Alana Duvey Interview
We recently caught up with the amazing Glasgow Queen, Alana Duvey and talked about her show Drag-Opticon, how she got into drag and more!
1. How did you find out about drag?
I'd say when Dharma Geddon first sat me down and made me watch RuPaul's Drag Race for the first time. I was sceptical at first as I didn't think it was something I'd enjoy too much but it was season 4, arguably one of the best, definitely one of our favourites and I was hooked from the start. Sharon Needles, Latrice Royale and Chad Michaels were very much my standouts right off the bat! I guess I always remember Lily Savage, Dame Edna and Eddie Izzard being on TV growing up too, I always found them hilarious and still do. I always knew they were men in dresses but I was maybe a bit too young at that point to know that's a thing called drag or transvestism and that's what they were practicing.
2. What made you decide that this is what you wanted to do?
It's crazy as I never would have thought in a million years this crazy thing we call drag would be something I'd be doing but funnily enough when I think back I've been lip syncing for as long as I can remember, even when I was a wee young boy as I always wanted to be a singer growing up but was always too embarrassed so I would pretend alone in my room to be doing gigs but would mime/lip sync so no one would hear or know. I actually still do it now! I never thought lip syncing to songs was something someone could actually make a career out of, I've been doing it my whole life! It's almost like all my life was leading up to using those lip syncing skills on stage that had unbeknown to me been perfected for years just by living out my wee pop star fantasies in my bedroom. As an adult I started getting into amateur theatre and joined a local group in East Kilbride called EK Rep but when my day job required me to work late shifts I found myself unable to act in plays like I used to. At this point Dharma had started doing drag and I'd always accompany her to Menergy at the Forbidden Gentlemen's Club then later in AXM back in the day. Eventually I decided to give it a go as I felt it would be something to join Dharma in and also gave me an opportunity to create a character and scratch that performance itch when I realised I could perform later at night in bars/clubs after my shifts in work since I was working too late to do plays. I dressed in drag for the first time in May 2015 to see BenDeLaCreme at Menergy as she was one of my idols at the time, she still is! I looked a mess but she was so lovely and said she thought I looked great when I told her I had dressed up in drag for the first time to come and see her which made my night! Slowly after that, attending different nigths regu;ar;y in drag etc I got booked for a couple of gigs here and there such as the sadly no more Lips, Lacy Rain's Intoxicating Tea Party and then Mothertucker when it started. I think Dharma and I were their first ever guests back in the Katie's Bar days. I found the more I did it, the more addictive it was.
3. Yourself and Dharma Geddon done a short performance together at the Disasterina show. What made you both decide to do this?
Dharma and I have been a couple for 7 and a half years now, I maybe should have mentioned that earlier! Some people spend less time in jail than the amount of time we've been together! We have done many duets together, more so back in the beginning days. Dharma was booked to perform her Mr Freeze act at Disasterina with Slay Presents in Stereo as it's a popular act of her's. It's always visual feast! i enjoy it because I have a small cameo in it. There's a few Dharma acts that feature Alana cameos which I always have so much fun doing whether that be in person or my voice featuring in the track somewhere or on the projector screen in some of her projector based performances. It's like Wheres Wally, where's the Alana cameo!
4. Who are some of the best queens that you've worked with?
That's a tough one because everyone is different to work with and brings their own flavour to their nights. I've worked with most of the local drag artists in some capacity and I always have so much fun working with them. I always feel there's something that can be taken from each of them that I can learn from. I may have been at it for a while now but I always feel I have room to learn and grow as a performer and love being inspired by others. Obviously I'd have to say I enjoworking with Dharma, although our drag styles are quite different we have the same silly sense of humour and can always make each other laugh when we work together which is always a great thing. Lacy Rain always works well with us, like with Dharma we have a similar stupid sense of humour and I think the 3 of us gel together in a work sense as we are very like minded in terms of putting on a show which is why when putting my charity drag bingo night Frock Treatment together at Behind The Wall in Falkirk with Harbro Events we asked Lacy if she wanted to be involved. I love love love Anna Secret Poet, I can't hound people enough to go see her if you get the chance! Sally Starshine, Markee De Saw, CJ Banks...there's really too many to mention, I'd literally just be listing every queen I've ever worked withy to be honest. Shout out to Pebbles and Lucy Stewpid though, my wee angels!!! I did open for Delta Werk at Katie's Bar once who was an absolute sweetheart. I also opened for BenDeLaCreme and Milk with Slay Presents in Edinburgh who were awesome. Was so good to open for Ben after dressing in drag for thr first time for her. And of couse Disasterina!
5. What's been your best achievement so far in your drag career?
It has to be my night Drag-Opticon. It's my baby. I pour my heart and soul into every one. Drag-Opticon was a little known night in the stunning Britannia Panopticon Music Hall (the oldest surving music hall in the world!) that the previous host/creator John Celestus was going to cancel. I offered up my services as I had performed at the very first one and a lot of others after that and just couldn't see this wee night I loved so much die so he passed the baton onto me. Instantly I started working hard on it and after a while it started to pay off and audience's started getting bigger to the point now we're selling out most months which is fantastic. Drag-Opticon showcases the best of the best of local drag performance art and sometimes beyond. If you haven't seen it I thoroughly recommend it although I may be a tad biased! Money made from Drag-Opticon ticket sales goes to the Panopticon charity conservation project which is great. It's good to know that we are helping restore the beautiful historic venue back to it's former glory slowly butsurely. Also getting to perform with the legendary Anna Phylactic from Manchester when the Manchester Queens brought their infamous night Cha Cha Boudoir up to Glasgow. Anna approached me prior to the night and asked if I fancied being a part of her performance. She was playing Scar from the Lion King and she asked if I wanted to be her hyena. Anna's one of my all time favourite queens so to perform with one of my idols is always going to be a big achievement!
6. What was your first performance like?
Haha, aww my first performance. Sweet baby Alana! It's hard to think that once upon a time I was a baby queen! It was at Lips which was run by CarrieAnn Crow and Barbra La Bush in a bar called G-Town which I think doesn't exist anymore. I was nervous as hell as it was a ruddy good lineup of some of the best queens we have! I lip synced to All Around The World by Lisa Stansfield. Looking back it's not as bad as I always think it was, even though I nearly slip and fell at the end! Still, I've grown a lot as a performer since then. I still sometimes perform it as I like to go back to where it all began sometimes, I can be a little sentimental that way at times. Plus it's just a total banger and so much fun to perform. You can inject so much character to it. I believe the performance is still on YouTube somewhere!
7. How did you get your drag name?
Aw I wish I had some exciting story about my drag name but it's really the most unimaginative drag name ever! It's literally just my boy name tweaked slightly to make it more feminine and fabulous! Some people feel it's a pun like 'I lie on a duvet' or something but honestly, I'm not that smart! If I was I'd have spelt it Duvey with a 'T' and not a 'Y'!
8. What's the best show you've performed at so far?
Drag-Opticon, Frock Treatment and Drag 101 at the Gilchrist Postgraduate Club in Glasgow Uni, HA! Nothing to do with the fact they're my shows, no not at all! Seriously though, I got the opportunity to perform at the legendary Cha Cha Boudoir at Cruz 101 in Manchester once which was a drag goal of mine I got to achieve and it was such an amazing experience. To share a stage with such icons not only of the UK scene but the drag world as a whole was terrifying and exhilarating at the same time. I heard from the winner of the night, the legendary Miss Donna Trump herself that I only earned 4 Cha Cha Dollars less tips than her on the night which I guess isn't too shabby! Everyone at Cha Cha was so lovely too!
9. What venue would you most like to perform at?
Oh that's another tough one. The Panopticon is pretty iconic so I love that I get to perform there regularly. In terms of locally I feel I've performed in most drag venues in some capacity. Wild Cabaret is a stage I've always loved the look of so watch this space and maybe you might just see me there soon. Maybe not quite venue specific but one thing I'd really like to do is explore more drag scenes. I'm so caught up in my own little bubble sometimes that I feel I don't get to see what else is out there as much as I'd like. I've visited Manchester a couple of times and they're all so awesome, I recently visited Birmingham whith Dharma and we caught Drag Punk who were fantastic. So yeah, I'd like to get out and about more and see what/who else is out there in the UK because our scenes are so exciting and if any of them fancy having a craxy cat lady perform on their stage then it would most certainly be rude not to!
10. What makes you unique and stand out from others?
Oh I don't know! Not much probably! I guess as you can tell from this interview, I like to chat a lot, I'll chat to anyone me! Sometimes I don't shut up! In terms of our local scene I guess my acts involving my little right hand man Jimmy the puppet can break some of my performances out of the usual drag mould. Don't see many others with puppets so I like to think I've put my stamp on that. I love adding puppeteering into performances.
I always try to execute lip syncs with pin point accuracy where possible and inject as much character into my performances where I can, trying to utilise those acting skills I've acquired over the years. I guess not being very good at makeup, styling wigs and having no fashion sense sets me apart because everyone else always looks so great! I always just want to make people happy and smile so if I can do that or even better make people laugh then I feel I'm doing my job right. I do love to flip that script now and then and reign in with an emotional ballad number and really try to make the audience feel something. It's always fun to change things up a bit. I've recently tried to incorporate more live singing into my acts to try and get over this fear/embarrassment I have of singing in front of people so I'm always trying to improve. It's good to push yourself and keep trying to up your game. I don't really see myself as a part of any cliques or haus' or anything, I feel very close to a lot of the scene but I really just like to do my thing wherever I am or whoever I'm with and just hope people enjoy it. I don't get involved in any fights, backstabbing or bitchiness. At the end of the day, drag is fun and I think a lot of people forget that so I always just try to inject fun and positivity into everything I do and remind everyone not to take themselves and life too seriously. Don't sweat the small stuff. We're only on this earth once, let's remeber to try and enjoy this life as much as we can so we can look back on it when it reaches it's climax and say "Demn. what a wild ride that was!"
1. How did you find out about drag?
I'd say when Dharma Geddon first sat me down and made me watch RuPaul's Drag Race for the first time. I was sceptical at first as I didn't think it was something I'd enjoy too much but it was season 4, arguably one of the best, definitely one of our favourites and I was hooked from the start. Sharon Needles, Latrice Royale and Chad Michaels were very much my standouts right off the bat! I guess I always remember Lily Savage, Dame Edna and Eddie Izzard being on TV growing up too, I always found them hilarious and still do. I always knew they were men in dresses but I was maybe a bit too young at that point to know that's a thing called drag or transvestism and that's what they were practicing.
2. What made you decide that this is what you wanted to do?
It's crazy as I never would have thought in a million years this crazy thing we call drag would be something I'd be doing but funnily enough when I think back I've been lip syncing for as long as I can remember, even when I was a wee young boy as I always wanted to be a singer growing up but was always too embarrassed so I would pretend alone in my room to be doing gigs but would mime/lip sync so no one would hear or know. I actually still do it now! I never thought lip syncing to songs was something someone could actually make a career out of, I've been doing it my whole life! It's almost like all my life was leading up to using those lip syncing skills on stage that had unbeknown to me been perfected for years just by living out my wee pop star fantasies in my bedroom. As an adult I started getting into amateur theatre and joined a local group in East Kilbride called EK Rep but when my day job required me to work late shifts I found myself unable to act in plays like I used to. At this point Dharma had started doing drag and I'd always accompany her to Menergy at the Forbidden Gentlemen's Club then later in AXM back in the day. Eventually I decided to give it a go as I felt it would be something to join Dharma in and also gave me an opportunity to create a character and scratch that performance itch when I realised I could perform later at night in bars/clubs after my shifts in work since I was working too late to do plays. I dressed in drag for the first time in May 2015 to see BenDeLaCreme at Menergy as she was one of my idols at the time, she still is! I looked a mess but she was so lovely and said she thought I looked great when I told her I had dressed up in drag for the first time to come and see her which made my night! Slowly after that, attending different nigths regu;ar;y in drag etc I got booked for a couple of gigs here and there such as the sadly no more Lips, Lacy Rain's Intoxicating Tea Party and then Mothertucker when it started. I think Dharma and I were their first ever guests back in the Katie's Bar days. I found the more I did it, the more addictive it was.
3. Yourself and Dharma Geddon done a short performance together at the Disasterina show. What made you both decide to do this?
Dharma and I have been a couple for 7 and a half years now, I maybe should have mentioned that earlier! Some people spend less time in jail than the amount of time we've been together! We have done many duets together, more so back in the beginning days. Dharma was booked to perform her Mr Freeze act at Disasterina with Slay Presents in Stereo as it's a popular act of her's. It's always visual feast! i enjoy it because I have a small cameo in it. There's a few Dharma acts that feature Alana cameos which I always have so much fun doing whether that be in person or my voice featuring in the track somewhere or on the projector screen in some of her projector based performances. It's like Wheres Wally, where's the Alana cameo!
4. Who are some of the best queens that you've worked with?
That's a tough one because everyone is different to work with and brings their own flavour to their nights. I've worked with most of the local drag artists in some capacity and I always have so much fun working with them. I always feel there's something that can be taken from each of them that I can learn from. I may have been at it for a while now but I always feel I have room to learn and grow as a performer and love being inspired by others. Obviously I'd have to say I enjoworking with Dharma, although our drag styles are quite different we have the same silly sense of humour and can always make each other laugh when we work together which is always a great thing. Lacy Rain always works well with us, like with Dharma we have a similar stupid sense of humour and I think the 3 of us gel together in a work sense as we are very like minded in terms of putting on a show which is why when putting my charity drag bingo night Frock Treatment together at Behind The Wall in Falkirk with Harbro Events we asked Lacy if she wanted to be involved. I love love love Anna Secret Poet, I can't hound people enough to go see her if you get the chance! Sally Starshine, Markee De Saw, CJ Banks...there's really too many to mention, I'd literally just be listing every queen I've ever worked withy to be honest. Shout out to Pebbles and Lucy Stewpid though, my wee angels!!! I did open for Delta Werk at Katie's Bar once who was an absolute sweetheart. I also opened for BenDeLaCreme and Milk with Slay Presents in Edinburgh who were awesome. Was so good to open for Ben after dressing in drag for thr first time for her. And of couse Disasterina!
5. What's been your best achievement so far in your drag career?
It has to be my night Drag-Opticon. It's my baby. I pour my heart and soul into every one. Drag-Opticon was a little known night in the stunning Britannia Panopticon Music Hall (the oldest surving music hall in the world!) that the previous host/creator John Celestus was going to cancel. I offered up my services as I had performed at the very first one and a lot of others after that and just couldn't see this wee night I loved so much die so he passed the baton onto me. Instantly I started working hard on it and after a while it started to pay off and audience's started getting bigger to the point now we're selling out most months which is fantastic. Drag-Opticon showcases the best of the best of local drag performance art and sometimes beyond. If you haven't seen it I thoroughly recommend it although I may be a tad biased! Money made from Drag-Opticon ticket sales goes to the Panopticon charity conservation project which is great. It's good to know that we are helping restore the beautiful historic venue back to it's former glory slowly butsurely. Also getting to perform with the legendary Anna Phylactic from Manchester when the Manchester Queens brought their infamous night Cha Cha Boudoir up to Glasgow. Anna approached me prior to the night and asked if I fancied being a part of her performance. She was playing Scar from the Lion King and she asked if I wanted to be her hyena. Anna's one of my all time favourite queens so to perform with one of my idols is always going to be a big achievement!
6. What was your first performance like?
Haha, aww my first performance. Sweet baby Alana! It's hard to think that once upon a time I was a baby queen! It was at Lips which was run by CarrieAnn Crow and Barbra La Bush in a bar called G-Town which I think doesn't exist anymore. I was nervous as hell as it was a ruddy good lineup of some of the best queens we have! I lip synced to All Around The World by Lisa Stansfield. Looking back it's not as bad as I always think it was, even though I nearly slip and fell at the end! Still, I've grown a lot as a performer since then. I still sometimes perform it as I like to go back to where it all began sometimes, I can be a little sentimental that way at times. Plus it's just a total banger and so much fun to perform. You can inject so much character to it. I believe the performance is still on YouTube somewhere!
7. How did you get your drag name?
Aw I wish I had some exciting story about my drag name but it's really the most unimaginative drag name ever! It's literally just my boy name tweaked slightly to make it more feminine and fabulous! Some people feel it's a pun like 'I lie on a duvet' or something but honestly, I'm not that smart! If I was I'd have spelt it Duvey with a 'T' and not a 'Y'!
8. What's the best show you've performed at so far?
Drag-Opticon, Frock Treatment and Drag 101 at the Gilchrist Postgraduate Club in Glasgow Uni, HA! Nothing to do with the fact they're my shows, no not at all! Seriously though, I got the opportunity to perform at the legendary Cha Cha Boudoir at Cruz 101 in Manchester once which was a drag goal of mine I got to achieve and it was such an amazing experience. To share a stage with such icons not only of the UK scene but the drag world as a whole was terrifying and exhilarating at the same time. I heard from the winner of the night, the legendary Miss Donna Trump herself that I only earned 4 Cha Cha Dollars less tips than her on the night which I guess isn't too shabby! Everyone at Cha Cha was so lovely too!
9. What venue would you most like to perform at?
Oh that's another tough one. The Panopticon is pretty iconic so I love that I get to perform there regularly. In terms of locally I feel I've performed in most drag venues in some capacity. Wild Cabaret is a stage I've always loved the look of so watch this space and maybe you might just see me there soon. Maybe not quite venue specific but one thing I'd really like to do is explore more drag scenes. I'm so caught up in my own little bubble sometimes that I feel I don't get to see what else is out there as much as I'd like. I've visited Manchester a couple of times and they're all so awesome, I recently visited Birmingham whith Dharma and we caught Drag Punk who were fantastic. So yeah, I'd like to get out and about more and see what/who else is out there in the UK because our scenes are so exciting and if any of them fancy having a craxy cat lady perform on their stage then it would most certainly be rude not to!
10. What makes you unique and stand out from others?
Oh I don't know! Not much probably! I guess as you can tell from this interview, I like to chat a lot, I'll chat to anyone me! Sometimes I don't shut up! In terms of our local scene I guess my acts involving my little right hand man Jimmy the puppet can break some of my performances out of the usual drag mould. Don't see many others with puppets so I like to think I've put my stamp on that. I love adding puppeteering into performances.
I always try to execute lip syncs with pin point accuracy where possible and inject as much character into my performances where I can, trying to utilise those acting skills I've acquired over the years. I guess not being very good at makeup, styling wigs and having no fashion sense sets me apart because everyone else always looks so great! I always just want to make people happy and smile so if I can do that or even better make people laugh then I feel I'm doing my job right. I do love to flip that script now and then and reign in with an emotional ballad number and really try to make the audience feel something. It's always fun to change things up a bit. I've recently tried to incorporate more live singing into my acts to try and get over this fear/embarrassment I have of singing in front of people so I'm always trying to improve. It's good to push yourself and keep trying to up your game. I don't really see myself as a part of any cliques or haus' or anything, I feel very close to a lot of the scene but I really just like to do my thing wherever I am or whoever I'm with and just hope people enjoy it. I don't get involved in any fights, backstabbing or bitchiness. At the end of the day, drag is fun and I think a lot of people forget that so I always just try to inject fun and positivity into everything I do and remind everyone not to take themselves and life too seriously. Don't sweat the small stuff. We're only on this earth once, let's remeber to try and enjoy this life as much as we can so we can look back on it when it reaches it's climax and say "Demn. what a wild ride that was!"
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