of like you know about them, but then you get to make it
your own because we're not soattached to them that we're like
, oh, they're not hitting thevoice or they're not hitting the
whatever, Exactly because ifyou were, if you were like I'm
(52:50):
doing Britney Spears, peoplewould expect 100% kind of
Britney Spears Like you eitherhave to be really good.
Speaker 1 (52:58):
Or you have to do something that's you in a like,
just as a different character,or do something that no one
knows anything about.
Speaker 2 (53:07):
Yeah, okay, I'm never going to be able to get to it
in my head.
That's so weird.
It's such a weird one.
I love it, all the chocolate.
Speaker 1 (53:15):
All the chocolate, all the chocolate, all the
chocolate, all the chocolate.
Speaker 3 (53:22):
Well, if you want to go see a drag show in Kingston,
go visit dragshowca.
Dragshowca, your source fordrag shows in Kingston, and your
source for Tiffany Morgan andtheir source.
Well, yeah, that's it.
That's it.
Yeah, that's the funny thingtoo.
Oh, I'm just going to sharethis story then.
So, yeah, rene is going to rollher eyes at this story.
(53:45):
But so the moral of the story is, whenever someone online, just
randomly online, says submit avideo, you should submit a video
.
So when RuPaul's Drag Racemaybe the second or third season
or something like that, theywere, really they were looking
for drag artists and at thattime we were talking early 2000s
not a lot of drag artists wereonline.
(54:06):
Like, I think MySpace wasaround at that point, but not a
whole lot of drag artists wereon MySpace.
I have my own website, I havemy own website, tiffanicom, and
I got this random email.
Then they were producers from ashow called RuPaul's Drag Race
and they're like, oh, we wouldlove for you to submit an
(54:28):
application video, because backthen it was just an application
video and I was like, oh, okay,and I'm like, oh, I think I've
heard about this RuPaul's DragRace.
And I talked to a few otheronline drag artists from Toronto
, which was like two, andthey're like oh yeah, we got
that too.
Blah, blah, blah.
And then the consensus was like, well, you know, drag on
(54:51):
television.
How long is that going to last?
For we're like what's what's?
I'm like, oh no, I'm not goingto submit a video.
I'm not going to submit anapplication video, Because I'm
like, oh, it'll end, It'll becancelled next week.
Speaker 2 (55:04):
Fast forward, fast forward 20 years.
Speaker 1 (55:07):
Global empire.
Speaker 3 (55:07):
Global empire Because over 50 seasons, yeah, yeah,
many franchises, and I'm like Ishould have done that Submit the
application?
Speaker 2 (55:17):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (55:18):
Just send the video to the mystery person online,
just do it.
Speaker 2 (55:22):
Solid advice for anyone, in any situation, in any
situation.
Speaker 3 (55:25):
Some random person's like I'm a producer of blah blah
blah Submit a video, sure, sure.
Oh gosh, that's not actualadvice.
Speaker 2 (55:34):
Yeah, no, we want to roll back on that.
Speaker 4 (55:38):
Well, quite often we'll wrap up the podcast by
usually we have bands, we havemusicians in here and I'll ask
them if they have any advice foraspiring musicians.
And I think you've kind ofanswered this question.
But yeah, is there any advice?
Someone listening an aspiringdrag performer out there?
What would you say to them?
Don't do it, no.
So that's the joke answer.
Speaker 5 (56:00):
That's what every drag performer says so drag is a
lot.
Speaker 1 (56:05):
It will consume all of your money and all of your
time.
So if you're starting out todrag, get an outfit from a
discount shop that you feelamazing in.
Grab some dollar store makeup,if you don't have any, and paint
your face a few times and wearthat outfit and go to a drag
(56:25):
show in drag and see if you likethe feel of it, because if you
don't enjoy that experience, youprobably won't enjoy doing drag
.
And then, once you've done that, talk to some drag performers
and they will get you into ashow.
They'll get you into the scene,they'll give you advice and
you'll slowly get to be a partof the community.
(56:47):
And when you're ready toperform, come to the open stage
the first Wednesday of everymonth at the crowd club, because
it's open.
Anyone can perform Like an openmic, but for drag, that's so
cool.
Speaker 3 (56:59):
Yeah, advice for someone getting into drag for
the first time don't do it.
But if you decide no, I am,when it comes to drag or any
kind of thing artistically thatpeople are interested in the
first and foremost thing that Isay is just jump in and start
(57:20):
doing it.
If you want to do a podcast, ifyou want to become a musician
or something, just don't jumpinto it.
Don't really think about itthat much, just get into it,
just start doing it and you'llstart learning those skills
while you're doing.
And I think that's always kindof been my way of doing things
(57:44):
With podcasting.
I was like just jump right inand start doing it.
Don't feel that you need tohold back because there's quite
a few drag artists who haven'tmade it yet to the scene.
I'm looking at you, rowena, oneof your children, that.
I'm like they just need to geton the stage.
Just jump in.
(58:05):
Two feet.
Jump in and you'll learn it asyou go.
Speaker 1 (58:10):
Don't be afraid to be busted, because everyone is
busted at the beginning, andthen you'll grow, and it's okay,
because Tiffany is still busted.
Speaker 3 (58:21):
And make sure you get photos of that, because you may
be on Drag Race one day andthen they will use it.
They'll use the busted photo Ihave a.
Oh sorry, go ahead, I'm tryingto.
Whenever I think about that,I'm like where's my first photo
of drag?
And I'm like I don't think Ihave it.
I think it's in some photoalbum somewhere.
Speaker 2 (58:42):
I just had a vision of you, rowena, giving away tips
, but in a rowboat in thesummertime it's like rowing away
with Rowena way and you're justgiving your drag tips I didn't
have a mama, I didn't have amama.
Speaker 3 (58:58):
I pulled myself up with my own.
Speaker 1 (59:02):
I'm going to do it.
Speaker 3 (59:02):
I'm going to do it.
Speaker 1 (59:04):
You know what I have my canoeing licenses.
I've got my levels, I'm goingto get a rowboat and I'm going
to do some really rowena waywith Rowena way.
I'm going to be in the front ofthe boat just videotaping me
praying that I don't tip overthe rowboat.
Speaker 2 (59:21):
Got some waterproof equipment.
Speaker 3 (59:24):
Oh, my God.
Speaker 2 (59:24):
Tiffany Morgan and Rowena Way.
What a pleasure to meet youboth today.
Speaker 1 (59:28):
It was so nice to meet you here.
Thank you so much for having us.
Speaker 5 (59:33):
This has been Kingston Live.
We encourage you to rate us onyour listing platform of choice
and subscribe where possible Forshow listings, artist info and
all things.
Kingston music.
Check out KingstonLiveca.
Kingston Live was produced inKingston by Soundwise, hosted by
John Sanfilippo and Ange Stever, voiceovers by Riley J'Borre
and John Sanfilippo, writing andresearch by Peter Sanfilippo.
(59:56):
Executive producer, rob Howard.
Kingston Live is a member ofthe Canadian Live Music
Association.
We'd love to hear from you.
Email us atpodcastofkingstonliveca.
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