There are drag queens, drag kings – and then there’s Wet Mess. In May on Instagram, they revealed what is for them a typical look: a head painted green and gold, bald up top apart from two kiss curls; stickers of cars on each temple; a picture of two bikini-clad women wrestlers stuck to the forehead; black lipstick with enormous false eyelashes; an acid green Elizabethan ruff with boots to match; a pink shirt with padded shoulders; a tie emblazoned with the word “wank” and a purple lace dress that left their bum uncovered. The coup de grace came when Wet Mess flashed a million-dollar smile – and revealed teeth decorated with black dots.
All this effort was for a performance at Dalston Superstore, one of the London queer clubs in which Wet Mess cut those teeth, and where they are now revered as one of the most extraordinary performers on the circuit, combining costume, dance, lip-syncing and avant-garde theatre skills in one discombobulating package. And that’s the intended effect – Wet Mess likes to declare that they are “horny for your confusion”. They elaborate: “I’m sort of a drag thingy-king. I’m more on the masc side but I feel very fluid. I play with everything and exist in between and outside of gender.”
.jpg?w=600)
