If you loved RuPaul’s Drag Race and fancied giving it a go yourself, Greenwich’s Ye Olde Rose and Crown pub is giving aspiring “drag queens, drag kings and drag things” a chance to strut their stuff this summer.
The Have You Got The Balls? contest starts this Tuesday and runs every week through to a glittering finale at Greenwich Pride on August 17. where one lucky performer will be crowned the ultimate champion, and will win a guaranteed monthly paid showcase at the venue.
Local drag legend and bingo caller extraordinaire Miss Aisles is hosting the contest, and is looking for performers who can bring a five-to-ten minute number to the pub this month.
She told The Greenwich Wire: “In a drag queen, drag king, or even a drag thing, we’re looking for someone who can entertain the audience and bring them into a world that is engaging, funny and escapist.
“Audiences want to feel emotions, they want to laugh, to feel uplifted and sometimes even cry. So if you can elicit any one of those responses, without causing physical pain, you’re on to a winning act.”
The contest starts the countdown to the third annual Greenwich Pride, which began in tribute to Michael Joyce, who had organised an annual charity drag race through Greenwich since 2007.
“We are continuing his legacy while incorporating the wider Pride celebrations,” Miss Aisles said.
“The event has gone from strength to strength. Last year we had over 1,000 attendees through the day and no corporate sponsorship, and well over £1,000 was raised for Mind, Terrence Higgins Trust, Albert Kennedy Trust and Macmillan Cancer Charity.
“The fact that the numbers of attendees have gone up year on year shows just how important this annual event is.”
Miss Aisles calls Ye Olde Rose and Crown the “beating heart of the LGBTQIA+ community in Greenwich, Lewisham and further afield”. She usually runs a bingo night on Tuesdays, while there are drag shows on Fridays and Saturdays and a pub quiz with “the 1940s Blitz babe herself, Miss Queera Lynn” on Sundays.
It was a pub quiz at the now-closed Woolwich Equitable that saw the birth of Miss Aisles as a stand-in when the regular compere took a week off.
“I had dipped my toes in drag in various parts of my career, as an actor and working on the London club scene, but I went to a quiz at the Woolwich Equitable a few years ago that a friend, Topsie Redfern, was hosting,” she said.
“She asked me to cover the next week and, lo and behold, Miss Aisles was born! Who knew such talent would arise from General Gordon Square?
“Miss Aisles is here for a good time, and hopefully a long time, she’s the best of south London – warm, witty, and a complete mess.”
Have You Got The Balls? starts on June 11 from 8pm at Ye Olde Rose and Crown, 1 Crooms Hill SE10 8ER
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