PACHACUNTI
(Pacha)My favorite part of drag is the community. Having grown up super socially anxious and in a place like New York city, it was really hard to feel like I didn't really have a place. And like, I was that kid that like would go to like house parties with my family and would literally like sit facing a wall so that I didn't have to talk to people.
Um, but that meant for that, for a lot of my life, I couldn't really talk to people. And by a lot of my life, I mean until like a year ago. I couldn't really talk to people to the point where like, I was sitting in a bar in drag and a drag performer was sitting next to me talking to me and I would be responding in like two word answers.
And I'd be sitting there like, I need to respond to this person and ask them the question. They just asked me and I wouldn't be able to get it out of my mouth. Um, but people stuck with me anyway.
And so like, it was really cool to suddenly feel like this place where I grew up, where I'm now an adult is accepting me as an adult. Like growing up in New York city, it feels hard to be like, okay, now I'm an adult in the place where I grew up. That is like weird.
It was like weird to suddenly like be a kind of different person in the, like the place where I was a kid, I guess. Um, and also because a lot of people who live here as adults are transplants.
Yeah. Was really important to, I guess like my social development in that like now I can talk to people and I tell people that I was extremely socially anxious for most of my life. And they are like, “I had no idea I would have never known”, which is really cool.
Um, I would say that my least favorite part of the drag scene as a whole is not really its fault, but it's the fact that it exists as a community, as a scene, as a job and as a hobby. And for some people it's all for, for some people it's just like one of the four, but it exists in this weird space where it's like, I take it really seriously, but I also know that I'm in college.
I'm, uh, a junior at NYU.
So I have this like very clear understanding of how I am engaging with the drag scene, which is it is a job for as long as it can be. It's a hobby for as long as it can be. I feel like I am a member of the community and a part of the scene, but for some people it's like, it's never going to be a job.
They're not interested in like having monthly shows and like, that's fine. That is like their scope is different, but it also means that like there are people that don't take it as seriously because they don't have to, or they don't want to, which then puts the people who do take it that seriously or have to take it that seriously in this weird boat of like, Oh, you drop 70% of your shows, but you're getting paid to do those shows. But like, I'm not getting paid to do shows, but I'm taking it more seriously than you are.
Like, that's just kind of annoying. Um, but then it's like, I can't like hold that against them, but it creates this weird dynamic of like people who take it really seriously or competing for gigs with people who are treating it like a hobby or treating it like as like a social group when it's like, well, it's also a job and it's like, there is money on the line. And like that I think is the really hard thing is like, it's a hobby and it's like an artistic passion.
And also like there is money on the line and like not a lot.
(Pacha)Like there are not that many paid gigs in the city. The nightlife scene is struggling. The tips are not great.
So we're all really competing for the same $5, which is really hard when like, even like I understand my scope of like, I'm going to go to law school after college, maybe not immediately after college, but like within the next 10 years, my life is going to look really different, which means that like the way that I think about my drag career is going to be different than someone who like is not in higher education or seeking higher education.
Just cause like that's like the nature of your life looking different in terms of schooling. But also like my like career goals are to be a lawyer working with freelance artists in the city in like theater and nightlife because there aren't a lot of people who do that. And so when I think about like, well, why am I doing drag?
It's like, Oh, so 10 years from now when I'm a lawyer, I can actually holistically support this community because I'm a part of it rather than like knowing this community exists and that they need support, but like not actually engaging with it and just like kind of stepping in. Like, it feels important to me to be engaged now so that 10 years from now I can actually help. Cause there are problems, like there should be a nightlife union and there isn't.
And like, it shouldn't be that like $100 is a high rate for the average performer.
(Pacha)Because like I spend three hours getting ready. I've managed to get it down to two, but like the average drag performer spends like two to three hours getting ready for a three hour gig and then gets paid a hundred dollars. And it's like the makeup I wear is over a hundred dollars because makeup is expensive and outfits are expensive and wigs are really expensive.
And it's all this stuff that's like, you're pouring so much money into this hobby job scene community that isn't really then making it back to you to the point where like most drag performers who it is their main thing, have other jobs because it's, it's basically impossible to do drag full time. It's just, it's not a realistic possibility for 90% of people, which then makes it hard when like, then you're all competing for the same $5 that isn't really there in the first day. Yeah.
And then all the bars are struggling. So then it's like, it's hard to ask for like more money from the bars, except you deserve more money from the bars. But like the bars don't really have that.
It's hard. So I think like my frustrations with the drag scene are in, are not like intrinsic to it being like a problem with the drag scene itself, but more just like a problem with marginalized industries. Like I would say a similar problem exists in like theater, especially now with like funding decreasing all the time.