Drag queen, actress and comedienne Maxi Shield is set to debut her very first comedy show, The Whole Tit and Kaboodle, at this year’s Sydney Comedy Festival. Armed with a sparkly microphone, Maxi promises to spill the tea on the funniest moments of her 26-year career.
“Exciting-slash-terrifying,” is how Drag Race Down Under Alum Maxi Shield has described dipping her toes into comedy for the first time in her career at this year’s Sydney Comedy Festival.
During her 26 years performing (largely behind the mic), she admits that people often come up to her and tell her how funny she is. But it was signing with Seismic Talent Agency that pushed her over the edge. “Maybe it was [Seismic] kicking me up the ass and telling me to do it. Maybe that was the boot up the bum that I needed,” she says.
For those of us lucky enough to witness the show IRL, Maxi promises, “I wanted to keep it true to my drag roots, so there’s gonna be a slideshow, there’s going to be drag performances, there’s going to be videos. It’s gonna be silly. I’m telling stories about anything from the start of my career to the end of coming out of drag race.”
“I’m trying to tick as many of those boxes as I can, but still keep on track (which is very hard for me),” she jokes.
Providing A Modern Gay’s Guide with a taste of what’s we’ll be seeing during The Whole Tit and Kaboodle, Maxi says, “there’s one section that I’ve called ‘Maxi and Sex’ and, y’know, in the 90s, to have sex with a drag queen wasn’t a thing. A lot of people would love to be your friend, but when it came to finding a boyfriend it was almost impossible.”
“So I actually go through stories of, you know, when I went on a date and he told me that he was a knitter. So I thought okay, well this is on the right track to maybe let him know I’m a drag queen. And then when I told him, he ran away.”
“So, yeah, I’m gonna touch on bits and pieces like that. But then I’m also going to show a few slides of what I’ve looked like in drag when I’ve had people proposition me. And let’s just say it’s not always beautiful.”
For the Drag Race fanatics in the crowd, Maxi acknowledges it would be stupid of her not to talk about her time on Drag Race Down Under, alluding that she’s going to be spilling the tea on some BTS goss.
Unfortunately, however, she says that the sparkly microphone she’ll be wielding is not the same one that she whipped out during her iconic lip sync with fellow contestant Etcetera Etcetera (to Vanessa Amorosi’s ‘Absolutely Everybody’). “That microphone is actually on my mantlepiece right next to my diamante’d banana flask that Madonna gave me,” she laughs.
Maxi Shield’s The Whole Tit and Kaboodle – full of stories “as big as my boobs” – debuts at The Factory Fusebox on Thursday 27 April, and again on Saturday 29 April and Sunday 30 April. Tickets on sale now.
