We recently connected with Morgan Wood and have shared our conversation below.

Morgan, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Earning a full time living from one’s creative career can be incredibly difficult. Have you been able to do so and if so, can you share some of the key parts of your journey and any important advice or lessons that might help creatives who haven’t been able to yet?

In 2020, mid-pandemic, while I was hosting digital drag shows from home in Berlin, Germany where I was living at the time, I decided I wanted to do drag full time. It was a decision that didn’t really make sense given the circumstances, and having only been doing drag casually for 2 years at the time it was perhaps difficult to convince others I could make it work. The important thing about the decision was I had convinced myself I could make it happen. Maybe that’s delusion? Anyway, in spring 2021 when things started opening up for outdoor events, I spammed all the venues I could find in Berlin that might be suitable for a show, and the one that said yes happened to be a beer garden. So I started hosting an in person show there which quickly became very popular, perhaps partly because it was an early evening show aimed to ageing millennials (like myself), which filled a niche that until then was missing in Berlin: all the drag shows before COVID were late at night in smokey clubs, often beginning as late as midnight. I was absolutely too old for that! 3 years later that show is still going in Berlin even though I now live in Los Angeles, and I remotely produce, promote and organise it from here. So basically, I started drag, and then got a work from home job! By starting my own show, proving to the venue that it was a worthwhile investment, and by including a wide array of performers who were often excluded from other shows, I got a level of exposure in the drag scene in Berlin that I had previously not known. This lead to bookings of all other kinds: large pride events, corporate gigs, one-off holiday events, and other regular appearances. Within 2 years of starting that outdoor show in May 2021, the booking fees from all these events together was enough to support myself. I should also mention that it it turns out that I am also very good at my job, being skilled at organising and coordinating events with venues, performers and other necessary technical aspects, and being an excellent host. Humblebrag!

Morgan, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I’ve been fascinated with ever drag since I saw the 90s Australian film “Priscilla Queen of the Desert” in 1998, when I was 13 years old. When I saw that film, I thought “I wanna be a drag queen when I grow up”. Unfortunately, internalised homophobia put a stop to that idea back in the closet pretty quickly, and it wasn’t until I moved to Berlin and started going to drag shows in 2017 that I remembered it was something I had wanted to do but never allowed myself to express. The safe, welcoming spaces I found at drag shows in Berlin allowed me to explore it, and after an invitation on stage by another queen, I started experimenting with drag at home, and had my first stage appearance in July 2018. I continued playing with it, mostly as a hobby for the next 2 years. But then I made the decision to go professional in 2020. Now, I think the thing that sets me apart from others in my field is that I make a lot of effort to make everyone feel included at my shows. At the end of the day, I’m a cis white gay man in a dress, which if we’re honest, is a little tired and played out at this point, so I’m very interested in including other kinds of performers with different intersectionalities in my shows. For example drag kings, broadly speaking, often get left out of the drag scene in many places, and I felt it was my responsibility to use the platform I’d created with my shows to uplift and showcase kings just as much as other queens. I think my shows left an indelible mark on the drag scene in Berlin, and even now from afar, I can see the effect they’ve had on the community there after just one year away.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

Since my variety of creativity often involves working directly with other creatives (drag artists in my case), I often find the experience of creating a space where other artists feel able to fully express themselves to be extremely rewarding! To me, there’s nothing like witnessing another artist shine on a stage that I invited them to perform on, because ultimately no art form is competitive, it’s collaborative and I’m only as good as the others I surround myself with.

Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?

While I think it can be nice to have a social media following, I never made it my priority. I was always more concerned about making my in person audiences feel included, welcome and part of any event I produced. That said, since my specific art form is almost always showcased in front of live audiences, I would often use the fact that I had them captive to my advantage in building my social media following, by directly encouraging them to follow me on Instagram or sometimes even necessitating it in order for them to engage in the show somehow, such as anonymously submitting questions for me to answer live during the show. The fact that they were already there and enjoying my events made it easy to convert those people into followers, since I’d already convinced them in person that I was worth following. I know this won’t apply to all kinds of creatives, but I guess my advice boils down to: be interesting enough that people want to follow you, and you won’t have to work hard on making (or worse: paying) them do it!

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/morganwoodcallisto/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/morganwood86