OUTinPerth contributor Miss Katherine Wolfgramme invited Miss Sheila Mann into her front parlour to discuss drag, life and future hopes over a cuppa…
Miss Katherine: You are amazing on stage! Have you had any formal training at all?
Miss Sheila Mann: I did ballet for two years with Madame Bruslov. She was Russian and taught me the basics.
K: How long has Sheila been alive for?
SM: Oh, seven years I think. One drunken evening, one of my friends put a face on me and pushed me out the front door and basically told me to go for a walk. On my return I snapped one of her heels! No really! Stop laughing! I careered into a lamp pole and broke her heel… Shortly after I was entered into a talent contest at The Court Hotel and I won. Then I was put into a show, and from then on I have performed in show after show after show…
K: Of all the shows you have done, which was your favourite?
SM: It was at Connections Nightclub a few years ago, it was ammmazing! There was only three numbers, but the props were amazing. There was a huge metal rig, and I came up from a podium under the floor and…
K: Wow! Is there a podium under the floor at Connections?
SM: No, they built one for me [Katherine gasps in envy].
K: Are you planning to do any more shows in the future?
SM: I did drag solidly for 5 years and got really caught up in the scene. Tim Brown, Tracy and Steve at Connections become my surrogate family… there was more of Sheila than there was of James (my boy drag name), and I would really like to get to know James a little better now because Sheila has dominated the last five years of my life.
K: What are your feelings about how drag has evolved in Perth?
SM: I remember when I was growing up (as a drag queen) my drag mother – Barbie, Miss Barbie Q – was a hybrid of the drag before her. Her drag mother was more like clown drag, but she was softer. Still very full-on make up, very kabuki and very theatrical, but very real looking. She taught me the grace and poise of the old school and to this I have added my own style.
I am a little worried about drag, and the direction it is headed. The baby drags don’t seem to care about their appearance or their direction. They seem a little messy and less refined. The older queens on the scene seem to have more sophistication about them… Maybe, they [the young queens] didn’t have drag mothers.
K: My final question, what is your favourite saying?
SM: ‘F*ck it’
K: Oh gosh… what is your second favourite saying?
SM: The one I like at the moment is ‘Catch a brick’.
K: Which means?
SM: ‘F*ck it.’
