I'm sure most of us have seen or heard about Drag Queens, and if you have never been to a Drag show, they can be a lot of fun to watch... Not my regular fare but I've seen a few and enjoyed them.

However I've never really heard a lot about the Drag KING scene, which is women doing over the top guys... The maker space I'm a part of (Artisans Asylum) has a small gallery and has just starte an exhibit with a couple of 'artist in residence' Drag Kings who I'm told are some of the top performers in the Boston area, "Rusty Hammer" and "Throb Zombie". The gallery displays lots of their costumes with video clips of them performing in them, an a lot of other posters and props...

We had an opening reception this evening followed by a live show, and I was very impressed! Lots of fun as they spoofed and did exaggerated versions of macho male performances.... If you get a chance to see a Drag King show, I highly recommend it... Obviously if you are in the Boston area, it is worth coming by the Asylum for a look at the gallery....

(BTW, if you do, I am not 'out' so ask for the guy in the wheelchair, not "WheelyFixed")

WheelyFixed

WheelyFixed wrote: Sat Aug 09, 2025 1:03 pm I'm sure most of us have seen or heard about Drag Queens, and if you have never been to a Drag show, they can be a lot of fun to watch... Not my regular fare but I've seen a few and enjoyed them.

However I've never really heard a lot about the Drag KING scene, which is women doing over the top guys... The maker space I'm a part of (Artisans Asylum) has a small gallery and has just starte an exhibit with a couple of 'artist in residence' Drag Kings who I'm told are some of the top performers in the Boston area, "Rusty Hammer" and "Throb Zombie". The gallery displays lots of their costumes with video clips of them performing in them, an a lot of other posters and props...

We had an opening reception this evening followed by a live show, and I was very impressed! Lots of fun as they spoofed and did exaggerated versions of macho male performances.... If you get a chance to see a Drag King show, I highly recommend it... Obviously if you are in the Boston area, it is worth coming by the Asylum for a look at the gallery....

(BTW, if you do, I am not 'out' so ask for the guy in the wheelchair, not "WheelyFixed")

WheelyFixed

Just like trans men vs trans women, there doesn't tend to be much focus or attention given to drag kings vs drag queens. I don't know if it's that drag kings and trans men are less common than their female counterparts- I don't know what the statistic is. It could also be that the female counterparts get more of the attention(good and bad) due to an ingrained societal taboo associated with "giving up one's male privilege" . Nonetheless you're definitely not alone if the term, drag king is new to you.

I don't know the exact count, but I know we had a fully sold out house or close to it for the show, I know that I saw folks scrounging for extra seats, "stealing" chairs from some of the offices and such I'd guess somewhere between 75 and 100 seats, maybe more...

At least from the comments I heard both from the performers and the other audience members the drag king scene is pretty big (at least in the Boston area, and probably other large cities) in the LGBTQ+ community, but not much outside of it...

While i realize that as a eunuch I'm probably on the borderline edge of that world by some definitions, I still consider myself (and present) as tolerant "straight white guy" so not really all that exposed to it beyond the fact that AA is very emphatically LGBTQ+ friendly... I'm also not at all into any sort of the bar / club / festival / live performance scene which also tends to limit my exposure to this sort of thing...

I also noticed that the exhibit had posters and advertising cards for festivals dating back to at least 2010, so it has definitely been going on for a while...

Minorly amusing story - back in my college days (circa 1977) some friends and I went to the "Golden Dolphin" a "private club" in Cocoa Beach, FL (supposedly had been a major astronaut hangout back in the space-race days) - FL law at the time was very restrictive on what 'public' places could do, but 'private clubs' could get away with much more, so you had to be invited join the club (by the member in line ahead of you) and pay the $1/mo "Dues" in order to get in... Basic strip joint, peeling down to G-string... My first visit to such a place... The MC was a very 'hefty" middle aged woman who did some stand-up comedy (Including threats of performing herself) and introduced the other acts...

Over the course of the evening she did a couple of routines that were definite spoofs of the usual burlesque strip routines (pull off top to reveal a pair of fake fried eggs, dress to reveal a mousetrap, etc...) songs were "Whats a nice girl like you doing in a Place Like This" and "Let me Entertain You"... Watching her and mentally comparing her to the other performers, I thought that something wasn't 'right' - hair pattern was wrong, nipples to small, etc... I said this to my friends (who supposedly had much more experience in such places) and was told I was imagining things...

I got the last laugh though, when a week later the Sunday paper had a piece in the entertainment section about "Darling Dimples, FEMALE IMPERSONATOR, currently appearing at the Golden Dolphin" Friends were seriously peeved that I had spotted it and they hadn't...

WheelyFixed

Just had a chat with the guy that was running the sound system at the show - I seriously underestimated the crowd when I said 50-100, he said it was actually about 150 in the audience....

WheelyFixed

WheelyFixed wrote: Sat Aug 09, 2025 1:03 pm I'm sure most of us have seen or heard about Drag Queens, and if you have never been to a Drag show, they can be a lot of fun to watch... Not my regular fare but I've seen a few and enjoyed them.

However I've never really heard a lot about the Drag KING scene, which is women doing over the top guys... The maker space I'm a part of (Artisans Asylum) has a small gallery and has just starte an exhibit with a couple of 'artist in residence' Drag Kings who I'm told are some of the top performers in the Boston area, "Rusty Hammer" and "Throb Zombie". The gallery displays lots of their costumes with video clips of them performing in them, an a lot of other posters and props...

We had an opening reception this evening followed by a live show, and I was very impressed! Lots of fun as they spoofed and did exaggerated versions of macho male performances.... If you get a chance to see a Drag King show, I highly recommend it... Obviously if you are in the Boston area, it is worth coming by the Asylum for a look at the gallery....

(BTW, if you do, I am not 'out' so ask for the guy in the wheelchair, not "WheelyFixed")

WheelyFixed

If I ever go to Boston while the show is happening, I'll remember to see.

The show I saw was basically a 'one time' event, but I'm told that there are a lot of events and venues where drag kings perform, I'd expect that Startpage or other search engines would probably be able to find a show near where you are...

WheelyFixed