On March 12, Biqtch Puddin was backstage at Downtown L.A.’s Precinct club with fellow drag queens Willam and Alaska Thunderfuck, half-joking that their upcoming deranged country singer act might be…
On March 12, Biqtch Puddin was backstage at Downtown L.A.’s Precinct club with fellow drag queens Willam and Alaska Thunderfuck, half-joking that their upcoming deranged country singer act might be their last in front of a crowd for a while. The next day, she says, “I got my ass to the grocery store and grabbed what I could.” Nightlife, as far as she could see it, was about to go dark for a very long time due to the coronavirus.
While there’s no replacing the particular magic of grimy dive bars and elaborate theatrical productions, nightlife performers are, as always, bending norms and innovating new forms. And as any of them will tell you, drag performers are used to creating something amazing out of nothing.
Another advantage to virtual drag is that it makes more room for video art. “It’s very much a different medium,” says drag performer Pearl Harbor. “It’s not the same as live performance, but you can take advantage of the camera in a lot of different ways.” Case in point: a recent number Pearl did for Switch n’ Play, their Brooklyn drag collective.
These questions lie at the beating heart of digital drag, which has swiftly expanded a world that was already pushing entertainment to be its most daring and radically inclusive. And with no endpoint to quarantine in sight, performers and producers are casting an eye toward how these new formats can better serve themselves and their community. “Sometimes,” as DeLa puts it, “this kind of horrific situation can force you to dust off some cobwebs you didn’t even know were there.
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