'You could hear a pin drop': Shea Couleé recalls her very first drag performance
Couleé shares the story in a conversation with Q's Tom Power
From her very first drag performance, Shea Couleé was destined to become a legend.
It was July 17, 2011 and Couleé had just graduated with a degree in costume design from Columbia College Chicago. "It really is burned in my memory," she tells Q's Tom Power about her first time on stage in drag.
Her friend had been putting together a vaudeville, burlesque and variety show that featured all-Black talent, and she wanted Couleé to join the chorus line.
"I was like, 'Yes girl, I'm here to absolutely support you in whatever you want,'" recalls Couleé, who had been performing in musical theatre since the age of nine. "So she accidentally sends me this email that was intended for the solo acts asking for all the details."
At first, Couleé was confused, but then she got an idea: why not try doing her own solo act in drag?
"Cut to the night of the show, I believe it was at the Greenhouse Theater in Chicago, and she's bringing me on," says Couleé. "There's been tons of performances so far, mostly performed by cis women, you know, very traditional, sexy Black burlesque entertainers, icons, everything. And so she's announcing me and she's like, 'OK, so our next performer is a drag queen.'"
A hush fell over the crowd.
"The majority of the audience were all aunties — like middle-aged Black women from their 30s to their 50s," says Couleé. "There was kind of like this record scratch where they were like, 'Oh, I don't know. What is this about to be?' Girl, you could hear a pin drop. And just when you're about to go on stage, too, that's kind of a crazy energy."
Performing to Suga Mama by Beyoncé, Couleé came out wearing a tuxedo jacket, shirt, tie and hat.
"I hit the stage and the light comes up and it's just my silhouette," she says. "They took just one look at those legs and those ladies went up, like they were screaming and cheering so loud before the number even started. I could barely even hear the music start."
Looking back, Couleé says she wasn't "the most beautiful, polished queen" at the time, but the audience still ate it up. After she finished her routine, stripped down to nothing but a G-string and some pasties, she received a standing ovation.
"Up to that point, I had never received that much applause and love from an audience," she says. "In all my years of doing theatre, never, ever, ever, ever, ever…. I just felt such a sense of validation from that experience that I was just like, 'Girl, I think I should do drag, right? I think they're kind of living for that.'
"I really want to bring back that number now. Having done drag for 13 years, let's have Shea Couleé now go and do that number and see how it looks. I think it would be kind of sickening."
The full interview with Shea Couleé is available on our podcast, Q with Tom Power. Listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.
Interview with Shea Couleé produced by Matthew Amha.
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