How Drag Queens Work

you're a drag queen. I'm a little more fishy than glamour. The lashes are nice, and I noticed, keeping with the tradition set by Julian Eltinge, your hands are quite feminine. Oh well, I'm holding them in a very feminine manner. Well done. Thank you. There powdered just right. The knuckles aren't his hair easy usual? And I like your campy drag. Thank you. I had no idea that your forearms are so big and that you had an anchor tattoo. That's right. And if you notice my crotch, ah, you won't notice

anything smooth as a ken doll. That's right. It's taped and tucked. You're wearing a gaff a, so that's really all you need to know. I went online and I looked up how to how to make a gaff or gaffs. I was like, I think I understand what this is,

but I need to find out. And I saw a YouTube tutorial by a drag queen how to make one out of um, like an underwear waist band, like an elastic band and a tube sock cut on either end so it's open okay, and you just slide the tube sock or no, you slide the elastic band through the open tube sock and uh step into the elastic band, right because it makes two holes that way sure for your legs. And then I guess it's everything gets real compressed. Well, uh,

that's great. I used duct tape. It's a little more uncomfortable. I'm going to use your method for them for that video too, But yeah, it looked like it looked cheap, easy, quick, and as comfortable as that kind of thing can be. So people, if you were not one that reads titles to podcasts and you just say, you know, I'm and just hear what's going on, we're talking about drag queens and it has an interesting history and it's an interesting culture,

and we like to cover those things. So let's do it. Uh, well, this is a Conger article, Yes, Kristen Conger from stuff Mom Never told You. Yeah, and she did a really good job, like kind of tracing the history and like really getting into the culture of of drag queens. And um, it turns out that there is a considered father of drag queens, although he went to great pains to um suggests that he wasn't gay. That's because he was totally gay. I think so, Like I noticed she used the she

pointed out that he's a bachelor. Yeah. I looked up more on that. It was often rumored that he were talking about who he mentioned earlier with the hands do Lean Eltinge Lteinge and uh born William Dalton. And this is early twentieth century. And he made a big, big name for himself dressing like a lady. Yeah, performing in vaudeville. Um. He started out, I guess as a Vouldville performer, but then he he was in a play called The Fascinating

Widow in nineteen eleven. Apparently the ladies loved him, loved his drag because he was just really good at it. And um, from there he ended up with he ended up on screen in films, sponsorship deals. Yeah, he apparently was the highest salaried performer of his age. Um, there were fan magazines dedicated to him and like dressing up as women zines, multiple znes Yeah, at least three. Um and uh. He performed for King Edward the Seventh of

the UK. He was delighted by his performance. So this guy Julian elt just like making quite a name for himself. And and again he he went to great links to be like, look at me, I'm a guy. See I'm smoking cigars and I'm fishing. Yeah, but i'd like, I said, I looked into it more. And apparently he would. Um, he would attack people in the audience sometimes when they would yell out derogatory terms about his masculinity, and he would challenge people to fights and things. And he was

a lifelong batchelor. So I think that probably meant that he was gay, right, which is fine because as a cross dresser, you can be gay or straight, doesn't matter. You might transgender, doesn't matter. Yeah, they're all different stripes of people who like to put on the opposite clothes of whatever their gender is, because they are kings as well and perform on stage. It's just you know, it's fun. It's a lighthearted, fun thing, right. Well, that's the whole

point of it. It's supposed to be lighthearted and fun. It wasn't always though, Um. There was a very long period where when men dressed up as women on stage. It was because women weren't allowed to perform on stage, so men were frequently like doing this, uh, straight, very

seriously in dramas um in Greece. In ancient Greece, it was considered dangerous for women to be on stage, and they were not allowed to be in any of the Greek dramas, which kind of ironic because the Greek theater arose out of the Rites of Dionysus, which were performed almost exclusively by women. And then but once it was established a theater, the member like, thank you for bringing this to our attention. No go over there because it's

too dangerous here right, very interesting, uh. And in the Middle Ages, of course, um, the Christian Church chimed in and said, you know what, here's what theater is. It is, um, Bible stories on stage in church church pageants, basically, it's like, oh, you used to like the theater, We'll get a load of this because this is what it is now. Yeah, and women were not allowed to take part in that.

Of course, men would play the parts of women. Uh. And it wasn't until the seventeenth century and read that women finally uh the stage opened up and they were allowed to tread the boards. Yeah if uh. In Shakespeare's era, um men played both roles. And I think what was it sixteen sixty that one of the kings in England, Charles two, Yeah, that sequel. He said, you know what, let's let the ladies back on stage. But even after that, this idea of men dressing up as women still continued on.

And women are actually dressing as men and what they called breaches roles, but they were breaches. They's pretty straightforward terminology. But King Charles called the bluff of all the performers. He was like, you know what, you don't have to dress his women anymore. We'll just let women on stage. And the guys were like, but but but we fine, we really like this. Yeah, And well what happened to was men started to play women in a in a funnier way and it was more for comedy because they

wouldn't try to look super feminine. They would try to look like a big burly man in address, which is sort of like in the Monty Python tradition, like although they were no, they weren't exactly they were not fishy at all. But uh, we'll get to that that's actually a thing. Yeah, fishy drag. Yeah, um, well you might as well tell him. Well, I already mentioned it earlier. I said I'm more fishy than yeah, but I don't

think they understand. Fishy is going after like the like you want people to confuse you for a woman exactly, like as feminine, as like womanly as possible, as like dead on right. Yeah, and then campy is obviously more for comedy. You're more masculine looking. And then there's of course the glamour drag, which is huge hair and everyone's

eyelashes and glittery dresses. So back to history though, interestingly, when the West was um loosening restrictions in Japan and the East, they were tightening them and making men once again play the uh onagatta roles. Female impersonators in kabuki productions. They're like the ladies cannot do kab any longer. Yeah, and that lasted through the nineteenth century in Japan. Yeah,

so it's weird. No, it was like, I guess, if you're a woman, you could have been in Japan, and then when they closed it down in Japan, you could have gone over to England. Bam, I guess, so you're all set traveling performer. Um so in in the West in England in particular, that whole uh King Charles, the second bluff that was called where that became eventually the idea that if you were dressing in drag on stage, um, it was for laughs. You weren't trying to pull off

being a woman. You're trying to just make fun of the juxtaposition of you big burly dude wearing a dress and acting as a woman but not doing a very good job of it. That gave rise to a type of theater called pantomime, and it is the shortened term of it is panto, And I guess mime is the other half what came out of this. But panto theater is like a big burly dudes and drag playing the women and then a woman playing like a young male who's now being um inducted into the world of sex

and the adults, you know. Yeah, yeah, And I think the first pano play was from see right. Yeah. It started out there and then spread over to the United States in the form of uh, you know, before movie theaters and things like that, America's favorite entertainment was when the vaudeville show came through. Sometimes that was your only entertainment that are, like shooting at things in your yard. So it was their favorite and also their most hated

form of entertainment because that was it. So the Vaudefield Act would roll through town and there would uh, you know, they'll be all kinds of theater and weird performances and jugglers and ventriloquists and acrobats and things like that, ban Joe's and then actually drag performances to the delight of families and children, and it was all seen as just good fun. There was no um linked to homosexuality at the time. At the at the least, America wasn't putting

its hang ups about homosexuality onto drag performances. Yeah. Well, then that really came about at the turn of the century. That's when people got a little more like, hey, what's going on here? As as gay people came out of the close a little bit more and into the forefront a little bit more, and we mean in very small steps. Obviously, back then people like, well, wait a minute, when when was this guy's dressing up like ladies all of a sudden, right,

it was just fun? Or is this like wrong? Right? You like this to right? And because of prohibition, uh, people needed their little speakeasies, their little secret places to go drink. It also birthed secret places for gay dudes to go hang out. Yeah, they we created the first gay bars initially, right, which ultimately, in turn about forty years later started to give rise to the first discos. Remember that they grew out a gay bars um and there the New York, Chicago, big towns, probably Kansas City

at the time. San Francisco went through what was called a pansy craze not our term um and where basically it became like the era of the gay man coming out of the closet, Like, there are lots of bars to go to, there are lots of nightclubs. There was like the first gay culture in the United States really started to come about. Yeah, and I remember I've read somewhere that um, cocaine used to be a gay drug. Yeah,

they called it um. I'm sorry to say that they used to call cocaine fairy dust because it was so favored by gay guys around this time. Um, because I guess you could get it legally. When was this in like the fifties or the twenties, maybe the thirties got yeah interesting. Uh So by the nineteen fifties, this is when, uh, there were actual laws against being gay and laws against dressing as a woman, and in fact, in New York City,

which you would think would be super forward thinking. Uh, in the nineteen fifties, they had a cross dressing law, or I guess anti cross dressing law that said that you, as a man, were legally bound to where no fewer than three pieces of male clothing in order to not be arrested for being in drag. Right, And this is a problem for these gay bars because they frequently had

drag shows. Um, so I guess I was thinking, like you just maybe do like a like a full on full circle cross dress where you dress as a woman, dressing as a man as as a woman. Victor Victoria, he just blew my mind that was Victor of Victoria. That was the movie, right, and with Julie Andrews, it was a woman impersonating a man impersonating a woman. I thought that was Burt Reynolds's Julie Andrews. She did a really good job. You're thinking of deliverance, Yeah, yeah, that

went way different. So. Um, by the time the nineteen sixties mid sixties rolled around, there's a congress sites a book called mother Camp where they estimated about five hundred regularly performing drag queens by the by nine. Yeah, it's pretty pretty high number for back then. Yeah, I would imagine, although I'm sure it's quite a lot more than that now.

But we're talking the sixties and this is a time when if you were at a gay bar just being dressed in drag like, there was a pretty high likelihood the cops are gonna come busting down the door and take you to jail and probably beat you up for being gay. Um. So, yeah, five hundred performing out in the open is I would imagine that's a pretty good number. But at the time there were newer performance that like

Eltnge wanted this. This one guy Bailey, Jim Bailey, who apparently did a spot on Judy Garland, and he was very adamant about saying, no, I'm not a cross stressor I'm not a drag queen. I am a female impersonator. And he, you know, had a long run in the business as such. It was a big distinction for him. Yeah, he yeah, he wanted to be called an illusionist. And that makes the point that I think he said earlier.

Not everyone who does drag is gay, and not everyone who does drag cross dresses in um their off stage life. But for the most part, if you're gonna put money on whether or not a drag queen is is gay, you can probably bet that they probably are under normal circumstances. Yeah, I don't think we even mentioned the drag queen where that came from? The term, Oh no, we did. That would have been good in the intro. It would have been let's do it here, well, when we were talking

about theater, it would have been a good one. All right. So the term drag what was the original parlance for men dressing in women's clothing? And I didn't see the theater term. Yeah, theater term, But I don't know where that came from, though I don't either okay, and then queen, of course is a is a you know, slur, a slur for an effeminate gay man, a drag queen put together. You just got the term drag queen. That's right, So

it's underground. Oh and also we should say transvestite, transsexual not really favored terms in the gay community, especially these days because uh, you know, up until not that long ago in the d s M and possibly still listed in the d s M, those are mental disorders. People who do that are mentally ill according to psychology, which is fairly ridiculous. We should encourage people to go listen to our what do we call that one? Gender reassignment,

gender reassignment. How's a good one. That's a really good one. Um. So, in the nineteen sixties things start coming out, people start coming out, drag queens start becoming more visible. And then of course in ninety nine, I know, we've promised this podcast will do it at some point. The famous Stonewall riots took place where in June New York City police rated the stone Wall in which was run by the mafia at the time, and it was New York's only

gay bar run by the mafia. Yeah. Interesting, um, and they fought back, and there was a six day basically riot fight going on between cops and these gay guys. They just said, you know what, we made dress like ladies, but we fight like dudes. That's right, We're not gonna take it. So pretty much from there, the gay rights movement in the US was born. And not even pretty much like, yeah, it happened right there, but Conger kind of describes the scene that, um, it was a six

days skirmish with high heel wearing drag queens. Um. But you can imagine that that probably was quite a scene, quite a tableau. Yeah, they should do a movie about that. They did, so they did. I can't remember what's called the documentary documentary. I'm sure there's a bunch of there's one before stone Wall or after stone Wall, maybe the stone Wall during Stonewall, Perry Stonewall. Um. So, in the mid nineteen sixties when all this is blossoming, guy named

Jose Julio Saudia Uh in San Francisco. He was Harvey Milk was not the first openly gay political candidate in San Francisco. It was actually sorry and he founded something called the Imperial Court System. UH and it was basically a drag community organization to help people out and throw drag balls. And you know now is philanthropic with HIV and AIDS organizations. So they're still around. Yeah, they're bigger than ever. Chapters all over the place, all over the place,

different countries, Canada, Mexico. Yeah, but the the Imperial Court System was a really big step. Um. This was in the mid sixties. I think it was before stone Wall, right, yeah, I think so. Um. And this is in the face of like crackdowns, getting arrested, getting beat up, really being mistreated,

um and and not having any civil rights. This guy forms the Imperial Court System and it's like one of the first big steps that unifying not just the drag community but the gay community and really kind of provided this this basis of this template for you know, integration and support with among gays around the country. And I guess a way to say, hey, there's a lot of other people over here that feel the same way you

do and think the same way you do. And it's not just here in San Francisco, is not just here in New York. They're all over the place. And this was one of the first cohesions of that mentality right, which is a big, big deal. It was, and the drag balls that they UM initiated and started became very popular within the African American drag community and these days. Um Conger described it as like a fraternity system where if you're an up and comer and you're a drag queen,

you can get sort of like a sponsor. Am they were a father to help you out, show you the ropes. Maybe if you were kicked out of your house by your parents because you're not accepted or out of your hometown, they'll put you up and find you a place to live. And you know who else does that? Cindy law her does she really? Yeah? She? Uh, I think founded and definitely funds like some sort of rescue system at Halfway House. Yeah, for teens who are kicked out for being gay. Nice,

isn't that? Yeah? She's awesome. I think I told you to her Halloween party one year in New York. You did not tell me that? Yeah, my friend was. Um is a huge fan and like on the inside as far as fandom, you know, like she knows who he is and uh, he got an invitation to her Halloween party at her loft in New York and I went and it was awesome and I met her and got a picture made and that was cool. She was as sweet as she could be. Yeah. Yeah, she seems like

she's like living the personality. Yeah, and boy what a party man, I can imagine. Yeah. A couple of years ago and Dr John opened for so we were there for you know, the Dr John Show too, And when Dr John ended, like everyone got up and left and then new people came in and sat down for the Cyndy Lawbers Show. Yeah, it was a weird mix, but that didn't end up mixing. That's like, uh, it was cool see both of them, Uh, like Zach Brown opening

for Dolly Parton, Yeah, something like that. Maybe even maybe even weird, like they're both country quote unquote right. All right, So if you're interested in seeing more about the African American drag balls, there's a great documentary, uh called Paris Is Burning. Have you seen it? Yeah, I've not seen a super entertaining, really good We mentioned drag kings earlier. That is a thing when they can also dress his men, yeah,

which is not a stretch. Once drag queens were established, a guy named Johnny science about what about drag kings and bam, there they are. That's right, So let's talk about what you need to do, what kind of transformation needs to take place. I know we kind of hinted at it earlier with our jokes about tucking and plucking, but that's where it starts. And we remarked about your hands. Um, Julian Eltinge was, um, you'd think, you know, all the work goes on the face, but he said, the most

important thing is the hands. Well that was the one that he worried about the most. Well you remember that seinfeld Man hands. Yeah, well, I mean that makes I can imagine it's very distracting if you have a couple of chunks of ham. Yeah, you know, and you're acting very feminine or whatever. That's weird. Yeah. They went so over the top in that episode. How big is like I'm sure it was like the key grip or something, breaking the bread and stuff in your face. Yeah, so good. Um,

so all right, so what do you do? You gotta get the hands powdered, and he said there's certain ways of holding them to make them appear to be more dainty. Well he did. I got the impression that he was particularly obsessed about this, but he might have big hands. Spend like an hour and a half just working on the hands. That's just the hands. So you can you can guess how long it takes to like do makeup, because not only are you doing makeup, you have to do it right, but you have to do it to

cover up the fact that you're a man. So you have to like cover up the fact that you're a man and then do the makeup as a woman. I imagine. Yeah, And I think things really picked up in the seventies with this as far as really going all out. After um San Francisco UH drag show collective called the Cockettes. Apparently they put on a not so great show, and gore Vidal himself said famously in his review, no talent is not enough. So he's like, great, you're drag queens,

but this is awful. Basically you still gotta like give the audience something. Well. They were also not necessarily like real drag queens. They were a bunch of hippies on acid and they basically did their own pretty much improv musical that sucked, but the fact that they were doing it in drag made real the real drag community and I may be wrong, but I have the impression they

weren't like representative the real dragon. Whoa this can like people are paying attention and people want like a good show, So let's give it to him. Give some talent. Yeah, and that So that show, that Cockette show was like kind of a turning point as far as like, let's do this right. If you're gonna dress up like a woman, do it right. Yeah. And if you've ever been you ever been to a drag show, I've seen him before you.

I've been to a few, and I've been to someones that were great, and I've been to someone's that sucked. And it's like any other theatrical experience. It's it's like it makes a huge difference. If it's bad, it's real bad, you know. Yeah, I mean it's the same. It's like it's the same like watching improv or whatever. Like if you see people who are really good at improv and then you see people who are just trying improv, you can't even put in the same thing. It's like it's

like Dolly Partners at Brown all right. So in order to kick it up a notch, they had to start taking more care with their appearance. And the first step if you're interested in giving this a shot and you're dude, is to shave. That's a pretty good first step if you're going yeah, yeah, as close as you can get. If you're doing camping, you might not necessarily have to shave. Yeah, that's true. Like I could get up there with my beard and be thoroughly disgusting as a woman, just kind

of hump there without moving your arms. Um. The next thing you need to do is you need to apply lots and lots of makeup and a traditionally a tradition called beating your face or beating your mug, and that's what they call it in the in the drag community. That's really like a lot of cosmetics you want to hide, like heavy jawlines and stuff like that, and just slather it on. Basically, the more the better, depending on what you're going for, of course. Well yeah, I mean, if

you're going like real feminine, you gotta be careful. You can just take it on, you have to take some skill. I would think that's right. Um. And then the tuck. Yeah, the tuck. We talked about the gaff. You can also use tape. Um, I guess you could also talk if you're just gonna walk like a penguin or whatever all night, yeah, or like Buffalo Bill right yeah, or um I think

a scary movie too. When one of the Wayne's brothers, like, there's a shot of like the waist up, he's like, he has his arms out like he's showing off a short. He's like, what do you guys think, tucked or untucked? And then they pan out tucked. That's just likes pressingge ey. But it's like, um on tucked. I didn't see those movies. That sounds funny though, Oh those were surprisingly funny. Yeah, I like the Spoop movie. I just sort of grew out of him after Airplane and and uh, the Naked

Gun movies. I didn't really see a whole lot of them after that. They're good, um, at least the first four. So after you've done your tucking and you're taping and you're all fit down there, um, you might want to add some breasts. It's probably a pretty good idea. You

can add silicone all those they can be expensive. And I'm not talking about implants, talking about a silicone implant that you would like put in a brazier, right, or there's ones that adhere to your body and like like your body temperature adheres them to your body and they're really well that's what this article says. I don't know, it's not like I'm in the fake breasts. I didn't

notice that part that sounds gross. Yeah, she's saying. Congress says that, like these things are like a couple of hundred dollars for like the really good ones that are really realistic. So I imagine again, if you're going fishy, it probably just it takes a lot more time, a lot more effort, and a lot more money to to be a fishy drag queen, I would say, So it's a lot easier just to you know, be campy and look funny and uh. And then of course the name

is a big, big part of the culture. Um generally the names are it's sort of like Art Simpson's prank calls, you know, like uh, Amanda hugging kiss. Yeah, exactly. Most of the names are like that. Um let us yea head to let us. I looked up some some of my favorites Madam Ovary, good one, uh, Jean Pool, and a lot of obviously a lot of times too it's

toying with the fact of the gender and stuff like that. Uh, Wilma balls Drop, good Lord tests tossedone and uh then a nice clean one for everyone out there, Della Coateessen. That's nice. Those are just a few of the funny ones. That's like a throwback to the vaudeville and drag drag shows were family friendly. That's right, good clean point um still get clean fun delicates Wilma balls Drop. But the

name is a big part of it. You know, coming up with a great name can really like that just kicks it off, right, because when you're announced, if it's a great name, the audiences tickled from the very beginning. If it's a bad name, they're like, oh God, what's this gonna be? Right? Yeah, so what are you doing

this for? Chuck? Well, there's all different kinds of things. Um, A regular drag performance that I've been to is either lip sinking or actually performing like karaoke style on stage, one after another, and there's usually an m C and drag handling the whole show, right, and it's basically like just you know, stage performance singing. But they can also like get real gigs well yeah, or um being I guess kind of a party promoter, just kind of circulating

around a party, like keeping everything light. What's more fun than hiring a drag queen to come to your party and just kind of lighting things up. I think that's a great idea, you know. Yeah, As Rue Paul said, the whole point is to not take life too seriously exactly. So when you have somebody dress as a woman not taking life too seriously, your guests are probably going to lighten up a little bit too. If you have like

somebody wandering around saying I'm head a lettuce, right, you know? Yeah? Yeah, um. And then we can't not mention Australia because for some reason, even though Australia is the center of masculinity on the planet, it's rife with drag queens thanks to a particular movie. Is it because of that or was that already a thing and they just highlighted that. I wonder I took it that it was the that the movie was its own thing, just created this huge cult following that has

basically put Australia on the map. Priscilla Queen of the Desert, of course, is the movie. Yeah but you've seen right, Yeah, yeah, it's a good movie. Yeah, very good movie. And I can't I've seen parts of like too Wong food, Thanks for everything to I never saw that one. Something about Swayzy. I just couldn't get sway Wesley Snipes. Yeah, like Guy Piers, perfect swazy, Holy cow. Guy Pierce is one of the ones in Psilic Queen of the Desert. I didn't know that.

Who was anybody else that is the star? Now? Well? Yeah, it was definitely Guy Piers and Hugo Weaving from The Matrix, Oh yeah wow Mr Anderson, Yeah, actually he was a Mr Anderson, he was whatever his name was. And then Terence Stamp of course, a legendary Terence Stamp. And it was the Adventures of Priscilla, Queen in the Desert. So if you're looking for it on Netflix or whatever, you should watch it. It's a fun movie. And Terence Stamp

and dragons like that's something else. He's the LIMI you know, right. So ultimately, what you're trying to do is get a job in a movie about drag queens or to become RuPaul. That's true. And they have apparently a show last year in Australia reality show where they're drag queens are taking that same journey that they did in the movie, and it's on TV now apparently, though there's not a lot of money. I think you do it for the love,

for the adoration. Of course, there was a study of drag queens down in Key West, which is like drag Queens Central. If you've ever watched CNN's New Year's Eve broadcast, it's like all drag queens down there. It's crazy. Yeah, and then they dropped like a drag queen in a giant high heel, I think is what they do really instead of like that they um. But they did a study of drag queen's down in Key West and they they averaged about two hundred bucks a week. So they're

doing it for the love. People tip them. Yeah, and I think probably every drag queen out there spends way more money than they're making, you know, hosting and doing gigs like that. So we mentioned Rue Paul, Yeah, we did not mention May West. No, Well, she apparently took a She based her character or her persona on a drag queen named Bert Savoy Okay born Everett Mackenzie. So that's weird. Here's drag queen, but he changed his name

to another male name. Anyway. Um, he had a very familiar catchphrase, you must come over, and she took that and turned it into come up some time and see me and people out there going no jokes, just noted it's why don't you come up and see me sometime? Yeah, you're wrong. Yeah, that's a misquote. Yeah. And similarly, Eastwood based his throaty voice on Marilyn Monroe. Shut up, swear to god, what do you mean his throaty voice? He based it on her. He didn't really talk like that.

He that's like he talked like the generic teenage cash here from the Simpsons. No, he he said, as far as Uncle John's bathroom reader, his voice on Marilyn Monroe. Yeah that he said that crazy. All right, Should we mention a few of these famous drag queens. Yes, Danny LaRue. If you're in England and you're not into Eddie Wizard, then Danny LaRue is probably your guy, or at least

until two thousand nine when he sadly passed away. Yeah, but he was big back in the day and like the fifties, sixties, seventies, Yeah, Yeah, earned a lot of money. Doris Fish neither Australian huh um, who moved to San Francisco and wrote and starred in the film Vegas and Space. Have you seen that of you? Cult film? Apparently not about cults. It's just like has a cult following. Uh and sadly he died of aids in Divine of Course. Anyone who's a John Waters fan, or should we say

a Harris Millstead fan? I didn't know that wasn't his real name, Harris Glenn Milstead. I didn't either, Um. Divine was John Waters one of his favorite people to put in his films and did some kind of gross things in earlier movies like Pink Flamingos. What what did she do with dog poop? I ate it? I believe I'm not mistaken. But Divine of course made her biggest role in Hair Spray as Edna Turnball turned Blad and that's who Chon Travolta played in the musical version. I didn't

know that. Did you ever see it? No? It's an abomination? Is it? Really? It's pretty bad? Where did you see it? It's a movie, you know? Oh? Yeah? They did Hair Spray on Broadway and then they turned the Broadway show into a musical and bold to start in the movie version of the musical. Okay, but wait where did Divine star in the movie? Right? Hairspray the original Hairspray before it was a Broadway music So they did a movie, turned it into a musical, and then turned the musical

into a movie. Yes, and his mind bending very much. There's Dame Edna. Not a fan? Oh no, now are you thought she was pleasant? Uh? Yeah, I'm not a big fan, but that is definitely one of the more famous and I think who played him, Barry Humphreys, another Australian. Yeah, but wasn't he also keen to say like I'm not a drag queen. Yeah, she was a character that he played and he didn't consider it like drag um. And she's retired wolf all right, I just showed Josh a

pig Church revolta in that movie. She's uh, why had stopped that? She's she's retired As of two twelve, there's Dame Edna has moved off to Florida. I guess, all right, anyone else Lady Bunny, who's Lady Bunny? Lady Bunny is uh Jill of all trades Congress, says a multi talented comedian, DJ and actress. She um founded Wigstock. Oh I've heard a wig Stock. See here's a picture of Lady Bunny and she's got a huge wig, which is awesome. Yeah yeah, yeah,

no Wigstock's and Wigstock is no longer either. That ran for about a decade I'm sorry, two decades. Five Yeah, right on the nose. So that's drag queens. Go see a drag show if you've never done. If you're visiting New York in the big city, you've never been, and you're from oh, I don't know, Kansas. You don't even know you're going to New York. Man, Like, sure, the drag show I went to is in Savannah. That's a

huge dragtown. Yeah yeah, yeah, but I'm just staying. If you're busy, if you're visiting the big city for the first time, go check out a drag show. Be open minded, have some fun, have a drink, and it's it's a good time. Yeah. I mean, that's why we didn't really describe them much, because you kind of got to see him for yourself. Well, and you never know what you're gonna get. It could be terrible or it could be

great exactly. Yeah. Uh. If you want to learn more about drag queens, you can type those words into the search bar at how stuff works dot com. And uh, since I said drag queens, that means it's time for a message break. Now it's time for listening. Now good, because we're actually going to give advice to this kid. Okay, it should be good good advice or I don't know, we'll see. I think we should just wing it. Hey,

guys and Jerry. First off, I'm a huge fan and um about to graduate after five long years at the University of Washington in Seattle. Go Huskers, Huskies. Yeah. Um. Instead of getting a degree in something practical that would set me up for a great job like business or engineering, I follow my interest, which I think is great by the way, and I will be getting a b A in Spanish and a b s. In astronomy and physics.

That being said, guys, I'm about to graduate in five weeks and I really have nothing lined up for When I entered the quote real world, can you send me some money. I know I want to go back to school eventually for something involving education, but I was curious if you have any suggestions or advice of what I should do in the meantime, I'm a little stressed about it, to be honest, So I thought I would turn to

the duo that never leads me astray. And this is owen Ah and he says it's pronounced something like capus. I want to say, owen capis, but it just felt this has got a lot of consonants in it. Let me see. Jeez, Yeah, so that's kepis apparently, so owen um advice. Of course. The first thing I'm gonna say is travel, and probably Josh too, because it's always good after you finish college to get out there and see a little bit of the world, because it might inform

your decisions in life. You might open you up to something you might want to do. I have some job advice, okay, I would say, just like college, follow you or passions. So if you find if you think about it, like wow, I really really am hardcore into Spanish, figure out something to use that, some way to use that. Or astronomy. It's pretty narrow use of that, but you never know, like if you, uh, there could be a company out there that loves employing astronomers. Just has him sit around

all day in about astronomy. If he's into education, eventually you could go get a job at a science center. Yeah, and uh work with a big telescope and a planetarium and to like and entertain school children. But if you're studying Spain, dude, and you have some time Spanish, I would say, go to Spain. Sure, get a ticket, go to Spain. Check things out. Falling love might decide on a job. You might just eat some good pie and have a good time and go home and be broke.

I say, get a job, hippie, but make sure it's a job you love. Yeah. I mean that's the point to me. It's like that's what we both did. We figured out what we loved and wed hard laid them into jobs. You know, yeah later in life as well. So kids, you don't have to um, you don't have to have it all locked down right after graduation. Yeah. And also Owen. One thing that I've learned is that you don't you almost never use the actual degree that you major the like, it's almost never applied to the

actual job you get. I don't know, I'll think about this. I'm an English major, right, I was a history major. That's nothing to do with my job at the time, hired as writers. Right, yeah, okay, I see your point. But so like, there was a guy I can't remember who was the NBC chief that Seinfeld used to like mock. He actually um became like a character when they were trying to sell the TV fell in love with Elane. That's a real guy. And he actually was like the

head of NBC for a while. Yeah, and like NBC's hey day, he did a beautiful job of like picking shows and stick him with them and steering him. And that was when NBC was dominating. He had a degree in psychology that had nothing to do with it. Yeah, but don't you think psychology helped him with dealing with you know, high powered people And no, I'll tell you what. What did it? He was doing what he loved and hence what he was good at. And if you do

that you will always succeed. Well, you know what, unless you're a philosophy major. You sold me all right, So that was from Owen. Thanks for that. You're awesome. Let us know what you do. Like follow up, I'd like to know, Owen. Yeah, if you go to Spain, they'd like to hear about it. Or if you get a job, I want to hear about it. All right, how old is he? H? Five years so it's probably like three yeah, probably somewhere in there. Whatever you do, Owen, good luck.

But if he's like he didn't be failed to mention that I got a late start. I worked in a factory for twenty years. You don't go travels Spain. Yes, uh, if you want some advice for me and Chuck Man, it's gonna open a floodgate, I think, Chuck Sure. You can tweet short questions to us s y s K podcast. You can join us on Facebook dot com, slash Stuff you Should Know, You can send us an email to stuff podcasts to discovery dot com, and you can always go check out our website for answers and has all

of them. That's Stuff you Should Know dot com. For more on this and thousands of other topics, visit House Stuff Works dot com. This podcast is brought to you by B A. S F. The chemical company h