Lipstick and Leather

[synth music playing] ANA: The way it feels on stage, I kind of black out.

I have, like, flashes of imagery of what happened, and I know what the show was, because I wrote it.

You're not registering what's going on because you're not thinking of how you'll remember it in the future.

It's like radio silence.

What I crave on stage is that moment of complete nothing.

It's like meditating but to rock and roll and panties.

JANE: It's very easy to just pop on a stage and do a quick top 40 pop song and everyone kind of gets it.

But I feel like there's a little bit more of an element of theater to what a lot of alt-drag contains.

ANA: Show me something I haven't seen, or show me something that I haven't thought about that way before.

Unless you're actually changing and inversing the way that people think about the art form that you're contributing to, it's not alternative.

That's still in the mainstream.

[music playing] DONNA: When I moved here, it was in the middle of taking a break from drag.

You know, I took two months off, which doesn't seem like a lot, but it really was because I was doing gigs like four to five times a month.

So everything was packed away for a long time, and it was kind of like I was living in this surreal world where Donna didn't exist, basically, other than the giant blonde wig that was hanging on my closet door.

It was always a plan of mine to do drag at some point.

I was just always too intimidated and maybe too much of a perfectionist.

I wasn't convinced I could do it right.

And honestly, it was when I turned 30 that I was just like, I have to do these things now because next thing I know, I'll be 40 and then I'll be too tired.

I came up loving weird, cult heavy metal, punk.

But I do it in my own glamorous way.

I still think it's important to sparkle in that kind of punk way.

And so alt drag just, I guess, made the most sense, but also, the songs that I'm going to perform, for the most part, are more rock and roll.

[car honks] Gaybash, when I started it, it was just a dance party and it was just me DJing.

We moved into Trade three years ago.

I think it was 2016.

And that's when everything completely changed.

Immediately when we moved into Trade, it just went crazy.

The party grew, and, you know, now photographers show up, and there's a line to get in, and-- JANE: Gaybash's move to Trade was a really, really big moment for drag that wasn't super pageant-y being visible at a major gay bar in the city.

And it opened a lot of doors for a lot of other places that wouldn't have taken chances on people that didn't want to do the Britney Spears and sequins things.

DONNA: Ana and Jane had always been there.

Like, even when Gaybash was, like, an empty room at the Black Cat, Jane was always there.

So it's like, these are the girls that have been there through me handing them $20 at the end of the night and then me actually working out really good pay for them.

We definitely want to move around and do different stuff.

We've talked about Gaybash New York before.

And we are going to do stuff in Baltimore.

It's kind of the right time.

I think alt-drag is good because it's easier for people to get into because it's a very anything-goes kind of aesthetic.

You know?

And so it's exciting that this is happening.

And hopefully it sticks around for a long time.

[laughs] Hopefully we don't kill it.

[music playing] [music playing] JANE: I realized very early on that drag was totally a vehicle for my true passion, which is collecting money from strangers.

I absolutely love it.

[laughs] It's really, really fun sharing a song I've been listening to all week, but it's also definitely been a really great connector for me and gender, identified genderqueer.

And drag has really, really helped me both understand myself and be able to express that to people.

Oh, we're going to both have our tripods.

That's so cute.

So for this hair, I collaborated with my friend Josh who works with me at the salon.

Josh is really, really good with wigs, which is completely different from working with hair.

We just need to do some rehab on this.

I'm really attracted to the stupidity of the all-American girls, like the blond hair, and the red nails, and the red lips, big boobs, the whole-- that image, and just kind of camping that up as much as possible.

I need to find something else to work on because I'm not-- I don't have any more pinning time for this hair.

It really did not even make a dent in needing to move that up, but I might be closer to the big fro idea than I thought.

But that's OK. Ana made this in college.

[laughs] I've worn this one to death.

Yeah.

And just black out underneath.

I want to model Jane after the first dumb bitch that dies in a slasher flick-- just 100% that girl running through the woods in heels, dies first, but still looks really good doing it.

So there's a cut-out eye.

And then this one I always need help putting on for obvious reasons.

I kind of needed to know what I had anyway, so I'm glad-- and they sit right next to my titties.

ANA: I have always been a performer.

I danced in a competitive dance troupe growing up.

So just was always on stage performing.

And then I got really into sewing, and makeup, and stuff in high school.

And friends were like, you should go do this amateur drag thing.

And so I went, and I ended up winning.

I think it was two bookings later Donna and Jane came to watch, and I became friends with them kind of that way.

So yeah, that was how it started.

A lot of the trans drag queens I know are part of traditional drag, and they do the whole showgirl kind of a thing.

I didn't want to be a showgirl.

I wanted to be Joan Jett.

[pops lips] I saw this meme the other day that was like, foreplay with your Goth girlfriend is just unbuckling things for 10 minutes.

[music playing] Red lighter, red nails, red lips.

Let's go.

I figured out I was trans kind of because I was doing drag.

And then I just would go home and cry that I had to wash it off.

I would fall asleep in my wigs and stuff.

Jane was one of the first people I told I was trans in the bathroom at a Gaybash at Black Cat.

Like a year later, she's like, it's so weird because a year ago and two years ago, you could see that you painted your face how Ana looks now.

Like, you already knew who you wanted to be, and you were like painting it onto yourself, and now you just look like that.

All right.

This is going to look so contrasted to the visuals of you watching the other girls paint, because it's like I have a different experience with makeup because I wear it every day and I'm a woman, so I paint differently.

So yeah.

I do need a concealer.

I'm constantly experimenting with different stuff.

I'm such a slut for serums.

Ooh-ooh.

We got neutrals and colors.

When I started, the drag name was Salvador Dali.

And then I kept the drag name for a while to keep stage persona and real life separate.

But I don't need that other name in order for people to respect me as a performer.

Not that I think other people do.

I just realized that I didn't.

People just already registered-- they were like, Ana's the same person she is on and off stage.

What kind of facial recognition is in this that's going to sell my face to some Chinese company?

The CIA's going to know what I look like in every lip color.

My drag got a lot more pedestrian and my normal life got a lot more ostentatious.

And we just kind of met in the middle and just kept walking forward.

[music playing] JANE: I think Donna really benefited before anyone even heard what she had to say or were paying attention to what she was doing.

Her look was so strong and was so not anything-- is-- she's not dead.

Like, is so strong, and it's so striking, and it's so different from what anyone was doing when she popped up that people immediately paid attention.

And then she actually had stuff to do, which is really, really cool.

DONNA: There were a lot of people that came before me that I wanted to be just like.

But I just kind of created my own character, which is really just me with a lot of clown makeup on.

JANE: Ana has bobby pins in the bathroom.

I think it's exciting.

I think it's a new step for all of us, not just her.

Because if you do the same thing the same way every single month for years without changing anything, it becomes not as thrilling.

ANA: I'm about to paint from, like, four feet away, so everyone be generous tonight.

Do you think this is my color?

Or, like, five shades too light?

I think there's a level of honesty in what we do that you don't see in a lot of drag.

If you define "drag," what is it?

It's artifice.

And so I think what was so alluring about our drag and what has drawn in a lot of people to take up drag and take up drag the way that we do it is because the artifice is removed and it's a lot more honest.

I think that truly is what alternative drag is, is projecting your honesty onto your body instead of putting a facade on.

This is the same person I saw at 7-Eleven yesterday buying cigarettes.

DONNA: Thank you so much for coming out.

Is everybody having an amazing time?

[cheering] Kill all the straight people.

[cheering] [laughter] I've never met a straight person.

AUDIENCE: Honestly.

DONNA: We're going to go ahead and get the show started.

[laughter] [music playing] SPEAKER: (SINGING) I'll never be good enough.

DONNA: Here it's still very raw and still very, like-- definitely got the campy John Waters vibe.

Things are still much more offensive here, and that's-- it's a little looser here.

SPEAKER: (SINGING) I'll never be good enough.

Hold me tight with nothing right.

Plunging deep into [inaudible] fights.

Running through the shameful vibes.

Fighting, feeling less alive.

SEXTIA N'EIGHT: It's definitely awesome to have a space for drag queens that are alternative that have the different point of view maybe that they're bringing to the table.

And Gaybash has always given me that platform and other people.

I was really ecstatic to know that they came to Baltimore.

I think regardless of city, there's always going to be a lot of weirdos out there that want to do this kind of thing.

And so having a place where we can do Gaybash is extremely important for all the weird kids out there.

JANE: I think that there will always be a place for the girls that want to do grungy rock and roll in a dirty bar, because I will 100% always be that girl.

[laughs] ♪ I'll never be good enough.

♪ ♪ Burning up.

♪ ♪ I'll never be good enough.

♪ ♪ Overload.

♪ ♪ [inaudible lyrics] ♪ ♪ I'll never be good enough!

♪ ♪ [industrial techno music] ♪ ♪ ♪ [inaudible lyrics] ♪ ♪ Biggest bitch you've ever seen!

♪ ♪ [inaudible lyrics] ♪ ♪ The biggest bitch you've ever seen.

♪ ♪ You've ever seen!

♪ ♪ [inaudible lyrics] ♪ ♪ I'll never be good enough.

♪ ♪ [inaudible lyrics] ♪ ♪ I'll never be good enough.

♪ ♪ [inaudible lyrics] ♪ ♪ I'll never be good enough.

♪ ♪ [inaudible lyrics] ♪ ♪ [inaudible lyrics] ♪ ♪ Dotted vision, ringing ears.

♪ ♪ Looks like hell, feels like years.

♪