Tete Bang | Afab Queens And The Drag Community Hierarchy | Under The Wig

They'Ll always say: well, if you don't like it, make your own show and it's like han. I am literally a starving artist. There'S been a pandemic like do you think, i'm a tv producer. Do you think i have access to tv producers like i barely know what i'm doing day to day? I don't have infrastructure and support to be able to do that it's pride month and to celebrate we're going beneath the sequence of the drag world with four very different, but equally iconic drag artists. I'M yshi black and today, i'm joined by a london drag queen dancer. Dj and superstar tt bang hello. How are ya? I'M perfect! Thank you. How are you i'm good, i'm good! It'S been a while, since we last saw each other, it was probably at a gig you'll, probably dj in and i'll probably do the most with the absolute least who's been helping me recently, how's lockdown. I definitely thought the end of the world would be much more exciting. I thought there'd be more outfits, i thought it'd be. I mean i've seen mad max. I was expecting that we've still got time left, don't worry, we still got time. Are you ready to talk about all things drag? Oh, my god, i'm petrified! I'M actually petrified! Oh, don't be it's just between us girls. Oh, look at all. You'Ve got what you've got in there. I'Ve got a decaf tea, i'm drinking decapitation now. Do you have tea? Look at you. No, it's not bad, oh zone, yeah! Very that this is under the wing, so my lovely tt for all of the viewers watching. Can you describe your drag? Oh it's campaign. It'S silly! It'S fun! It'S feminine! That'S it sickening is sickening drag! That'S what that is, can you tell the viewers watching what was it like the early days of titty bang, you know holy day. Oh my god i mean the struggle was real. I think my standards were much lower. So quite often i would finish work and then i do my makeup on the bus on the way to a night out, or you know, i had no problem with that. Back in the day, you had to do what you had to do and i think i'm always quite thrifty. I'Ve always been quite thrifty. So a lot of my drag, i love the charity shops. I love an ebay um and that hasn't really changed. I'Ve just got better at it. That'S good! We love to see it growth. Do you know what i mean, i'm still trying to look for that growth um. So if you find any spare, just let me know uh and i'll have. Please do because i remember my early days um and they were just literally rolling around the clubs in birmingham doing the most. With the least i lost my wiganer taxi once that was. That was the moment and the taxi had to come back around and give me the wig back at like 5am in the morning. It was very that, let's see, look at first. I think people think that now like drag, is really shiny and polished, but when you first start doing drag, if you're doing it properly, it's messy it's absolutely. This is what i mean. That'S why i try to tell the kids i'm like listen. You'Ve got to have the years where you're absolutely rolling around the club, an absolute mess uh just having fun and enjoying you're not covered in bruises by the end of the weekend, you're not doing drag, put it in a song, put it in a song and let's Go for people miss, you know it's like how do i start doing drag and i'm like you just start and they'll say: oh, but i'm really bad at makeup. I'M like yeah yeah. You will be really bad. You'Ll probably be really bad for like ages, and you have youtube now wouldn't have youtube. Babe, like there is now i'm trying to explain to some of the some of the kids i'm like listen, i had no youtube was bad, especially for my black queens and kings, and i think it was non-existent. So we were really trying to like do something here and do something there: brands that make makeup just for drag queens. It was like go to superdrug hope the best yeah literally literally, and i think the thing about uk dragons anyway, like we're all just absolute chaotic messes, and we just have a laugh and i think that's what british drag is all about like having an absolute laugh. Did you have any um sort of misconceptions about drag when you were starting out? I didn't have any preconceived ideas, which was probably the misconception like i didn't know anything i just like i didn't go out being like. I want to be a drag queen. I just used to go out to queer spaces and i like dressing up, dress up and you go to a club you might get in for free. Maybe you'll get some drinks tokens you so i didn't go out being like. I want to be a drag queen. I went out being like i want to be in a quiz space surrounded by people where we can all dress up and have a lovely time it wasn't until people started calling me a drag queen. I was like okay. Well, if we have to put a label on it, we're going to put a label on it. Fine, but i didn't realize there was so much politics to drag and i think maybe a lot of people don't realize how much politics they're actually in within yeah base. In general, they think, like we're all best friends, and we all think the same, and we all have the same thing and actually it's way more complicated than that. I i know, starting out my misconceptions, sort of i'd say i just thought you know man in a dress, singing bad songs, jeremy. I didn't think it could be any more to what i know now because drag really is all-encompassing and all everything really. I just love cabaret, i just love showing off and telling a story on stage and like having fun on a stage and i think also as drags become more mainstream. We now own the word much more than maybe we probably did before yeah absolutely and even going back to like sort of like the politics center of drag, and you know there's this whole ecosystem of still. What is you know? What is drag and people have to really define it. What do you think about that whole system and like entering that space, i think um, especially as a queer woman, you have to be more cautious, like don't just think that every gay man is going to welcome. You into that space because that's not necessarily true, you know the idea of having a gay best friend is not as fabulous as maybe movies might have told you. It was maybe all those gay bars you want to go to and like feel your own fantasy, maybe they're not going to be as welcoming as you expect them to be, and you do have to be quite strong in yourself those spaces, and just you know, don't Just expect everybody to love you it's like going into any space. You know it's the politics of the community. You know there is. There is a hierarchy in in the community, whether we like to admit it or not, and we're not yeah we're trying to deconstruct the patriarchy, but sometimes the patriarchy is still there yeah it's about acknowledging it. Isn'T it and like just even still, even in the queer community, people have a hard time actually acknowledging, and so just just go in, like you know cautiously, it's not all fun games i mean loads of it is fun and games, but yeah there's a lot more To it every industry there is a hierarchy, and that's just how it is. It'S been like systematically brainwashed into us and sometimes really subconscious and so yeah there's a lot more acknowledging we can do as a community. Absolutely now. Speaking of you know, acknowledging terminology sort of moves so fast and so we've had you know the bio queens, a fab queens. I just want to know how would you define yourself? I just define myself as a queer queen. You know i'm queer. This is what it is if, like you feel the need to talk about my genitals which, like why are you so obsessed with my genitals? You look great um call me because that's what the you know, but that's what i don't mind being used towards me. Everybody is different, just like pronouns, just like asking his name. Just ask i feel like queer is how i identify it's where i feel my most self look at you y'all queer. Yes, did you know any other? You know queer afab artists when you're starting out, you know what i was quite lucky. I was really really fortunate with the people i did surround myself with. I think i got quite lucky with the gay bar i walked into. I walked into the camden, which was like my original sort of home, and i had people like me, formerly known as meth and more who's, my drug sister and but we also had lolo brow and lily snatch dragon. And so i was around other queer women as well, so we did all empower each other yeah whole star, i mean whole star is an icon and they used to perform at the black cap constantly - and i remember i remember once this is so embarrassing. I remember being in the changing room, and it was, i was kind of just starting out and whole star was there and they were doing their makeup and i was like i just want to tell them like how inspiring they are to me. You know, that's so cringe, isn't it i just went. Do you know what holster as a as a lesbian? I just want to say how much i look up to you and she just went to me babe, i'm not a lesbian, like i'm queer, and i was like oh my gosh. That was like it was part of my like, because at that time i hadn't really started calling myself queer. I just was what it was. I was dating people whatever and so yeah. It takes time to acknowledge like how you identify as well yeah. It always takes time and i think again with like the learning process of starting track. You know i mean you're going through all of those emotions, emotions and you're, doing you're doing everything and look at the queen before us. Come on now, look at the material look at the material, yes, which is why it boggles my mind because you've spoken about being a sideline and cancelled for corporate gigs, because you know they found out that you're you're assigned gender and this that and then apparently you Know it means something to them. What do you like think that says about like the general public and their understanding of drag? I don't think they know as much as they think they know they think you know they've watched a tv show from this sofa and now they know everything about drag. Let them have it sis. Let'S look it's true, though i mean we do. It'S very voyeuristic. You know the general look at drag from their own experience and what they've been presented. I haven't necessarily been to a gay bar pre-2018, you know or even pre-2015, because so much more diverse and colorful than what it is presented to us as - and that is because the people creating the mainstream content about are predominantly cis men right because you know whatever They'Ve been able to get to this position, so we haven't been able to be telling people what we're doing, because we haven't had the opportunity to to present it to the general public. So the general public do have a very warp perception, but i do hope that it's changing and i do think it is changing. It takes time yeah it does. I heard somebody say once why not have a drag king judge and i was like okay, let's go. Let'S start moving these things up because it's 20 21 babes yeah, i mean people always say to me online - is whenever i comment on something. So i do. I do interact with comments about drag race, they'll always say. Well, if you don't like it make your own show and it's like han. I am literally a starving artist. There'S been a pandemic like do you think, i'm a tv producer. Do you think i have access to tv producers like i barely know what i'm doing day to day? I don't have infrastructure and support to be able to do that. It'S not as simple as just like making your own show yeah right, and why can't we have a go on this platform? It should be for all queer spaces faces and everything, but i know you've also been on another tv show who what that is: inclusive. Okay. Yes, no i'm so lucky i get to do loads of fun stuff. Honestly, when i watched it with everything. So as far as we're aware, you're, the first self-identifying you know, female drag queen uh to appear on a mainstream tv show drag sos, oh god. I love that show. Ah, i really wanted a season two, but it had a really important message: uh about drag and that, basically anyone can do mag, because dragon is an art form, but yeah just tell us a bit more about that and that whole like process and why the message Was important, i feel so fortunate to the family gorgeous, because the concept itself was created by cheddar. You know when they got offered to make the tv show a fought to have me on there. He said it's really important that we include this diversity like and they just that was their like their line. They were like, if you allowed this person to be on it as well, because they wanted to say that message more than anything but like look, it is possible to have somebody like me on the telly with a bunch of you know: male drag queens. It was just such an amazing experience and it was. It was really hard work like it's a really hard work trekking around the country getting up at 5am to to be in drag to be camera ready for 8 a.m. To then go and build these like really deeply emotional relationships with people and then create like re-drag, looks from scratch for them in the space of a week like it's a lot of work, but it just was so amazing to actually see how much drag can impact People and i think, as people that live within the community, we kind of forget quite quickly how much it really can change people's lives because we're so used to it. I'M, like all my friends are drug queens like we're gon na interact with does drag it's gone past the stage or maybe we've just grown past the stage where it's really affecting like our day-to-day lives, and so it was really amazing to just see that moment again In somebody who really hadn't been exposed to drag at all and see like wow, this really can like change, how people think about themselves and how they see themselves absolutely because when i was watching it to the tv screen, i was like this is magic like this Is power? This is confidence, this is love and energy and performance, and i can only imagine what you are feeling it when you were doing it. The first day i met somebody, and i i even just getting to know them before we even started doing dragon. I was just asking them about like how they see themselves, how they see their bodies. I was not ready for like the emotional unloading i was about to receive, like we definitely thought we were just going to go in there and dress some people up, and it was all going to be fun and games mother to many queer people. I am more than happy to listen to people, tell me really personal things about their journey and who they are, and i feel like honored that people trust trusted me to do that and um yeah. I would love to keep doing it. I honestly, i need you back on my screen asap because i just yeah it was just a brilliant, brilliant show and you should be really proud of yourself, because i was chanting and whooping for you. But you worked so hard and you've had loads of great opportunities, because things can still be really hard for any form of a fab queen, a queer queen. There are loads of people still currently working in the scene and working really hard to make their impact. I want you to have like any advice for those for those queens who are working. Your fellow sisters, just don't give up. I think like if you're gon na do it, you have to go in hard, like my entire life is built around the fact that i do drag now. You know even from like the space in which i live. You know you really have to put your role into it because there's so many people that want to do it now i mean i was really lucky that i started doing drag like really before the drag race phenomenon. So when the explosion happened, i was kind of already on the stage to be seen. I don't know how to explain like basically like when i used to work in camden in that cap we were like the first club to bring over the drag race girls. Yes, it was only like a 200 to 300 person capacity club. It was really small, you know we brought one over, it would sell out, we brought another, and then we were doing like three days of bringing the girls over. This was before they were doing. You know the big o2s and the pink, and these things literally like a little gay bar in camden, and i used to dj there. That was because we were all friends and, like we all worked in this club, and so when it exploded the whole drag race thing i was already kind of in that scene, so i really was lucky with like the timing. I think it is much harder for queens now to and get seen because it's so doggy dog out there now and everybody and their pet cat is a drag queen and that's really true. It'S so true. Everybody does drag. I'M like surprised, if someone doesn't do dragon now. I went to the black cat once as well and saw bianca del rio there. I got up on stage and i won the little lip sync competition that she did at the black crap yes way before. Why she, but in that moment, why she black was born baby when we were putting on these shows, we did not know what we were doing like we were doing it for like no money. It was just like, so we people were like we admired as well. Like it was all fun and games, it was never like a business move or anything like that. It was just like authentic queer culture at that time honestly same, and we have like open mic night here down in birmingham called second self, and we again just did it for fun, but the community comes together and we just enjoy performance and joy, the art of Being queer - and i just really think that that's so powerful - it really does shine through as well. I think you should not be getting into drag if you want it, because you want it to be your career and you want it to be your business, because i think people can see that you've got to do it because you love it because otherwise, i think You can tell you can tell you could tell yeah. Definitely i want to ask just quickly why you think drag is important to sort of the wider queer community, because i've been thinking about recently like i am sort of myself um a queer leader of sorts, and you know the young acts look up to me, but I never would have thought myself as one but um. I think us in drag spaces are quite important. I think we're really important people really visible right, even we're on the bus and we're going to the gig, we're being visibly queer and we're not dead to be outspoken and tell our stories on a stage and conduct queer spaces. We kind of conduct queer spaces when we're performing in them as well, and so i think we are leaders, it's kind of weird, because this is like a thing that i've been like a couple of people who said it to me recently like being a queer leader. But i never really thought of myself that way as well similar to you i'd, never like it was never intentional. I just thought it was a big gobby and i had loads of things, but but now i think because it is becoming so mainstream. We do have a responsibility because we are gobby absolutely i don't feel empowered enough to do that. You know, i feel so thankful that i'm empowered enough within myself and within my story too, comfortable with sharing it, and i want to encourage other people to feel comfortable sharing their stories. Yeah. Absolutely i agree with you. I think i know being sort of like a mentor to some of the younger kids, it's great because i just want to see them learn and grow and perform, and you know i'm always happy to like help with a mix if they need one or something like This so what's happening there and support them at their shows and stuff. Like that, i don't know you, but i sort of i mean we never had that, so we never had so much of a mentorship that you know the older drag, uh cabaret axe would come down and see the shows the whole like drag mother thing. It wasn't really, it wasn't a thing in the community. I was mom like. Obviously you learn a lot from just being backstage with queens and like that time, backstage is really where you know you watch people do their makeup. You ask questions like you interact. I think now, like young people, need to be braver and, like not forget, ask us for help as well, because i think people do get a bit scared to ask for help sometimes but yeah. I also don't want the responsibility of being anyone's drag mother because i can barely mind that's why i keep it as like, drag auntie so like no, i can have the kids, but i don't have to look after them all the time. Do you know what i mean like i don't want to? I will help you and i will give you guidance and i will you know but like i don't want anyone well, as you know, tt the gay agenda states that we must recruit as many young and impressionable people as possible. So in 30 seconds, can you tell us to all the viewers watching? Why should you start drag? Go not drag because everybody loves dressing up you get to have so much fun. You get to be around fabulous people. Everyone wants to look at. You get loads of content for the gram if you're into that young people are into that you can make tick-tock. I don't know about tick-tock, but young people do you can make tick-tocks in drag you get to meet people, you get to open up the doors for conversations and you just get to have a laugh. Sometimes we get drunk it's fun like being too total and vegan is also totally fine like we really are inclusive, we'll take anything we can get. That was absolutely iconic. Yes, if i weren't already starting drag tt from that i'd be signing up going. Where do i sign on the dotted line, i think about this quite a lot and i'm like a massive geek and i'm into like science, and i know that if i wasn't doing all of this, then i would definitely want to be like a scientist right now. Whether or not i'd get to that stage or not that's right, that's up for a different day, but where would you be if you weren't, throwing on all the wigs and the gigs and all sorts? You know what i would there's so many things. I'D love to do like. I really recently realized that i would be a really good job recruiter, because i love looking at jobs like there's so many cool things you can do that. Like i didn't know, you could be when you were at school, i would eat art director. Obviously i'd be a spice girl um. I don't feel like to be a florist. I think that'll be a really nice job. Oh yeah, i can see that i can see that you know what. Maybe you should try and get one of those floristy shows you know. They'Ve got those flower shows up. Maybe i think, like it's a nice job to have as an old lady. In my mind, happy as well done it do. You know what i mean come to the forestry shop and like have a time like everyone's like happy they're celebrating something sometimes it's death, yeah, yeah yeah. Why don't you do like a drag science show? Ah, that isn't it can i get an idea, though, because i don't want you to you, know copyright. I don't know anything about science. Okay, then that's fine! Well, listen! This is it. Why why she got science i'll think of a better name, we'll get there we'll get there? Well, it has been so lovely to talk to you titty. Where can everyone find you plug yourself, my queen, plug yourself, graham tt, underscore bang twitter, titty, bang sos anywhere everywhere. Just search my name i'll, be there. Thank you so much for your time and thank you for joining me on under the wig. You