My name Kraven Strange. But mostly around the scene and places I go, people just call me Kraven or I introduce myself as Kraven. That’s also a little bit of a trans thing, just not exactly identifying with my legal name at this point.
Can’t really think of anything better.
Also Kraven’s really good.
It’s fun. I really do love my drag name a lot. At first I was Craven More, with a C, C-R-A-V-E-N, and I wanted a punny name, something that demonstrates what I do, since I lean more on the comedic side of drag. But then it felt boring, didn’t quite fit. So I came up with Kraven Strange, which is also a pun, but more specific and evocative of what I want to do: strange shit. A lot of what I do isn’t what you see in mainstream drag. So Kraven Strange lets me lean into strangeness and be proud of the weird ideas I have. It gives me confidence.
Cool. Um, so what pronouns should I use to refer to you in drag and out of drag?
In drag, he/him. Out of drag, they/them.
Amazing. Can you describe your gender and sexual identity?
I am a non-binary lesbian. I’m attracted to women and other lesbians, however they identify. I love being a lesbian. I really identify with being a dyke too. That word means a lot to me and, like my drag name, gives me confidence. A word and identity that makes me proud of who I am.
Where are you from and how long have you been living in New York?
I’m from Delray Beach, Florida, about an hour north of Miami. I moved up here in 2021. I graduated college in 2020 with a performance degree… what a great degree!
Last semester was remote, so I had to do performances remotely, which was fun. I stayed home for a year, then moved up here. I was thinking of Philly, but New York has always been the end goal. Got a good COVID deal on an apartment, still there.
It’s been nice and stable. I was trying to do the acting thing and hadn’t started drag yet. Technically I’ve been doing bedroom drag since 2020. I had my first performance in 2022 and have been plugging along ever since. So it’s been a fun journey, learning about myself, my community, and the people around me. Pink Metal… feels like home. They have an open stage every week, where I started getting consistent with drag, building community, and seeing people grow along with me. It’s been lovely.
Can you tell me a bit about Kraven? How would you describe him and how did you create that person?
I started out drawing first.
Before Kraven, I did drag and makeup looks, but didn’t have a specific stamp or look. I started drawing him to develop that.
Does the drawing of Kraven look like how you are as Kraven now?
I hope it does. I like to think so.
That’s so cool.
Let me pull something up… one of my first ones, very, very first one.
The stash and brows - just slap those on and immediately you read that. I wanted something like that, also the eyes, for ease. I don’t have to think of something new every time. I like structure. Playing within structure helps me not feel overwhelmed by choice. Instead of taking six hours to get ready, it’s two and a half, still trying to cut it down.
Was this style inspired by any performer you’d seen, or how did you come to that? It’s such a distinctive look.
My biggest drag king inspiration is Landon Cider. Very well known, as he should be.
That extreme glam but evoking masculinity is what I wanted. I also love cartoons, cartoon villains, and wanted that feeling reflected in both the drawing and my makeup. I try to do that with my numbers too, to get that feeling across.
Yeah, no, totally.
Could you give me some context about the shows I shot. I have pictures of two different events.
Yeah, so the one that you recently saw me at, the Drag King Bingo, that’s an open set by Cunning Stunt, who is, as you know, a fucking fantastic drag king.
So good. So amazing.
An awesome producer, just really a great king. He truly is a king and brings that to life into the community. He has this open set. It’s funny, I was supposed to do it in February because it’s a bi-monthly thing, then it got moved. Eventually I was going to do it in April, but we settled on March. I was really antsy to get on that stage and be part of it. It was really fun. I’d never been to that venue before.
Yeah.
I get a little nervous if I’ve never been somewhere, especially performance-wise, because I don’t know what to expect. But it was a really fun space to play in, and I’m really grateful to Cunning for letting me do that and giving space for kings specifically, which you don’t see a lot of.
Many open sets are open and wonderful, available to anyone. But it’s nice to see a space centered toward kings in the city.
Yeah totally. Can you remember the first ever time that you did drag?
And what was that like?
Honestly, I maybe kind of recreated it at the QAMP show. My first time ever doing drag… I’m a musical theater kid. Unfortunately, a weird musical theater kid, still am, proud of it! When I was nine, my first musical was The Little Mermaid Jr. and I was cast as Grimsby, Prince Eric’s little manservant, in drag. I was devastated when my mom read me the role… like, “Are you kidding me?” I was a little nine-year-old girl already bullied for how I looked and presented. I didn’t want to do it.
Yeah, like ‘this is gonna make it all even worse’.
Exactly. What nine-year-old girl wants that? Also, I was trying to fight some early sense of transness without the language for it, trying to be a “normal little girl.” But I ended up embracing it. My mom gave me a speech: “You’re cast as a boy, but that means you’re a fierce actor; not many girls can do that.” Funny now. She’s very supportive of my drag. She’s coming to one of my shows in April. Even though we had some tough times when I first came out, my parents have always been supportive of my performance and queer life, which is really nice, especially coming from Florida, not the most gay-friendly place.
Definitely not.
So I put on a little George Washington wig, which I also wore at the QAMP show, and played the best manservant I could. I had other stints too. When I was 16–17 at summer camp, we wrote and performed our own musicals, and I wrote myself in as a drag king MC for a vaudeville show. That MC character fully influences who I want to be in drag now. I try to honor my younger self, my aspirations, and my offbeat interests.
Definitely the costuming aspect. I make my own costumes more often than not.
Wow.
That jumpsuit - the main part I made, not the undershirt. I was a costume kid in high school too. It’s impressive and frustrating. I get in screaming matches with my sewing machine, but I have fun. You can make anything. I love that. It reminds me of drawing and art, bringing it to life.
Wearing something you made yourself is empowering. People asking where you got it from and saying, “I did it myself” - one of my favorite feelings, in and out of drag, but better in drag because of the headspace.
This is a two-part question: what’s something you love about drag, and what’s something that frustrates you?
I love the transformative aspect. Becoming a totally different person that’s still linked to me. It’s like a Frankenstein’s monster situation: I brought him into the world, can’t get rid of him, and have to take responsibility. Sometimes he scares me because I have to make his costumes and do his makeup. The character really only comes out on stage. I want to extend that off-stage. He’s my monster: equal parts pride and burden.
Frustrations: the lack of visibility and spaces specifically for kings, or generally welcoming spaces. I’ve been lucky, but many are not, especially in conservative or remote places. Highlighting kings benefits everyone. Others can see themselves and think, “I can do that.” That’s how I felt seeing Landon Cider. I didn’t know drag kings existed until then. We need more visibility and expansion of the mainstream definition of drag, which is inherently transformative and expansive. Limiting it harms everyone, even queens in the mainstream box.
Do you think things are changing?
Definitely, slowly but surely. Hopefully exponentially. More kings in shows, hosting, and weekly events will gain momentum. I hope it continues to evolve. Change is good, staying the same is boring. More lesbian bars would help too, so few exist. I love Henrietta Hudson and QAMP, but I want more spaces for everyone to do this.
The fact that that’s the only lesbian bar with a regular drag show is crazy.
Shocking. Lesbians love drag… it’s untapped! More spaces can only help the community.
Yeah… Go-to performance song?
I don’t know if I have one! Many numbers are prop- or costume-based, which I don’t always have on hand. Genre-wise, I love ’60s and ’70s music: Elton John, Tom Jones. The number that encapsulates my character is Careless Whisper.
I want to see that.
Yes! Classic number. I sing Careless Whisper live and play the sax solo on a kazoo - hidden reveal: twist in the number. I love singing live, being silly, making noises. That song was a favorite as a kid. My dad told me it’s the saddest song ever. I didn’t get the lyrics then. Now performing it as an adult, I appreciate it more: it’s sad, but also silly, especially with the kazoo. I like poking fun at my own overdramatic nature.
That was always kind of my goal with my drag: to be a singing king. And I love it too. I love doing it.
You know, it’s just unfortunate because I can’t always do that at every venue. And honestly, I don’t always want to do it, because I do have to, you know, warm up, take care of my voice, be very diligent about that.
So sometimes it’s just… I am so relieved when all I have to do is lip sync.
Yeah, no, yeah.
But you know, I like to, I feel like I do a pretty even mix of both at this point, because I find myself getting sick of one over the other, really often. So it just kind of cycles itself out.
I’m itching to lip sync now, because my last performance was live singing. So yeah, it is kind of an even balance of both, I would say, because I do love to do both. And I think both of those options bring something different for me to focus on and to enjoy in the moment as I’m performing it.
Do you do other sorts of performance that’s not drag, like singing?
Um, musical theater? Yeah, I do.
I’m not auditioning these days, or actively pursuing that. I’m more focused on my drag as my art that I do outside of the day-to-day grind job and bullshit.
I was doing musical theater. I have a few things here and there, just, you know, usually from friends that I know, and people that know that I do musical theater, and saying, I’m not really actively looking for things like that.
Yeah, I do enjoy doing that.
I really love working on new things.
I love new musical theater. I love fresh work and learning new songs and new music and new stories.
The most recent musical theater thing I did was with Truth Bachman, who’s a writer.
The show was called Second Sight. And it’s just a very trans narrative written by a trans person. And so that’s the space that I want to be in. I want to be a part of it because that’s kind of why I stopped doing musical theater: there were no listings for non-binary people. You kind of have to choose one or the other. And I don’t like doing that as a non-binary person.
What I love about drag too, is it’s fully your own production. You’re doing the costume, you’re doing the directing, you’re doing the sound design, everything. And I like that part of it as well.
Do you feel that your foray into drag and the development of that has changed you outside of drag?
Oh, definitely. I think it’s made me trust myself more. Trust my decision-making skills, you know, which are still questionable. But you know, it’s lovely to see something that you’ve made, see something that is well received by other people.
Like, you know, I love applause. Every drag person does. So that external validation has allowed me to find my own internal validation and be able to, you know, when I’m having those moments where I’m feeling unsure of myself, and like, “Oh, I can’t do it. I can’t do this. I can’t make this,” it’s like, “Well, you made this, you did that in the past, you did these really cool, awesome things.”
If nothing else, at least you’ve got that. And also, you know, I think it allows me to have a better work ethic now, and better time management, honestly, which I wasn’t expecting. I definitely did not think that drag would give me better time management skills.
Why?
Mostly project planning, because I can’t, you know, procrastinate in my day-to-day life. There’s not really many consequences other than, like, “Oh, I’ve kind of disappointed myself more than anything.” But with drag if I don’t do this thing, I feel like I’m disappointing other people. So I get this kind of fire under my ass to get these things done. Not that really anyone actually cares.
And because of the other things and other numbers and other deadlines that I’ve reached, I know how long it takes for me to do things. I know how much time I need to allot for certain things. And yeah, it keeps me grounded in a weird way, which I’m very thankful for, because I need groundedness. I need to be grounded.
What’s your shoe situation?
Oh, I only have, I have one pair of shoes that I use for everything. Just these clunky black platform heels. They’re easy to work in with what I do because I’m not like a dancer. So I’m not really like, I don’t need to worry about that kind of thing. So just a nice sturdy boot that I won’t break my ankle in is what I need.
Black goes with everything. I feel like most performers do a standard black heel shoe situation until they, you know, decide to branch out from that.
This is like kind of my uniform, lowkey. Which is kind of also something that I got from drag: just to find pieces that make you happy and make you feel like yourself. I feel like I didn’t necessarily do that as much before I started doing drag. Interesting.
My belt. My carabiner. Of course.
Do you see yourself doing drag for a really long time?
I hope I do. I definitely see it as being something that I’m probably not going to stop doing for a while. Because it’s how I’ve met like most of my friends. It’s where most of my social circles are.
And it just, you know, it makes me so happy. And it just scratches an itch that I don’t think anything else can really hit exactly.
Were you expecting the drag community to be the way that you’ve experienced it?
I think yeah, I’ve been so lucky in the places that I’ve started out and found. I have had nothing but support in the beginnings of my drag career, I guess, if that’s what we want to be calling it.
You know, because I feel like community is at the forefront of drag and has always been. And, you know, even places that don’t necessarily fulfill that, they say they do anyway.
I’ve always had that sort of like idealized version of, “Oh, like, when you’re here, you’re family.” But I have actually felt that way with a lot of the places and spaces I’ve been in, as of late, and in my humble beginnings.
Do you think that there’s a distinction between the drag thing and king side of drag and the side that’s more like traditionally mainstream?
I think right now there definitely is. And I think the distinction is… I don’t know… I mean, it just depends on the queen really, and depends on the person because I don’t like to say that all queens are not interested in seeing or giving space to drag kings because that’s not true. In my case, all of my paid gigs have come from queens willing to give me a shot. So it really just depends on the person, the place, very individual kind of ideology because there’s some queens that are so down and so cool with it.
Then there’s others that are not so much. But also the ones that are not so much, they make it very clear from the beginning. So typically, for me, anyway, very easy to avoid those people in places.
How how long does it take you to get ready? You said two and a half hours? That sounds pretty reasonable.
Thank you. There’s some people who have much more elaborate faces than I do.
And they can get ready in like an hour, hour forty-five. Or you know, it’s crazy to me. I’m trying to cut it down. I’ve been trying to do more practice runs of makeup. Lately, I’ve only been doing makeup when I’m supposed to get into drag. But I want to practice more so I can play around with it more because as much as I like having this particular stamp, I want to also try different things.
Do you have any idea about what you’d like to try?
Lately I’ve wanted to start doing more because when I first started doing makeup, just in general, I would like to follow other drag queens like makeup tutorials. I think I want to start doing that again. Just for practice sake. And also, you know, trying to find new shapes that fit me because I can’t think of anything but you know, the more you try stuff, the more you see like, “oh, like, a rounded edge here looks, you know, suits my facial structure”, or like whatever you know, do that and that.
Did you ever experiment as like a, like a persona of a drag queen or drag thing before you landed?
So before I landed, yes. I started out doing like drag queen makeup, because I was like, it was like my first year of college when I really started doing that.
And I was going to a different school that I ended up graduating from in the middle of nowhere. So I was like, it was Muncie, Indiana Ball State University. So I was so miserable there. I was just so lonely. I just felt like I really couldn’t connect to anyone. And so I would spend every Friday alone in my room, my dorm room, because my roommate would leave for the weekends, too. Which was kind of nice. I did like having my alone time. But um, so I would just sit there, watch the newest episode of Drag Race and like play with makeup.
And so I was doing queen makeup then. And then I do have a queen persona. It’s mostly a joke within my job.
Her name is Chik’n Tender Queer. I hate Kraven, but I hate Chik’n more.
Why? Chik’n is like, is it spelled like chicken?
No. So it’s spelled C-H-I-K apostrophe N. Okay, and then tender queer. She’s meatless, little meatless Chik’n. That’s more of a joke that I’ve done - Chik’ns never like actually actually performed.
Okay, yeah, she’s performed for my drag mother for her birthday. She specifically requested a number from Chik’n, which we have been making jokes about.
It was one of those things where we saw a sign that said, like Chik’n Tender spelled like that. And I was like, oh, like Chik’n Tender Queer, wouldn’t that be such a funny drag name? And everyone agreed. And I adopted Chick’n as like my terrible drag queen persona.
The idea and it’s just like the running jokes that I’ve had with my family are that Chik’n is Kraven’s daughter, but it’s also Kraven in girl drag. So you know, do with that information what you will.
But she’s the worst. I like to think of it as I’m ego. Well, no, I’m super ego, me out of drag, super ego. Kraven’s ego. And then Chik’n is the id. So I don’t know. I’m not sure if Chik’n will be let out for any performances anytime soon.
That’s hilarious. I’m gonna keep my eyes peeled for Chik’n.
You never know, it might happen.
Would you ever do like that kind of performance that they do with the half, you know, the half face? Yeah, you could sing they always do like a ballad song to that.
Yeah, you get like the falsetto out.
Oh, yeah. Well, I’ve trained in opera, which is also something that I’ve wanted to kind of incorporate with myself.
Okay, I would love to see a drag king singing opera.
Well, you see so many queens doing it, you know. Not so many, but you know, many queens that sing eventually delve into opera at some point.
Did you ever watch Lazy Town?
Robbie Rotten?
Yes.
Obsessed. I love that guy. Does he also have a mustache that’s like, um, you know?
I think so. He would be a good drag king.
Oh, he is a drag king. Robbie Rotten. I think it’s a purple suit. He doesn’t have a mustache, but he does have a jumpsuit. Very similar to some of Kraven’s outfits. I mean, his pants are up to his nipples.
I wish he had a mustache.
Oh, it’s the other guy in Lazy Town, I think. Yeah, Sportacus.
He has the mustache.
Amazing. Well, any final remarks or yeah, anything you’d like to leave?
I think this was so cool. We’re talking about visibility and putting kings and things and folks at the front and giving them more visibility. And this is how we do that. Things like this are how we do that. Cause like, you know, doing drag, we do it. And of course that, you know, obviously we’re making the product, so we’re putting it out there, but it’s people like you that give it a platform and like archiving and documenting this community is so important, especially now. So thank you for doing this. And everyone else should be doing this too.
Which amazing images, by the way, your pictures are so fucking good.
I actually really love taking them.
Oh my God. And we literally love you for it. Cause you know, you can only fit so many people in a room for a drag show.
And also only so many people can come out for a weeknight drag show.
So it’s amazing to have people that can document it. And also give so many shits about it. Like I love that you care about this.
This isn’t just a project.
Yeah. Well, thank you so much.
Of course. Yeah. Thank you.
This was so much fun.