Exploring Drag and Performance

Testing out designs, playlists, choreo, and having fun!

My inspiration to explore

Favorite themes/imagery

I/Me/Myself by Will Wood

This song hit me like a fucking truck. I wasn't sure if I actually liked drag because I had this idea that drag was glamorous and beautiful and hyper cis-feminine. I wanted to do weird performance art and play around with lines of gender/performance/society, and all the drag that had been shown to me was very much Not That. I was more comfortable with burlesque, partially because I had known about it for longer and had seen it in more goofy contexts than I had for drag performance.

The immediate choreo I imagined for this song had stripping and honestly I think I'm sticking to that. This song feels a lot like baring your soul without letting anyone know how much it hurts to do that. I like combining anguish with humor and camp to feel this swinging and tumultuous emotional ride.

Costume & Props

Going for a cheap business man type look. Yes I'm wearing office clothes, but I don't enjoy it and I don't care enough to buy anything particulary nice.

  • Tear away white button-up (sew snaps in)
  • Black slacks (sew snaps to side seams for tear away OR oversized + belt?)
  • Black tie
  • Trouser socks w/garters ... not sure if they should be fun and flirty socks or just black
  • Black dress shoes/Oxfords
  • Black blazer
  • White binder (I'm looking at getting a new mesh one for myself and that may work very well here, and keep from sweating too bad)
  • Classic boxers (white w/red dot or blue plaid) OR some neon briefs... to pack or not to pack, I'm not sure
  • Chair as prop
  • Lipstick to use during the instrumental break
  • Compact or handheld mirror

Hardware Store by Weird Al Yankovic

This song really evokes a hardware store lesbian / Mercury Stardust / being autistic about items and locations amalgamation image in my head. I loved going to the hardware store as a kid, and the humorous listing of all manner of things is an absolute delight. The idea of playacting these lyrics genuinely sounds like a blast, and adding some contractor swagger to juxtapose the excited child angle is so funny to me. And the actual musical composition and vocals of this song!! So much fun, I will find a way to make this work if it kills me.