Drag queen duo adding 'colour to a black and white community'

Friday, 25 February 2022

Drag it Out’s Miss Shaniqwa (Joshua Collinson), left, and Mark Jackson, who was letting Lady Bubbles have a sleep in after a show the night before.

Forget utes and gumboots, it’s $100,000 worth of floor to ceiling glitz and glamour inside the garage of two Lincoln drag queens.

Mark Jackson and Josh Collinson – affectionately known in the drag scene as “bears” for their hairy and large statures – have spent years crafting the expensive taste, larger than life Lady Bubbles and Miss Shaniqwa.

This Pride Month, the Drag it Out duo say they want to see Christchurch’s drag and rainbow scene come to life, after it died out following the earthquakes.

But the pandemic, a lack of willing venues, and a lack of safety felt by the rainbow community in the city’s streets at night have made it challenging.

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Drag queen duo Lady Bubbles and Miss Shaniqwa, from Drag it Out, perform for a crowd at Christchurch's Fat Eddie's.

It takes three hours for these queens to transform in the carpeted garage, surrounded by wardrobes and shelves stacked with $700 dresses, $450 wigs, $400 bottom padding, $100 fake boobs, glittery high heels, and more makeup than they can shake their new silk rainbow flag stick at.

“Last year alone we spent $12,000 on new costumes. It’s not a joke,” Jackson says.

This explains Drag it Out’s $450-an-hour charge-out rate, and why they have to create their own shows rather than lose money earning $50 an hour for large group shows.

“If you want to go see drag queens, you want to see someone that looks good, with an outfit custom-made, big and bright and bold,” Jackson says.

Covid restrictions “definitely made it really hard to do anything”, but the local entertainment industry needs support.

“We were doing really well until the last lockdown. Ever since then we have been struggling to get people out.”

Christchurch drag queens Miss Shaniqwa and Lady Bubbles are on a mission to revive a vibrant and safe rainbow nightlife.

They hold pizza nights, bingo events, hens nights, small shows, and mentor young aspiring drag queens, but without a designated safe space for the drag and rainbow community in Christchurch.

The Lincoln born and bred supermarket worker, nail technician and bouncy castle company owner has never managed to get any venues in his small town to return their calls to host their drag events.

Miss Shaniqwa makes the final touches to her outfit, a process that takes three hours.

“I’m not sure if people are just a little bit too closed-minded out here.”

But it does not stop him popping into the supermarket in drag if he needs anything on the way to the city for a show.

“People are looking down the aisles at me going, ‘Wow, what's that?’

“I look like something a unicorn has farted out.”

While they haven’t been subjected to abuse in the small town, they have while out on the town in Christchurch.

Lady Bubbles was once told “you need a bullet” while walking down the strip, and the duo often have people try to grab their padded bottoms and breasts.

The first time Josh Collinson attempted drag, and after she perfected Miss Shaniqwa (middle left). Lady Bubbles has come a long way since Mark Jackson's first time in drag, right.

Doing drag is choosing to advocate for the rainbow community, but it is important to “make sure you’re safe as well”.

“We don’t retaliate, we just keep walking.”

Collinson says “it’s a very black and white community that you’re trying to add colour in to”.

The duo would like to see the lack of gay bars in Ōtautahi improve, for them to “showcase our art”.

Josh Collinson and Mark Jackson have bonded over their love of drag, and hope to help a struggling entertainment industry in Christchurch with Drag it Out events.

“A great drag queen once told me that the straighter the area, the more drag shines,” Jackson says.

“We’re there to make people happy, make people laugh.”

Collinson’s life goal is to “make people walk out in a way better mood than when they came in”.

But their larger than life drag personalities belie their youths plagued with bullying.

Jackson is an extrovert holding a microphone, but he considers himself a loner who loved dressing up as a child and went through his teens with a handful of friends. He used to hide away from bullies in the Lincoln High School horticulture room.

With sarcastic sass, he calls the “terrifying” first time he attempted to dress in drag and go out by himself, “a choice”.

But the Priscilla Queen of the Desert fan has come a long way since his first wobbly – both in high heels and in applying makeup – night in drag.

“I love the costumes. I don't really care what anyone else thinks. I just want to do my thing.”

Whakatane-raised Collinson says he “fell in love with being another person and not having to be in my head every day”.

While living in Sydney, Collinson loved that he could walk down the street being whoever he wanted to be.

They want to see more education about the rainbow community, and for there to be more safe venues and nightlife.

“It’s always my fear of someone coming up behind me and knocking me over the head and calling me a faggot.

“But I love New Zealand, and I love Christchurch.”

If you would like to see these girls in action, head to www.dragitout.co.nz.