A job is a job, he says, but he avoids industries that seem to attract homophobes, people who think it is hilarious to scream slurs at him from the back of the room.
We are in Kumar’s dressing area. The Straits Times video team is fussing with equipment, as they do. The idea today is that I talk to the comedian about his 30 years in show business as he gets made up and dons a dress. To witness a transformation as he reflects on his legacy.
The lip-syncing at drag shows doesn’t excite him, he says, and the songs just don’t cut it, not like they used to when real divas – Madonna, Diana Ross and Janet Jackson – ruled the world. At Boom Boom, Kumar could conjure up, say, Cyndi Lauper with a wig, clothes and a pose. "I am not a drag queen. I am a stand-up comedian who dresses in drag. I am not trying to do RuPaul," he says.He puts on a dress to"become a different person”. It lets him escape his personality, to become his alter ego, the Kumar who can roast guests in the front rows, scold latecomers, mock the ones in the expensive seats. And compare, by race, the size of male parts.
His old-fashioned streak comes out when he talks in a didactic way about entitled kids , being good to one's parents and grandparents , doing what makes you happy and, of all things, transport infrastructure .
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'I am a stand-up comedian who dresses in drag'We are in Kumar’s dressing area. The Straits Times video team is fussing with equipment, as they do. The idea today is that I talk to the comedian about his 30 years in show business as he gets made up and dons a dress. To witness a transformation as he reflects on his...
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