Exclusive with Brent Would
Brent Would! Welcome to Spill the Tea my love, after years of planning we are finally getting this interview done. How are you doing?
I'm doing marvelously thank you my darlin! The sun has shone upon my face another day, the vegetable stall and my YouTube channel are thriving, and some hot piece gave me a wink... or had something in their eye (whatever!), so what more could I ask for?!
Now before we get ahead of ourselves and talk about your fabulous new show lets dive into how you got here. When did you first discover that you wanted to do drag?
I’ve always been a performer, I started out when I was tiny lad doing dance and I was a rolling stone gathering no moss, but all sorts of other stuff (oi oi!) and I ended up as a serious actor at first...but turns out I was seriously funny, so comedy and improv became my home. Then I happened upon a tonne of rad local drag shows and I started up a podcast. I had the immense Adam All on that podcast and was so inspired I entered Man Up. Even though I didn’t win that ignited a fire within me and I found community I had longed for.
How did you come up with your fabulous name?
I had a drag wife years ago and we decided I should have a name that ended in wood. Fast forward talking to my little sister (who is no relatio other than in the heart) and her coming from Bas-Vegas herself named me “Brent Would”. Having spent a lot of my adult life in Essex or in love with folk from there, even though I'm a Londoner I knew it was the perfect fit!
How would describe your drag style?
Brent as an entity is a homage to beautiful, robust and verbally adroit stylings the labouring, paper selling white van men in my family whilst also holding their problematic elements to account. In performance he is a fuse that’s lit and let off. Whether it be parodies, improv songs, stand up comedy, surreal jaunts or crowd work Brent is there being his worst and best, and through me he’s always making sure he looks after his lovers, audiences...I meant audiences.
Let’s just rip the plaster off and get to it… Drag Race has catapulted drag queens into the mainstream but drag kings haven’t quite been given the same recognition yet. Why do you think that is?
There are whole myriad of amazing drag performers who haven’t been given the same level of platform whether it’s that they are disabled, trans or global majority artists or AFAB. When folks deviate from what has been seen before simply by being themselves, they are often not granted the same latitude, and when they are allowed in they are often tokenised. Kings are exciting and offer some of the most ingenious acts and concepts I have ever seen and are often paid less than others which is a reflection on the wider world of work and systemic inequality. As someone who is genderqueer but often assumed as other, it can be exhausting to fight for your place at the table, even though I have many privileges others do not, it is still a slog. I am not ever going to beg to be accepted, because I know what I offer. It just makes me want to work harder to build my own table for everyone to have a seat at.
Would you love to see drag kings compete on Drag Race or do you think they should be given their own show?
I mean if someone wants to, then they absolutely should have the chance. However for me personally, I would love to see a show that showcased Kings, Prinxs, Things, Monsters and assorted Monarchs based in the UK.
Victoria Scone did show a little bit of drag king realness on Canada Vs The World. What did you think of her decision to bring that onto the main stage?
I absolutely loved it and as a huge fan of Victoria Scone’s work was delighted to see what I do performed on a national platform and so well. Especially seeing as that show has parodied “macho drag” so many times. However, you only have to look at the backlash after that appearance and then see some of the comments Kings received on the Netflix documentary I featured in, to see why many might not want to place their head too far above the parapet, which is pretty awful if you ask me. All drag is valid – how many times?!
Now onto your fabulous show, ‘Brent Would… Would you?’ which is kicking off next week! Are you excited?
I am super excited as I love The Vault Festival and being a part of it, is genuinely just the hugest thrill. I love getting to play with my super talented accompanist Dan as well, who is an improv and loop pedal legend!
What can fans expect from this show?
It will be a distillation of all my club sets into one juicy, sexy kebab of fun! It will be improv, games, singing, serenading, sexy but ultimately consensual. I discovered a great way to have a code for the audience last time that was active. I had considered using stickers as a sort of traffic light system, but I figured that, that mean you picked one choice and had to stick with it, whereas you might want to change your mind. So, I have the T for timeout hand signal that someone can do if they aren’t in the space that night or even during a bit and when they do that everyone has to cheer wildly for them. It’s really heartening to watch and facilitate, and I trust myself enough to be able to deal with it, in the moment!
What do you love about performing live?
It is the human connection and the unpredictability for me. I often enter into a room of strangers and leave having made a whole new bunch of friends, mind and theirs!
You must have known this last bit was coming, having been given this space plenty of times by our past interviews, it’s shout-out time! What queer performer deserves a shout from you and why? - This can be a queer artist doing their thing or a drag King, Queen or anything in between.
I honestly love and admire so many folks who are out here doing their thing, but I have to say that if you haven’t seen ‘Sound of the Underground’ yet please do. It is incredible to see such a powerful cast doing their thing and allowing Queer people to think “I could write a play and it could be on in a world-renowned theatre” and that is what it is all about. Representation is vital for folks to be able to aspire to and see how many possibilities that can exist.
You can follow Brent Would on Twitter by clicking here and Instagram by clicking here.
You can grab your ticket to see Brent Would on the 21st - 23rd by clicking here.
Offers and How To
- Get special offer of 2 x Tickets for £15 using code "QUICKIE"
*If you can’t bring even numbers of pals, then help yourself to a 20% with code "CONSENT"
*Don't select the ticket 1st, go to the bottom of the page and enter in the code and it will offer you a new price. Then select your tickets and Voila!
There are also 4 free tickets available for Global Majority folks each night so please emailbrentwouldd@gmail.comto get them.
Imagery with thanks to Cam Harle and Danilo Zocatelli Cesco.