Theatrical, for sure: Once the show begins, the kings' complicated and often campy interpretations of masculinity run the gamut from swanky martini-loving playboy to effeminate gay man to uptight suit to closeted Catholic priest. "Drag kings make visible the ways in which masculinity - as much as femininity - is a sort of theatrical performance," says Judith Halberstam, a professor of English at UC-San Diego and author of the two drag-king essentials: "Female Masculinity" and "The Drag King Book." There you have it: instant man.ĭrag kinging isn't just male impersonation, kings say it's performing masculinity. Throw on some baggy clothes, pin up and slick back your hair, widen your stance and maybe handle your crotch, lightly, to protect your new package. Then it's packing time: nestle a loose dildo, a strap-on, a sock, or a condom filled with birdseed between two layers of men's briefs or under a jock strap. If you're not blessed with naturally tiny breasts, you'll need to bind them, using an extra-tight sports bra or wrapping an ace bandage, Saran Wrap or duct tape around your chest. Eyeshadow shading makes a nice 5 o'clock look, if you're into that. Repeat this process for sideburns and chest hair. (All hopelessly out of style, but still.) After sketching out the design with some eyeliner, fill in the shape with spirit gum (a glue-like substance that won't hurt the skin), and carefully paste the clippings you've cut from your hair into the shape of the beard. You'll need facial hair, but full beards are too high-maintenance most kings go with a moustache, soul patch, chinstrap or goatee. To do drag, you have to deal with the drag-king basics: the beard, the breasts and the bulge. A woman needs more than clothes to make a man. "Johnny's looking pretty hot tonight!" Whitmire says, checking herself out in a full-length mirror and fashioning her short red hair into a pompadour.Ī line is already forming outside the club, but the kings don't rush transformation is an art, and art takes time. Most of the kings have been doing this for five, six and seven years now dressing in drag is second nature. The dressing room is a flurry of activity, a bonanza of makeup kits and elaborate costumes: fringed chaps, sequined suits, fetish gear. If the Kingdom Come kings are nervous about performing and being filmed, they're not showing it. Dick it will be released in New York in August. And "On the Road With the Kings" isn't the only upcoming documentary about drag kings: "Venus Boyz," a film released in Europe last spring, profiles pioneering New York kings Dred, Diane Torr and Mo B. Drag king performance troupes have cropped up in lesbian communities in cities as small and surprising as Louisville, Ky., and Roanoke, Va. Dick in "Pecker," and "Sex and the City's" demure Charlotte donned a suit and moustache for a steamy photo session with a famed drag king photographer.
Nonetheless, for the past few years they've been creeping into the periphery of the public consciousness: John Waters cast badass Brooklyn drag star Mo B. But unlike drag queens, who had their golden moment 10 years ago thanks to the movies "Wigstock," "The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert" and "To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything," kings are still pretty marginal. Kinging has thrived in New York and San Francisco's queer underground since the early '80s. It's the latest chapter in the mainstreaming of drag kings. Director Sonia Slutsky and producer Nigel Noble (the team behind the New York Times Television's "Portraits of Grief") are filming the tour for a documentary, tentatively titled "On the Road with the Kings," to air this fall or winter on the Discovery Health channel. For three weeks, the kings - Carlos Las Vegas, Ken Las Vegas, Christopher, Luster and Pat Riarch - will tool around in a Winnebago, performing in places like Jackson, Miss., and Chattanooga, Tenn. Whitmire's Johnny Kat is the opening act for Kingdom Come, a touring cavalcade that will take five of North America's best-known drag kings throughout the South and Midwest. "But I got the softie last year and it's fun having that realness in my pants." But she'll use it anyway, because when you're a drag king, you have to pack with something. Truthfully, Whitmore's softie - covered with a thin layer of fuzz and lint - is pretty sad-looking. She has everything she needs to transform herself into her alter ego, Johnny Kat: his trademark '70s denim and leather patchwork bell-bottomed suit hair clippings from a recent cut that she'll use for his mutton chops and, of course, the package - a small, pliable "softie" that resembles a flaccid penis. In the cramped basement dressing room of a tiny club in New York's East Village, Stacey Whitmire, 28, prepares to take the stage.
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