Inkubus Is Ready For The Whole World To See Her, Warts And All
Image: Image: @devereuxxo
Before Inkubus was building elaborate, chilling looks for The Boulet Brothers’ Dragula, she made outfits for Barbie dolls.
These days, the Gold Coast performer has a slightly more demanding model to dress: herself. And unlike Barbie, she occasionally needs a bathroom break.
“I’m putting on like six different pieces,” Inkubus tells The Star Observer, describing an outfit that might be buttoned, pinned and sewn in different places, with Velcro and buckles to contend with too. Getting out of it in a hurry? “It’s not an easy process.”
It’s an occupational hazard for an artist who grew up collecting fashion dolls and sewing the clothes she wanted to see them in. Working on that tiny scale taught her how much she could change a silhouette just by mixing and matching pieces. She still collects the dolls, but there’s a particular pleasure in getting to wear her designs these days. “I basically am my own muse now,” she says.
Speaking just before season seven premiered, Inkubus had already discovered one drawback to appearing on American television from the Gold Coast: some of the big reveals were happening at three in the morning, Australian time. Then there was the small matter of getting up for work. When we spoke, she’d had a quiet day in her day job as she prepared for the upcoming fame and recognition that comes with appearing on an international reality television show.
“It’s certainly a bit strange to be seeing myself on such a large platform and then going to a nine to five,” she says. Finding time around shifts to make costumes can be tricky, but there’s a good reason to keep clocking on: “I wouldn’t be able to create the costumes that I do without my day job.”
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From the gallery to the floor show
Drag entered the picture in 2021, when Inkubus was finishing her Bachelor of Fine Arts at QUT. For her graduating gallery presentation, she made a series of self-portraits as the Venus de Milo. Her version was neon pink, with a Lady Gaga-inspired seashell bra and an enormous wig. For her first public outing in drag that Halloween, she went as Tippi Hedren from Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds.
Those two women give you some idea of the range of reference material rattling around in Inkubus’ head. Sometimes a song suggests a character. Other times she makes a costume first, then finds the music and builds a skit around it. Give her a theme like witches or sea monsters and you’re asking her to do much the same thing she does for a gig in Brisbane.
“I felt at home with the idea of being given something and working straight off that,” she says of her time on Dragula.
However, Dragula wasn’t her first shot at reality TV, she did try her luck with season four of Drag Race Down Under. “I Got a lovely little email that was a thank you for applying but no thank you,” she laughs. She could see the appeal of getting to make things on that scale, but she also had reservations about where an alternative artist might fit.
“I felt that being on a show like Drag Race, I would be seen as a little bit more of a novelty than just a contestant like anyone else.”
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How do you ask for help with a secret?
Inkubus first auditioned for Dragula for season six. The second time around, the auditions took place over Zoom, and once she got the green light, she was straight into sorting flights, passport details, and what she was going to take with her. There were people she would have loved to ask for advice. There was also a non-disclosure agreement.
“How do you ask those sorts of questions when you’re not supposed to talk about it?”
Her immediate family could know, and she had three people in her corner to help make things and answer questions. There are practical limits to doing it all yourself: Inkubus doesn’t own an industrial sewing machine, for instance, and she’ll take a hand with wig styling. Handing over more of the work is another matter.
“I’m very bad at asking for help,” she admits. “I’m very much a person that would rather just take the load of everything. And if it doesn’t get done, then that’s on me.”
At home, that can mean taking fewer bookings to give a look the time it needs. “I prefer to spend more time on my drag so that when I do produce something, it is the best quality possible.” And even when there’s work, she says, it’s getting harder to find gigs that cover travel and the cost of living, a struggle many in the industry have experienced.
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More than the Aussie in the room
Inkubus wanted viewers overseas to see what was coming out of her community back her in Australia. She also wanted a fair crack at the competition without her Australian accent becoming the most interesting thing about her. Among the artists she wanted to impress were returning contestants she’d watched on television. Now she had to compete against them.
“I wanted to go in as myself,” she says. “It was very daunting to go up against so many big names.”
“Everyone wants to have intentions of winning and getting all the money and the glory and the fame… [but] my main goal was to get onto this platform and to be part of the Dragula legacy.”
Inkubus also wanted to showcase the community that helped her reach this point, giving international viewers a chance to see the enormous creativity coming out of her Australian drag scene.
What stayed with her about the Boulet Brothers was how they treated the cast once everyone was in the room. From a viewer’s couch, it’s easy to start picking favourites. On the other side of the camera, Inkubus appreciated feeling that the people making the show wanted something good from each of them.
“They really cater to everyone’s needs,” she says. “They wanted to make sure that we were putting the best of ourselves out there, every single one of us.”
Since this interview, two episodes of Dragula have aired, after some rocky critiques in episode one, Inkubus went on to win the main stage challenge of the second episode.
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