RIDLEY XCX
(Ridley) It actually, for all its criticisms, I was watching an old season of RuPaul's that I'd never seen before, not old, but it wasn't current. And Gottmik walked on screen. And I genuinely I don't think I've ever seen a trans man ever.
I grew up in North Carolina. And I had this kind of gut drop moment. And I think the thought that came to my head was like, you're allowed to do that.
Like, you know, that's an option. And so after that, I had mentioned it to a friend who kind of inducted me into drag – Rosetta Stone was the drag name and has since left the scene. His name is Vince.
And he's really funny. He would have all these like, the best part of drag is quitting like these like, I don't know, kind of like, stage mother type words or whatever. So he had put me in, like glued my brows down and painted my face for the first time.
And that was around Halloween. And so as I kind of started playing with that the white face paint became something that I really enjoyed because it felt even if it the look was busted, it looks like… I don't know… an elevated type something? Like I'm clear this clearly isn't you know, ‘I just decided to do my makeup to go out like it's something else’.
And then New Year's Eve coming into 2024 is when I did my first drag performance in a living room with friends. It was Fortnite theme.
(Ridley) So glad you asked!! So Jonesy is the default character in Fortnite. He's like a blonde military looking guy. So that puffy muscle suit I had like nipple pasties or whatever.
And the song was “Number One Victory,” yeah, “Fortnite We’re About to Get Down,” the American Boy cover, “Chug Jug With You,” into “Video Games” by Lana Del Rey. And so it became this, like, I don’t know, it was like a — like how much I love Fortnite — but then at the end with “Video Games,” because I think she says something like, “it’s you, it’s you, it’s all for you,” was meant to be a love letter to my friends and like support.
And then she’s got a line that has “girl” in it, and I kind of liked that as like — because I start with my big muscle suit — and then once it takes that more dramatic turn, I kind of took it off, and it was a bit of like a, you know, nude illusion-type, like vulnerability-type thing. “Oh, I heard you like bad girls, honey, is that true?”.
Anyway, so it was — it was really fun, and I got to, um, practice in a room that was very supportive, with people who I felt very close to and loved. Then I took it to the first open set I found, which was — you might have to redact this, okay — it was at, um, 9 Bob Note, called “Are You the Next Ultimate Diva?”
And I went because it was the first open set I found. It’s a fantastic space, huge. Have you ever been there? It’s right beside Three Dollar Bill — it’s like, I think, sister.
Yeah, but that is a glamour competition, and I showed up with my shitty, ugly, wrinkly muscle suit doing a Fortnite-themed number.
And actually, the host had prefaced me before I came out because their poster says “Drag Kings, Queens, Things, like all are welcome,” and she gets on the mic and is like, “Now we do welcome everyone here…” I was backstage like, oh, like she didn’t say anything before anybody else.
And looking back now, I can see, like, I just was in the wrong competition, you know what I mean? Like I just wasn’t, um, I wasn’t doing the genre they were looking for.
But it was kind of — that was where I performed for the first time, like publicly, for sure.
(Ridley) Um, it was really good. I think now that I’ve had some reps in, and I’m like a year and some change, I’m able — like, I think when I watch the video back, I can see myself thinking. And now I’m able to kind of let loose a little bit more.