The Drag Enthusiast: Harvest Dubois: Australia's Sweetheart

Taking a lot of inspiration from Trixie Mattel, Havest Dubois is known for her campy style and lively personality. She is quite new to performing, but her aesthetic would tell you otherwise. She resides in Australia where drag isn't too much different, but the main focus of performances is the performance because performers don't actually get tipped like they do in the U.S. Either way, Harvest has already won the hearts of many and is set on winning many more hearts in the future.

1. Who is Harvest Dubois?

Harvest Dubois is fun fun campy persona that is pretty much my boy self, honestly. I don't put on much of a character for Harvest, other than the boosted confidence that I get. She's loud, annoying, and always wants attention. I always have to put in a word whether it's shady or not!

2. Where did you get your drag name?

My drag name comes from a can of braised steak and onions! I'll find a photo for you! I originally wanted to be just Harvest and have a Milk queen aesthetic and be a dry harvest, wet harvest, midnight harvest, etc...but then my friend said I needed a last name and popped up has Dubois like French Dubois and I changed the pronouncing to the bois referencing that I'm a whore. ;)

3. When and why did you start performing in drag?

I started performing in drag in late July of last year. It was a good 4 months after I had seen my first drag show. I've always been interested in drag, I never thought I would ever actually do it...but after seeing that show, which was at our main gay night club in my city's birthday show, I fell in love and jumped right on the band wagon. Unlike a lot of queens, I stayed at home for good few months and practiced before I even left the house. For my performance, my good queen friend Kodi Pendant painted my face and gave me some tips before performing. I hadn't ever even left my house in drag, let alone perform, so being in heels in the middle of a night club was extremely new to me.

4. How is Australian drag different from American drag?

Australian drag really embraces the different styles of drag. If you havesomething special and different, you will really get praised for it in Australia. We do not tip the queens, and I've heard we prefer it, as it takes away from the performance. In my opinion, it's performance art, not how much money you can grab. We are all very campy and costumy queens over here but we do have fishy girls as you would say, but all of our costuming is actually costumes. It's very rare to see a girl just wearing our costumes as everyday clothing.

5. What has been your biggest accomplishment so far?

Shaving off my eyebrows! Nah, actually my biggest accomplishment in drag so far has been getting hired as a professional queen after such a short time of doing drag. I had only been doing drag for about 3 months before I got asked to star in a stage show at Connections Night Club for Pop Thursday's, which is run by the fabulous Barbie Q Coals. It's a drag queen night show with drag queen barmaids and the most camp music! I did Hairspray along with 3 other queens: Veronica Jean Jones, Barbie Q Coals, and Katya Kokov. After that, I was hired as a member of their drag queen staff and am constantly whirling around the club entertaining guests!

6. What has been your biggest obstacle?

My biggest obstacle would have to be overcoming my shyness. I've always been a shy kid, mainly because when I was growing up, I wasn't really allowed much of an opinion and had to keep my mouth shut. I think that's why I'm such an opinionated asshole now. I remember one night in January, I had a man come up to me in the club who was one of my good friend's friends and he started talking to me asking me about my drag and such and then he said to me "you're scared I can tell you are." I replied with "a little to be honest" and he made me grab his balls and said "look at that queen over there she's beautiful but she's boring as batshit. Do you want to be that?" I said "no", so he said "grab everyone by the balls and be a bitch. Be a big personality. You have the look. You have an attitude to go with it..." and that has helped me so much and I thank this man from the bottom of my heart.

7. Who would you say is your biggest inspiration and why?

My biggest inspiration is...you guessed it...Trixie Mattel. I've always loved big drag and as soon as I laid eyes on Trixie, I knew she was my favorite! I've been following her for a good time now I found her through the Neverland parties in Chicago, as another queen posted a video of Pearl around October of last year, and I watched it. The suggested videos came up as Trixie Mattel so I thought "hell let's see what we have here" and I instantly fell in love. She was performing "I Was Gonna Cancel" by Kylie Minogue. I really love the life like barbie doll aesthetic she does. I grew up playing barbies and being obsessed with everything girly so I really gravitated towards her. I also love the idea of not being able to recognize yourself. She has said "I utilize none of my natural features". When I first started following her, I was so obsessed that I kind of wanted to be her, so I was paintingvery similar for a good while. But then after thinking about it, I decided to take a few aspects of her makeup and make them my own so I wasn't stealing anyone's gig.

8. How long does it take you to get ready for a performance?

For me to get ready it takes about 2-3 hours to do my makeup. I'll be prepping my music about a week in advance and learn the beats and words.

9. What is something you want to change about the drag community? Why would you change it?

The bitchiness. It's awful. I'm all for a good read, but when stuff gets that competitive, and people start crushing light globes and putting it in face powder or swapping wig glue for super glue or something, it needs to stop. I don't understand how things can get so out of hand. Everybody should just love and be shady when needed for humor.

10. Where did you learn to do your makeup?

I learned a majority of my makeup from YouTube and studying photos and practicing. I did get a bit of help from a friend who is a makeup artist, and she helped me figure where to put things, cover my brows and all that jazz!

11. In your opinion, what is the most misunderstood thing about drag?

Not all of us want to actaully be women or want to always look like a woman. I like to look pretty but unnatural pretty. There is so much stress on drag queens to always be beautiful. I like to get dirty and try different looks and not always be pretty.

12. What is your favorite thing about performing?

The crowd response. I love seeing smiles in the audience and seeing people enjoying me on stage. I love when people have a laugh and can't take their eyes off you. It makes you feel amazing having people filming so they can watch it again...just makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside that people appreciate what I'm doing. Of course, once I'm done, the applause! The things for confidence an amazing applause can do to you!

13. What advice do you have for other queens who want to become great performers in the future?

Always be humble and accept advice. Don't be afraid to try new things, and be out of the box. If you have something special, show it, don't just blend in the crowd. Drag is forever changing, so don't ever feel like you have mastered it, because no one can master art.

14. Who has been your favorite queen to meet and why?

My favourite queen I have met would have to be Adore Delano. She is the sweetest thing I have ever met and so very talented. She was the first Rupaul's Drag Race queen I had met, and I loved her so much that I went back for her second show to meet her again! Such a kind soul.

15. Marry, Kai Kai, Kill: Latrice Royale, Phi Phi O'Hara, Trixie Mattel!

I would marry Trixie because she's good wife material. I would Kai Kai Latrice because I've always wanted to be with a woman of color and kill Phi Phi...I do love Phi Phi but not as much as the other girls!