Divine (performer) - Drag Persona and Performance

Drag Persona and Performance

Divine: "How much did you pay to get in tonight?"
Audience: "Ten dollars."
Divine: "Well now, that's eight dollars to see the show - and two dollars to fuck me right after. All line up outside the dressing room and I'll be here till Christmas!"

After developing a name for himself as a female impersonator known for "trashy" behavior in his early John Waters films, Divine decided to capitalize on this image by appearing at his musical performances in his drag persona. In this role, he would be described as displaying "Trash. Filth. Obscenity. In bucket-loads." Divine himself would describe his stage performances as "just good, dirty fun, and if you find it offensive, honey, don't join in." As a part of his performance, he would constantly swear at the audience, often using his signature line of "fuck you very much", and at times would get audience members to come onstage, where he would fondle their buttocks, groins, and breasts.

He became increasingly known for outlandish stunts onstage, each time trying to outdo what he had done before. At one performance, held in the Hippodrome in London, that coincided with American Independence Day, Divine rose up from the floor on a hydraulic lift, draped in the American flag, and declared that "I'm here representing Freedom, Liberty, Family Values, and the fucking American Way of Life." When he performed at London Gay Pride parade, he sang on the roof of a hired pleasure boat that floated down the Thames past Jubilee Gardens. At a performance Divine gave at the Hippodrome in the last year of his life, he appeared onstage riding an infant elephant, known as Bully the Elephant, who had been hired for the occasion. Nonetheless, Divine was not overly happy being known primarily for his drag act, and would tell an interviewer that "my favorite part of drag is getting out of it. Drag is my work clothes. I only put it on when someone pays me to", a view that he also echoed to his friends.

Divine and his stage act proved particularly popular amongst gay audiences, and he appeared at some of the world's biggest gay clubs, such as Heaven in London. According to Divine's manager, Bernard Jay, this was "not because Divine happened to be a gay person himself… but because it was the gay community that openly and proudly identified with the determination of the female character Divine".