Translator: Robert Deliman Reviewer: Denise RQ
Remember when you were a kid at Halloween,
and you could create any character that you wanted to
just by deciding to do it?
I mean, it was as easy as grabbing a towel and tying it around your neck,
and all of a sudden, you were transformed into a superhero.
As kids these were personas or characters that we were trying on,
and there was no limits to our creativity back then.
Today, we are still creating personas.
We have a professional persona when we go to work,
with our kids we have a parenting persona,
and with our mother-in-law, we might have another persona,
and all of these personas are part of our personality,
they shape who we are.
But as adults, you know what?
Too often we alter our personas because we want to fit into society,
because we worry too much about what people think of us,
and it's just easier to conform rather than stand out.
I graduated college back in the 80s, and I went to work for IBM for a decade.
So I know a little bit about conforming.
I went on to work for a few startups, actually wrote three books on marketing,
became a consultant and a keynote speaker, and I had accomplished a lot.
And I think people who looked at me thought that I was successful,
but that's not how I felt on the inside.
I'd become bored with the work I was doing.
I started to become insecure
and can I tell you at 47 years old,
I didn't think I could just reinvent myself
and go do something completely different.
I just felt stuck.
One night, I was sitting at home just flipping channels,
and I stumbled upon a television show called RuPaul's Drag Race.
Those of you who know the show, you know it's hosted
by the most famous drag queen in the world: RuPaul.
This was a reality competition show
where the top drag queens in the country would come together to compete
to win the title of America's next drag superstar.
What can I tell you?
I couldn't pull my eyes away from what I was seeing on the screen,
because these were men,
and they were creating fierce, fabulous female characters for the stage.
They were using wigs, and theatrical makeup, and costuming
to transform into these female personas.
But you know what?
It was really their attitudes that I totally loved
because they were bold, they were dynamic, they were still feminine,
but they had a stiletto-sharp wit, and I-give-no-fuck's attitude,
And I started watching season after season of the show,
and I realized you know what?
Drag queens are amazing role models for how to create confidence.
They can create bold personas, they own the way they look,
they're not afraid to take risks,
they can command attention just by using powerful body positions,
and they shake off criticism with a flip of the wig.
And that's what I wanted for myself.
RuPaul said something on the show that really changed my thinking
about how I could get that confidence.
She said we're all born naked, and the rest is drag.
So, we normally think of drag as performance art for the stage,
but RuPaul's saying
that we are all performing these drag personas every day.
So I don't know if you knew it when you left the house today,
but you came out and drag; look at yourself.
You're a drag right now, but it isn't just what you wear;
it's also how you act, what you say, how you interact with other people.
And because we're in drag, we can create any persona we want,
and then transform into it whenever we want to
just like when we were kids at Halloween.
Well, I wanted the power and confidence
of what I saw on the show with those drag queens,
and so I thought I could take on the ultimate transformation,
and I decided that I, Jackie Huba, while still doing my day job,
would become a drag queen.
(Applause)
And I wonder, some of you were thinking, "Really? Women can do drag?"
It's true; most people think of drag queens
as men who create these female characters,
but there are actually other forms of drag, just lesser-known.
For example, there are women who create a male character for the stage,
and that's called a drag king.
And then there's actually women who create that female character for the stage,
and that's called a bio queen, a faux queen, or just a female drag queen.
I'm an author, I write books, and I thought,
"My next book has got to be about this transformative power of drag,
and then I could do this crazy tracking thing as research."
I don't have a background in theater, or dancing, or art, or any of that,
so I had to put myself through my own drag boot camp.
And those of you who know drag queens
know that drag queens are really great at seducing a crowd,
and you know, I've never felt like a sexy person,
so I threw myself into a six-week burlesque class.
Yeah!
And I get to class, and I just couldn't do it.
I couldn't become that sexy persona, and I just want to quit.
And then I thought, "Now honey, what would a real drag queen do right now?
Would she quit? Oh, hell no!
She would work out that confidence and go back to class."
So that's what I did:
I started to immerse myself in the world of drag.
I saw hundreds of live drag performances,
and I actually interviewed the top drag queens in the world
about how they created those personas, and then how I could do it for myself.
It was it was amazing.
I actually sought out the top drag queen in all of Austin, Texas, Miss Kelly Kline,
and she actually taught me and mentored me
in wig styling, and theatrical makeup, and the art of costuming, and lip sync,
And you know what?
I learned every single thing a male drag queen learns how to do
except how to tuck.
(Laughter)
If you don't know tucking, I'll just explain.
If you are a man creating a female character for the stage,
you better hide the... between... down there.
And luckily, I didn't have to learn how to do that.
But I wanted to, as a woman,
be very theatrical and over the top of my performances
so I always used backup dancers.
And let me tell you,
when you use backup dancers, you feel like Beyonce.
(Laughter)
You should try it.
I want to tell you something about my drag character for a second.
I want to tell you about how I named her.
I thought about two women who were really powerful
that I wanted to sort of model myself after;
and one of them is Trinity from the Matrix movies.
You guys know that? Yeah!
Trinity is a bad-ass female fighter
who can hold her own with the guys in the film,
and she wears really nice, sleek, sexy latex outfits.
And then, my last book was on Lady Gaga,
and Lady Gaga is a character that Stephanie Germanotta -
and that's her real name -
created when she was very young
as she was getting into the record industry,
and she really needed a lot of confidence.
And so I named my drag character Lady Trinity.
And I wanted her to come alive,
so I actually created social media accounts for Lady Trinity:
Instagram, Twitter, Facebook,
and I started posting all these photos and videos
of how I was making this transformation.
I hadn't told a lot of people about this thing I was doing,
and I started to realize, "Holy crap! Lady Trinity is googleable.
What if my consulting clients could put two and two together
and see what this wacky thing I was doing?"
I was really nervous, but just like before,
I thought, "You know what? What would a real drag queen do right now?
Would she be afraid of what people thought of her? No.
She would leave that out there."
And so, that's what I did.
And earlier this year,
I was actually accepted to perform in one of the top drag events in the world
that's called the Austin International Drag Festival
with over 200 performers from all over the world
including some of the legends of drag.
Can I tell you?
I was so honored to be accepted, but I was scared to death.
And I will never forget the night of my performance:
I'm standing there, with my backup dancers,
and we're ready to hit the stage.
I have to follow the top Britney Spears impersonator,
Mr. Derrick Barry.
He's the top impersonator in the world,
and I have to muster every ounce of courage I have
to just make it out on that stage;
and when I get out there, the first thing that happened
was I tripped.
There was a speaker cable, and somehow, I was kept going,
and I tripped over that, and it threw off the choreography.
And next thing I know, I'm banging into a backup dancer.
It was horrible, and I was so humiliated,
but then, I looked down to the crown,
and the audience was smiling back at me,
and there was actually some people
who had their hands outstretched with dollar bills in it.
They were tipping; those chips were for me
because you know, a good audience actually tipped their drag queens.
And I thought in that moment,
"You know what? What what would a real drag queen do right now?
Would she quit and just walk off that damn stage?
No! She would keep going, and she would turn the party."
And so, that's what I did.
And as I walked off the stage,
I really just felt defeated, and I looked down as I walked off,
and my fellow drag performers were standing there,
and one of them actually walked up to me,
and she hugged me, and she said, "Girl, you were fabulous!",
because that's also what drag queens do.
What I started to realize through all of this
is that it's not just about doing drag,
but it's about what drag queens can do for all of us,
what the power of drag can do for all of us:
drag allows us to become the image of our imagination,
it allows us to create personas that we could channel when we need them,
and psychologists actually call this power priming our brains,
which means that we can feel more powerful
just by thinking about ourselves as a powerful figure.
So, for you, I wonder if there's something coming up
next week or next month that you're afraid of.
You could really use a boost of power and confidence.
It could just be Monday morning;
you've got to go to work and ask the boss for another raise,
or maybe you have to go back to school and now you see yourself as a student,
or maybe you just want to protest local laws in your city,
you've never thought of yourselves as a protester.
Remember, you are all in drag,
so you can transform yourself into any persona,
any bold, powerful persona,
and then channel that when you need it.
For me, I took on that ultimate transformation:
actually did drag,
but now I have this Lady Trinity character,
and whenever I'm afraid or fearful, I just think,
"What would Lady Trinity do right now?"
And so, for you, I don't know if you're going to put on a wig
a sequined dress, and high-heels shoes,
or maybe you will,
but the great thing is you need
to get outside yourself, and built that persona,
and then channel it when you need it.
And here's a really great thing.
I might walk into a room, and I look like this,
and what's really cool
is that underneath, I have Lady Trinity's boldness,
and she makes me feel like this.
(Music starts)
I am a pro, pro, I'm a pro
I am a professional, pro; I'm a pro, I'm a pro,
I am a professional; - work, work - I came to work, I'm here to work
I told you I was a professional - work - I came to work, I'm here to work.
See, I am a professional. Work! Work! Work! Work!
Professional!
(Music ends)
(Applause)