20 things you didn’t know about drag queens

It takes more than makeup to make a drag queen. Before the likes Ina Propriette, Manila von Teez and Maxine Wild hit the stage in Beaulah: Queens van die Kaap Season 1 – from the ballroom, to the runway, to the party bus – they have to build an illusion. Read on as they share 20 surprising truths about the art and business of drag, where glitter is just pretty grit, sequins snag your wig and a girl’s va-voom silhouette hinges on mattress foam. 

PS: A quick note on gender: In drag, all three queens use female pronouns. Out of drag, Ina and Manila go by he/him/his pronouns, while Maxine prefers she/her/hers pronouns.

1. Packing tape isn’t just for moving day

It’s for wigs and corsets, and makeup removal, too. “I use my tape to remove glitter from my eyes,” shares Ina. Maxine adds that she probably goes through as many as five rolls a month. “We use it for our heads, to pin our wigs into. With queens who do not have breasts, we tape our breasts together. We tape to cinch our waists. We will hide things that’s more of the masculine energy to give a more feminine energy.”

2. They’re glued together

“Mastic spirit gum is an adhesive. We glue our wig lace down with it. We do our pasties. If there’s a garment that’s a bit loose around the top area, we’ll glue the garment to our body. Mastic is just such a great adhesive, and it can be used for anything,” reveals Maxine. “And Got2b Glued hairspray. I can’t go without it. That sets rock hard. That’s in every drag queen’s suitcase.”

3. Their wigs will go on

Ina still has her oldest wig “That would be this Afro that I bought at Never New in Observatory. It was in the episode at Miss Sovereign Western Cape (episode 5) in my headpiece for my themed wear. There’s a little Afro wig stuffed into the branch in the headpiece. So she’s doing well, that wig.” And while Manila’s first wig is lost to time, her second-ever lace front is clinging to life by a hair. “She’s in ICU, but she has a life in her. We just check her now and then. Okay, you’re still alive?”

4. They think on their feet

Whether they’re dancing, mincing or leaping into a jump-split, a drag queen depends on her heels not breaking…or breaking the bank. And that means buying from local wholesale emporiums like China Town, or the likes of Shein or Temu, then bringing in a pro. “You need so many shoes, because you need the shoe to match the outfit. You just buy a cheap shoe and spray paint it or stone it. So it’s more about just having options, than having a shoe that’s perfect in terms of longevity. Honestly, take it to a shoemaker, and just reinforce it,” advises Maxine. If not, Ina shrugs, “A heel is gonna snap on you sooner or later. Each night is a reward, and that’s the gamble you take buying a China Town heel.”

5. Shoe sizing is a serving suggestion

“For the girlies with bigger feet, Woolies sells up to size eight. And normally in drag if you have a size nine, and you find a size eight with an open front and open back, you can at least serve a little bit of a cliffhanger, but not too much of a cliffhanger. But there are places like Heels2Heaven that sell up until size 13 or 14,” offers Manila. 

6. They stack their tights like they stack their lashes

Opaque winter tights from Woolworths are a staple in all three drag queens’ wardrobes (you have to snap up enough for the whole year each winter, though). One pair is the base layer, and after that, the queens layer different shades of pantihose to achieve the correct skintone. “I wear the Capezio dance fishnets over that, so that gives more of a skin tone type of appearance from afar,” adds Maxine. 

7. There’s a mattress down those tights

Unless they’re young and nearly naked, one of the things that those opaque tights are hiding is drag queen padding made of mattress foam. “I like to go with a four or five centimetre thickness. And then you kind of create the shape of Africa, and you carve that out. With that you create the hip area and the bum area. And then you start carving down from that area to nothing, so that it looks like it’s a muscle and a bum. The back part of Africa is your bum, and then it comes down, and that is the hip area,” explains Manila. 

8. Every shapely drag queen has a carving knife

And by carve, Manila really means carve out with one of those old fashioned electric carving knives that granddad uses on the Sunday roast. “Every Queen should have one, because sometimes you get ready for a gig, and then you put your padding on and it tears. And then you instantly have to scramble. We use a carving knife, because sitting with scissors, your fingers go into a spasm.”

9. They “hate” sequins and beads

“Oh, I hate sequins. It’s such a beautiful fabric, but it’s so impractical,” mourns Ina. “I’ve broken my sewing machine so much sewing sequin fabric. It gets tangled in your long wigs. It attracts dirt so quickly. And it rips your fishnets, especially if you’re doing quick changes.” Maxine and Manila also both named beaded fabric as a problem. “You need to literally unpick all the beads or stones for you to sew on top of them. It’s a pain,” explains Maxine. While Maxine unpicks, in some cases Manila will take a hammer to seams to break off the glass beads to clear the seam areas before sewing them together. “You can’t sew on beads, because you will break every single needle on your sewing machine,” she says.

10. Pageants can cost more to enter than you win

“In 2011 it was almost R5k on a piece of fabric for my evening gown. And probably six or seven years ago, I did a pageant where I almost spent the same amount on stones for the dress,” admits Manila. Maxine adds, “A swimsuit could cost you between one-five to two grand. A theme could cost around five grand, depending on what the theme is. But an evening gown could cost you close to nine or ten grand. Imagine having to do all three of those things. A metre of beaded lace is like 2 grand.” As for Ina, she reveals, “I still owe Manila money from that gown she made me [for the Miss Sovereign Pageant]. Isn’t that wild?”

11. Their best drag jewels are imported

“My friends, David and Kevin from the US, gifted me a bunch of jewels that actually got stolen initially with the whole Wig Gate situation [a huge bone of contention in Beaulah]. And then the year after that, they came back and brought me more. Those are very special gifts because they don’t make that stuff here, so I feel very international when I wear those,” says Ina. Maxine, who has her own jewels from the US, agrees, “We cannot find any jewels that are the size that we want for drag in South Africa. You’re just not going to find it. It is custom made.” 

12. Buttery skin? Thanks, Spray & Cook

“With any areas that are actually skin on show, you would spray that (olive oil spray) on so you don’t look dry or flaky. Kat uses it on her legs all the time. But what people don’t realise is that it’s an aerosol. So oil then falls to the floor, and numerous people have seen their life flash before their eyes because of that,” Manila lets slip, miming skidding and falling. 

13. Their makeup is mangled

“Anything that’s white in my makeup kit is dirty all the time,” laments Ina. “My clown white is in a little pot and there are so many other colours in there. It just looks nasty.” Meanwhile Manila has finished five shadows in her own “cancelled on the regular” Jeffree Star Conspiracy palette, and will use it all until there’s not even dust. “The way that it translates from the pan to the eye, it’s exactly the same,” she sighs admiringly. And fellow fan Maxine has gouged every speck of black and white shadow out of her Orgy palette from Jeffree Star, and is now working through the others to justify a repurchase.

14. It’s dirty work

Even taking off makeup is expensive. “I feel like I’m always buying wet wipes and micellar water,” says Ina. “Between steps, I’m always wiping my hands on something. So I use so many wet wipes. I buy the Clicks little black charcoal wipes, drop some micellar water into that and, voila. I’m not paying like R80 for 20 makeup wipes.” Maxine adds, “The best thing is to get into the shower or a bath with everything, like with the tape, and then just use baby oil or soap, and it will come right off.”

15. They wash the drag queen, not the drag

“We do not wash our drag,” admits Maxine. “The things that I wash the least are my fully-beaded and stoned evening gowns, because I’m just afraid that stones will come off. I sit for an entire month stoning a garment, and then wear it for a few days. I would not wash it, I would literally just make another one. I can’t wear the exact same garment more than thrice anyway. You recycle.” As long as nobody’s smoking or leaving sweaty dresses in a garment bag instead of hanging them to air, nobody’s the wiser.

16. Drag is a roommate who takes all your room

“At first it was like, ‘Okay, I have a cute little cupboard’. Then I said, ‘Okay, I have a railing’. Now I have the entire room in my house for my drag,” admits Maxine. “Drag takes up a lot of space. It just piles up and piles up and piles up. It’s impossible to just keep it in a closet. You need to have an entire room for your drag.” 

17. Drag queens do taxes

While Ina gives a “No comment. No comment at all,” Maxine reveals that drag comes with paperwork. “This is an actual job now. This is where most of my time goes. This is where drag is allowing me to live. So the tax man is going to look at my things.” And Manila warns that taxes are inevitable when you accept certain jobs. “When you do adverts and when you do film, you have to declare the money. These gigs where you just get R1 000 here, R500 there…it all goes into a business account. We have to show how payroll comes in and out.” 

18. They can’t always dance to the music

Ina had to change her tune for one event. “I sent in a request to do an Azealia Banks song. She’s a problematic figure in pop culture, and they formally said, ‘We don’t do any Azealia Banks music at our events,’” she reveals. And Manila notes that while queens have free rein with choosing their performance music, posting online is another matter. “That is where the restrictions really lie. In certain countries, people can’t see your content and you get taken down because Sony doesn’t want you to be performing to their music.”

19. They treasure uniquely South African drag

RuPaul’s Drag Race is a global phenomenon, but South African drag has its own flavour. Maxine loves our passion. “If you put us on the international stage, we are going to perform like this is our last few breaths that we are taking.” Manila agrees. “Queer people of colour, I feel, are great in presenting themselves in a way where the culture is still represented. Black queer people, like Belinda [Qaqamba Ka-Fassie], who always carries her culture with her, and carries that heritage with her as well, are always beautiful to watch.”

20. Drag references don’t end with Judy, Liza, and Madonna

“Doja Cat, as a creative and an artist, she’s a marvel of her time,” raves Ina. “She’s truly one of the most innovative people I’ve ever seen in my life, in music, in fashion, in producing. I love my multi-talented b*tch. Give me everything! Her attitude is also very inappropriate.” Maxine adds, “I love Dua Lipa. She’s iconic. She’s going to come to the point where she’s like Madonna. She’s going to be That Girl later on in her career.” For Manila, it’s about Chappell Roan. “She’s queer and that’s a big plus, but watching her perform it’s like, girl, you’re a drag queen! Locally, I feel like Bonang [Matheba] is a drag queen, the way she acts. When did she swallow a queer person, because she is just gay as hell. She’s gay as hell, and I love that.”

Want more drag insider details? Come backstage with Beaulah: Queens van die Kaap Season 1 to see it all.