“Before, the door was ajar. Now the door is moving,” likes to say Ariane Laguë-Barrette, who also calls herself Velma and Johnny Jones on stage. Sometimes drag queen, sometimes drag king, she doesn’t see why a woman couldn’t currently have her place in this universe and has therefore recently joined the drag agency Productions Midor, which serves as the setting for the new show directed by Simon Sachel for Me and Co. The documentary series The agency thus follows the plain, but always colorful, daily life of the ten artists who are part of this avant-garde company founded by Michel Dorion and Jean-Sébastien Boudreault.
According to Ariane Laguë-Barrette, there are still injustices in the industry, but things are still well and truly in working order. “At the start, I had a lot fewer contracts than my colleagues,” she points out. In recent years, however, there has been a reintegration of the king and all kinds of ways to drag. It’s really going better now! ” And his colleague at Productions Midor, Johnny Naoufal, alias Miss Butterfly, who bursts the screen with his eloquence and exuberance, to add: “All that brings a lot of colors and diversity that I like all the more today. today, being myself a racialized person. For him, no matter the years of experience, drags are constantly learning. “We discover new sides of drag that we weren’t used to in the past. I find it to be the fun and it just makes you grow, because it allows everyone to appreciate each other better”, confides the one who has a few decades on the boards to his credit.
For his part, Michel Dorion — also recognized across the province for being the personifier par excellence of Celine Dion — believes that this great transformation was partly made possible thanks to the arrival on the air of American reality TV. RuPaul’s Drag Race in 2009. Since then, he has seen new styles of drag emerge. “It was difficult: you had to change the mentality of everyone in the entertainment industry, the clientele, the bars, etc. In 2023, it’s better, but it’s not there yet…
Walking on eggshells in stilettos
If Michel Dorion welcomes the evolutions of drag, he nevertheless deplores a current climate intoxicated by repeated ultra-conservative demonstrations and petitions. “We are at the forefront and it is certain that it is not pleasant for us! But we understand that it is above all political appropriation by people who need attention… And we bring it, attention, ”he underlines. It is clear that, although he walks everywhere in the province, from Abitibi to Beauce via Saguenay, since 1988, the co-owner of Midor says he has never had bad encounters. “These are the people who come to get us and there are people who are curious to see us even if they have fears. Slowly, it is becoming more democratic, ”he notes.
According to him, the solution is to let everyone discover and understand drag at their own pace, according to their desires. “At the moment, we polarize a lot on hypersexualization. Some artists can shock, but there is also shocking humor and people who don’t like this type of humor, they won’t see them! he raises. The same goes for his milieu, which knows how to find its audience. “Shop the drag that suits you, what you want to see, and it will be perfect! strongly suggests Michel Dorion.
Of the need for an agency
“The viewers, what they see and what they ultimately remember are the wigs, the huge make-up, the extravagant costumes. But behind that, there are those who work hard and invest in a passion that is excessively expensive,” points out Michel Dorion. In this regard, the latter saw a real change on the financial level when his accomplice Jean-Sébastien Boudreault officially became his agent. “Jean-Sébastien negotiated fees and working conditions. This is where the idea of the agency was born: for someone to take care of everything,” he recalls. Even more, Productions Midor also has the mission of choosing its customers well and adapting to their needs.
For his part, Johnny Naoufal already had many contracts before joining the Midor agency. Rather, he came looking for professionalization, and perhaps even professionalism. “Michel, as he’s also drag, he understands how I live, which is not necessarily the case with clients. The agency therefore brought me the necessary discipline,” admits this night owl. Because his drag is very open and very sexualized, Michel Dorion’s supervision helps him find a more mainstream facet. I know I can have it, but I don’t always see it,” he says.
Because make no mistake about it, drag can be aimed at an audience of all ages. Proof of this is with Ariane Laguë-Barrette, who went to present her alter egos Velma and Johnny Jones in CEGEPs in the province. ” It’s the fun because these young people aged 16-18 are far away and they have finally been able to see drag shows that are accessible to them”, enthuses this one.