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I recently had the chance to go backstage at Phoenix College’s Amture night for local drag queens and while the experience was fun. It was interesting to see the difference between a rookie and a veteran queen.
Here are the biggest differences I noticed from Rookies and Veterans
The Rookies VS. Veteran
Because many of the queens I interview are new to drag, I noticed that they used generic makeup such as “Cover Girl or Maybelline. Theres nothing wrong with using Cover Girl or Maybelline, but when you’ve been doing drag for a while you know that “Cover girl doesn’t cover the BOY!”
Rookies also applied their makeup differently. The first drag queen I interview took 3 hours to put on her makeup. But these rookie queens applied their makeup for at least 20 minutes. Honestly, most queens take 30-1 hour to do their makeup, but when you’re a rookie, you should take a bit longer because your experimenting with different techniques and colors. And as I watched the rookies applying their makeup so quickly, you can tell that they had no interest in using different techniques to put definition in their facial structure. When you do drag, your goal is to do makeup so the audience can see it!
Vs.
But that wasn’t the worst part. Again, these queens are new but if you can’t apply your own makeup, then I’m not sure why your doing drag. Practice makes perfect and I commend the new queens for learning how to put on makeup and trying new things, but if you get someone else to do your makeup then why are you doing drag?! The great thing about drag is you get to design your own persona (face, clothes and music), so why give someone else the power to do that?
vs. Veterans (did their own makeup)
When it came to clothing, both queens went the same route. If your on a budget, go to The Wave or Victoria secrets and if you can spend money, then get it custom made.
The music and performing part was different too. When the rookies lip synced, for the most part you tell they were a bit nervous and weren’t sure if they should dance or just sing. But after time I’m sure they’ll get more comfortable. When the veterans sang, they interacted with the audience and lip-synced for their life!