Chatting With the Mx. Nobody V Finalists (Part 1)
Brooklyn's most outré drag competition concludes on July 10th! We're catching up with the winners of the prelims to see what's in store for the Grand Finale.
Cuntyham photo by Jessye Herrell (left), Esther photo by Jamie Berent (right)
Interview by Eric Shorey
The Mx. Nobody Pageant began in the way that most good art begins — as a kind of joke. In 2016, the idea of me, Ariel Italic, and Lady Bearica Andrews running a self-deprecating anti-beauty contest — in which competitors battled to be the next most-ignored nightlife star on the scene — was absolutely hilarious to us as a counterpoint to the glammed up, hyper-corporate beauty of RuPaul’s Drag Race.
Since then, the Mx. Nobody Pageant has evolved into something else entirely. Equal parts earnest, parodic, transgressive, and wholesome — the event has become a showcase of the grotesque, the bizarre, the unthinkable, and the poignantly poetic. Acts have ranged from drag queens extracting raw meat from their nether-regions, to carefully constructed burlesque strip teases, to the unfiltered, chaotic emotions of a public coming out.
This year’s Mx. Nobody Pageant — returning to the scene after a multi-year hiatus due to the pandemic — has evolved into something even more strange as a new generation of club kids, drag performers, and assorted nightlife miscreants battle for the cardboard crown and $500 from Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab.
In anticipation of the upcoming finale on July 10th, we’re chatting with the champions of each week of the preliminary rounds to get a better sense of the artistry and meaning behind their winning performances.
Esther
Photo by Jamie Berent
JUDGEMENT: Tell us about the Mx. Nobody number that you competed with in Round 3. What inspired it? What went into making it?
Esther: Ok, so, I was sitting in a park in Los Angeles, speaking to a group of friends. The topic of Furbies came up and someone said, ‘Wow, I remember how I used to torture my Furby.’ And the thought crossed my mind: imagine if Furbies gained sentience and got revenge? So I came back to New York and pitched the idea of Furbies to the co-producers of a show I produce called Uma or Don’t Go In There, Uma! It’s A Trap — and they were into it. So we did a Furby themed show called “Revenge of the Furby” — my two numbers from the show follow this arc that centers around Esther as a Silicon Valley tech bro, like a tech innovator of sorts, who is speaking at a wine bar in Palo Alto and is presenting her latest innovation, Furby Reloaded — which is his attempt at making a Furby sentient or injecting the Furby with consciousness. So Esther attempts to conduct a cognitive test on the Furby. The Furby allegedly fails and is hacked, so Esther flushes the Furby down the toilet but what had actually happened was that the Furby deceived Esther — the Furby did in fact gain sentience and all the Furbies in the world share collective consciousness and they’ve been recording, they’ve been surveilling, ever since their release in 1998. So they plot their revenge and destroy Esther and take over the world.
Tell me about Esther the character and where she comes from.
The easiest thing I can say is when I was young, I had many teddy bears. I was obsessed with teddy bears. And my mother would give them voices when we’d play. So I really think it’s from that, that I began playing around with voices as a child, playing around with different characters.
Anyway!
I will say that Esther is an opportunity to reflect on everything I’m reading, watching, listening to. It provides my life with a particular cadence in which I’m working towards a performance, or a video, and so I’m given a structure with which to filter everything that I’m consuming. I like to describe Esther as a conduit through which various biochemical algorithms choose to express themselves because Esther is often playing multiple characters on stage. Esther doesn’t have a defined personality per se, it’s more like Esther is a vessel for different energies.
Is there a philosophy or central idea behind your drag?
Speaking truth to power I think is a reoccurring theme. I like to say that my drag is a humble attempt at détournement, which is a term from the French philosophical school that Guy Debord comes from. So, basically, it refers to the idea of subverting media or using media to call media into question or to challenge media. I think that’s something that’s very tricky to do, especially in this post-modern, digital world. Because as soon as you put an image out into the ether, its providence is so easily lost and you could intend to subvert or make some kind of message but you end up amplifying that which you are critiquing. It’s so easy for media to co-opt revolutionary rhetoric.
For example, I love [the Kpop band] Blackpink. But one of their refrains is, ‘Blackpink is the revolution.’ Like, no you’re not. You’re not the revolution at all.
I’m trying to question the digital messaging that is around us that is so ubiquitous, that you aren’t even noticing and aren’t even cognizant of.
Another way I want to answer this question is that I am very interested in the idea of advertising being the most powerful medium on earth because it is the most well moneyed, and they’re booking the quote-unquote greatest talents. For example, I don’t use an ad-blocker on my computer because I’m very interested to see what messages are being conveyed through advertising. Because it’s so pervasive. What does advertising say about our society?
Photo by Jamie Berent
What or who are the biggest influences on your drag?
I would say that my biggest influences are Adam Curtis, Blackpink, and Rei Kawakubo. [Ed. Note: Esther texted me later to tell me to add French post-modern philosopher Jean Baudrillard to this list.]
Your drag has an academic-ish bent to it, which is incredible to me because academia is very hostile toward or at best totally uninterested in drag. Do you have thoughts about the intersections of drag and academia?
I’m thinking about academia as a historically cis/hetero-patriarchal institution and so I’m imagining that much like the general cis/het public, their understanding of drag is highly sexualized. This is, of course, fed by the very sex-obsessed notion of gender that fuels the cis/het binary.
I suppose I haven’t spent much time in quote-unquote academia. I did go to college to get a bachelors but it was film school.
Photo by Jamie Berent
Are you trying to critique academia by involving it in your drag or is that not on your mind?
I don’t think that’s on my mind. I’m not consciously addressing that.
Cuntyham
Photo by Jessye Herrell
JUDGEMENT: Tell us about the number that you competed with in Round 2. What inspired it? How’d it come together?
Cuntyham: [My number was] a cabaret in Purgatory — but not the bar [where the event was held], the spiritual realm. I sang live with a wonderful pianist named Kalia and there was a clown demon sitting on the edge of the stage that — I thought I was the only one who could see them. But I guess everyone else could see them too. Yeah, I wrapped a cloud tapestry around my body and I found myself on a stage.
I’ve been doing numbers where I sing live since I started doing drag. My character comes from stand-up and I love to sing live because I think I’m a bad singer and I love to force people to have to listen to it, I have to say. [Ed. Note: Cuntyham is not a bad singer.]
I think having like a terrifying, bizarre cabaret show with this terrifying, demonic character that I am is just very fun to do.
Tell me about the philosophy of your drag — it’s so clear that it comes from a distinct perspective.
The philosophy of Cuntyham? I mean, I don’t think Cuntyham the character has any philosophy. They sold their soul to the devil and they’re sneaking around in corners, trying to hide. But for me, I think that I’m the best performer on Planet Earth and I am incredible on stage and on mic. And I didn’t get told that enough when I started performing. I was told that I didn’t belong in whatever scene. So I was just determined to be better than everybody else.
Cuntyham seems to come from the John Waters school of terrorist drag, no? What are your other influences in drag?
Oh yeah, John Waters is my mother. My father is a bichon frise. My influences are definitely coming from a club kid vibe — a lot of the Warhol muses, I guess. Not Warhol himself though, he was a jackass. I think just anybody who found a scene or made a scene in queerness and said — Um, like, no. I’m going to be here and I’m going to take over and show you all that I can be. That being stupid and terrible can also be poetic.
You’ve risen in the scene quite quickly as the Father of the House Of Quench. Tell me a little about the founding of the House. Does the House have an ethos or guiding principals?
House of Quench was founded by me, Silly Brown, Paris L’Hommie, and Sterling Tull. I did Cuntyham the character at Metropolitan Bar at Gender Experts … I was already kind of in the scene, I was going to The Rosemont and shit every night. I was talking to my friends saying like, I wish they would book me. I wish I was booked for these fucking drag shows but no one sees me as a drag performer. And then I met Silly Brown at a job where the two of us helped run a virtual reality spa. We became friends, I took Silly out on the scene, and we all hung out — the four of us started hanging out a lot.
It was over the pandemic where I was getting booked for these virtual shows — like Club Quarantine and stuff. A group of us would have these really in-depth conversations about the drag scene — Sterling and Paris really came from Manhattan drag. I won’t name names but a lot of drag performers are very transphobic — especially in Manhattan but a lot in Brooklyn too. They’re like, ‘If you’re not wearing a breastplate, if you don’t have a shaved face, if you don’t have this, this, and this, if you’re not wearing lashes, blah blah blah,’ — I’ve always been really punk rock about my appearance and the way I act. We were all just like — I’m so tired of this. So I said that we should just start a show of people who weren’t respected and just force respect. Well, not force respect, but like, whatever.
Photo by Jessye Herrell
I wanted to do a variety show for a very long time. I used to host a lot of comedy shows. I just think that people who want to get booked should just start their own thing. A bunch of people came through to the shows, a lot of friends — I just was like, ‘Oh you want to be in the house?’ Freaky, funky, weird people. We met a bunch of people who came to the shows and they’re all in the house now too.
So what’s the deal with like, official house membership? Is there an official roster?
We have a group chat but it’s at max capacity! [laughs] I’m way more liberal with like — whoever wants to be in the house is in the house. Some of the other founders want there to be less people. But, I’m very fatherly to anyone who wants me to be.
I think it’s about — I mean obviously it’s about love. But in the silliest, goofiest, stupidest way possible. By not taking yourself seriously, you can respect yourself.
What can we expect from you at the Mx. Nobody Grand Finale?
Well I was planning on giving out free colonics, but I have to get, like, certification for that. So, I mean, what can you expect from Cuntyham? The thing you can expect from Cuntyham is to never expect anything from Cuntyham.
I know that’s right!
Tickets to the Mx Nobody V Grand Finale on 7/10 at TV Eye are available now.