We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Jay Glams a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Jay, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Can you tell us about a time that your work has been misunderstood? Why do you think it happened and did any interesting insights emerge from the experience?

Often times myself as an entertainer I am misunderstood by other entertainers by the approach I take with my craft. My craft is very personal to me and designed to tell a story for my audience. Often times depending on what kind of performance I give, entertainers tend to not understand the choice being. Because our profession has been so saturated for the past few years, it’s very difficult to lead with a unique approach because now and days people want something that will make them money and is mainstream media. For myself, I’ve been refused by promoters, entertainers and venues because the fear of their customers not understanding or liking the performance. I’ve been in situations that I be removed from shows because of what my act will be. It does get frustrating because I put time and effort into my craft from sewing, makeup, transporting myself, and most importantly devotion. So not being understood and mischaracterize could at times hurt me but i tend to stay strong because I have faith in myself and my followers, friends and fans have faith in me as well.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

My name is Jay Glams, Im currently 24 years-old living in Los Angeles Ca, and I am a drag artist who’s been in the profession for 8 years now. I first got into doing drag when I was in high school sophomore year and my theatre class was having the annual school play. I auditioned did not get the part, however day of the show I made my own character up for one of the scenes and I without telling anyone I came out with my wig and dress and from that point on the reaction of the crowd really satisfied me and from there Jay Glams was born.

As a drag artist with experience i’ve learned to broaden my horizons when to comes to my craft. I perform original acts, improv, lip-sync, public speak, host, etc… However what my fans and audience best recognize me for is the experience they have when they come see a show of mine. Often time when you go to a drag show you go for fun and have a great time with friends and enjoy a cocktail, and yes its true, however when you come to my drag show you leave feeling arose with emotions, you feel inspired, and wanting to see more. Carrying myself with poise and confidence you want to know who I am, sometimes people may take me to be intimidating, but when you get to talk to me your idea changes and you wonder how can a beautiful being such as them have such charisma thats unmatchable. Well as someone who had a difficult upbringing, I take the experiences that weren’t so pleasant turn them around and create something beautiful. It’s taught me how to give back to the world with love because I did not have that growing up, but you would never know for the way I carry myself. That’s why when people come to my show, despite me having a beautiful face, you will most definitely remember me for the genuine person I am.

I’ve worked in plenty of spaces across the states doing my shows, public speaking, and representing brands. But some of my biggest accomplishments are getting with artist such as Tokischa, Marshmello, Summer Walker, Victoria Monet, and Pabllo Vittar. I in a million years would have never imagined to work along side artist in general with such huge names in the industry. Coming from where I did seemed impossible, felt like a dream. Thankfully my talents and charisma allowed me to partake in commercials and music videos along side them. Let alone travel across latin America impersonating my all time favorite Pabllo Vittar.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

As an individual growing up, my experiences with life has molded me to make it my mission to spread love, inspire, and encourage others to be themselves one hundred percent. I believe we live in an environment in which we hide from our truest selfs to accommodate what is expected from us by society. To others it’s an issue. I experience a lot of degrading moments with my peers in school and overall people in society. I constantly had to defend my honor and protect my pride because I was constantly being attacked for being uniquely myself. There were situations as a child, People would derogate me; provoking me to react. In some occasions I’ve found myself in situations that had me at no choice but to defend myself. Constantly, I had to tell myself this is temporary, continue being you, and you’ll find yourself prospering. What I have going on for myself is a gift. I couldn’t let others misery pull me from my happiness. I realized a lot of the time these people mistreating me were the ones dealing with their own issues, it was never about me. I never again brought myself down to a level of ignorance. In fact it made me want to engage with these people more and do some reverse psychology. My technique on reverse psychology is question their behavior and ask them “does behaving that way make you happy?” A lot of the time they take a step back and realize how they are behaving, had no point. With the method reverse psychology and a little bit of empathy, it helped me understand where these emotions came from. Since then it built my resilience because not only do I understand these emotions, but It gives me the power to broaden the perspectives of others.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

What is most rewarding to me is changing the perspective of others. I love it when I receive thank you’s from people who i’d least expect to reach. When you’re able to reach others who are not within your community, it feels amazing because now they have an understanding of what a person like myself goes through. It feels really good because I just didn’t imagine myself actually helping others find a piece of themselves or teach them to love themselves by simply just existing. And as cliche as it sounds it’s true, I like to say I radiate a light thats very gravitating to others and something about me makes others feel comfortable to share a piece of them with me. It’s a very nice feeling because I once was looking for someone like me for guidance, but then I realized how strong of a person I am and that I needed to experience what I lived in order to be the guidance I was looking for. So not only am I able to love myself confidently, I am able to teach others it starts with you, learn yourself and be okay with who you are. No one can physically change who you but you can definitely be influence. Therefore I made it my mission to teach self-love.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: www.instagram.com/jglamsx
• Facebook: www..facebook.com/jonathan.modq

Image Credits
Gabriel Renne, David Martinez, Adrian Rodriguez, Paco Gomez, Pawan Beam