Lola the bare-knuckle drag queen

Lives Less Ordinary

BBC

Society & Culture, Documentary, Personal Journals

4.6 • 814 Ratings

🗓️ 14 May 2023

⏱️ 52 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Martial arts kept him out of jail, but drag artistry made him whole.

Diego Garijo was bullied for his femininity as a child, so as he grew up he toughened up his image. He was in trouble with the law, until he found his focus as a professional Mixed Martial Arts fighter. But when Diego’s career came to a brutal halt, creating a drag persona, Lola, gave him a new lease of life.

Presenter: Andrea Kennedy Producer: Louise Morris Sound design: Joel Cox Editor: Munazza Khan

Transcript

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0:00.0	On a winter's night in 1974, a crime took place that would obsess the nation.
0:06.9	It was an extraordinary news story.
0:09.1	The story of an aristocrat, Lord Lucan, who's said to have killed the family Nanny,
0:13.7	mistaking her for his wife, then somehow just disappeared.
0:18.0	One of the great mysteries in English criminal history.
0:20.7	We're still looking for Lucan.
0:21.6	It's honestly one of the most powerful stories of my lifetime.
0:25.6	I'm Alex von Tundselman.
0:27.6	This is The Lucan Obsession.
0:28.6	Listen on BBC Sounds.
0:31.6	Once I arrived, I realized this is a full-on competition.
0:34.6	And a lot of these people, all of them actually, had competed before.
0:39.2	It was my very first time, and I'm not a great dancer.
0:43.5	I'm not ready to win Rupal's drag race.
0:45.9	I'm a 200-pound man with feet that have been broken multiple times,
0:50.6	stuffed into these tiny, like, ballerina slippers,
0:53.4	that I'm willing to go out there despite
0:55.2	of the person that I am, which is this professional bare-knuckle boxer.
1:01.7	By day, an often bloodied bare-knuckle boxer and mixed martial arts fighter.
1:07.7	By night, he's in sequins and heels on stage, sashaying as Queen Lola Pistola.
1:15.0	Quite a contrast. So where do those two personalities collide? Well, that's in the life of
1:22.3	Diego Garijo and his isn't necessarily the story you might expect. This is the Lives Less Ordinary podcast
	...

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