Dustin Schlong: 2018’s Best Drag King

Almost any given night on a drag stage, you’ll see some of Denver’s proud kings strutting alongside the queens. In fact, with the advent of drag nights like Weirdo and Koven popping up all the time, it’s no surprise that drag is becoming one glorious, amorphous style of performance art where the boundaries between drag queens, bio queens, drag kings, and general self-expression become blurred, and everyone is just there to dance.

It wasn’t like that a few years ago. In fact, when local king Dustin Schlong first mentioned his desire to don a fake mustache and get up on stage, he was brushed off.

“I used to frequent going to Charlie’s all the time to watch the Good Christian Bingo every night and fell in love with watching the performances and Kai Lee Mykels,” he told OUT FRONT. “Then I made a mention of it to some friends one day, and this guy just shot me down, said it was meant for guys dressing up as girls, and I kind of brushed it off. Then I stumbled into Blush & Blu one night, and they were having a drag king game night.”

Dustin began to look up to kings and queens in the community. He eventually found a drag mother, Vivica Galactica, a well-known local queen who has since moved on to New York, and a drag brother, Calder Goodlay. And he began to cultivate his own persona.

“When I first started drag, he kind of had a whole f*ckboi persona,” he explained. “When I’m out as just me, not in drag, I tend to be a little bit more shy, and the Dustin persona is kind of a complete flip of that where I can be this confident guy.”

As he kept performing and honed his skills, makeup, outfits, and moves, Dustin realized he was more confident all the time when he was dressed like a man, because he was a man. Up until his drag took off, Dustin had identified as cis female, but never really felt confident owning that label. He realized that, at least for him, it was more than just an act. It was a way to realize gender expression.

“I recently came out as trans in the past year, and a lot of that came from doing drag. I would get ready for a show and see that confidence, see a side of me I’ve never been able to express and play with and really hone in and own it. Being able to live such an open life has been very reassuring.”

This attitude also gave him the confidence to to get more creative on stage.

“With gender being a spectrum, you can do a king performance but do a lot more gender bending with it,” he said. “People always used to aim for masculinity, but now you can play with it more and make it more glamorous with a feminine edge. Now that’s a part of the art of drag, and you can bend it and have more fun with it.”

As soon as Dustin embraced both the androgynous, slightly femme side of being a drag king and the fact that he identifies as a man on and off the stage, he started getting even more comfortable, and experimental, with his drag. Instead of just sticking to the f*ckboi persona and playing up being a loveable jerk, he started to venture outside of those tropes and embrace a dorkier side of drag that better reflects his everyday life. He has even coined a new style, “dad drag,” personified by goofy jokes and looks.

Fast forward to today: Dustin just won Best Drag King in OUT FRONT’s Best Of poll and is about to start his very own show at Gladys, All Night Schlong. The show will feature up-and-coming kings and all king performances, all night long. He is also a photographer with Tits, Tucks, and Genderf*cks, a group that specializes in taking pictures of drag kings.

“A lot of it has been having to prove who we are and what we’ve got, but it’s definitely getting there,” he said regarding the local drag king scene. “I’m excited for this next stage where I get to give new kings and the local scene a stage to perform on.”

Look out for Dustin doing big things on stage as both a performer and an MC in the coming year.

Featured photo by Stu Osborne