What Next: The Drag King Who Loves Performing for Kids

Slate Culture

Slate Podcasts

Arts, Tv & Film, Music

4.4 • 2K Ratings

🗓️ 8 June 2023

⏱️ 27 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Deep in the heart of Texas, they performed in drag, for kids and enthusiastic crowds. But as state legislation moved to ban drag performances, they stopped lip syncing and spoke for themself—and the queer people who depend on them at their day job. This is the second installment in What Next’s Pride Month series. “After They Testified” is about the Americans who’ve shown up in the last year to speak out against anti-queer legislation, how it felt to do so, and what came next. Guest: Jay Thomas, AKA Bobby Pudrido, an Austin, Texas-based drag king and care coordinator. If you enjoy this show, please consider signing up for Slate Plus. Slate Plus members get benefits like zero ads on any Slate podcast, bonus episodes of shows like Slow Burn and Dear Prudence—and you’ll be supporting the work we do here on What Next. Sign up now at slate.com/whatnextplus to help support our work. This Pride Month, make an impact by helping Macy’s and The Trevor Project on their mission to fund life-saving suicide prevention services for LGBTQ youth. Go to macys.com/purpose to learn more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:13.8	Cryptocurrencies are unregulated in the UK, profits may be subject to capsule gains tax and
0:18.0	the value of cryptocurrencies can go down or up.
0:28.3	The first time Jay Thomas performed in drag was just a few months back.
0:34.1	Jay lives in Austin, Texas.
0:36.0	There was this audition to be part of a local drag troupe and Jay just kind of went for
0:40.7	it.
0:41.7	My friend told me about it and I applied the day before like at 11, 59 pm right before
0:50.7	it was due so I only thought about it for about two weeks.
0:56.2	So it was kind of almost a lark.
0:58.6	Yeah, it was.
0:59.6	Yeah, yeah, I would say so.
1:06.9	Jay is a drag king, performs as Bobby Poudrido, which is a sly reference to this Mexican-American
1:13.6	crooner named Bobby Polito.
1:16.6	The kind of singer you might hear at family cookouts.
1:19.7	I just knew him from music videos and his CD covers which he always looked really cool
1:27.6	to me.
1:33.2	He has really cool outfits like he has a denim and denim look, sometimes he'll wear like
1:40.2	he always wears the button up shirts that are tucked into the tight wrangler pants.
	...

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