Patrick Cash meets renowned performer Jonny Woo to talk drag, jockstraps and the heart behind his new East London Lecture.
Tell us a bit about yourself.
I’m a performer, and in that performance remit, drag is a big part. But I like to experiment with loads of different styles within that, and play with genre. I live in East London, I’ve lived round here for 20 years and that’s also a big part of my life and I feel like I have a very strong connection with the area. And I’m 42, and I’m coping with that.
And how did you get into queer performance originally?
That was when I went to New York and got into the burlesque scene around 2000. I was a dancer and that completely dragged me off my track and I came back as an experimental drag performance artist throwing parties. I returned to London with a renewed vigour and vision for the future.
How did you see drag as a queer aesthetic?
It was a reaction against the conformist, generic, anti-feminine, New York lifestyle look in the late 90s. We had it over here too, but maybe not as strong. It was quite misogynistic really not blatantly woman-bashing, but an exclusively male, action man scene. So my friend Brandon and I dressed up and paraded around town, and I would wear a smear of lipstick, a jockstrap or knickers, and a string of pearls. That’s where the drag started: it was an outlet, and very creative. About finding things and throwing things together.
And do you think East London became a mecca for queer performers because it has a freer type of creativity?
I think the scene which emerged, and the kind of shows I personally encouraged, was one of free expression, that there weren’t any rules and you could do what you want. We weren’t politicised but we weren’t commercial, yet if you wanted to be politicised and commercial you could be that. I think that freedom and sense of anarchy has attracted people.
What time period will the East London lecture involve?
The time that I first moved to Shoreditch in 1995 was really special. That was the tipping point from which Shoreditch went from being a secret backwater of either nothingness or latent arts creativity into a scene which began to attract a lot of attention from the media. Good or bad isn’t the point, I think it’s a sign of our times and I wanted to get to the source of when that began.
“I’ve got to capture the energy of a bunch of disparate people moving into an area and finding likeminded individuals.” – Jonny Woo.
How are you going about researching it?
I’m interviewing my friends from the time to get a sense of what was happening, and interviewing people around that who lived in the area, who have moved into the area, to get a sense of what was there before and what perceptions there are now. In terms of the show it’s very different to my other work because it’s a verbatim piece – the bulk of the text is made from interviews, and I’m working with a director.
And what’s at the heart of the lecture?
The thrust of the show and the inspiration was the documentation of the party scene that built up around the Bricklayers Arms in 1995. It’s about the music, the fashions, the characters, it’s a coming of age story. It’s basically the narrative at the heart of the piece, because it’s being billed as a lecture, but that’s just a ruse. It’s definitely a theatre piece. I went to see Northern Soul last night and that made me really think I’ve got to capture the energy of a bunch of disparate people moving into an area and finding likeminded individuals and partying and experimenting unsupervised for three or four years, and creating an oasis of hedonism in what was essentially a deprived part of the city. That’s at the very, very heart and then the rest of the lecture is around it.
Jonny Woo on IG: https://www.instagram.com/jonnywoouk/
• The East London Lecture series will begin at The Rose Lipman Building, 43 De Beauvoir Road, Haggerston, N1 5SQ on Thursday 27th November. The show is in collaboration with The Mill Co Project. £10, £8 concs students and local residents.
• There will be three (free) workshops around the ELL also at the Rose Lipman, beginning Saturday 8th November, 3-5pm. For more details, email: [email protected]
