Drag queen Sheila Simmonds chats Conchita, QVC & RuPaul

With drag seemingly everywhere at the moment, we thought we’d catch up with veteran drag performer Richard Rhodes and his Aussie alter ego Sheila Simmonds. Currently starring in Viva la Drag! and appearing on new reality show Drag Queens of London as part of The Supreme Fabulettes, Sheila’s going solo with her debut one-woman show at London’s Leicester Square Theatre next month.

Here, Richard tells us what we can expect from the musical comedy show, what it takes to be a top drag queen and what he makes of drag’s current popularity in a post-Conchita Wurst world.

How would you describe Sheila’s performances to someone who’s never been?
“Sheila lives in her own polyester world. She’s basically stuck in the ‘70s and thinks she’s absolutely fantastic – which she is – but she lives in Sheila-land; she doesn’t quite have a grasp on the real world.”

And what is “the Quest for the Golden Name Badge”?
“Well, Sheila is presenter for a home shopping network over in Woolloomooloo, Australia. QVC have offered to bring her over to the UK to promote their products, and basically Sheila’s dream has always been to get a gold-plated QVC name badge – it’s like an Oscar for home shopping presenters. But when she gets here things happen and she ends up getting dropped by QVC, the shit hits the fan and she decides to set up her own channel on YouTube to get a name badge. She’s also accompanied by her assistant Jean. They have quite strange relationship, and Jean always tries to get revenge on Sheila in her YouTube videos. Jean will also be appearing in the show – doing the sound of course. Jean doesn’t speak. I might make her a little sign for the audience saying ‘Do not feed Jean.’”

Is there much audience participation?
“Well, there’s stand-up comedy and original songs, and yes, there’s lots of audience participation because Sheila loves to interact with her fans. There will also be lots of handing out of Werther’s Originals from her iconic white handbag.”

Why does she have such a thing for Werther’s?
“Well, the thing is you see, having a Werther’s just helps take the edge off. As soon as there’s a volatile situation she just opens up her handbag and everything’s kind of alright. She’s changing the world one Werther’s at a time, along with her hashtags. She doesn’t know what hashtags are, bless her, but she thinks ‘Oh that sounds nice, I’ll do it.’ She doesn’t have a clue.”

Does she struggle with the modern world?
“Yes, but she thinks she’s doing alright.”

Who are Sheila’s style icons?
Well she’s her own style icon really, but the Littlewoods catalogue was her big inspiration growing up. It’s the crème de la crème of catalogues and she was a big catalogue queen, and of course she’s an ex-catalogue model as well. She was the first woman in Woolloomooloo to model non-flammable polyester nighties. So anything from the pages of Littlewoods empire stores, you name it.”

She’s had quite the career.
“She won Miss New South Wales 1976 representing Woolloomooloo, and she was also on Young Talent Time with Dannii and Kylie, and she did actually perform with them as SDK – Sheila Dannii and Kylie, but due to scheduling difficulties the project never got underway. But she knows the Minogue sisters very well.”

Sheila’s very different to most drag personas out there. What was the inspiration for her?
“Well, I’d been doing my other character Cookie for 18 years, but she’s very much a bars and clubs kind of girl, and I wanted to do something more theatre-based. Cookie was very glamorous so I wanted to do something completely different. It’s very bizarre going out in flat shoes, I’ll tell you. A lot of the sketches were just things I had written with nothing in mind, so I tweaked a few things and packaged it together.”

Is Sheila a fan of Conchita Wurst?
“She actually liked one of Sheila’s Instagrams the other day. She was very chuffed.”

Can you see them working together?
Oh, of course! Can you imagine Conchita and Sheila’s duet? It would be Elton John and Kiki Dee, Don’t Go Breaking My Heart, I can see it now. But when Conchita won Eurovision, it was such a huge moment and such a great political statement – and I think she completely achieved what she set out to do, which was to cause this big uproar and open people’s hearts and minds to equality. I doesn’t matter what you wear or what you say as long as you’re not hurting anybody, and she’s shown people that.”

Obviously you’re a bit of a veteran, so what are your impressions of the London drag scene? Do you find it a supportive environment or quite catty?
“I mean of course there’s a bit of cattiness, we’re all queens and that’s part of it. But I wouldn’t like to be starting out right now because there’s so much more competition than there ever was before, and fewer venues to work in. The London scene is very diverse and the new lot of queens are very Drag Race-influenced, there’s a lot of people bringing back miming and I’m not sure how that’s going to work. It’s not that I’m not a fan of it, because there’s room for everything. If you do it well, it can be just as good as seeing someone singing live, but London has such a tradition of live performances. But there is a Drag Race influence now so maybe we need a revival of it.”

Drag does seem to be everywhere at the moment…
“Oh my God, yes, what with Drag Race and Conchita Wurst winning Eurovision. If you look back, though, drag queens were always at the front of things, be it the Stonewall riots or whatever. Artists are always at the forefront of change, and I think people are starting to appreciate drag as an art form again. It’s not just sticking on a dress, and shows like Drag Queens of London are showing people the guys behind it, and they’re very talented people who are often theatre-trained.”

You’re appearing on Drag Queens of London as part of The Supreme Fabulettes. What have you made of the show so far?
“I think anything that sheds light on our world is great! I like that there’s a balance between showing us as boys and girls, as well as everyone’s humanity. I think people in our world need to stop criticising the show –  we need to just think about how great it is that we’re getting airtime and a voice. Let’s come together and stop slagging each other off.”

What’s the secret to being a great drag queen?
“Firstly, you have to really enjoy doing it. First and foremost you’re a performer so you have to enjoy that. It takes dedication, and that’s true with anything. It’s difficult, you get a lot of knockbacks and you have to do a lot of things for free when you start. But there’s no better way to learn than on the circuit because people will tell it to your face if they don’t like it, and I always think the best way to learn is to fall flat on your face in front of an audience.”

Who were the drag queens that you looked up to?
“I started off in America so a lot of the people that influenced me are all over there. RuPaul, Sherry Vine, Raven, all of that lot. My influence is very much from the New York scene. I went to drama school there and a friend of mine was friends with RuPaul, and I went to see one of his shows and just though ‘God I need to do that!’ And I never looked back!”

Sheila Simmonds and the Quest for the Golden Name Badge is at London’s Leicester Square Theatre on Wednesday June 25 and Sunday June 29. To book tickets click here.

Follow Sheila on Twitter @sheilasimmonds or visit sheilasimmonds.com