“I AM YOUR MOTHERR!!”
“I AM YOUR MOTHER”
The wonderful Jade Sinclair is unstoppable at the “Grey Fox Bar” In St.Louis. She is the queen of the house and the mother of your dreams.
Grey Fox Saint Louis – Location for Drag Shows
Instagram: @MissJadesinclair
Micro-podcast
Interview
Interview with Jade SinClair
To cite this particular interview, please use the following:
Temko, Ezra. 2021. Terranisha interview with Jade Sinclair. Sociology of Drag, SIUE. April 7. Available URL (http://ezratemko.com/drag/jade-sinclair).
Terranisha: Okay, cool. All right, so I’m about to give you, basically, a research participation notification just saying that, like, I’m… I have permission about interviewing you, you know, , just making sure everything’s okay…
Jade Sinclair: Okay.
Terranisha: And safely… You can read that over, if you like. Just, just wanted to make sure everything’s okay.
Jade Sinclair: Sure.
Terranisha: Yeah, [unclear].
Jade Sinclair: Okay. I’m good with this.
Terranisha: Awesome. Okay. Well, you say you’re great at talking. Me, personally, I am a nervous wreck.
Jade Sinclair: Oh no.
Terranisha: Oh, so, this is something that’s seriously out of my comfort zone, but we will get through it. [Laughs] But again, uh…
Jade Sinclair: It used to be one that was out of mine too, until you, you go on the stage on a… on a regular basis…
Terranisha: Yeah. That’s…
Jade Sinclair: And you learn…
Terranisha: Like I said, I really command people that, that do because it’s so much… it is very brave [unclear]. And, like, oh my god, do you do your own makeup?
Jade Sinclair: I do.
Terranisha: Oh, okay.
Jade Sinclair: I’ll send you some pictures [unclear] in case you need them. But I’ll send you some promotional pictures also.
Terranisha: Oh, that’s so funny because I went on your Facebook already and got a screenshot. I’m sorry. [Laughs]
Jade Sinclair: No, that’s fine, go right ahead. Yeah.
Terranisha: But, um, basically, I was going to start off saying, thank you so much for sitting down with me, especially at short notice. You’re awesome for that. I really appreciate your time and your effort. Basically, we’re just going to go straight into the questions.
Jade Sinclair: Okay, certainly.
Terranisha: It’s like 18 questions.
Jade Sinclair: Okay.
Terranisha: So, hopefully, it’s okay.
Jade Sinclair: Oh yeah.
Terranisha: Where did you first hear about drag, and what was the… um, int– your interaction with it, your reaction with it?
Jade Sinclair: So, as I said before, my experience was probably a little bit different than someone who’s in college today. I’ve been, um… I’m 49 years old…
Terranisha: Looking good.
Jade Sinclair: And I’ve been an out gay male… Thank you. I’ve been an out gay male since about 1995. So, when I first started to go out to what would have been, you know, we called them the gay bars back then, but really, they would be LGBTQIA establishments today. I would go out, and I encountered for the very first time what was drag at one of the dance clubs in Springfield, Illinois.
Terranisha: Okay.
Jade Sinclair: And the bar was called, um, New Dimensions, back in the time. And there was some entertainers that I saw in ’95 that are still performing today, some amazing individuals. But I can honestly say that at that time being a very young gay male, I did not understand drag very much at all.
Terranisha: Right.
Jade Sinclair: And I… and I had a very cliche response to it, and that was, “Oh my god, if I want to be with woman, I’d be with a woman.” But that’s because I didn’t really understand the art form of, of female impersonation. And then, I think over time, I, I began to appreciate it more. I realized that it’s not about sexuality.
Terranisha: Right.
Jade Sinclair: It is more about a performance art. And so. Then, I began to get more interested in it as I saw it more and more and as it was woven into the LGBT community. And in 1997, I think it was, when I was living in Wilmington, Delaware, after, after grad school, I was the president of the pride festival there. And we used… and the entertainers to raise money, to help pay for the pride festival. And they thought it would be really fun to have the pride board members, who were not drag queens, by the way, to, to do a number in the show. And so, I did, and I, kind of, like… I guess you can say it was [unclear] like the proverbial bug had bit, and I really did enjoy it. And I think I enjoyed it so much because I’ve always had a love of theater. And I didn’t realize that as a… as a drag entertainer or as a female impersonator, that it really does fulfill that, that desire to be on stage and be a character on stage.
Terranisha: Wow. That’s very interesting. And you know, you hit a lot of great points. And I… you know, before I started taking this class, I kinda was not educated at all. So, hearing your story in person and, you know, learning about, it’s like, “Dang, this is real.” Like, like, yeah, the journey is real. So, when did you start performing as a drag artist, and why did you start performing?
Jade Sinclair: So, it would have been probably around the middle of the year of 1997. And it initially, as I said… as I said before, it was just to… uh, as a fundraiser. But I had a lot of fun being on stage, being in front of a packed audience.
Terranisha: Yeah.
Jade Sinclair: And then, just having them all, like, you know, applaud and cheer and throw money at you. [Laughs] [Unclear].
Terranisha: Oh. [Laughs]
Jade Sinclair: That money was for charity, so I think…
Terranisha: Yeah.
Jade Sinclair: They’re always inclined to throw a little bit extra when it was for charity. Oh, so… Um, but, you know, that was… that was where I initially got my interest. And at that time, it seemed pretty easy because…
Terranisha: Right.
Jade Sinclair: You know, I sat down in a chair while an established individual did my makeup for me. And then, I went and bought clothes, and I just put the clothes on. So, it was all different because after I had had that initial interest, I wanted to pursue the… it more…. uh, at a more full-time basis, and that meant I had to actually learn how to be a little more self-sufficient. So, I had to learn the, you know, makeup, and I had to learn, like, not only how to go out and buy a wig, but then how to make it look presentable on your hair… I mean, on your head because it’s…
Terranisha: Sure.
Jade Sinclair: That’s, you know…they, they don’t come necessarily styled. [Laughs]
Terranisha: They don’t. They really don’t.
Jade Sinclair: Yeah. And so, then, you had to find clothes that better suit your body. And then, then it also moved into buying street clothes, which are fine. But when you’re trying to be a seasoned entertainer on stage, you want to have more show pieces. So, then, even finding them back in the day was very hard because you have to remember that I did this in 1997, this is pretty much before there was really ever an internet.
Terranisha: Right.
Jade Sinclair: So, a lot of what I bought was going to be from stores or if I’m [unclear], so it was really hard. Like, even learning makeup was like, you couldn’t go to YouTube tutorials because it didn’t exist yet.
Terranisha: Right.
Jade Sinclair: So, you had to, like play at home or go watch somebody who was already doing it. And then, you know, it’s, it’s kind of, um, awkward to say, “Hey man, can I watch you do your makeup?”
Terranisha: Right, exactly. Yeah.
Jade Sinclair: [Laughs] So, it took a… it took lot of… a lot of trial and error, and it was very hard. But through the guidance of one of my mentors, I did learn quite a bit about how to sew for myself, not a… not very well. I don’t do my own clothes today, but it got by. And then, I learned, like, you know, how to, like, you know… to put some style in a wig. And then, I learned a lot about my makeup.
And then when I moved to… and Delaware had a very small drag community. It was a very small state, you know, so… But then, when I moved to St. Louis in 2001… I’m from Missouri originally, that’s where I think my knowledge and my career really took off because it was a much bigger…
Terranisha: Right. Bigger population, yeah.
Jade Sinclair: Community here and had a lot more opportunities to learn from a much bigger audience and a lot more established entertainers.
Terranisha: Gosh [unclear]. Oh, that’s awesome. That’s really good. Yeah. Um, like, so, with this one it was… I’m really wanting to know this, how did your family, friends and other loved ones receive you becoming a drag artist?
Jade Sinclair: In all honesty, for the first several years of my entertainment career, I didn’t really tell them about that, that side of my… of my, uh, my life or my lifestyle.
Terranisha: Yeah.
Jade Sinclair: I… ’cause I don’t think… I come from a very rural environment…
Terranisha: Right.
Jade Sinclair: In rural Missouri. And I wasn’t so sure how accepting they would be. I was lucky enough that… you know, my parents were farmers and they were pretty open about, um, about me being gay, to begin with. And it was, I think, a small bit of an awkwardness, but then they accepted me pretty, pretty readily. So, I was very blessed in that regard.
I don’t remember exactly how I told them I did drag, but I did tell them, eventually, that I did perform on stage and drag. And there’s a local bar about a half hour from my parents’ house, and me and some of my… what we call my sisters, when we were in Delaware, we drove out in a… we rented a van and drove, out and we all performed at that bar about a half hour from my family’s house. And, and my mother, father, and all my sisters were there for the show. So, it was a really, really fun, rewarding experience. And we got a picture together, and it just happened it was also pretty close to their 35th wedding anniversary. So, it was real nice.
Terranisha: Oh, really? Oh my gosh. Were you nervous?
Jade Sinclair: Uh, I was a little bit, but, I mean, really… I mean, I think having my, my close friends there perform with me, it…
Terranisha: Right.
Jade Sinclair: And I think I’d been doing it for probably, oh, four years by then. So, I… some of my stage nerves had worn off a little bit.
Terranisha: Okay.
Jade Sinclair: So, that, kind of, like, auto… that automatic side of the… of the show business, kind of, took over. So, it wasn’t too bad.
Terranisha: Okay. That’s really great. Oh my gosh. Where does your drag name come from?
Jade Sinclair: So, this is not a very glamorous story, but when I first knew I was going to perform, I, I wanted to have a name that I thought was, kind of, unique and began with, like, a unique letter. And I really liked, for some reason, names that were [unclear] gemstones. And in the area, there was already a diamond, which is, you know, the best gemstone.
Terranisha: Right, exactly.
Jade Sinclair: And I thought that, oh my god, like, Emerald, I thought, and Ruby and Sapphire kind of sounded a little bit old. [Laughs] So, then I… so, then I went with, with Jade, ’cause it was kind of a… of a [unclear] a fresher name, and it had… started with a J, which is a unique letter, so…
Terranisha: Yeah.
Jade Sinclair: At it was just… at that time, it was just one name. I thought I could be like Madonna and Cher, I didn’t need to have a full name. I just needed to have one name. So, it was Jade for a while. And then, when I did my first pageant for female impersonators…
Terranisha: Oh, wow, you did a pageant?
Jade Sinclair: Yeah. It was probably around 1999 or so, that, like, okay… so, that’s before my full name, I’m like, “Oh, I guess I better get a last name.” So, I went with Sinclair, I thought that it sounded a little elegant.
Terranisha: Wow. When does it…? This is just a random question, but when does it get, like, busy? What’s the best days to come here?
Jade Sinclair: The busiest days, I think, are, are probably Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. But we do have shows here Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday and Tuesday. We only have one night open, that’s Wednesday. So, it works well that you have come tonight. But we have pretty good shows. I mean, we get a lot of birthdays and bachelorettes on Fridays and Saturdays. And then, we have… we have a very strong, um… Sundays there’s always been for… you know, a very strong night for our African-American population. So, there… it’s really busy, and we have a predominantly Black, uh, Black cast that night. And so, we get a lot of their followers come in for that.
Terranisha: Oh. Well, I ain’t going to come Monday, now that I know so much. The next question is, there are a lot of terms for types of styles of drag from drag queens, drag kings, to glamorous queen, male impersonating, comedy queens, queer queens, bioqueens… and I know it’s a lot. I’m so sorry.
Jade Sinclair: Yeah, that’s fine.
Terranisha: And camp queens, amongst others. Are there particular labels you would use to categorize your drag?
Jade Sinclair: I think, in general, I would probably say that my look is a very traditional drag queen. Well, very traditional drag queen or female impersonator look. I tend to, like, try and come from trying to copy what… you know, an ele—an elevated, elegant version of what you would see in a strong female persona. So, you know, I have, like… I guess it’s just pretty traditional drag. You know what I mean? I have… on occasion, I can do more than that. I have… I have created some looks that are very campy, I’ve done some things that are very comedy, but in general I would say that I am a very traditional pageant drag queen or female impersonator.
Terranisha: Okay. And then that… it was, like, points. What kind of drag do you do, and what are your styles? But you already, kind of, answered that one.
Jade Sinclair: Yeah. I think it’s pretty traditional. I mean, I perform a lot of… I have a pretty wide repertoire of music, but myself, my favorite musical genre would be like eighties or nineties. But I do a lot of things, even, you know, contemporary stuff as well. I try to do things that I think that the audience can, can have a good time with. I try to keep a very party atmosphere at my show. So, I want it to be kinda upbeat and fun, and I want people to be able to go be clapping and singing along and having a good time.
Terranisha: Right.
Jade Sinclair: It’s supposed to be here… I think we’re here in our shows to not only break down barriers and say that you can really be whatever you want to be. That’s, kind of, the point of why I do drag, aside from getting my little scratch of my theatrical love. But I find it interesting to walk out… and I am a padded queen, which means I wear… I wear breast foams, and I wear, like, hip pads, and I pad my butt as well. So, when I walk out, I have a very feminine silhouette, and I, you know, I have, I think… hopefully people think too, very, you know, very natural-looking hair. So, I present female onstage, and I’ve learned to soften my voice a little bit when I’m on the microphone. I know it still sounds male. I know it does. But I try to… you know, try to give the character. But I love to, like, walk out and have this image. And then sometimes I break character, I’m like, “Hey, how are you?”
Terranisha: Oh. [Laughs]
Jade Sinclair: [Laughs]Because, I mean, we get a lot of… we get a lot of people that have never been here [unclear] to see drag for the first time. And I think it just puts that duality of it and says that they… they see this female, then they realize, oh, this person is a man.
Terranisha: Right. Yeah.
Jade Sinclair: You know, I mean, we live in a world, and you have a… you have a degree… my degree is in psychology, by the way.
Terranisha: Oh.
Jade Sinclair: You’re studying psychology and sociology. We are… we are taught from a very young age, whether or not [unclear] we know what… how to behave.
Terranisha: Right.
Jade Sinclair: There are so many non-verbal lessons that we’re taught all throughout our youth. And, and, so, it’s interesting to be able to break those and help others realize that we don’t have to live up to what society says we should be. We can find ways to be our own selves, our own authentic selves.
Terranisha: Exactly. Yeah. Totally agree with that. Next question. Does the type of drag that you do affect your life as a drag artist? If so, how?
Jade Sinclair: No, I don’t think it… oh, I can say one thing. I mean, it doesn’t affect my life, but I do live pretty much a separate lifestyle. Like, I have a day job also, and I worked for a large regional bank. And I work in a professional role, and I work with a lot of senior leaders who… I mean, they’re focused on the performance of the bank, not about necessarily what we’re doing, our personal lifestyles, but we don’t talk a lot about it. And I don’t… I just don’t share that side of my life with them.
Terranisha: Right.
Jade Sinclair: But my family and my friends, are all… are all well aware of it and they often… I meet a lot of my friends here because they’ll, they’ll still come to shows and be like, “Oh, I love watching the show.” So, they may end up talking to me and become friends outside of it as well.
Terranisha: Exactly. Exactly. Who or what has influenced your drag?
Jade Sinclair: In a professional environment, like, artists, musical artists have influenced me. I mean, Madonna was a huge influence on me in the late nineties when I was first starting, because she was still a very predominant figure. I’m not sure how familiar you are with Madonna from that timeframe, but she also broke a lot of barriers. She stood up for a lot of minorities, if it was… if it was the LGBT community, if it was the… if it was the people of color, she was very… she was always vocal for the people that are being suppressed by mainstream society. And so, that spoke a lot to me and a lot of the queer community at that day and age. So, she was always a strong influence on the character that I tried to be, you know, a strong, feminine role model.
Aside from that, my drag mother, which is the person that helped me a lot when I first began with makeup and stuff, her name is Karyn Thomas, and [unclear] probably not known her. she’s from Delaware. She was also a very strong influence on my professional side, like, how to be professional. Because drag is a business and I’m creating a product that I’m trying to market and get sold to bus— to bars. So, she taught me a lot about how to behave in a professional stage way.
Terranisha: Wow. That’s very true. That’s very true. Actually, I had a quick question. You had said that… um, do you read people? I was learning about that. I know you said, I do know [overtalking].
Jade Sinclair: To be honest, I don’t do that a lot.
Terranisha: Yeah.
Jade Sinclair: But I do on occasion, though, but usually it is in a very fun way.
Terranisha: I’ve seen a couple of… and I was like, “Wow, they go i.”
Jade Sinclair: No, I see… And what… I’ve been commented before that my MC style is, is a lot more laid back, and I make people feel really welcome. And I know that reading people is absolutely an art, and you know what I mean, they can really go in, and pe—and people can laugh with them, and it’s okay. My way is usually, um… to be honest, I often tend to target straight white males. [Laughs]
Jade Sinclair: I think just because they, they are obviously the most uncomfortable in a show all the time. Because they’re the ones that feel like, like their masculinity…
Terranisha: Yeah.
Jade Sinclair: Is being challenged by being here in a bar that’s a gay bar, where there’re men performing on stage that they, honestly, are probably attracted to. It really… it really confuses them quite a bit. And I… so, I, I do pick on them a little bit, but not, not that… not that bad.
Terranisha: Not that bad?
Jade Sinclair: And mostly I get them to laugh a little bit, and I get them to realize that I’m not going to hurt them.
Terranisha: You’re just playing, yeah. We’re all just… it’s all jokes. That’s really funny.
Jade Sinclair: And because those are also the people in society that, that, in reality, don’t have to face that kind… type of situation. So, I put them in that role.
Terranisha: Exactly. No, seriously. Especially being Caucasian and straight and coming from, you know, privilege.
Jade Sinclair: Exactly.
Terranisha: So, they don’t see any type of…
Jade Sinclair: And I, I hope… I hope that when they leave… sorry, I didn’t mean to interrupt you.
Terranisha: No, no you’re fine.
Jade Sinclair: But when they leave, they hopefully have a little bit more insight about how other people feel…
Terranisha: Yeah.
Jade Sinclair: And maybe to be a little bit more tolerant and accepting of other… of other people.
Terranisha: Yeah. I think, um, just off topic, but I really think that, like, this… taking this course was seriously, not only, like, you know… not only, like, you know, “Oh yeah, we have sympathy,” but I feel more connected because we’re all in the same route of trying to basically survive. So many, like, you know, barriers we have to keep knocking down. So, many people that’s trying to, basically, tell us we’re out of lane or we’re out of pocket or, like, um…
Like, I’m all for… like, you know, I’m, I’m pro Black. I love my Black, like, the Black Lives Matter movement, and when I was protesting last year, and I saw how many LGBTQ coming out and helping and burning stuff. Like, they was… they, they… you know, “We’re tired”. And I’m like, “Oh man, this is… this is outrageous.” But not only that, but it was really the bomb, and that’s when I was like, “Yeah, well, I think I want to take a class or something like that.”
Jade Sinclair: Good.
Terranisha: Just because I’ve seen just their passion, you know? And I really also just liked the fact that they were just well put together, but that’s not neither here or there.
Jade Sinclair: We’ve, we’ve had… That community has had their own… and continue to have a lot of the struggles.
Terranisha: Yeah.
Jade Sinclair: I mean, much like the Black community. I mean, we… You know, you think that it’s 2021, I mean, Jesus Christ, how… It’s just crazy to me to think about how much oppression we st– that anyone today still faces in, in an advanced.
Terranisha: Yeah. I was just like… especially in New York, I was… my teacher, like, learning about just crazy things about the community, like, that you guys face is just…
Jade Sinclair: Stonewall? Is that the one you learned about?
Terranisha: Was it?
Jade Sinclair: Stonewall was the bar in 1969 where…
Terranisha: I think it probably was.
Jade Sinclair: That was where we…
Terranisha: That was in the 1980s.
Jade Sinclair: Oh…
Terranisha: It was a… oh dang, it was a video we was… we was watching. I forgot, but it was a lot of great information I was receiving. And it was just mind blowing, just seeing that, like, you know, how the… at the time, the AIDS rate was really high.
Jade Sinclair: Oh yeah.
Terranisha: And seeing, like, you know, people would just be walking down a block and, like, you know, just getting beat and not having a place to stay because their parents were so relentless, not accepting it. So, they had to, like, you know, find a drag mother, like…
Jade Sinclair: There was a… there was [unclear] time where… and I was… I came out much after this, but I’m all aware of it because my… you know… but there was a time when… and people still would say that being, being gay is an absolute… is a choice. And, and when I was in college, one of the things that I… that before I was even out, that resounded in my head was my, my psych professor said to me, when she was talking about, you know, sexuality, and she said, “I don’t ever recall a time where I decided to be heterosexual. So, why would I think that someone who’s homosexual would have… why is it a choice for them?”
Terranisha: Right. Exactly.
Jade Sinclair: But parents did not understand that. And a lot of religions said that this is terrible…
Terranisha: Exactly.
Jade Sinclair: You’re going to go to hell. And so, yes, people were kicked out of their homes.
Terranisha: Right. And that’s just my…
Jade Sinclair: At a very young age.
Terranisha: Yeah, that’s what I was saying, some people saying like 13, like, that’s crazy.
Jade Sinclair: I just can’t… I can’t even believe that.
Terranisha: Yeah, like, what? Like, you know…
Jade Sinclair: How can… how can somebody be equipped enough to deal with, you know, supporting themselves with no tools at that age?
Terranisha: Right. Exactly, exactly. And that’s why I’m just happy that drag mothers took them in, and then, you know, some… they found some type of stability.
Jade Sinclair: Have you ever seen the show Pose? Did you ever watch that?
Terranisha: Oh, yeah, I love Pose.
Jade Sinclair: That’s… It’s, it’s, kind of, about the same time frame.
Terranisha: Yeah, it’s… I think that’s what it was basing off of. But, yeah, I love Pose. I forget her name, the super tall mother who’s over all of them, but she’d read people funny, too.
Jade Sinclair: She’s, she’s a sick bitch. [Laughs]
Terranisha: Yeah, yeah, she is, she is. I was like, “Oh wow, she’s feisty.” Okay, but can you talk about what’s your life is, like… I mean, you, kind of, did this, but it basically said, um, are your parents… wait. Are you part of a drag family, house or any type of organization?
Jade Sinclair: Yeah. So, I am a part of a… of, like, a drag family. It was a pretty tight-knit family at the time. You know, it was for my drag mother, Karyn Thomas. I don’t have her name by any means, but none of us ever did. But then I moved here, and I still have, like, some drag children that I helped when I… when I moved here.
Terranisha: Oh, okay.
Jade Sinclair: And, um… But I think… and I see children today… when I say children, I don’t mean… these are obviously, you know, 21, 25-year-olds; they’re not really children. But I see newer entertainers who were trying to, like, find that drag family. And I, I sometimes feel like the environment today is just changed so much from… like, from the nineties and the eighties…
Terranisha: Right.
Jade Sinclair: That I don’t personally think that having that strong drag family is really as important as finding yourself on your own.Because I think there’s so many tools that are available today. Like, I had to learn from somebody to do make up.
Terranisha: Oh, yeah, yeah.
Jade Sinclair: Now, you can learn on the internet, and it’s so much easier to learn. And now, you have access to buying things on the internet. You could buy anything you… almost anything you need on the internet. So, I don’t think that…
Terranisha: The connection.
Jade Sinclair: Exactly. You know, you don’t have to… it’s not as… it’s still a trade.
Terranisha: It’s not as tense.
Jade Sinclair: It doesn’t have to be as one-on-one, learning from somebody.
Terranisha: Right.
Jade Sinclair: I think you can learn from the internet. You can learn from all… We have so many shows going on in the city, it’s crazy.
Terranisha: So, the relationship is not as close, like, the bomb, you can’t build…
Jade Sinclair: I don’t… Yeah, I don’t think it has to be.
Terranisha: Right.
Jade Sinclair: I think… I think you could have a more successful career by just… by building your friendships, right?
Terranisha: Right.
Jade Sinclair: You know, by learning… from learning from multiple sources.
Terranisha: Right. No, yeah, that’s actually… that’s a great point. I didn’t even think of that. How often do you perform, and where do you perform? I know that this is the place.
Jade Sinclair: I perform quite a bit. I perform about five nights a week, and I also work five days a week.
Terranisha: Ooh.
Jade Sinclair: So, I have a pretty busy schedule. So, I work here on Thursday, Friday and Saturday…
Terranisha: Oh wow.
Jade Sinclair: And then, I work at another bar on Sunday in South City, then I work at a bar in Soulard on Monday. So, five nights a week.
Terranisha: Wow. This one is really a good question because I, kind of, want to know this too. What has the COVID, uh, COVID-19 pandemic meant for your life as a drag artist?
Jade Sinclair: For me, because I have a day job, and I have been able to work from home, it hasn’t impacted my financial situation. It did impact, in the beginning, my social situations ’cause I’m used to being out so much because of my shows. And we were shut down, as you may know, for quite a bit, like, you know, for two months last year. So, I sat at home.
We, here in this bar, initially, when we opened around June, I think we were… I have to go back now, we were either at 25% or 50% capacity, which is, like, about… we used to have about 100 people in this room. So now, like, we can only have 25 to 50. So, we pulled up some tables, which we still have some of them pulled up. [Unclear] it didn’t impact me a whole lot outside of missing my shows, but I do know… I have many friends that do drag, and some of them that only do drag, and that was a really hard time for them because they lost their source of income.
Terranisha: Right.
Jade Sinclair: And… this is for college, so probably it isn’t a big deal, and we’re also not listing any names.You know, we rely quite a bit on tips…
Terranisha: No, yeah.
Jade Sinclair: And a lot of that tips is unreported income.
Terranisha: No, yeah.
Jade Sinclair: So, you can’t go to the… and say, “Oh, like…” You don’t get unemployment from being a drag queen.
Terranisha: Mm-hmm.
Jade Sinclair: So, it… so, it was really hard on them. So, a lot of them, we did learn some new tips and new techniques. And a lot of my friends did, like, online shows and accepted electronic tips.
Terranisha: Oh, okay.
Jade Sinclair: So, they learned how to, like, you know, how to set up…
Terranisha: Wow, [unclear].
Jade Sinclair: How to set up a camcorder, how to get a backdrop. I shouldn’t say camcorder, that’s so old, a video camera. [Laughs] You know, how to get a backdrop. So, we went out, we bought things I, myself, I wanted to do a couple of things too, just because I was bored at home. So, I went… you know, doing Amazon, and I got, like, you know, a whole camera kit with, like, bright lights and a whole backdrop and…
Terranisha: A whole set up.
Jade Sinclair: Yeah. So, we… and we put that in one of my rooms. And we also did, like, some, um… we also, like, would record some videos, and we would edit them, and, um, you know, we would post them online and accept some online tips as well.
Terranisha: Wow.
Jade Sinclair: It was… it was a…
Terranisha: That’s very creative.
Jade Sinclair: It was. It was a fun time for some of us, even though it was very challenging for a lot of us.
Terranisha: No, yeah. Oh, next question. Is there anything unique to drag scenes where you live compared to other places in the country or rural?
Jade Sinclair: So, I have been, um… I began on the East Coast in Delaware, which is a really small state. So, drag here compared to Delaware is a lot bigger. It’s a lot more refined, and there’s a lot more national attention on the… on the entertainers here. So, like, in Delaware, we didn’t have nearly the pageant community that we have here. So, you know, we have some Miss Americas, Miss Gay Americas, that are… that live in the city. We have some Miss Continentals that live in the city. So, we have a lot of national entertainers that live in the city. So, it’s different in that regard. But overall, I can tell you that drag is… it was, in my younger years, a very regional thing. So, the Midwest was always known for having very pretty queens on stage.
Terranisha: Really?
Jade Sinclair: And I think a lot of it has to do with… if you think about, like, New York, for example, compared to St. Louis, we have a lot more room here. In New York, they have a lot less room, and they have a lot, um… They’re, um… It’s a more expensive footprint to have. So, here, we can have a dressing room that can be big, where we can all, like, hang clothes and change clothes. And there, they’re like, “Oh my god, [inaudible 00:26:05] is too expensive, we can’t have big…” So, you don’t have that. So, people in New York will, like, come to their show already in drag, and they’d probably not change their clothes at all. So, it’s [unclear] gonna be about the quality of their entertainment, not necessarily about their wardrobe over everything else. And a lot of people on the coasts, East Coast and West Coast, sing live, and a lot of us in the Midwest lip-sync.
Terranisha: Gotcha. That’s like RuPaul.
Jade Sinclair: But also, I mean, you know, if you think about that, a lot of the people from New York are also, uh… the huge theater community.
Terranisha: The population, yeah.
Jade Sinclair: So, there’s a lot of pop– people that are in theater that, you know, that while they’re not working, they’re gonna be doing some drag.
Terranisha: Right.
Jade Sinclair: So, I think that’s why you get a lot more singing artists out on the coasts, because they’re a lot more… a larger theater community than you have in St. Louis.
Terranisha: Gotcha. What are the biggest challenges to doing drag and becoming a drag artist? Did I say that?
Jade Sinclair: Yeah, I think that, first of all, the largest one is trying to learn how to… speaking for myself as a drag queen or a female impersonator, however you want to call that, my obstacle would have been trying to unlearn the, the masculine mannerisms that, that I was taught as a child. So, it’s how I hold my hands. It’s how I… it’s just how I do things that make things look softer and more feminine, which is taboo. I mean, as a gay man, especially, I was taught… I shied away from anything that I thought was feminine because I didn’t want to be beaten up. So, I would try to make it rah, rah. So, I had to… I had to learn a new way to carry myself that fit my personality on stage. But aside from that, I think that there was a lot of things that our community has to overcome.I think there’s still a stigma around, you know… the media outlets tell you what’s beautiful.
Terranisha: Right.
Jade Sinclair: And for a man, it’s masculine, it’s chiseled this, it’s chiseled that. So, a lot of the drag queens, I think, feel inferior to that image. And I think, also, a lot of people who are trying to find a man to date, see a drag queen as not in that image. They’re like, “Oh, that’s…” you know, they… like, oh, the whole masc for masc, masculine for masculine, you know, so, there’s a lot of… I think we face a lot of… a lot of, um… I don’t want to say criticisms, but, um, what is the word I’m trying to find? It’s… Uh, I’m sorry.
Terranisha: No, you’re fine.
Jade Sinclair: I know it. [Laughs] We… and I think that drag queens in general face a lot of discrimination from the gay men when they’re trying to find partners. I, myself, don’t have that problem because I’m a striking young man. No, I’m just kidding, no. I’ve had the same partner for, like, 16 years, so I’m good to go. But I know that a lot of my friends complain that it’s really hard for them to find people to date.
Terranisha: Yeah. Why do you think that is?
Jade Sinclair: I think it really is because there’s that stigma around… just like there was a stigma in the eighties and nineties around HIV, there’s still a stigma around, “Oh, you’re a drag queen.” And I think part of it is because people think that we’re full of drama. Part of it is because people think we want to be women. Part of it is because they think we’re all feminine. So… And that was back, I think… it’s rooted in when we were… when we’re children where… and this just crazy, like, think about this. It’s unacceptable for a man to dress like a female, but it’s totally fine for a female to dress like a male. And what I mean is, like…
Terranisha: No, yeah.
Jade Sinclair: For a woman to wear pants is totally fine. No one… no one bats an eye about that. But if a man were to walk down the street wearing a skirt, it would catch everyone’s attention. It’s because our emphasis on society, and we… and they do, society evaluates males over females.
Terranisha: That’s true. That’s very, very true. This one is really cool. What goes into getting ready for a performance?
Jade Sinclair: A lot of fun, actually.
Terranisha: [Laughs]
Jade Sinclair: Um, you know, when I first started, and I say that because, you know, I just have expanded my wardrobe so much over the course of 25 years and also my musical background. But generally speaking, when I first started, it was a process where I had to find out, okay, so what song am I feeling now? Okay, I like this song.
Terranisha: Oh.
Jade Sinclair: So, then, as soon as you had the song, you know, what am I going to wear? What’s my hair going to be? What’s my makeup going to be? What’s my cosmetics going to be? What’s my costume going to be? Then find the right shoes, and the right jewelry. It was assembling all of this stuff. And then, I literally have a bedroom that’s just full of, like…
Terranisha: I can only imagine.
Jade Sinclair: It’s… My bedroom is a closet, and it’s stacked full, full, full. So, I don’t have to go through all that anymore. But honestly, getting ready as one of the fun things about drag. I like to be able to come to this bar or wherever I’m going to be working, sit in the dressing room with… around my peers. And if we have, like, five of us in the show, we all sit in the same room. We all do our makeup, we kiki, we have a good time. It’s just… it’s a lot of fun. But it’s… I love putting on the makeup. I love watching the transformation in the mirror in front of me.
Terranisha: Right. How long do you think it takes? Like, how long does it take?
Jade Sinclair: Usually I think, in general, a new person, it takes a lot longer than it does a seasoned or a long-term individual. I recall, when I first started with my drag family, we would do a show, and the show would be at 10 o’clock, and it would be at a bar downtown in Delaware. And so, we would… we would arrive at my drag mother’s house. We’d get there at 5 o’clock. This is five hours before the show. It’s, kind of, ridiculous. We would just, like, sit there, and we would all smoke cigarettes [unclear] smoke, we kiki, and then we’d be getting our makeup on, getting all of our stuff. And we’d to leave there, leave her house around 8:30 or 9 o’clock. So, like, four hours for trying to get ready.
Terranisha: Oh wow.
Jade Sinclair: But a lot of that was, you know, was, like, having a good time and… But, um…
Terranisha: Right.
Jade Sinclair: And that was also me doing a show once or twice a month. Now, I’m doing five times a week. So, it’s just a lot different. Now, I get here, like, it’s 6 o’clock for an 8:30 show. And I can do my makeup in probably, like, 35 to 40 minutes.
Terranisha: Oh really? That’s impressive. I listened to RuPaul. He said, like… he said five hours for him.
Jade Sinclair: I think that’s usually people who are just not as… you know, I mean, if you think about… as a female, you probably have a beauty regime. And when you first… and when you first developed that, that’s putting on your lashes, [unclear] whatever you’re doing, it took time. And even, like, putting in contacts, it’d be, like, a struggle when you first do it. But then, over time, it’s like, oh, pop them right in.
Terranisha: Right.
Jade Sinclair: So, it all picks up in time.
Terranisha: Exactly.
Jade Sinclair: So, you know, I can probably be ready… I can be ready from head to toe, which means, like, my hair and my makeup and everything, in about an hour and 10 minutes.
Terranisha: Oh that’s impressive/
Jade Sinclair: If I… if I focused on getting it done.
Terranisha: Right.
Jade Sinclair: But normally, I usually allow about two hours. It also allows me time to go downstairs and get a drink too from the bar. [Laughs]
Terranisha: That’s still not that bad, though, actually. It’s actually really good. How do you identify in terms of your sex, gender identity, any gender expression out of drag?
Jade Sinclair: Yeah, I’m pretty… I’m pretty traditional. Like, um, from when I… when I grew up in the gay community, in, like, the late nineties, I mean, we always referred to everybody as she. So, like, I mean, we called ourselves she, not necessarily to be, um… we never thought that we were women by any means at all. It was just… I think we just identified a lot more with, with the women of the world. They were a lot more nurturing, a lot more caring, a lot more supportive than heterosexual men. So, we always… I think that’s why we always used the word she to refer to ourselves. So, I… people still… some of my older friends still call me she, even though I’m a boy. If someone were to ask me, “What are your pronouns?”, I’m saying I’m probably he, him.
Terranisha: Yeah.
Jade Sinclair: When I’m on stage, I probably go by she, her, because that’s what I’m presenting.
Terranisha: Yeah.
Jade Sinclair: So, I go by what I present. But I have a lot of friends that… I have friends that are… that are nonbinary or that are trans. So, I support all, everyone for who they are.
Terranisha: Right. I didn’t know who… my… personally, I’m like, okay, well, in articles it says she, so that’s what I’ve just been like, okay she. I didn’t know myself. But what pronouns do you use in and out of drag?
Jade Sinclair: Yeah, so out of drag it’s usually, like… I mean, for… like, if I were with my family or at work, it’s usually going to be he, him.
Terranisha: Right.
Jade Sinclair: But then, a lot of my gay friends will always refer to me as she or as her, which is what I do present as drag.
Terranisha: Right. You just said. Yeah. Has drag influenced your sex and gender identity and how?
Jade Sinclair: It hasn’t, but it can be intoxicating. Because I think everybody likes to have some level of attention from, from people that they find attractive. So, for me, I am attracted to the male… to men. And so… and a lot of it’s on social… because of social media, I get bombarded by, like, men that I don’t know with sexual advances. And sometimes they’re very subtle and sometimes they’re very blunt. And I usually try to tell them pretty, pretty bluntly, “Look, you know, I’m a man.” I know my profile says that… looks like a woman, but it says a man. So, I… And I think men can just be pigs to begin with, but…
Terranisha: Okay.
Jade Sinclair: Um, [unclear] I forgot what the question was now. What was the question, again? I’m sorry.
Terranisha: No, you’re fine.
Jade Sinclair: Oh, how has it affected my sex life?
Terranisha: Yes.
Jade Sinclair: Okay. So, I said it can be very intoxicating because you… I’m… you get a lot of attention…
Terranisha: Attention, right.
Jade Sinclair: When I’m dressed in this female role, but people have to understand that it’s… that it’s only an image.
Terranisha: Right.
Jade Sinclair: Like, so… and I used to joke with people, I say, “Hey, if I go home with you, if I take off my pantyhose, my pads fall out. That’s not very attractive.” [Laughs] You know? So, I am… I am a man, so… But people… you know, men are still, like, always in my inbox, and I’m always like, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
Terranisha: Oh my god. Do girls hit on you as well?
Jade Sinclair: No. Not really.
Terranisha: No? You never get hit on by a girl?
Jade Sinclair: Uh, I’ve had some… I may have had some women that are lesbians that said I’m really attractive, but they’re usually never as sexually forward as men are.
Terranisha: Wow. Mens are, mmm…
Jade Sinclair: Yeah.,
Terranisha: They’re pi—like how you said, they’re pigs, even the ones that try to act like they’re not.
Jade Sinclair: Yeah.
Terranisha: Yeah. I don’t like dudes. Um, has drag influenced your sex…? Well, I think, no I read that. Has drag influenced how you think about gender?
Jade Sinclair: It has. I think, first of all, being… for me, being gay always made me a lot more, um, considerate of women because I, I knew I was always removed from that category of the cis, white male or the cis male. So, I can see how they would behave, I would see how they would treat me and how they would treat women. So, that always made me sympathize a whole lot more with, with women of our world, which probably was why I was so attracted to drag and that strong, feminine role model. But I think, just in general, I try to have an appreciation for anyone’s experience. And it isn’t even about if they’re gay or if they’re straight or if there are female or if they’re male. I mean, even people of color, I try… I try to treat people the way that I want to be treated.
Terranisha: That they should… yeah.
Jade Sinclair: And I know that we don’t have… we will not always agree on a lot of things…
Terranisha: Yeah.
Jade Sinclair: But I will respect you as a person. Even if I think you’re an ass, I’m going to respect you as a person.
Terranisha: Right. Yeah.
Jade Sinclair: I can keep you out of my circle of friendship, I can… I can rem– I can… My decision is, um, I control who I hang out with and who I’m friends with, and that’s how I choose to deal with people that I don’t want to be around. I can just choose to walk away.
Terranisha: Right. Well, yeah, that’s actually very true. How has drag impact or changed you?
Jade Sinclair: It’s made me a lot more confident. So, you talked about how, you know, talking wasn’t one of your strongest points or whatever.
Terranisha: Yeah.
Jade Sinclair: So, I, I was… I think because I knew I was different growing up, and then I, I later realized… you know, I thought, at one time, that maybe, you know, my thoughts about boys as a young child might’ve been a phase.
Terranisha: How old were you when you, like, started to realize you were attracted to guys?
Jade Sinclair: Well, I think… I think… I had, like, an interest and wanting to be around them is how… because it wasn’t really about sex at a younger age.
Terranisha: Right.
Jade Sinclair: But it was like, I wanted to be around them more than I did the girls. And that was probably back in around fourth or fifth grade, I’m gonna guess.
Terranisha: Okay.
Jade Sinclair: But it wasn’t like… it really wasn’t sexual then. But I knew I was a little different, and I kinda thought I would, like, outgrow this. And I… you know, I didn’t date women, and then I… you know, was even engaged to be married at one time.
Terranisha: Oh wow.
Jade Sinclair: Um…I know. Um, but I think… what’s the question again? I’m getting off track.
Terranisha: No, no, you’re fine. I’m getting off tr– No, I actually asked you a question, like, um, about how did you felt… like, you know, when did you fe—when did you realize, basically, that you were gay?
Jade Sinclair: So, I knew that I was a little different back then, and I thought I would grow out of it. Um, but I guess… there was a question that I was trying to answer. I’m sorry. I don’t…
Terranisha: No, you’re fine. [Laughs] No, you’re fine. Like, what was that? Um, how did… how has drag impacted or changed you?
Jade Sinclair: [Unclear] that one.
Terranisha: [Unclear] that one. And how has drag impact your confidence?
Jade Sinclair: Oh, my confidence [unclear]. That’s right. I was… Yeah, so anyhow, I think because I… that’s where I was going, I’m sorry.
Terranisha: Yeah.
Jade Sinclair: Because I think I knew I was gr– I grew up different from a lot of people, and I… in a very rural environment where I had no positive gay role models because there wasn’t early on. There was no drag race. There was no Will and Grace. It was a lot of things I didn’t have exposure to it at that age. So, I always felt very different. And I think, as a result, I was a very insecure individual.
Terranisha: Oh, really?
Jade Sinclair: And, um, I was also a very… I think I was always a very creative child. And my mom would often say that I was… that I never had… I would always entertain myself. But anyhow, and so I always very quiet and shy. And it wasn’t until drag, when I had to get on stage, and when I had to find a way to, like, command the audience, and when I had to, like, build up my stage presence, that’s when I began to be a lot more confident as myself on stage. And then that, I think, has carried over into myself as a person. So, I’m a lot more confident now speaking to somebody, even though I’m not in drag.
Terranisha: Gotcha. Good, good answer. If you could go back in time as blank, as [unclear] blank, what advice would… oh, if you can go…
Jade Sinclair: As Jade.
Terranisha: Huh?
Jade Sinclair: Yeah, go ahead.
Terranisha: No. If you could go back in time as, like, you know, a person, what advice would you use as a drag name or give to your younger self?
Jade Sinclair: I think… you know, it’s always a fun question to think about, you know, the whole what if? Because if you really chan– I think, you know, if you change your past, then you change who you are today. So, I really am happy with who I am. However, I do think that our youth, and even my younger self, needs to be taught that it’s totally okay to be different. And you shouldn’t let… you shouldn’t worry as much about what other people think of you, but worry about just the person that you want to be and living up to your own expectations.
Terranisha: That’s really good. I like that a lot.
Jade Sinclair: Thank you.
Terranisha: That’s really sweet. I’m concerned if and how your social identity have impact your experience of drag or vice versa. How drag has impact your identity. Can you share about how or… how one or more of your social identities such as drag, race, class, age, geography, religion, sex, sexual, disability, etc. and/or the interaction of the social identity have impacted your experience of drag and/or has drag impact your experience of social identity?
Jade Sinclair: Ooh.
Terranisha: So, it’s kinda like same thing.
Jade Sinclair: That’s a long question. I don’t know if I can answer…
Terranisha: It really is
Jade Sinclair: Maybe if you…
Terranisha: Uh…
Jade Sinclair: Okay.Which one was it?
Terranisha: Question number 11. [Laughs]
Jade Sinclair: Number 11? I’m curious if and how your social identities have impacted your experience of drag or vice versa. So, I don’t know that, um… I don’t think that it’s really impacted my identity. I think it has the potential to do so, because for some people… but I am co– I’m confident in myself as a cis male, so it doesn’t change who I am or how I identify. It does… it does open up my understanding to what other people go through, who may be from a different background than my own.
So, that’s a positive aspect of it on me. I think that… I know of several individuals who, who would today identify as trans, that wouldn’t have earlier, and perhaps drag and the experiences of wearing female clothes in what is considered an appropriate way, meaning, like, drag… and I think it’s… mainstream environment, drag is considered pretty acceptable now, you know? So, like, RuPaul’s Drag Race does indeed help expand that knowledge of drag across the world. Um, but trans is still a very taboo topic in a lot of communities.
Terranisha: It is. It is.
Jade Sinclair: And so, I think that drag has helped some of them identify their own trans with inside them. So… And I think… and I don’t know how to help make that more acceptable. I… you know? Um, meaning, like, RuPaul’s Drag Race doesn’t do that. There’s no one on there today that is a male to female trans individual.
Terranisha: Right. Why do you think that is?
Jade Sinclair: I, I don’t know. Um, I know it’s a very… it’s a very controversial topic.
Terranisha: It is.
Jade Sinclair: And a lot of people have can– um, have tried to cancel RuPaul because of that, because they believe she’s being very discriminatory by not doing that. Not being someone who can connect with her on a personal basis to find out, or with World of Wonder Productions, I can imagine that watching this show… this is just by me…
Terranisha: Oh, yes.
Jade Sinclair: Grasping at straws. I can imagine that her… you know, you watch that show, and quite often they’re, like, backstage and they’re like… you know, their shirts are off, and they’re doing their makeup. I, I don’t know if that’s a factor because, obviously, if you’re a person that has breasts, that would be an issue for a… for a television production.
Terranisha: And how… yeah.
Jade Sinclair: I don’t think that’s really it, I think that’s just me trying to be…
Terranisha: Or probably because, like, the… like, you know, probably having the advantage. Like, you know, they have the adva– like, it looks like, you know, they don’t have to put as much work in, so…
Jade Sinclair: That, that is honestly, um… there are people in the community that, that do have that feeling, that, that thought behind it. I think that they… there are some that are… that are very, um… advocates that drag should be a man dressed as a woman, um…
Terranisha: Which I don’t agree. Women should… can be drags too.
Jade Sinclair: Well, but I mean… I mean, there are some that, that have a hard time accepting the trans individuals as drags, I think, so…
Terranisha: Yeah.
Jade Sinclair: But that’s not my position. I know… I hear it from a… I hear it from a lot of… from a lot of different people. I mean, I hear it from all levels. But I mean, we here in this bar, specifically, we try to be pretty tolerant of a lot…
Terranisha: Right.
Jade Sinclair: So, we have, like, what’s called our Discovery Night on Thursdays where we say, you know, it’s any new talent. It can be whatever you want it to be. It can be… it can be, you know, bioqueen, hyper queen, drag king. It can be whatever you want it to be.
Terranisha: Exactly.
Jade Sinclair: You know, we have… we don’t limit ourselves to one defined art of drag. On Monday nights, we have a… we have a predominantly drag king cast on Monday.
Terranisha: Right.
Jade Sinclair: So, we try to be very all inclusive here.
Terranisha: That’s really good. All right. We’re getting down to the nitty gritty. How do you define drag?
Jade Sinclair: I think, to me, drag would just have to… would have to mean, um… and the general rule that applies to the different, different types of drag, drag is something that is over the top of what you would see from a character or a personality walking down the street. So, if, for me, it’s going to be I’m going to have longer nails, bigger hair, longer lashes, and, you know, and a lot of makeup on. And then, it could be… it gets different for a king. It can be, you know, hyper [unclear] but I think it’s whatever, it’s just an elevated level of that… of that personality.
Terranisha: No. Yeah. I agree. What do you think is the purpose of drag? I guess it’s like the same?
Jade Sinclair: No, it’s a good question. Because I think I… my… I think that my opinion of that might have changed quite a bit over the years. I think, in general, a drag persona is somebody who does get on stage and entertain. All right? So, that’s… so, people appreciate that side of it. But I think, aside from that, you know, they do have some social responsibility to help push the envelope a little bit and be that Madonna or that Lady Gaga or that somebody else to try and help push our community forward to a more inclusive stance.
Terranisha: I see. Do you think drag is sexual? Why or why not? And if so, how? In what way?
Jade Sinclair: I think often I feel sexual. [Laughs] I mean, you know, you have to admit when you get all dolled up, and you look in the mirror, and you’re like, “Damn, I look good.”
Terranisha: Look good. Yeah.
Jade Sinclair: And so, in that regard, it’s like, “Oh yeah.” But, um… And I know that I re– that I do receive sexual advances from individuals. But for me personally, even though I may feel sexy, this is, like, not a comfortable sexual environment for me, because if you consider the fact that I am a man and I am wearing foam padding on my hips and four pair of dance tights…
Terranisha: Is it heavy?
Jade Sinclair: The padding isn’t heavy, no.
Terranisha: Nothing’s heavy on you? Okay.
Jade Sinclair: No. It’s just… But I am, like… I do wear corsets, you know, I cinch up. I do a lot of things to my body that… to make it look good onstage, but that in itself is uncomfortable. So, the idea of trying to be sexual with somebody while I’m up in all that is not at all appealing to me.
Terranisha: Yeah.
Jade Sinclair: Plus, I have certain parts of my anatomy tucked. [Laughs]
Terranisha: Yeah, I know. Yeah, yeah. How does your husband, like, feel about… like, did he meet you here or meet you at a bar?
Jade Sinclair: Um, we actually met playing softball.
Terranisha: Okay, cool.
Jade Sinclair: So, he knows me from my athletic side as a male as well. He used to come to almost all my shows and, um… for, for several years, and would travel with me when I was… when I had traveling gigs also. But he has probably not been to one of my shows in well over 10 years. [Laughs]
Terranisha: Oh, wow.
Jade Sinclair: I think because he… he liked drag in the beginning, and he had a lot of respect for some of the artists. And then, once, I think, you get really involved with somebody…
Terranisha: I know.
Jade Sinclair: Or in the community, then you begin to see some of the dark sides of it, you get to see some of the shady aspects of things. And, you know, when… much as you would expect, if someone’s doing well and succeeding, there’s people there… that are there to try and tear them down. And so, he witnessed a lot of that, where people were attacking me…
Terranisha: Yeah.
Jade Sinclair: Not physically, but, like, verbally…
Terranisha: Oh yeah.
Jade Sinclair: And mostly behind my back, and he was very upset by that.
Terranisha: It was… it was… Yeah. That is a lot to take on and…
Jade Sinclair: And he couldn’t separate himself from that situation, so he chose to just remove himself from going to shows.
Terranisha: I completely understand that, like, seriously. You know, he loves you, so, like to… like, what can you do? But you love it. So, it’s like…
Jade Sinclair: And he knows that this is like… you know, this is a part-time job for me. It’s the job that I really like to do and I have [overtalking] so…
Terranisha: Do, yeah. It was like a good hobby. And then…
Jade Sinclair: Yeah.
Terranisha: I can only imagine that. Yeah. I was… Hmm, that’s interesting. How do you feel about RuPaul’s Drag Race? Like, I guess we, kind of, like, discussed that, but…
Jade Sinclair: I think, overall, it… you know, it is a positive engine in the fact that… I mean, I think that it does make drag mainstream. I think it doesn’t make what I do mainstream, because there’s a diff—there’s a difference between the drag you see on that TV show and what you see here on the weekend. I don’t know if you watch that show that much? Do you watch it?
Terranisha: We do. We… the whole class, I mean… Yeah.
Jade Sinclair: Right. That to me, um… I have some friends that have been on that show.
Terranisha: Oh, really?
Jade Sinclair: And so, I, I watch it, and I can, kind of, like, read between the lines a little bit, but then I also have talked to some of them about things, you know, like, when they’re portrayed… when you see them saying a certain thing, I’m like, “God, how…? Did you really say that?” And they’re like, “Well, yeah.” So, that show is, um… it’s entertainment.
Terranisha: Wow.
Jade Sinclair: It’s not… it’s not reality TV, it’s entertainment TV. So, you know, they record everything that you do, and then they can then edit it however they want to create storylines however they see fit. So, um… but I think it is good because it does… it does help advance the art form. But again, it’s also a lot of acting challenges.
Terranisha: It is.
Jade Sinclair: And a lot of like singing and stuff, and that’s not really what I do. I mean, I might sing Happy Birthday to You, that’s going to be about it. You know, I’m more of a performance artist, and so, I’m more of, like, you know… The show’s an hour lo– hour and a half long, and, like, three minutes of it’s Lip Sync For Your Life. That’s what I do. I lip sync for my life. [Laughs]
Terranisha: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. [Laughs]
Jade Sinclair: So, I mean, it does help push the art, and it does present some different versions of drag, you know? You have people that are… like, [unclear] Queen is a… is a little bit kooky, little bit different. Who [unclear] on this season? That’s, you know… I don’t know if you’ve watched her other seasons. Like, there was this person from Springfield, Missouri that was a little bit artistic, and she had… what was her name? Crystal Methyd. She had some exaggerated makeup. So, it does show you other types of draggers aside from just, like, the beauty queens. So, it is good in that regard. It’s just not, you know… it’s more like watching Instagram versus watching YouTube.
Terranisha: Mm, that’s a good comparison, actually. A very good one.If you could change one thing about drag, the scene or the community, what would it be and why?
Jade Sinclair: If I could change one thing about the scene, it would really… it would be to try and get people to stop trying to tear other people down. And it’s really not even that visible aspect of it, but it is there. And I think it gives us a bad name. And I think there’s room for everyone to shine, and if we spend our efforts and our time on our own craft and not trying to tear someone down, then we will also find our way to success.
Terranisha: Just off topic, like, how… what keeps you humble? Like, you know, so loving? Because it is everybody that’s like, you know…? Because even in a girl commu– not in girl, but… well, you probably experience it as well, like, we have hate towards each other, like, we jealous, like, we get jealous. How do you…?
Jade Sinclair: You do.
Terranisha: So, I know that you guys are experiencing the same thing. How do you remain, like, good-hearted and not, like, face any type of, like, you know…?
Jade Sinclair: By never forgetting where I first started, and by hearing those… hearing those terrible critiques that people would say about me behind my back about, “Oh gosh, she’s a deer in headlights,” or, “She has no stage presence. Oh, she’s a stuttering drag queen.”
Terranisha: Yeah.
Jade Sinclair: Just those things that they said about me when I first started. And I was like, “Oh my god,” you know. And so…
Terranisha: Did that hurt your feelings when…?
Jade Sinclair: It did, but I never… I never vocalized it. I internalized that, and I used that as a motivator to push me to do better.
Terranisha: Wow. Well, yeah.
Jade Sinclair: And I… and I would… I don’t want to make anybody else feel that way.
Terranisha: Exactly, exactly. That’s probably like the root of it. But there’s… you know, I guess there’s mean people and nice people everywhere, I guess. What do you think are misconceptions people have about drag, and where does it come from? What do you think will help to change it?
Jade Sinclair: I think one of the misconceptions is, is that a person that performs in drag in general, is a person that… I think there’s confusion. Maybe less today because of RuPaul’s Drag Race, I’m not sure, but I think there’s confusion between, between drag and being transgender.
Terranisha: Mm, yeah.
Jade Sinclair: And I think a lot of people think that because I dress as a woman, that I want to be a woman, which is not the case at all. And also, I think sometimes, because we dress more provocatively and… or more sexually… I shouldn’t say sexually, but, you know, we want to be sexy on stage. So, I think then there is sometimes a confusion about us trying to, um… trying to be sexual. Does that make sense?
Terranisha: Yeah.
Jade Sinclair: You know, I’m not… I’m not here to seduce somebody. I’m not here to… I’m here to have a good time. And even if I do…
Terranisha: Have fun. Right.
Jade Sinclair: So, I mean… but sometimes I think people can misconstrue that, because there… you know, there’s times when I [unclear] touched a little bit inappropriately. And nothing that I’ve done or wear shouldn’t really give them that opinion, but that I’m sure that women have the same problem.
Terranisha: Exactly. Oh yeah.
Jade Sinclair: I’m positive that they do, so, I think… And I guess, um, what we can do about that, how I can change that? I think, again, that might go back to the reason why I may just, like, sometimes drop my voice and be able to [unclear] some guy in the audience. And, and the person might not even have been doing anything, but it just… it just keeps that, that realization that, “Hey, I might look one way, but I’m really this.”
Terranisha: Okay. Right. Wow. That’s a lot. That’s hard.
Jade Sinclair: [Laughs]
Terranisha: I’m sorry. You have to go through that.
Jade Sinclair: Oh no, it’s okay. I mean, I know… I’m a man. I know how men can be, and men…
Terranisha: Because I’d be one to…
Jade Sinclair: Men objectify people.
Terranisha: I did learn to do, like, you know do, uh… like, the 1920s, like, being on stage, like… I forgot the…
Jade Sinclair: The flappers?
Terranisha: Yes. Type of women. But I thought about just all those people that… you know, you already getting this on the regular, do you really want that as well? Like, it’s too much pressure, so I commend you. Because it’s… because this is, like, you’re going for work, and everybody’s just lusting and just trying to, like…
Jade Sinclair: Not everybody, but there are people that do that, though.
Terranisha: Yeah.
Jade Sinclair: And honestly, they… if you look at my inbox, I mean, not my inbox, [overtalking] but if you look at, like, this whole, like… I never answer these things, but the whole message requests is, like, just full of people that are… you know, that are probably hitting…
Terranisha: DM, yeah.
Jade Sinclair: That are hitting on me.
Terranisha: Wow. Well, last one. If you choose one thing you want people to know about or learn about drag, what would it be?
Jade Sinclair: I think, in general, it’s the… it’s the transference of the fact that we can all stop focusing upon what society tells us we should look like, should act like, or should be, and just be our true selves and enjoy that. And instead of worrying about what people think about you, just worry about who you are and if you’re living your best self. Sorry.
Terranisha: No, that’s [unclear]. [Laughs]
Jade Sinclair: And if you are achieving your full potential as your… as your authentic self.
Terranisha: Well, I’m going to say thank you so much for sitting with me. You’ve been amazing.
Jade Sinclair: Yeah.
Terranisha: I’m so sorry for, like, you know, asking you so many questions.
Jade Sinclair: Oh, no.
Terranisha: I didn’t mean to pressure.
Jade Sinclair: No, it’s no pressure at all. It’s all good.
Terranisha: But that concludes, I guess you could call it podcast [laughs] or interview with Jade Sinclair?
Jade Sinclair: Yes, very good.
Terranisha: Awesome. Well, you guys can follow her on Facebook as well. [Laughs]
Jade Sinclair: I am on… I’m on Facebook…
Terranisha: [Unclear] follow on Facebook, Instagram.
Jade Sinclair: And I’m also on Instagram. I am, yeah.
Terranisha: [Laughs] Well, you could… you could tell them if you want… I had to upload this on the website.
Jade Sinclair: My Facebook is Jade Sinclair, my Instagram, though…
Terranisha: You guys got to come out, support her and get her some… a lot of tips.
Jade Sinclair: Oh, I would love that. And then, my Instagram, I have to find that. I’m so sorry. I should know that, but I don’t know it off the top of my head. It’s Miss Jade Sinclair on Instagram.
Terranisha: Awesome. Well, thank you so much, again, and I will be coming out to one of your performances.
Jade Sinclair: All right.Awesome. Thank you so much.
Terranisha: So, you will see me… so, you’ll see me again.
Jade Sinclair: Thank you very much.
Terranisha: Thank you.