Long-time writer and Playing With Purpose mentor Ronald Gordon attended Flame Con over the weekend. This is the second of a four-part series featuring his perspective and interviews.

By Ronald Gordon

Having only known about Drag Queens from RuPaul’s Drag Race and other facets of entertainment, meeting two awesome performers in person felt like meeting movie stars. I pursued an interview with Megami and Temple Grande. 

Megami, who was featured on Season 16 of RuPaul’s Drag Race, is a self-proclaimed huge geek and got her start in drag at Comic Con of all places. This year she appeared as not only one of many people giving out autographs at the Signing Tables, but also as the host of Flame Con’s afterparty Fireball, which is where I managed to get an interview. It had been a long day in Drag at Flame Con, yet in the in-between moments where she wasn’t dressed up yet for Fireball, Megami still had the makeup to match her Goddess namesake and was open to me asking her questions while drinks were shared, and music was blasting. 

Megami 

Ronald: Megami, the name comes from Shin Megami Tensei, right? But what else does the name mean to you? 

Megami: I would watch all the trailers and playthroughs of SMT when I was growing up and thought “This is such a f***ing cool game!” And being a huge weeaboo myself I was like “Oh! Megami means Goddess? You know what, that’s my Drag. I’m not a human being, I’m a Goddess!” 

Ronald: How has your Drag been influenced by fandoms and such? 

Megami: Some of the looks I try to do are very geek inspired. I just did, on one of the last episodes of Season 16 (RuPaul’s Drag Race) one of my looks was inspired by Fallout 4 Vault-Tec suit, but it was made to be the Drag version of that. I feel like a lot of my Drag ends up being “How can take this geeky reference, this geeky cosplay, and make it something that’s like C***y Drag?” I feel like that’s where I have a happy medium in between both of them. 

Ronald: How do you feel gaming can highlight Drag? 

Megami: Video games, especially like Video Game characters have always been super over the top, which that’s just Drag! Drag is just taking gender and just being super over the top with it. So I feel like video games and a lot of geeky franchises fit so well with Drag. Who doesn’t want to be a strong powerful witch that has guns in her heels? That truly is Camp and it’s Drag and I feel like there’s so much overlap between both of them. 

Ronald: Which games do you feel have the worst costume design?

Megami: The worst costume design? I feel like all of the games that are like: You’re playing the Middle-Aged White Straight Dad guy, and he’s wearing khakis and a button up? Things like The Last of Us, which are amazing games, but this is just clothes. I Feel like the best fashion design is always ALWAYS Final Fantasy X-2. The fact that the entire game mechanic is based around changing your clothes in the most over the top Sailor Moon type transformations? That’s Camp, that’s Drag, that’s why we love that game. 

Temple Grande was a similar sort of geek, having gotten into Drag through anime inspirations and continuing to look for grander outfits to pursue because of this. I found her at the same time I approached Megami at Fireball and noticed that their styles were different but equally as stunning. Temple Grande’s style of Drag emphasized her natural body/facial hair; she was wearing a long dress with her chest hair out, a beautifully done up wig, and a pointed mustache with a beard to match. Immediately after interviewing Megami, I set out to learn what I could about Drag from such a talented local Queen like Temple Grande. 

Temple Grande

Ronald: How’d you get into Drag? 

Temple Grande: I’ve been doing Drag for about 5-ish years, I love that I get to become a different person with every new wig and outfit I put on, and it really soothes the creative part of my soul!

Ronald: Are you into gaming/fandoms much? 

Temple Grande: I love Zelda, of course I’m very excited for the new game where I get to play as Zelda for the very first time, I also really like Anime. I’ve been watching Kaiju #8, Delicious in Dungeon or Dungeon Meshi, Frieren Journey’s End, I’ve been obsessed.

Ronald: How do you feel Drag has changed as of recently? 

Temple Grande: Definitely with (RuPaul’s) Drag Race and the local modification of Drag, folks get really specific because of what they see on TV, they think that’s what’s always going to happen. And that does happen, but a lot of local Drag is very no holds barred, it’s very magical. Anything can happen. It’s not really about being produced, it’s what you can produce. I love it. 

Ronald: What’s your dream outfit, if you had nothing holding you back from producing it? 

Temple Grande: Proceeds to Google Search a picture of Ragyō Kiryūin from Kill La Kill 

Ronald: That would be amazing, especially the hair! 

Temple Grande: The hair! I wanna know, like is it LED lights? How do you make it? I’m obsessed. No holds barred, the feathers, this S*xpot dress, there’s not much to it. But it’s the shrug, the hair, it’s just gorg (Gorgeous), I love it!

*****

These interviews have shown me that Drag Queens are not only fabulously dressed, but also have such charismatic personalities that it’s hard to end a conversation with a Queen and be unhappy. You can find Megami @MegamiNYC on Instagram, as well as on Season 16 of RuPaul’s Drag Race. Temple Grande can be found similarly on Instagram @Temple_Grande, but also at “La Hump, A Burlesque Spectacular” happening in Astoria soon!

Ronald Gordon is a New York Videogame Critics Circle Member & Mentor. He was the first of our writers – or any intern anywhere – to complete an internship at Rockstar Games.

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