KRAVEN STRANGE
(Kraven) In drag, he, him, out of drag, they, them.
(Kraven) Yeah. So I am a non-binary lesbian. Um, I am attracted to women and other lesbians.
Um, however they identify too. That's a very big spectrum there. Um, I love being a lesbian.
(Kraven) Yeah. It's just like, it's such an expansive sort of, um, community and word. And yeah, I love being a dyke. I love being a lesbian. Um, I really identify with being a dyke too. That's that word means a lot to me and helps me, um, in a similar way to my name, uh, in drag, just like have that confident, like I have a word and an identity that makes me feel proud of leaning into who I am. Yeah.
KRAVEN STRANGE
(Kraven) Yeah.
(Kraven) Yeah, I mean, so the one that you recently saw me at, the Drag King Bingo, that’s an open set by Cunning Stunt, who is, as you know, a fucking fantastic drag king.
(Kraven) An awesome producer, just really a great king. Like, he truly is just like a king, you know? And brings that to life and into the community.
And so he has this open set. And it’s actually funny, because I was supposed to do it—because it was like a bi-monthly thing—I was supposed to do it in February, but then it got moved. And eventually I was going to do it in April, but we settled on March.
So I was really antsy to get on that stage and be a part of that one. It was really fun. I’d never been to that venue before.
Which—I get a little nervous if I’ve never been somewhere before, especially performance-wise, just because I don’t necessarily know what to expect.
(Kraven) But it was a really fun space to play around in. And I’m really grateful to Cunning for letting me do that and giving space for kings specifically too, which you don’t see a lot of.
KRAVEN STRANGE
(Kraven) My name, uh, in drag is Kraven Strange. Um, but mostly around the scene and like places I go, people just call me Kraven or I introduce myself as Kraven.
Um, that’s also like a little bit of a trans thing to just like not exactly identifying with my name, my legal name at this point. Um, but can’t really think of anything better.
(Kraven) It’s fun, I really do love my name, my drag name a lot because, um, at first I was ‘Craven More’ and it was with a C so C-R-A-V-E-N More. And I was just like, okay, like, yeah, you know, cause I definitely wanted like a punny name, something like kind of, you know, that demonstrates kind of what I do. Cause I do tend to lean more on the comedic side of things as far as my drag goes.
And, um, so I was like, yeah, perfect pun name, whatever. But then it was just like very boring, especially like, and it didn’t just, it felt like it didn’t fit. And so then I came up with Kraven Strange, which, um, is also a pun name.
But it’s a lot more specific. Um, and it’s a lot more evocative of what I want to do, which is strange shit. You know, I feel like a lot of what, um, I do is not what you’re seeing in mainstream drag, like with, even within like, um, well, cause you know, we have the context of like drag race and, you know, how people view drag as this one thing, which is a great thing and a wonderful thing.
But you know, I do a different thing. So I felt like Kraven Strange just, uh, really amplified that and let me lean into the strangeness of everything and be a little more proud of the weird ideas that I have and things that I do. Rather than, you know, I’m, I’m very apologetic.
I feel like when I’m presenting ideas, you know, out of drag and just like in my life in general. So to have that immediate preface of like, what you’re going to see is going to be odd, strange, not the typical stuff you’re going to see and expect in this kind of context. Um, gives me that confidence to lean into it.
(Kraven) Yeah.
KRAVEN STRANGE
(Kraven) I mean, I've technically been doing drag like documented since 2020. I was doing like bedroom drag. Um, and then I moved up here and I was still kind of doing bedroom drag just because, you know, nothing was really happening.
I also wasn't going out necessarily. So I didn't really know like where the good drag was at and where I could start doing that. Um, and then in 2022, I had my first performance and I've been plugging along ever since.
I'm on, technically it's been two years, so I'm on my third now. Yes. Um, so it's been, it's been a really fun journey really.
And just helped me learn a lot about myself and also just my community and the people around me. Um, I'm like so thankful for that, especially Pink Metal. You said someplace that sounds like home. It feels like home. Um, so this is my home bar for sure. This is, um, they have an open set every week, Open Bussy stage.
That's where I started getting more consistent with my drag and started, um, building community and being able to see people grow and change along with me growing and changing in my art. Um, so it's been really lovely. I do love this place and how open it is to all kinds of drag and all kinds of performance too.
KRAVEN STRANGE
(Kraven) Yeah. So I definitely, uh, started out drawing first because I, even when I was, um, before I was Kraven and did Kraven, I was doing drag and makeup looks, but I didn’t really have like a specific sort of stamp and like one look that I was kind of going for. And so trying to develop that, I started drawing him, drawing Kraven.
(Kraven) I hope it does. I like to think so.
(Kraven) Let me, I can pull something up. Let me see one of my first ones. This was like the very, very first one.
(Kraven) Thank you.
(Kraven) It’s definitely, I mean, you know, the stash and the, the brows are just, you know, you slap those on and immediately that’s like, you read that.
(Kraven) Yeah. So I wanted something like that. And also like the eyes and stuff. I wanted something just for also the ease of me. So I don’t have to like think of something new and a new way to do my face every time. I like structure. I like playing within structure because I feel like if I don’t have that, I get like overwhelmed by choice and like overwhelmed of the possibilities of like, well, I could go in a million different directions. But if I have this sort of like, um, the structure to play around in, it makes it a lot easier and more straightforward. And instead of taking six hours for me to get ready, two and a half, which I’m trying to cut it down still, but you know.
(Kraven) Thank you. Well, definitely, I think like my biggest drag king inspiration is certainly Landon Cider. He’s huge. He’s, he’s very well known as he should be. And I think like that sort of like extreme, like, glam, but also like evoking masculinity is what I wanted to do.
(Kraven) And also just like, I love cartoons. I love a cartoon villain. So I kind of wanted that to be, you know, what I was giving and trying to reflect in both like just the drawing of itself and also what I do both with my makeup. And I try to do that with my numbers to get that feeling across.