The drag world is one of intense self-expression, fun and uninhibited joy.
The inherent joy of drag is clearly personified in Meanjin-based performer Enigma Popstar. Even as we sit down for a coffee, the 21 year old exudes confidence, humour and fun.
Whether it's using condiments as part of a number, or going on 'Smoko' on stage, Enigma is no stranger to sending the audience - and interviewers - into hysterics.
I sat down with Enigma Popstar to talk about some of her favourite numbers, experiencing drag as a Transgender Man and bond over our shared love of Lady Gaga.
Hey Enigma – thanks for chatting with me! Can you introduce your drag persona to me?
My drag name is Enigma Popstar which is a Lady Gaga lyric from the song AURA. It was from when I was getting into drag for the first time and I hadn’t come with a name yet and I was listening to music. And I thought, “Hmm… that’ll do!” At that point I thought I’d do this once or twice and then never again.
My drag persona is a being – an amalgamation of popular culture and things that I’m interested in at the time put onto to the stage and I just hope other people are interested too! I pull a lot of references from other popstars like Lady Gaga, Charli XCX, Katy Perry and then I also draw references from TV shows and movies; memes and trends that I’m excited by. I just want to be the epitome of pop culture with my drag.
I love that! What’s the most outlandish thing you’ve done in a performance?
There’s a couple – I’ll tell you my two favourites.
One of them is when I first started doing drag, there’s a competition for new drag performers called ‘Werq It.’ It doesn’t happen as often anymore but it used to happen every single week. So there’d just be a bunch of people who’d only been doing drag for a couple of months coming up with the most chaotic things to win this competition to win a bottle of gin and $100 cash – it was great!
One of my ideas, I had this song called ‘Bit Burger’ – it’s a song about a girl who works at a burger shop. I thought, “Hmm… how do I make this as dumb as possible?” So I’m a waitress, I’m talking about burgers, I strip into a burger bikini and then I have a tarp down on the floor and at the end I covered myself in barbeque sauce just so I can use the sound, “I’m sitting there, barbeque sauce on my tiddies.”
The venue smelt like barbeque sauce for a week. One of the bartenders got mad at me the week after! My girlfriend at the time, her car smelt like barbeque sauce for a week because she drove me home. I had to throw out my wig and my costume because I couldn’t get the barbeque sauce stain or smell out of them.
Was it worth it?
Yes – I’ll never do it again though! Ever again.
Another recent one I’m doing – I’ve done it once or twice now – that I really enjoy, I call ‘Bob the Bimbo.’ If you don’t know, Bob the Builder has an amazing discography of very iconic songs that are all Bob the Builder-themed parodies of songs. If you want to listen to a great song, listen to ‘Never Mind the Breeze Blocks’ by Bob the Builder. So I was thinking, “I love Bob the Builder, but how do I make it hilarious for a bunch of
adults… drunk adults.”
So I thought about what builders like to do in Australia – they stereotypically like to go on smoko! So I mixed it with ‘Smoko’ by The Chats and I just have Bob the Builder in this fluoro high-vis pink outfit having a cigarette on stage and telling people to leave me alone because I’m on smoko. It's brilliant! I’m so happy I came up with that idea.
You’re obviously really funny. Do you class yourself as a comedy queen?
Not necessarily – it’s not what I normally do, but it’s just fun to do sometimes. I like to incorporate more acting into my performances, so comedy lends itself to that. But it’s not what I do majority of the time – I like to think of my drag as sexy, silly, funny, a little edgy and a little referential.
So what would an average Enigma Popstar show look like?
It’ll be out of the box – you’ve never seen it before. Ridiculous, fun and amazing. I always try to put on a great show for everybody, and it’s so much fun!
My drag is just what makes me happy, and more often than not, it makes other people watching me happy as well.
I love to hear that your main goal is to have fun. Do you find there’s still room to convey a message with your drag though?
Understanding and researching drag history, it’s always been political. Of course at times it was more underground – but you’re speaking to your community and creating a safe space for the queer community. It’s always been about being a light and a joy for a community which has struggled for so long.
A thing that I say often is that no matter which drag performer you are, there’s always going to be people in the audience and people in the community who don’t like what you do, that’s okay. A couple of months ago, I had a patron who I had never seen before – often we have the same sort of people at our events – and he came up to me and said “I’m glad you did something different – I’m sick of seeing the same Lady Gaga, Ariana Grande drag shows.”
I was like, “That’s what I normally do. If you don’t like it, you don’t have to watch it.” When I perform, I’m inviting you to join me and have fun with me, and if you don’t want to do that, it’s fine.
If you could send a message to people about drag show etiquette, what would it be?
Number one, be respectful. Remember drag queens are people – they’re not any different from you, they just have a wig and are on stage. Just respecting that and understanding that is so easy. So many people treat drag performers as objects that they can touch and grab and be nasty to and give unwarranted opinions to. You wouldn’t go up to any other person at the bar and tell them that they look terrible. You’re not going to go up to someone you don’t know and be mean or handsy.
Drag queens are people too! And that’s a sentiment that isn’t just mine – I’ve heard it from a lot of my fellow drag performers.
As a drag performer, if you could have an audience member take one thing away from your shows, what would it be?
I just want them to be happy. Something that I say to people all the time is that if you’re not having fun with your life, you’re doing your life wrong. So when people leave my show, I just want them to feel happy and like they’ve had a good time – that’s what I do it for. I want to make myself happy and I want to make people around me happy.
Shifting gears now, I understand that you are a transgender man performing in drag. Could you share some insight on how your experience with gender translates into your drag performance?
I realised I was trans through doing drag – which is really crazy because I was dressing up as the opposite gender of the one I am now. I occasionally lean more representative to the trans in my shows but it’s not what I focus on. I don’t want that to be all I’m known for, I want to be more than just that. Yes, it’s a massive part of my identity and something I want to share with the world, but I don’t want it to be the only thing people see me as.
I did an event last year called ‘Queer and Here’ that was for high school students, it was produced by Spirit and Jones. I wore a trans flag inspired gown and performed ‘If I Were a Boy’ by Beyonce. So I do sometimes lean into the meaningful messaging with my shows, but it’s not the be all and end all of my performances.
That sounds beautiful. I love that you clearly say that it’s not the biggest part of you, it’s just a part.
Yeah. There’s so much more to me as a person than just that one aspect of my life – and it’s an important aspect, but it’s not everything.