Four Inane Questions with drag king Victor Shawn

Courtesy Victor Shawn

Victor Shawn pops and locks. He grooves and moves. In this town, the ultra-athletic drag king extraordinaire is known as “Mr. Facial Expression.” He’s also “the love child of Usher and Beyoncé, the ex-boyfriend of Janelle Monáe, and BFFS with Childish Gambino,” as he states on his Facebook profile. 

When he’s not busy bringing down the house hosting shows at Missie B’s and Fountain Haus, VicSlick (which is his Insta handle, btw) is out and about in the community helping mentor up-and-coming performers. 

We caught up with Shawn in-between performances (and general mustache maintenance) to ask him our query of Four Inane Questions. He had to grab a mic to answer—because, of course, he did.

“Never a dull moment when I’m on the mic!” Shawn says. 

The Pitch: Who’s a celeb that we don’t know is wearing a wig/hairpiece that clearly has a fantastic wig/hairpiece?

Victor Shawn: You know, in my line of work, everyone wears a wig/hairpiece, so I just assume everyone else does. [laughs] But I did watch a TikTok recently that said Harry Styles is rocking one.

What’s your must-have, go-to caffeinated drink?

I’m so sensitive to anything—Sprite can get me jittery. But if I need something to keep me dancing for a 3-6 minute song, I will say half a can of blueberry Red Bull. 

Which award do you want to win more—an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, or Tony? 

Since I’m such a musical Broadway freak, I would say Tony award, for sure. I always wanted to play Seaweed from Hairspray.  

When was the last time you had knock-you-on-your-ass food poisoning?

Oh, we are bringing up bad memories. It was last year when I decided to try a new restaurant called Overly Expensive Seafood. And I had their salmon—my favorite food—with mashed potatoes and asparagus. 

I’ve eaten enough salmon to know something was “fishy” about it, but I was starving after our 35-minute wait. That night the salmon decided to, uh, swim back upstream and then downstream. I had to cancel all my shows the next day because I was still too shaky. I lost 3 pounds, though. 

Bonus 5th Question: You have a free trip to any city for 24 hours. Where are you going?

I went to Seattle three years ago, and it was definitely a vibe. The seafood was incredible, and the city is beautiful. 

They have this beautiful Starbucks Roastery with these beautiful craft cocktails. I would definitely spend an entire day just eating, walking around, and drinking.