Name: Joe McMahon
Drag Name: José Queervo
Year and Major: Senior, Sculpture
Instagram: QueervoQueen
All photos by Kelly McNeice | Her Campus Penn State
Strap on your heels — the PSU Fall Student Drag Show is tonight! Before these queens hit the stage, we sat down with Joe McMahon, AKA José Queervo, to discuss the importance of drag and drag culture. Check out our interview below!
Her Campus: How long have you been doing drag?
Joe McMahon: “I feel like my whole life. I have always loved Halloween – it’s my favorite day. In the middle of the summer I would be like, ‘Lets whip out the Halloween products,’ and dress up. I feel like I have been doing drag forever. When I started doing drag-drag, in my sophomore year at the student drag show in college, I did ‘I Put A Spell On You’ from Hocus Pocus. It was October and I came out with a vacuum on stage like Mary Sanderson. It was really fun and I have been doing it ever since.”
HC: Did you follow the art form before you started it?
JM: “Yeah, especially RuPaul’s drag race. I had known about drag and was like interested in it, but it was not really out in like high school. Then I got to college and got into performance art, and I figured out that performance is a medium. It’s so good and my favorite queens from RuPaul’s Drag Race are from Pittsburgh just like me! Sharron Needles and Alaska Thunderfuck are some of my inspirations. So yeah, I have followed it for years and I still love it!”
HC: How do you think drag has changed you as a person?
JM: “Oh wow, that’s a good question. I don’t know, I feel like drag does this thing to your ego where you realize that we are all flesh puppets in clothes and we take our identities really seriously. So it helps me take myself a little less seriously, which I think helps me in life. I think it helps me be more confident. It sort of is an outlet for all the crazy gay imagery in my head that I want to get out in the real world. I have always been kind of extroverted, so I don’t know if it made me more confident, but it helped me connect to the gay community.”
HC: In this particular time in society, why do you feel drag is especially important?
JM: “Because of Trump. He is sort of the representative of the mentality of toxic masculinity and that dudes are told not to emote and not to feel not just a feminine side but even any emotional side. I feel like the male/female binary is a falsehood and I think in that way it speaks like a big social issue and it speaks to the aesthetics of queer people and their impression. I think it is a very important art form especially because the performative aspect of it is not like an object you can buy. It is my body and I am going to use it to for an artistic and political end.”
HC: Why do you feel it’s important for people to attend a drag show?
JM: “So they can give me money! No, I think drag is for everyone. I think people should experience it because it is fun and funny. My friends that are a part of the show want their son to come because he is young and they can can tell that he is being affected by the culture that he is coming up in that tells little boys to question drag. They want him to be exposed and be open to it. I think seeing a queen is fun for everyone. It pokes a hole in existence. It pokes a hole in our fabricated reality of ‘this is a boy and this is a girl.’ It is a fun little break from monotony in the world.”
HC: How do you feel drag fights gender norms?
JM: “Especially now, drag has always been political. ‘Dressing up like a girl for a man is an act of treason in this society’ is what RuPaul says – I love RuPaul. It is an actual act of treason, you know, like putting on a wig and heels — it’s like becoming the thing that masculinity thinks is weaker because of misogyny. But drag queens see that misogyny is a lie and is trying to poke fun at the whole thing of gender. Especially now because every drag queen is individual and everyone’s gender can be individual. And it doesn’t have to be that strict. Everyone tried to put themselves into these two boxes, but it has never been like that and it will never be like that. It is much more powerful to embrace your individuality.”
HC: What do you hope the audience takes away from this show?
JM: “So lately José Queervo’s mission in drag is to inject positivity into the crowd. We see negativity every day and we are bombarded with images so I want to project a positive mystical creature that they can take with them and heal. I want the performance to be a healing thing. So I try to do update twisted songs. The performance and energy exchange will be healing because times are crazy right now and people are in need of mixing it up.”
HC: How do you feel drag plays a role in Penn State becoming a more inclusive environment?
JM: “Listen, when you come to Penn State you don’t think there is going to be a drag scene. We are in the middle of cow country. 18-year old kids come up to me after drag shows and are like ‘I’m a freshman, this is my first drag show and I didn’t think there was going to be anything like this here for me,’ and they love it. I think of drag as community building, especially here. So I think it is totally important and Penn State is trying to go all in on this. But, I will believe it when I see it. I think drag can totally play a part. I think it is a part of the culture that is still a subculture but it is becoming more mainstream. There is obviously a huge interest in it here at Penn State because tons of people come to the shows. So I see it continuing, and State College drag is so fun and grimy. It has this special flavor to it that I like, like the underbelly kind of flavor. You’ll see some queens are very polished but everyone is unique. Some queens really embrace the punk rock scene for some performances.”
Don’t miss out — come to the PSU Fall Student Drag Show at 10 p.m. on October 12 in Alumni Hall!