“Long Island’s grungy vintage show ghoul” Alice Noir is quite ready for this haunted season!
Thotyssey: Hello Alice, thanks for chatting today! We are fully in the Season of Spooky… do you have all your ghostly, witchy, monstrous looks all lined up for the month yet?
Alice Noir: Why yes, of course! Halloween tends to be (like for most drag performers) a very busy month, so I wanted to make sure I served as many different kinds of hauntingly gorgeous looks for each occasion and gig!
What is your favorite Halloween drag aesthetic? Sexy, subtle, super gross, etc.?
Don’t get me wrong, I love a sexy Halloween costume… but I really love to see more borderline haunt actor looks through the perspective of a drag performer’s lenses. I love seeing high tortured, haunted and grungy etc. kind of characters, especially this time of the year–it can really push people out of their comfort zones and serve some really cool performances, and looks that they might not normally do the rest of the year.
Did you always have a fondness for a darker aesthetic while growing up?
I was just actually talking to a friend about how odd it was that my favorite scenes from childhood movies were the Winnie the Pooh Heffalump and Woozle nightmare scene, and when Snow White is running around terrified in the woods. It’s just something that I’ve always been drawn to, and with shows like Scooby-Doo and Courage the Cowardly Dog I had no shortage of creepy, off-putting content to fuel my young creative mind.
Can you tell us a bit about where you grew up, what your early creative interests were, and how you started doing drag?
I grew up in a small suburban town on Long Island, with a religious upbringing. I didn’t exactly feel comfortable being feminine when I was a kid, so as an outlet I would always be drawing and painting, and making little trinkets out of whatever I could get my hands on.
When I got to middle school, I was shown The Rocky Horror Picture Show and it inspired me to start drawing more disturbed, sexy women. Then when I was introduced to drag as a teenager, I fell in love with the concept of turning myself into one those fucked up girls instead of just illustrating them. So every night I would do drag makeup in my bedroom in secret, and slowly started doing online competitions and local gigs. And here I am six years later, still keeping Long Island spooky and sexy all year round!
Being a Long Island drag performer comes with its own set of challenges. Venues that book drag are few and far between, and conservative, largely straight suburban audiences aren’t always receptive to the concept of local drag. Do you struggle with all that, or have you found your groove?
The drag scene here is small but mighty, and we don’t have any kind of gay clubs that are really meant for drag shows. Most of the places I perform at are bars or restaurants with straight audiences, and with that I tend to feel like I have to perform numbers that are palatable to said audience–and sometimes feel like I’m sacrificing my art to appease a non-queer crowd.
Luckily there are shows like “Shoot Your Shot” hosted by Annie Manildoo that acts as a queer night at a straight bar–right down the street from my house–that truly feels like a family coming together once a month to show off their weird, dumb, emotionally charged numbers and looks without that fear of ridicule. Because of that show, it inspired me and my drag sister Eden DarkStar to create another queer space for queer people to come and feel safe to dress and dance as they want, and see non-censored drag and queer expression in a club-like setting.
You and Eden will be hosting “Gagaween” at said place, AMH in Amityville, on October 19!
Eden and I really wanted a queer dance night where like-minded people can come feel safe and meet other LGBTQ+ individuals. We’re so grateful to be working with AMH, and that they took a chance on us–since we’re not the traditional kind of punk / metal musicians they are used to. We started last month with “Brat City” which went over very well. So we’re coming back for October 19th for “Gagaween,” an everything-Lady Gaga-themed show and costume contest. We hope that every month, more and more people come out… and we can really build a bit of a queer nightlife scene right here on the Island.
What else is coming up for you?
I have a nice line up of shows for October! I’ll be at Annie Manildoo’s release party for her song “GAS” on the 12th at Station Pub in Sayville, and I’ll be back the following week on the 19th for the Halloween edition of “Shoot your Shot” before heading to the after party at AMH in Amityville for my and Eden Darkstar’s show “Gagaween.”
Anything else?
To close out the month, I’ll be a part of Awhora Borealis‘ “Dungeons and Drag Queens: Pirates and Pilsners” on the 25th at Sand City in Lindenhurst. And I’ll end the month out as Billy Butcherson in a Hocus Pocus Halloween Spectacular at the Boulton Center on the 27th alongside Tom Catt, Toni Homeperm and Kassie O. Peia.
Quite a haunted treasure chest of gigs! Okay, lastly: who is your favorite Halloween monster / killer?
If we’re going classic monsters, I would say Frankenstein; being held together by thread and staples is extremely relatable. And my favorite killers, I would have to specifically say Stu and Billy’s Ghostface because they’re hot and covered in blood. Duh!
Happy Halloween, Alice!
Check Thotyssey’s calendar for Alice Noir’s upcoming appearances, and follow her on Instagram.
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