Becca D'Bus: Larger Than Life
In The Many Wigs of Eugene Tan
29 May 2016, Singapore
“To me it’s the ultimate form in which nobody believes that what is happening is real. We accept that nobody is actually singing. We accept that all these people are not women. We accept all these things about it. Yet we will sit there and hang in there and watch.”
Eugene Tan is mostly self-deprecating in his humour. He refers to his drag queen alter ego, Becca D’Bus, as “this clown; often a very sparkly clown”.
So sparkly, in fact, that Becca D’Bus and her monthly drag revue seem to be catching on in popularity among audiences who want more than the mundane.
First staged at the no-longer-there TAB at Orchard Hotel in early 2015, RIOT now plays at Shanghai Dolly at Clarke Quay; a venue known more for its Chinese pop-rock and whiskey-and-green tea vibe than drag queens pushing the boundaries of decency.
Eugene: People know to expect it. There are more people now who have been to it. When we started the show, we had to answer questions like, “So, what happens? What are we coming to?”
I sometimes find myself having to say things like, “Well, you know it’s a bunch of drag queens in fabulous costumes. There’s music. We don’t really sing. I kind of move my mouth. It’s all pretend.”
For me, creatively, that means a space opens up. Because I no longer play in a space where you have to believe that I’m good at what I do.
(But you still have to be good at lip-syncing. Or dancing, if that’s what you do.)
We’ve taken that off the table. It’s not about how well I’ve sung a song or danced, although sometimes it is. It’s about interpretation. See a song in a different way. See something that’s happening in culture.
Which is quite different from drag performances of yore. Amy Tashiana, the godmother of drag in Singapore, explains.
Amy: Last time, we had this category called “Paper Doll Show”. We imitate celebrities. Like dressing a doll up, lah, that kind of thing. But now everything has changed. Even Kumar* has changed his performance.
It’s not a paper doll show anymore. It’s a drag-drag show.
*Kumar is quite possibly Singapore’s most well-known contemporary drag artiste.
At the most recent RIOT on 14 May, Amy proved her point. Her performance was the classic “beautiful woman in a fabulous costume parading and crooning on stage”. She was the only one who performed with a microphone in her hand.
The other performers that evening – Noris, Mona Kee Kee, Vyla Virus and The Vajayjays – incorporated comedy, high-energy dancing and Dervish-esque skirt twirling (on scary high-heels) into their pieces.
Costumes, too, were noticeably varied. Amy, who bashfully claimed her costumes were “just something simple, lah”, wore a lusciously ruffled coat and pheasant feathers in her hair.
Becca held most of her costumes together with safety pins.
Amy: If you compare with Thailand, they still do the impersonation thing. But now, we don’t copy Madonna anymore. Now, we can show our talent. Do a good lip sync, dance well.
Eugene: Madonna is a pretty good example. There are still performers who do this, so not exactly past tense, but there was a time when drag was about a celebrity impersonation. In the States, it’s called “celebrity illusion”. People like Chad Michaels as Cher or Derek Barry as Britney Spears.
But, to me, that doesn’t seem so current anymore. We seem to be in a time when we want to see more of the performer’s take on the celebrity. I will never look like Madonna, but if I were to attempt it, it would be about how I’m completely failing at being Madonna. Then, that would be something else.
For RIOT, that is the space that is important.
It could be the celebrity or it could be the song.
Let’s take Celine Dion’s “It’s all coming back to me now”, for example. It’s much more interesting if you read it in a way that’s perverse. Like being molested as a child.
(In almost any other space, that would be awful and considered insensitive…)
Eugene: But with RIOT, it’s a space where it’s OK to talk and laugh about everything’s that going on.
Becca hosts RIOT and typically has to warm the audience up, introduce the performers and generally fill time in between acts. It is invariably witty and current. At times, the chatter is affronting.
Eugene: I don’t think I say anything that tough, though. If anything, it’s a testament to how little we say in Singapore that even with my commentary I get a rise out of people.
THE CREATIVE PROCESS
It’s simplistic to say that all drag shows are the same. “It’s men in dresses and wigs lip-syncing to diva numbers by Gloria Gaynor, Donna Summer, Madonna and the odd Shania Twain, no?”
As with everything else, some drag shows are better than others. Some performers are more polished than others.
Talent, production and budget aside, perhaps the creative process, too, makes a difference.
Eugene (laughing): If it’s current and fucked up, it’s gold. If it’s from the past and you can make it relevant now, then that’s always wonderful.
For me, it’s about, “Is there an interesting take?”
RIOT never has a theme.
I don’t even know what the girls are doing until very late. But, I need to at least to know what songs they’re singing. It’s happened to me before where people sing the same song back to back. And it’s horrible.
We do not rehearse the show in its entirety, but the performers are free to practice their numbers.
Eugene: Say, for instance, I have a duet with someone. We have conversations backstage and say things like, “OK, I do this then you do that. Or find the light and stay in the light. And don’t fuck up!”
When Katya did the show here (in November 2015), we knew that the first number was our duet. We’d done it before in Boston, but we hadn’t done it here. And there’s a difference because the Singapore audience isn’t primed to tip. Sounds like a small thing but in Singapore, it means that you have to create a lot of content. But in Boston, for example, it’s about how do you milk the cash if you’re desperate that month. You may need to only keep singing one chorus if you’re doing it right; work the audience. Like that, lah.
"The entire thing is, you get on stage and you deal with what’s happening in the room. If there’s an asshole in the room, you have to play the asshole in the room."
(Are Singapore audiences responsive?)
Eugene: They can be. RIOT is set up to make people feel free to respond. So, people play. It matters that people are drunk. They’re more responsive and we’re more beautiful.
(What do you think fascinates people about a drag show? One school of thought is that drag evolved from theatre.)
Eugene: I really don’t know if it evolves from the theatre. It’s as much about the theatre as it is about the lounge hostess, the waitress, the sex worker.
In Boston where I started doing drag, a lot of the older queens did not come from theatre. They wanted a space where they could dress up. For some performers, it is still a space where they can be feminine.
