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If you’ve ever seen me in drag at Montreal’s Jello Martini
Lounge, or parading in the French Quarter
during Southern Decadence in New Orleans,
you know I’m not exactly the prettiest gal
around, despite my fabulous lips, curvaceous
ass and batting eyelashes.
"Well, ain’t you Richard Simmons?" Mr.
Muscles asked me at Jello one night as I
sashayed out of the men’s room.
GOD SAVE THE QUEENS
"No!" I snapped. "I’m Richard Burnett!"
I have always worshipped glamorous drag queens and two of my all-time faves are Montreal drag legends Jacklyn Jet
and Sheena Hershey. Then last summer on her Facebook page, Sheena – a.k.a. Brian Charbonneau – wrote she was
sick and tired of folks always asking when Sheena was going to perform again.
Jacklyn Jet – a.k.a. Montreal painter Jacques Besner – knew exactly what Sheena was going through, having trod
down that retirement road before.
So Montreal artist Kat Coric proposed a photo shoot starring Sheena and Jaclyn, and I said I’d document it in this column,
a fitting tribute to two of the fiercest drag divas to ever come out of Montreal’s famed drag scene.
"Drag was a big part of my early adult development. I began dressing up at 17 and continued professionally until I
was 25," explains Jacques. "I began going out to gay clubs in the spring of ’93. I remember going out to KOX and seeing
all these really glamorous women, only to find out later that they were drag queens. During [my] club kid phase
and the early raves, I started experimenting with makeup and androgynous looks. My mother suggested I do total
drag – she didn’t like the half and half side of androgyny – and she actually bought me my first pair of heels and first
makeup set."
Says Brian, "I owe drag my life. I never understood why [when] very young I was ridiculed and ostracized. Drag gave a
16-year-old, 400-pound black gay kid armour to fend off the great Cuntessas of the Village. I was 15 when I first hit
the scene with my Beaver Sisters. I had a $10-a-week allowance. So when I heard that every drag queen that competed
in [Montreal's] Wigstock competition got free access and a $5 drink ticket, I got a great return on investment
from that 1984 prom dress [I bought] at Village des Valeurs for $4.99! [Then] I lost 120 pounds and learned to do the
hardest thing one has to do in life: I learned to love myself."
Jet and Hershey became high-profile and in-demand overnight. Jet was a member of Montreal’s House of Pride, which
won Divers/Cité’s World Ball for Unity year after year in the 1990s, before the troupe’s House Opera scandalized two
generations of Westmount wives at the Saidye Bronfman Centre (today Montreal’s fab Segal Centre). Hershey, meanwhile,
peaked with her starring role in director Ziad Touma’s 2003 club-kid film Saved by the Belles.
But both have mixed feelings about Montreal’s drag and gay scenes today.
"Back in the day, clubs would always allocate budgets for performance entertainers," Brian explains. "Having local
talent entertain the crowds is one of the reasons why our nightlife spins on the world stage today. I came on the scene
in 1997 and this was our Studio 54 era. [But now] sycophants are running clubs and major events. As for today’s drag
scene, my heart bleeds for the performing queens and newcomers but not for the leaders of the pack. You wouldn’t
believe how underappreciated and
underpaid these queens are. Can
$100 for four shows sustain an
artist’s production fees?"
Jacques agrees. "The ’90s were such
an inspiring time to party. Everyone
was so free and people weren’t
afraid to expose other sides of themselves.
Now it’s all about labels and
age and body type. It’s like the Village
has become Crescent Street.
And if you want a drag show your
only real option is Mado’s."
As Mado herself once told me, "To
survive professionally in this city you
really need three regular nights [per
158 Fugues.com JUIllet 2011
ù PHOTO ROBERT LALIBERTÉ