My mom used to be a Home Economics teacher. She did not like anyone in the family touching her sewing machine, because I think it was her space away from us. But then I started making things when she wasn’t at home.
The [fashion] options for a very large person are not many. Now making clothes for the day is more like a mental game. I wonder if I could put shapes that don’t belong together together. Can I make something in which I use up all the fabric?
When I lived in Boston, I worked in a queer theater company. My first job was to produce and direct a guerrilla AIDS activist theater project where we performed in public parks where men have sex in the middle of the night. I didn’t think I was going to come back to Singapore and get a similar job.
I was fully expecting that Singapore was going to be a rough transition, and it wasn’t that bad. But it did mean that my career did a complete detour. I ended up working in PR at a fashion retailer for a couple of years.
When you decide that you’re going to be a performer, you know you’re going to work really odd hours. Having a day job is a very natural fit for that sort of life. Theater is made after hours anyway.
I used to do outreach education in gay clubs in Boston. We would set up our table with condoms and lube and information. And no one wanted to talk to us. One night we [went] out in drag, and it was insanely successful. As a drag queen, it’s unfathomable that you would want to sleep with somebody at the club, so people will tell you all sorts of things. And that’s how I started.
Becca d’Bus is Eugene but heightened. She’s much more likely to do something that’s insanely stupid or provocative than Eugene is.
The first [way to choose a drag name] is what we used to call Insanely White Lady Names. I have a friend named Blair Kensington. The second is an over-the-top, extremely glamorous, black-sounding name. Trinity K. Bonet from Ru Paul’s Drag Race comes to mind. The third way is a name that is one word that isn’t otherwise a name. In Boston, there was a queen whose name was Mizery and another named Jujubee.
I wanted something pun-y but also political. It came down to Becca d’Bus and Cybil Disobedience. A friend pointed out, “I can promise you there’s a Cybil Disobedience in the world by now.”
If it’s not entertaining I’m not interested. I’ve seen drag that isn’t entertaining. It’s fucking painful to be around.
Drag is capable of commenting on society or culture in a way that’s quite arch. It’s not the job of a drag queen to be a good girl.
Singapore has been very kind to [Becca d’Bus]. Nobody in the States was putting her in a play, and they just did in Singapore.
Nobody needs to like me. It’s sad to say, but nobody needs the arts. For people to take a chance on something that’s different, I’ve always felt very grateful.
I’m afraid of sucking. Which is not a great thing when you’re a creative person.
I live alone. At 11:30 on a Sunday morning, I’m likely to be naked, at home, in bed or not, contemplating what I want to eat, but not doing anything about making that happen. It’s not that interesting, is it? But definitely copious amounts of nudity are part of that equation.
My mom has only ever said, “Just don’t get glitter all over the house.” It’s probably wise. It does get everywhere.
There are parents who will get up and speak in front of crowds. Then there are also parents who have rejected their kid—because they’re fucking idiots. But in between there are a lot of parents who feel like I’m not going to ask you how you have sex. I’m not sure how this is a relevant conversation.
Living away from Singapore is when I became a person who is fully-formed and is powerful and intelligent—hopefully—and is comfortable in their own skin. I don’t know what parent doesn’t want that for their child.
Outness in Singapore is not like the American concept of outness. Yes, this version of outness impedes activism. But the American model of outness—this is my life partner, I want to marry them—has as well. The queer community had been good at proposing alternatives to monogamous coupledom. But because of [the marriage fight], we don’t look at that as legitimate anymore.
There’s a part of activism that’s about demanding your rights. It’s also about negotiating space. I haven’t seen the marriage fight as being very good at saying, “What’s our common ground here?”
