Welcome back to Queeries! I happen to find myself surrounded by wonderful people with the work I do and want to keep track of that here. Every month(ish), a cute lil interview will find its way into your inbox! Somewhere above this text, you can find the taping of our actual conversation, and somewhere below this text you’ll find my article-blog-post take on it.
The cell has this backyard, okay? And it is the most peaceful lil spot. During my time at The Trojans, I’ve been bouncing around the building with each interview I do, and the backyard has all the other spots beat. Today it’s not really quiet, there’s the sound of the air-conditioner fighting for her life and the various sounds of the rest of the cast taking their lunch and chatting on the terrace above us. But the vibes? Excellent.
I find myself sat on the stairs with Daphne Always. I am struck by her beauty every time I see her and this time is no exception. She’s my neighbor in the dressing room, and by that I mean she joins me on my lil couch(I haven’t gone on yet at this point). A special soul, I’m thrilled to be chatting.
She gives herself a humble introduction, mentioning her work in nightlife, burlesque and cabaret, tossing in theatre as an almost afterthought. We dive into my queries about the Creative Spirit. “I don’t think I really like considered myself a creative person, but I was always doin it.” she says. Daphne comes from an academic background. Having always been told she was very smart and ‘good at school’, creative endeavors took a bit of a backseat. I ask when it became a backseat driver situation. She tells me she was majoring in chemistry at NYU(women in STEM, whoo!), then came to the conclusion that chemical engineering wasn’t what she really wanted to do. That wasn’t the big leap quite yet, we stayed in academia, but pivoted to the classics, studying latin and greek.
We get into the Burlesque of it all. Daphne started in drag. Upon moving to New York for college, the gateway was open. “My first debit card purchase, I got my first debit card when I graduated high school, and the first thing I bought was a wig and heels and makeup.” She tells me it was an immediate pursuit. “Like my parents left, and I like immediately got into drag to go to the first party I could.” Eventually she began to be paid for her work, “and then as I transitioned and all that it went from just being in the drag world to having a lot of overlap with burlesque.”
In those early days, she tells me it was a lot of performing to the bartender and her one friend at a bar called This n That in Williamsburg. “And so I just got really comfortable on a microphone. And I think that’s been like a bit of a superpower is to like feel completely at home on a mic, and I think thats made me a really good host.” TnT closed, Daphne migrated to Eastern Block, then “a little less than a year later, Eastern Block closed so that it could renovate and re-open as Club Cumming” From there, the hosting of it all began to morph and change. After meeting “James Sheppard, my piano guy, he and I did Nightgowns together with Sasha Velour, I met him there.”, he came to see her Club Cumming show. They’ve been working together ever since. “That kind of launched it from being a drag show to a little more of a musician-y cabaret place.”
Daphne’s current weekly at Club Cumming still lives in that cabaret, salon kind of place. It started as Daphne Always and Her Brilliant Friends, where she would host and interview the performers. The project has since morphed into The Living Room. Same vibes, but we’ve gained a co-host. “It’s me and Grey and their parter Zoey on piano, guitar and bass respectively. We have a lil house band moment.”
The conversation shifts towards theatre. Of course, Daphne did theatre in high school(didn’t we all), but “when I started doing drag I was like, ‘I really liked acting’ but I never wanted to play a character other than myself… But I think after transitioning and feeling stable enough in my identity and my gender and all that It was more fun to be able to return to theatre and play roles, whereas in high school it was super super dysphoric”. The return to theatre has been loads of fun.
The Trojans specifically is a very interesting project for her to come back to. Daphne is in the role of Lucas, we’re playing a boy again. She tells me how she’s approaching it, “He’s a lot like what I was like at that age. And [I’m] coming back and having more love for this boy.” The process seems to be rather healing. Funny how that works isn’t it? She tells me there’s not as much of a need to dismiss that part of her. “I don’t need to put red tape or caution tape around that part of myself”.
We arrive at the capitalism question. [air horns] Of course she has a visceral reaction to this question. It’s a jump-scare for sure. She tells me it’s a constant negotiation. After doing shows full time, the pandemic put a stop to it all. “Living on the government’s dime for a while was like ‘this is significantly more money than I like, ever lived on’”. During that time, she started a tutoring job. It offered financial stability while shows weren’t an option. Of course as things began to open up again, things shifted to more shows than tutoring, and then eventually back to only shows. Throughout those transitions, it became clear that tutoring pays more than art pays. She tells me that after the Trojans it’ll be time to re-asses that balance. Sometimes it means saying no to things. Around that time, I have a question but it flees from my brain.
Flipping the coin, I ask about the creative processes for Daphne alone. She tells me,“Piano sort of occupies that place for me a little”. I am reminded of my own relationship with a piano. There’s a little bit of yearning for that joy of playing. “It is mostly for me. Like I can just sit at a piano and just like… play and make sound and feel sound and like it feels really good to do that… without the intention of ‘this has to be something that becomes a product to present to an audience.’” I tell myself there will come a day when I’m not scared of instruments anymore(working on it).
I remember the question that eluded me before! I ask her if she does her own management and admin work, and how is that for her? “It’s all me.” she says. She tells me she hates that side of things. I find myself thinking about this a lot actually. I find it to be terribly difficult to achieve ‘marketing’ work well. How do you strike the right tone without feeling icky? No one is teaching artists how to write copy(unless someone is, in which case can you send them my way). There’s also a balance to be struck in terms of going after what you want vs. ‘I don’t chase, I attract’ kind of thinking. “I trust that what’s mine is coming to me and will find me, but there’s certainly a balance to find and you can make yourself easier to find.” Daphne says.
We then get into the Instagram of it all. Is Instagram really doing anything anymore? It all feels rather dumb. When you promote yourself and your work, “It shows up in the same soup that they get updates from their friends from high school, gennoacide, and everything they're doing wrong with their fitness routine.” Then you get into an ethical conundrum of promoting yourself. “Like, you never know where someone is at when they’re receiving your message. If someone just did their daily news intake of the atrocities and then the next thing they scroll to is like ‘come see my show’, thats gross.” The theme I find to scoop myself out of such conundrums is to lead with the idea of joy. No need for a ‘call to action’, sometimes the delight of art existing and being available is enough.
I ask about the parallels between Daphne’s queer journey and her creative journey. “They’re the same… What I do as an artist especially as a sort of like cabaret creature personality whatever, is very much like, hey heres me… So kind of the art itself has been just like, the share of ‘heres who I am and heres music about it’”. I find myself reflecting on my own creativity and how it’s become interwoven with my identity over the years. There’s something in there about the journey and not the destination, I’m sure you’ve heard that one before.
Any messages for past Daphne? “Calm down.”
What about future Daphne? “Hope you’re still kickin’ girl.”
Towards the end of our chat, I am filled with such gratitude, not only to Daphne, but towards myself and the life I find myself living. What a privilege to be surrounded by such interesting intelligent people.
You can find Daphne on Instagram, online, and at Club Cumming every Tuesday night. Talk soon!
