LETTERS From CAMP Rehoboth |
Drag King Has the Girls Intrigued in Wilmington |
by Fay Jacobs |
"Kings are the only thing we can get the lesbians out for!"
So says drag king entrepreneur Julie (Jay) Cabell, who's been putting together drag shows in Wilmington and Sarasota, Florida for the last four years. "You say you're going to have drag kings at the bar and the lesbians are there," she says. Now at the 814 Club on Shipley Street in Wilmington, the 21 year old drag king has been bending her gender onstage since she turned 18. In a switch on the more traditional male drag queen scene, Julie and her co-stars perform lipsync routines to recordings by their favorite male performers complete with all-girl back-up "singers." Julie's last Drag King show in Wilmington drew an audience of over 80 people to the club and word of mouth should have the next showsoon to be announcedwith a bigger audience still. A native of New Castle, Julie began doing drag "when a queen asked me to do a show at 814." According to Julie, the minute she turned 18 she took to the stage. She recently returned from several years in Sarasota where she performed at D&C's Playhouse (Where Ladies Come to Play), a lesbian club nestled amid retail stores near a suburban Mall. It was there that a bartender friend asked her to bring drag king shows, contests and award ceremonies to the Florida club. She performed there for several years, helping to organize a whole troupe called the Playhouse Kings, and causing quite a stir. Jay's "bio" on the D&C's website reads "Jay is the youngest King, but don't let that fool you. He's a seasoned Pro! Jay is imaginative, expressive and sweetly seductive on and OFF stage!" The Kings developed a huge following and presided over shows and contests every six weeks. "Some of the kings got pretty wild and would even go shirtless," Julie says. Now back in Delaware, Julie/Jay works for a Wilmington caterer by day, and the nights find her at 814 planning the next show and contest for local drag kings. The kings publicize their shows by advertising online, posting fliers, and of course by word of mouth, much of it through the University of Delaware in Newark. While Wilmington is being taken by storm by these drag kings, the whole drag king scene is a growing phenomenon all over the country. There are huge drag king troupes and welcoming clubs in New York, Chicago, D.C. and San Diego, with a very active Drag King scene north in Toronto, and especially down under in Melbourne, Australia. Last fall in Columbus, Ohio The 4th Annual Drag King Conference, nicknamed the Genderbash, drew 320 participants and ran 17 workshops. Closer to home, the 814 offers Ladies Nights on Fridays, where you have to be 18 years old to enter, and 21 years old to drink. In the plans are the next drag king shows and performances by Julie/Jay Cabell. Julie wants Letters readers to come to Wilmington and check out the scene. So where does a drag king find the perfect wardrobe? "I used to work at a Western store, so I have plenty of stuff," Jay says, And I borrow a lot of stuff from my gay men friends. Actually, my closet is worse than a gay mans!" |
LETTERS From CAMP Rehoboth, Vol. 13, No. 5, May 16, 2003 |