So I guess you could say this is the look that officially cemented me as a king, and made me start the whole official online presence thing. Having previously worked out the drag contouring that worked best for my facial shape and roughly played around with a few impersonation looks here and there, this was the moment that I went all in and bought the wig, the costume, the accessories, the lot.
If you're not wearing wigs, you're not doing drag, as the saying goes, and honestly I did feel the transformation a lot more keenly putting this shiny Barbie-esque mullet on and transferring all the lions, tigers and wolves (oh my) onto my skin. As the great Todrick Hall will have you know in his seminal classic "Meow", it takes a whole lot of ego to rock a mullet, and I was all ego from the moment the setting spray hit this look.
I was nervous of the beard, as the shaping and build-up there has been something I often stress over before every look, but I was pleased with the final outcome landing somewhere between drag and realness. Indeed, in the dimly lit karaoke party that I attended as Joe, a beard-sporting friend of mine had much delight in telling me he couldn't distinguish what was real and what wasn't of my facial hair, so I'm chalking that up as a win!
Another concern was me wondering if I looked too 'girly' in this look, which is a hoot because I seldom if ever look girly in real life, but there's something about eyeliner that really feminizes my eyes, and I knew that Joe was a bugger for dramatic lines. But I had to reason that the Tiger King himself likes a little glam, so if there was something telling in the eye area, then that was surely only going to help me lean more heavily into the campy, draggy aspects of the look for maximum farce. I also hadn't realised that Joe Exotic clearly has his brows shaped until I went to try and replicate them, so I ended up with a much softer brow than my typical masc illusions warrant!
I think I ended up somewhere between the real Joe, the typical Brake Down beat and John Cameron Mitchell's glamourized version of the Tiger King from the recent (and very enjoyable) Peacock TV special of Joe Vs Carole, and being a huge fan of JCM, I am not unhappy with that outcome at all. So if you happen to be looking for an utterly ridiculous character to host or perform at your next event, I'm certainly going to be keeping this look caged for future use!
Booking enquiries: mrbrakedown.bookings@gmail.com
* No animals were harmed in the making of this look, and I absolutely do not condone Joe or anyone else owning exotic and/or endangered animals privately.