#deepellumdrag

Q1: How long have you been doing drag/ How long have you been performing in             general?

JC: I've been performing since like middle school, but I've been doing drag for just over a year, like a year and two months.

Q2: What was your first performance like and how did you feel about it?

JC: Oh Lord, let's see my first performance was one of the amateur shows at the old Crossroads, and at the time I felt it was like a combination of like I knew I was busted, but I thought I was sickening. It was honestly, like looking back, like awful, but I had a lot of fun. I wore like no pads, no titties, my actual hair that was like just over my ears, short and blonde, I did P!nk - "Slut Like You" and wore like jean shorts and a t-shirt tied off at the waist, so I felt like that kind of like set the stage for where my drag would end up evolving, grunge wise, but I was like I'm sickening at the time and I'm proud of where I've grown I guess.

Q3: What or who do you feel really helped you grow as a performer?

JC: As a performer, I actually feel that Trisha has helped me grow. Trisha has actually been there since the beginning because she made my presentation outfit for the second Crossroads pageant last year and we've kind of like been in this together. Obviously Trish, she's been a very great, creative influence and balancer for me, also . .  . May May as well, like influencing me on different types of like queerlesque and burlesque, and just what she's experienced in her life and drag career, and basically like all of the local girls, that I can't even name, like little tidbits of their personal lives and like details of their drag that have like influenced and effected my drag and my personality and how I care for people and people in the community things like that, they've really kind of like mold and shaped me into where I am today

Q4: Who or what are some of your drag inspirations? What makes Judas Cain, Judas Cain?

JC: I would have to go right off the bat with, I know they aren't like self defined as drag, but Pete Burns and like Marilyn Manson kind of like -esque, like Pete Burns with the 'I don't give a fuck, fuck you' glamour and then Marilyn Manson like sucking his own dick, ripping up a bible onstage type bullshit, and then also like Divine like filthy, disgusting bullshit, bat-shit crazy stuff, and I'd say right when I started drag Sharon Needles 'cause she was like the first like internationally recognized like goth drag queen that I saw, so I was like, 'Aah, Sharon' and all that jazz. Pretty much like running down the list like Pete Burns, Manson, Divine, Sharon, Elvira and Morticia Addams like characters like that.

Q5: How would you describe your own drag from when you started to now where you are as a performer?

JC: My drag can be described as, I guess in one word, versatile because really recently I've very much learned how to, I guess, like paint pretty and do like the traditional drag queen like silhouette, and I just like started wearing pads like not even two weeks ago, it's cute, so I can go from like pretty and natural colored hair, cut crease, all that jazz, to you know, like spooky, bat shit crazy, slamming my face into the stage like, type bullshit and so I guess my drag is versatile and just also like very personal because a lot of people their drag personas', it's a character that they put on on, but rather I guess mine is a flagrant self expression of like how I'm feeling that day.

Q6: Where do you really want to go with your drag and what would you like to accomplish with it?

JC: On a day to day basis, I don't know, I've been like, and being completely honest to you, like depending on the day, I consider quitting drag just because, you know, unless you're on TV it's pretty much just a money pit, where your money goes and you never see it again. But I'd like to see myself as one of those performers who, like, effect positive change, and be confident in themselves, no matter how fucking weird or bat shit crazy they might feel they are, so I guess ideally I'd like my drag to you know end up on an international level where I could like have money to do charitable things and you know inspire young people to not be so scared of who they are because when I was a lot younger I was like christian, fundamentalist, republican and that was just because I was insecure about myself and I think the only way to really like nip that kind of thinking in the bud is to like you know to allow kids to express themselves, no matter how quote unquote 'scary or goth' like it might be. And so, sounding redundant, ideally I'd like my drag and my performance to positively effect young minds and like people in the future.

Q7: Overall what would you say is your favorite part of doing drag on a personal level?

JC: My favorite, I guess part of doing drag, obviously I love the performing aspect and getting to artistically portray my emotions in front of a large audience, but I love meeting individual people because, especially like the performers, because, sounding redundant again, drag, unless you are on TV, is pretty much a money pit, so like the  people you're meeting on the stage and like you know going to the clubs are, they're not doing it for money, they're doing it for virtually the same reasons you are and I love just like getting down to earth and like hearing other people's point of views and other people's, you know, histories and stories, and like why their art is the way it is and what influences them, and just getting to know people on a very personal level and like that's pretty much my favorite part of drag is like boiled down to it, meeting people.

Q8: What would you say is your definition of alternative drag?

JC: Personally, my definition of alternative drag, I sound like an SAT just saying, but it's anything that doesn't have guidelines, like some people might classify alternative drag as like 'spooky' or 'gross' or 'no titties, no hip pads' like something like that, The whole act of classifying alternative drag as something is in and of itself like defeating the definition of alternative so alternative is anything just outside of the status quo, like outside of what's on TV, like RuPaul's Drag Race, and outside of what you see at the Rose Room and at the national pageants, like anything that would make any sort of, I guess, silhouette of what drag should be cringe, would be like alternative drag, whether that just be like slightly out of the status quo or like super, ultra, bat shit, crazy like anywhere on the spectrum.

Q9: What made you want to compete in the Anti-Pageant this time around?