4 days ago
'King of Drag's' Perka $exxx says his drag combats 'the horrors in my day-to-day' (exclusive)
For King Perka $exxx, watching himself on the first season of King of Drag was, in a word, a 'mindf*ck,' but doing the show itself was a 'great time' for the drag king, whose wicked paint and endlessly quotable, hilarious quips quickly made him a fan favorite.
It's hard to imagine the season without the Charlotte, South Carolina-based drag star, but that's nearly what happened. 'I almost quit. I almost didn't go,' he reveals. When the drag artist isn't thrilling audiences with his transgressive and political performances, he's a college student with a job 'working for, like the big evil bad coffee company,' and finding a balance between all those priorities almost became too much for Perka. 'It was a lot, and I couldn't just quit my job...I wanted to make sure I had a life to come back to. So it was difficult trying to prepare while trying to also keep my life together,' he recalls.
'I just had to talk to myself: 'Calm down. It's okay, don't focus on winning. Focus on having fun and having fun making memories,'' he says. 'I told myself, as long as I keep having fun, I won. And also, if I didn't win the horror challenge, I was gonna quit drag.'
Bobby Kerns
Thankfully, he did, with a performance that laid bare both his journey to coming out as a trans man and the trauma of the lack of acceptance from his mother. It's a performance so real and so raw that Perka admits he hasn't been able to watch it. 'Oh, I can't watch my floor show. It triggers me,' he says. 'When I do scary horror drag, one of the reasons why I like doing it is that if I'm the scary thing, that means I can't get scared, and I can't be scared if I'm the one that's in control and doing the scaring.'
And nothing is scarier than trauma. 'People [online] are like, 'Oh, why didn't they do things like, like spiders or like sharks?'' he reveals. 'A shark isn't gonna tell me to drop dead over eating cereal. A shark isn't gonna do that to me.'
'I see on the Reddit comments people [asking] why is Perk so mean to himself?' he shares. 'I'm like, bitch, that's what my mom said to me as an adult, imagine when I was a kid.'
There's no shortage of things for Perka to be afraid of living as a Black trans man in the South, something the performer acknowledges. 'I use horror drag as a way to navigate the horrors that I just face in my day-to-day existence,' he explains. 'I always joke with people — kind of joke, kind of not I want to do something scary and dangerous, I'll just drive past a cop car. If I want to do something that's dangerous, I will just exist at night and walk too close to a white lady, and then that's dangerous for me. I could walk in a neighborhood and not wave to someone, and then that becomes a dangerous situation for me. I could just drive through a really rednecky rural area and see the Confederate flag flying everywhere. I could do that. That's scary for me.'
Erin Teresa Browning
What wasn't frightening for the drag star, however, was the dynamic between him and the rest of the cast. 'The entire time was a bro fest,' he says.
The cast also helped relieve some of the pressure Perka felt walking into the Man Cave when it came to representing the entire drag king community — a feeling that was all too familiar to the king. 'I feel that pressure every time I do a drag show, I'm like: I'm the first drag king they see, if I fuck up, they will never like drag kings again,' he says. 'Also, just to be real, I was like, if I'm the only Black person, or one of few Black people on this show, I have to [do well]. Then I saw [King] Molasses and Pressure [K]. I'm like, 'Oh, okay.' So, that took a lot of pressure off.'
Perka, who sits at the crux of a lot of different intersections, was relieved to see how many of them were represented among the cast. Whether that was his fellow POCs, trans folks, campy horror kings, or cat dads, he says. 'I'm here to honor Black people with no rhythm,' he jokes. 'I just hope my population feels represented.'
Rachel Ziegler
That closeness created in the Man Cave, and at the hotel after filming wrapped each night, forged powerful bonds that continue to this day, but they could also make the eliminations particularly emotionally charged, as when Perka sent his friend and hotel roommate, Buck Wylde, home in the second episode.
'I felt like shit when I sent Buck home because I felt personally responsible,' he recalls, 'Especially since the night before we went to a park, we were working on our things together.. We're over here talking about our dreams and futures."
Perka felt awful, so he ducked into the closet of their shared hotel room to have a private moment. 'I just started crying,' he shares. Making matters worse, he discovered that he couldn't open the door from the inside. 'I was literally just trapped in the closet, and I was too afraid to ask for help, because I'm like, 'I don't deserve Buck's help.'' Eventually, Buck discovered him in the closet and the two had a good laugh.
'Buck was super supportive,' says Perka. 'The next day, he said, bring back a win for 594, which was our room number, and I brought home the double episode win. It felt good. It felt good to know that Buck didn't go home in vain.'
Perka certainly left an impression each week, whether it was with his heart-wrenching 'Death of Your Fears' horror challenge, or his hilarious impression of Steve Urkel in 'The Dong Show' challenge. Although, Perka confesses, he really picked the character as an excuse to dress up as Sonic the Hedgehog. 'If I had to pick between Urkel and Sonic, I would have picked Sonic because I like dressing up as animals in drag, not as another person. That's boring. I'm already a dude. Why would I be another dude?' he asks.
Izzy Berdan
While he's mostly excited that people have begun to associate him with the videogame character, he wouldn't be mad if news of his performance made it to the actor who famously brought Urkel to life. 'I just want people to tag Jaleel White in that photo,' he says. 'If they ever do a Family Matters revival, I will be Urkel like I am trans masc. I will look 12 forever. Let's make some money off of it.'
Still, being on television comes with heightened scrutiny from would-be critics, which Perka shrugs off. 'Oh, I'm used to people wanting to talk about me because I'm just very interesting, and some people are just petty and boring,' he jokes. But it also means being more visible at a time, in a country, where existing as a drag artist, let alone a trans man, can be dangerous. But Perka is keeping it in perspective.
'You're not gonna find a drag king unless you're looking for a drag king — and at that point, why are you looking for drag kings? It's like, it's like the thing of, like, 'Oh, my God, my uncle saw my gay porn. But wait, why is my uncle looking at my gay porn?'' he jokes. 'If I'm doing drag and if someone's like, 'Oh my gosh, I don't want you around my kids.' I'm like, 'Bitch, I don't want to be around your kids. Is little Timmy tipping?''
nachonovio
That being said, he's already felt some invasion of privacy due to well-meaning fans online creating posts outing him and using his off-stage name. 'I literally had to make a Reddit account,' he reveals. 'And I was like, 'Hey, y'all Perka here. I appreciate the sentiment...I understand what you were trying to do. And I did say on the show what my first name is. I did say that I am trans, but the context is that you have to watch the show to find out those things about me.'" Instead, he jokes, fans should feel free to pass around his Cash App.
It's the same reason he gets frustrated when well-meaning fans call for drag kings on other shows, like RuPaul's Drag Race. 'You're advocating for me to be on reality TV where I'm going to spend a lot of money, I'm going to get read to filth by 10-year-olds, and I probably won't even win,' he says. 'Instead of wanting that future for me, why don't you take me to [Applebee's] to get a '2 for $20'? One of these things is a more immediate reward.'
While Perka may not be rushing to apply for another reality competition right now, the platform proved to be a great showcase for both his personality and his talent. He's very grateful for his journey on the hit Revry show. So, would he ever do something similar again? Maybe.
Bobby Kerns
'I'm glad I did King of Drag first. I'm glad I was around, like, brothers. I was competing with brothers. That made the experience a whole lot better. I wasn't around a bunch of bitchy drag queens. No shade to drag queens, but some of y'all are bitchy, narcissistic bitches, which is why no one wants to date you,' he jokes.
So, when will we see him on our TVs again? It may be a bit, but not forever. 'I feel like after a few years, when my non-compete is over and I can get my bank account padded up a little more, I would audition for something else, I would,' he shares.
While Perka might not have snagged the King of Drag title, one thing is clear: he knows he's won anyway. 'We all feel like winners already,' he explains. 'Because it's the first season [and] we're setting up a long legacy that's gonna happen.'
Oh, and again, if you missed it the first time, here's his Cash App.
This article originally appeared on Pride: 'King of Drag's' Perka $exxx says his drag combats 'the horrors in my day-to-day' (exclusive)
