Dash Pinck/The Mossy Log
On Oct. 17, Lewis & Clark’s Gagged Club hosted its annual Halloween drag show, “Dead Man’s
Party.” The show featured 14 performances by LC students and one alum. I spoke with Saph
Leeper ’27, known in drag as Meryl J. Wanna, before the show about their experience doing drag
at LC, as well as their process of coming up with their performance for “Dead Man’s Party.”
Leeper expressed that the Halloween show in particular is a chance for students to bring out
“the freakiest, wildest concepts ever.” They were inspired by a particular horror film for their
performance:
“I really have wanted to do a ‘Texas Chainsaw Massacre’-themed performance, because one,
one of my best friends loves ‘Texas Chainsaw Massacre’ and two, (it is the) Halloween show, so
I’m really excited to put all of the elements together.”
Nearly every performance that night incorporated a horror theme. LC alum Lili Blum ’24,
known in the Gagged community by her drag name Cleo Toris, hosted the event dressed as the
Other Mother from the film “Coraline.” In the final performance of the night, drag king Beef
Strokeroff, the stage persona of Dylan Hunter ’27, swung an axe around on stage in ghoulish
makeup. Other performances featured vampires, cannibalism and murder as primary motifs.
Sexuality was a theme present in almost all of the performances. One exception was drag king
Gregg the Grillmaster, also known as Marion Richardson-Beatty ’26, whose performance
consisted of dancing while “grilling” fake human body parts and handing them out to people in
the audience. Performers flaunted tight-fitting, revealing clothes, often using songs with
suggestive lyrics to add a sensual element to their performances. Owning sexuality seemed to be
an empowering experience for the performers, who received wild cheers and applause as they
danced, shed layers of clothing or even kissed other performers on stage.
Priestess Tanya of the Sock Drawer, also known as Elio Curtis ’28, performed a set with
themes of madness and a condemnation of saneism. Priestess Tanya danced with a cane on stage,
mimicking a circus ring leader, and later took off her shoes to reveal grippy socks on her feet.
Leeper discussed how performing as Meryl J. Wanna helps them express femininity without
jeopardizing how they are perceived outside of Gagged. They explained that drag is a good
medium for exploring different presentations and styles without judgment.
“(Meryl J. Wanna) is a character that I can be feminine in without worrying about how my
presentation in real life as a non-binary person is affected by acting femininely or dressing
femininely. Drag is a great outlet for that as a trans person. It’s just such a fun art form, you can
literally do anything,” Leeper said.
Gender presentations at the drag show touched a wide range of identities. Some performers
stuck to more conventional gender expressions, such as Scarlet Fever, also known as Pj Corbal
’29, or Tucker Doubt, also known as Kayden Banks ’29, who presented femininely and
masculinely respectively. A few of performers transgressed traditional gender presentations, such
as Git Lucky, also known as Finn Franklin ’28, and Circe, also known as Toby Jensen ’29, who
both transitioned from a more feminine appearance to a more androgynous or masculine look
later in their performances. Git Lucky sunk into their skirt before shedding the garment
completely, while Circe more aggressively ditched a blonde wig and other feminine elements of
their outfit.
All performers have created drag personas for themselves, or identities that they don every
time they take the stage for a Gagged event. Notable drag personas that have appeared many
times on the Gagged stage include Lullabye, also known as Kai Mermis-Cava ’27 — the
coordinator of Gagged, and Severin Cox, also known as Annika Shinoda ’28.
When creating their drag persona, Leeper said they came up with the name and a vague
concept for the character, and has worked on refining details as they continue performing as
Meryl Wanna.
“She initially started off as a joke because when I was thinking of, ‘I want to do drag, what
should I do?’ The thought popped into my head of Meryl Wanna, your weed-smoking girlfriend.
Just name and tagline,” Leeper said. “From there, it was just kind of like expanding on little bits
and pieces that I just wanted to know about her… What do I want to incorporate into how I do
my makeup and how I do my hair?”
There is a lot of artistry that goes into crafting drag looks. Although by no means a
requirement, many drag performers enjoy finding elaborate outfits or putting on heavy makeup
to help enhance their extravagant performances. Getups ranged from outfits likely found in the
performer’s everyday closets, coupled with minimal to no makeup, to costumes acquired
specifically for this occasion, complete with full faces of makeup, such as Venn Lafaxine’s gory
makeup making their face look covered in blood and injuries, or Circe’s intentionally frizzy
blonde wig.
For Leeper, designing a costume for a drag show is the best part of putting together a
performance. Inspiration strikes them, and from that concept, the other elements tend to fall into
place:
“I’ll be sitting in class, and I’ll be like, ‘I need jean boots. I need my jean cowboy hat, and I
need an apron STAT’, and it just happens. … Also, I love, love, love an item. I love being
equipped with a thing. So I go costume, and then I go prop…And then we get the music, and it’s
only recently that I’ve started not just picking a song, but also mixing songs and mixing audio
and stuff like that.”
Putting on a drag show is an intricate process from start to finish. All the performers from
“Dead Man’s Party” deserve recognition for their abundant creativity and the energy that was put
into each of their performances. The show had a delightful mix of Halloween spirit, high energy
and queer joy that has always felt present at Gagged shows. I also congratulate the coordinators,
tech crew and tip fairies for making sure the show ran as smoothly as it did. The next Gagged
drag show will take place in February for Valentine’s Day. I strongly encourage all LC students
to check it out.
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Poor PJ getting singled out for “conventional gender expressions”. They are non binary and present more femininely for drag, just like Meryll. Idk how that’s conventional.