The Big Reveal by Sasha Velour
What's It About?
This book is a quilt, piecing together memoir, history, and theory into a living portrait of an artist and an art. Within these pages, illustrated throughout with photos and original artwork, Sasha Velour illuminates drag as a unique form of expression with a rich history and a revolutionary spirit.The charismatic Sasha Velour, crowned winner of the 2017 RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 9, continues to captivate worldwide audiences with an acclaimed magazine, drag and theater shows, and now book The Big Reveal (Harper). Its descriptive tagline makes the bold but accurate statement, An Illustrated Manifesto of Drag; a unique blending of memoir, personal theory, and well-researched history paints a portrait of this compelling artist and professional drag queen. Break out the champagne and get ready to celebrate as it is a guaranteed showstopper!
The Big Reveal would make an ideal gift for many interested in the performing arts and could also be a welcome addition to libraries, colleges and universities with curricula that includes theater studies. The book has an eye-popping cover in shades of fuchsia and black graced with the beautifully coiffed and made-up author’s face partially concealed by a glorious vintage hat. Open the pages for a revelation of a spectacular mélange of nonfiction, photographs, comic strips, drawings, collage and superb writing.
Sasha Velour’s Introduction to Drag
Being a successful drag queen is neither easy nor inexpensive. The days of wandering the aisles of thrift shops and consignment stores hoping to find a glitzy wardrobe for pennies on the dollar are long gone. You could host a wedding for the price of some of the costumes and accessories today. An enormous amount of planning, research and rehearsal go into the creation of each performance. Excellent marketing skills as well as talent and ambition are also essential to stand out from the competition.
The self-described gender-fluid Sasha Velour, born Alexander (nicknamed Sasha from birth) Steinberg was fortunate to have a loving, supportive family while growing up and in more recent years, a long-term relationship with collaborative partner Johnny Velour.
Grandma Dina was a fashion-forward inspiration and doting fairy godmother who played dress-up and acted out scenes with her darling grandchild from their own imaginative stories. On weekends she and her husband would drive from their home in Daly City (south of San Francisco) into North Beach to meet friends for cocktails and a glittery drag show at Finnochio’s. For 60 years, it was where locals, tourists and celebrities mingled to watch top female impersonators until closing in 1999.
Among her many accomplishments, Sasha Velour earned an undergraduate degree in Literature from Vassar College and was a Fulbright Scholar in Moscow before earning an MFA in cartooning from The Center for Cartoon Studies in Vermont.
Drag’s Importance Throughout History
The author terms drag as “the transformation and transcendence of gender and spirit through costume, spirit and illusion…it is natural, it’s human and it’s always been a part of culture.” Virtually every civilization including the ancient Egyptians, Greeks, Romans and Native Americans included drag as entertainment or self-expression. Where women were forbidden to appear on stage, female roles were performed by younger beardless men or boys. The first Ophelia, Juliet, Desdemona and Lady M, and indeed all Shakespeare’s female characters were originally played by men. The playwright frequently switched genders of the principal characters using clever disguises. In Twelfth Night, The Winter’s Tale and As You Like It a man playing a woman would play a man to the delight of the audience. Single-gender schools and college theater productions have traditionally featured cross-dressing to fill the roles required by the material.
My late mother once groused she would have enjoyed playing one of the girl’s roles just once but as a slender, slightly taller child with short hair and a husky voice, she was forever cast as the Prince, Knight or other hero in her succession of all-girl Catholic schools.
The United States Military as well as the Canadian and British Armed Forces formed traveling entertainment units during WWI and WWII which included female impersonations performed by cast members who were combat-trained soldiers to raise the morale for war-weary troops under battlefield conditions. The US Army had a troop of Black performers that also included female impersonations to entertain the then-segregated African-American soldiers.
Men dressed as women have been entertaining audiences in theaters and distant makeshift stages in remote mining camps since about 1800. Drag performers were a staple among the many acts on nearly every Vaudeville stage.
According to Sophie “The Last of the Red Hot Mamas” Tucker who worked lower on the bill, artiste and early drag queen Julian Eltinge, was a top headliner. Eltinge, one of the highest-paid performers in 1909/1910 earned a whopping $3500 weekly (over $115,000 in today’s dollars). Both entertainers were represented by the William Morris Agency.
The 1892 British hit play Charley’s Aunt also swept France, Germany, Holland, Scandinavia and Russia. In the US it appeared on Broadway in 1893 and in numerous revivals up to 1970 with multiple movie versions including Syd Chaplin in 1925, Charlie Ruggles in 1930 and Jack Benny in 1941. It makes an excellent case for the enduring popularity of cross-dressing drag comedy.
Massively popular on late 1940’s and 1950’s TV, Milton Berle revived his vaudeville routines and was known for his frequent use of drag characters. Who would forget funnyman Jonathan Winters performing his recurring character Maude Frickert in a wide variety of TV venues, eventually even appearing in the Scooby-Doo animated franchise? Tom Hanks achieved an early success in Bosom Buddies performing a dual role. Actor, filmmaker, writer and entrepreneur Tyler Perry, whose plays, films and books with him in the starring role of an outspoken elderly woman named Medea have made him one of the highest-paid entertainers in show business and owning the prestigious Tyler Perry Studios in Atlanta.
Theatre, Performance and Cultural Relevance of the Art Form
Drag is embedded in our popular culture whether as an elaborate costume or the commonplace remark of “putting on work drag” while donning office attire. Fraternity parties, college skits, costume parties, and Halloween often feature people cross-dressing. If you have never seen Le Ballet Trocadero de Monte Carlo you can catch a performance on YouTube or head to a live show for some of the best dancing and parody you will ever see by a superb all-male comic ballet company that has been entertaining the world en pointe since 1972.
Korean War Army Veteran, civil rights activist and performer Darcelle, crowned in 2016 by the Guinness Book of World Records as the world’s oldest drag queen, hosted the longest-running drag show on the west coast in Portland, Oregon. Born Walter Cole, he stated in interviews he preferred female pronouns when performing and male off-stage. Cole said, “There is nothing sexual about drag, it’s entertainment with a capital E. Darcelle is a character — like in a play — and I work very hard at her.” He performed almost until his death on March 24th, 2023 at age 92.
Through the insightful The Big Reveal, Sasha Velour evoked my memories of some fabulous events shared with wonderful friends. While still in college, I saw the Andy Warhol favorite drag queen Candy Darling at La Mama in NYC making an entrance even more luminous than Marilyn Monroe whom her character was emulating. I had the privilege of seeing Bette Midler on her Divine Miss M Tour in 1973 and again in 1978. Her superb performances were preceded by drag queen audience members sashaying up and down the aisles dressed in their finest enhancing the scripted show.
Cher’s touring shows likewise attracted some fabulously garbed “ladies”. The remarkable Jim Bailey’s uncanny, evocative and accurate impersonation of the legendary Judy Garland can be sampled on YouTube. Clad in a simple yet elegant black sheath dress and performing in upmarket venues like the Palm Court in San Francisco, he actually sang, not lip-synched her signature pieces and brought goosebumps to rapt audiences.
Of course, one of the most personally enchanting performances was when my darling 6’4” tall husband temporarily sacrificed his ubiquitous mustache to play the co-starring dual role of Leo/Maxine in a sold-out four-day run of Ken Ludwig’s Leading Ladies in the community theater in our small Bible belt town.
Released in a Time of Drag Bans and Anti-LGBTQ Legislation
As a lifelong fan of this art form, I’ve never seen a drag performance that could be described as lewd, pornographic or offensive. There are currently fifteen states with reportedly some 36 bills proposed that would formally restrict or ban drag shows. Tennessee recently became the first state to pass a bill restricting drag performances in public or in front of children.
Kentucky State Senator Gex Williams made a statement asserting “our children deserve a childhood that is protected.” As one friend recently wrote in response, “Yes, they deserve to be protected; from food insecurity, second-rate education, fear of being shot in their schools, poverty, cyberbullying, and the list goes on. I wish our legislators spent more time on real issues and not contrived culture wars.”
It’s ironic that Tennessee would be the first to pass a bill denying freedom of artistic expression when Tennessean Dolly Parton, entertainer extraordinaire and great humanitarian, has been one most portrayed by drag queens for the past 50 years. On a Good Morning America segment a few years back, Jennifer Aniston asked Dolly “Is it true that you once said that it’s a good thing you were born a girl? Otherwise, you would have been a drag queen?”
“Yes, it is true,” Parton replied. “Because I’m so over-exaggerated and I have so many fans that … you know, the gay community and the drag queens … I’ve always had these drag queens dress like me. And I even lost a Dolly Parton lookalike contest.”
One is left to question how the line will be drawn over what performances are deemed acceptable. Will time-honored stage farces be considered risqué? Will future showings of Some Like It Hot, Mrs. Doubtfire, Victor/Victoria or The Birdcage be banned for family audiences?
The Big Reveal is the equivalent of the grand, unanticipated bombshell finale in a drag show that brings a cheering audience to their feet. Sasha Velour has written and illustrated this history and memoir to great effect. Bravo or perhaps I should say Brava?
About Sasha Velour:
Sasha Velour is a gender-fluid drag queen, artist and speaker. She is the creator and editor of the critically-acclaimed drag magazine “Velour” and the host of the influential New York City-based drag show NightGowns, which was adapted into a docu-series. Her first one-queen theater show, “Smoke & Mirrors” toured to sold-out audiences around the world. In 2017, she was crowned the winner of RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 9 on VH1, with an emotional and reveal-filled finale performance that made history.
Velour also holds a degree in Literature from Vassar College, an MFA in Cartooning from The Center for Cartoon Studies, and was a former Fulbright Scholar in Moscow. The Big Reveal is her first book.
