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| One of the many faces of Cassidy Queerface |
Oh, also, she's hilarious and an f-ing sweetheart, so I asked her a few questions.
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| Cassidy Queerface as male persona, Dick Tater |
Ruff Life: You are such an outrageous
figure on stage. What is the day-to-day life consists of?
Cassidy Queerface: Day to day life for me is actually probably more
normal than most people realize, but maybe I just have bizarre friends so it
seems more normal. Usually I have a day job that takes up most of my time. I
was a pharmacy tech for 11 years, ha. Right now I don’t, though, so my “work”
is just planning, organizing, promoting shows, developing my own numbers, and
creating costumes. I end up spending a lot of time cuddling with my cats and
watching Netflix and sneaking off to go have fun with friends, though.
RL: How did you begin performing?
CQ: I had performed
in some church dramas when I was religious (your laugh here,) but I began
performing as an adult as Magenta in a Rocky Horror troupe my friends had put
together. Fast forward to the next year and I went through a really rough patch
in my personal life and needed a creative outlet. I had always wanted to be a
drag queen but figured having been born a woman disqualified me from that. Then
I saw Fauxnique had won the Trannyshack competition in San Francisco. I figured
if a bio female could win a drag queen contest, then surely I could perform as
one. So I started picking out songs I wanted to do and building my costume
collection and learning how to do drag makeup. Then Madame D, the queen running
the Hilo drag show at the time, let me have my debut and stay on the show with
them for a bit. My original performances were still full of weird and quirky
concepts. I didn’t dance as much cause I still felt super awkward with the way
my body moved. I still do a few of those original numbers, though, they’re just
more polished now.
RL: What were your original
performances like?
CQ: My very first
number was as the Queen of Hearts with a fake battle axe to the Yeah Yeah
Yeah’s “Heads Will Roll.” And I think “Bleeding Love,” the one where I pull
bloody intestines out of my dress to a sappy love song, was within my first
month of performing.
RL: You didn’t originally begin
doing burlesque as a female, right? What prompted the decision to move into
that?
CQ: I didn’t start out doing burlesque at all. I started
as a faux queen and I was so covered it was hilarious. I’ve always enjoyed
nudity in art, but hadn’t really been a huge fan of strip clubs, ever, then I
saw the Suicide Girls burlesque tour. Suddenly there were these girls stripping
to music I loved and having actual theatrical concepts to it. I didn’t see any
burlesque live until many years later and then performers just kept popping
into my view. I loved it. It was like subversive sexiness. Or like drag and
stripping had a baby. I loved the art form but thought I could never do it
cause I hated my body and I’ve never been a great dancer. Eventually I got a
little more bold after seeing some burlesque girls that were thick like I was
and worked my way towards naked. First performance I refused to not wear
slimming tights and my waist cincher for the entire number, though.
RL: Okay, I've got to ask about your incredible make-up. It's always so over-the-top but flawless. How did you learn to do your
make-up?
CQ: I have been playing around with makeup since I was
young, but I started being more serious about it when I was 20. I started
reading detailed tutorials, collecting pictures of looks I wanted to try, and
experimenting with color and blending. I met the gay soulmates, Austin Tatious
and Chase Vegas, a year later and I learned a lot from them as well. Austin actually
gave me my first live drag makeup tutorial to give me an illustration of some
of the stuff I couldn’t seem to get down. It helped a ton.
RL: Favorite make-up tool or item?
CQ: I couldn’t live
without my makeup brushes. I can do without a lot of things and make drug store
makeup work a lot of times, but brushes are essential. I’m also a huge fan of
fake eyelashes.
RL: Any drag secrets women could
learn from?
CQ: Drag secrets
for women. Let’s see. I think just knowing your body is your canvas helps a
lot. You can paint it up or dress it up however you’d like. Women are scared of
doing anything “unnatural” most of the time, and I like that drag celebrates
the illusion you can create with things. As far as makeup, blending is
essential and be careful when wearing vivid lip colors. You need lip liner to
contain it, and if you put gloss on it will smear quickly. I had to learn how
to do makeup that would last 4 or 5 hours without budging, so longwear formulas
are a savior, as well as primers for your foundation and eyelids. As far as
attitude, paint up and dress in a way that you feel gorgeous and you’ll
probably gain quite a bit of confidence.
RL: You recently shaved your head, and somehow make bald look glamorous. Anything prompt the shaving?
QF: I shaved my
head the first time a few years ago cause I had a pink Mohawk and the edges
were shaved so far down that I didn’t think it would be good for job interviews
I had to go on. But I loved it so much I kept it for a while. Then grew it out,
hated it, and shaved it again. I have very low tolerance for hair I can’t take
off whenever I want to. I’ve been spoiled by wigs for 4 years. Plus, I get to
be “edgy” and “daring” with my hair without doing a damn thing. I’ve always
enjoyed androgyny, and now I kind of like wearing mine on the outside.
RL: Running out of questions, but I have always wondered who your style or
performance icons are?
QF: I have a lot of icons. Amanda Palmer is probably the
biggest one, for her style, business model, artistic integrity, bizarreness,
etc. I also really love Freddie Mercury, David Bowie, Karen O, Nina Hagen, and
Emilie Autumn. They all share the fact that they just are flamboyant and
dressed so abnormally, but also were perfectly gorgeous and comfortable in
their weirdness and with androgyny.
If you'd like to see Cassidy Queerface in action, she performs every last Thursday at the Drunken Fry at 10 pm with the Dust Bowl Dolls, every first Thursday at the 51st St. Speakeasy with the Dust Bowl Dolls, every second Friday at the Hilo with Bang Bang, AND Friday, Saturday and Sunday September 27 - 29th at the Boom with TnT Burlesque.
Whew, that's a busy badass lady!
