BeatRoute Magazine B.C. print e-edition - December 2016

QUEER
RAYE SUNSHINE
she’s extra!
DAVID CUTTING
Imagine a child at home in Mission:
playing alone, obsessed with Sailor
Moon, and imagining a world in which
they create artistic performances of
their very own. These are the humble
beginnings of the drag behemoth
known as Raye Sunshine.
With horrible pencil thin eyebrows
and a thirst for audience adoration,
Sunshine made her first appearance on
the Odyssey stage performing to “Boys”
by Britney Spears. Having grown up gay
in a small community, Sunshine was
prepared for what the drag scene had
in store. “I’ve been hated my whole life,”
she states. “I just don’t give a shit.”
Dubbed the “Supermodel Empress”
during her reign, Sunshine did a staggering
22 courts and visited everywhere. She
was driven to ensure that she represented
the Vancouver community on as big of a
scale as she could. Traveling as she has,
she learned a valuable piece of wisdom.
“It’s not about pleasing the other girls, or
hyping up a promoters ego or a visiting
Ru girl,” she says. “The most important
thing is the audience, the ones that came
to see you perform.”
“The worst thing you could ever do is
just walk past and stay within your group.”
Sunshine understands what is
truly responsible for her success and
she honours that. “Mingle,” she insists.
“Use that drink ticket to buy someone
standing alone a drink, ask them what
brought them out. For fuck sakes, smile
at the group of new people at the club,
‘cause chances are those are the ones that
will come and fill the seats at your shows.”
Sunshine is also an accomplished
makeup artist and is always willing
to lend tips and tricks to new queens.
Being able to express her creativity in
different ways is extremely fulfilling
and the help she lends to new queens
is a mark of that — she wants to see them
learn and grow just as much as she has. Not to
mention, her looks are creative and edgy,
and are accompanied with performances
where every detail is considered and
executed with great intention.
“It’s the thrill of creating something
on stage that a community can talk
about,” she explains. “Using art to
create conversation makes everything I
do worth it. I get to live in my fantasy
world that I’ve created, being as bat shit
crazy as I am, millions of ideas tumble
through my head with in a single
day, creating those ideas into life and
executing them into reality is a thrill.
That thrill of the stage, the roar of the
crowd and the gasps make it worth it,
but also feeling that fear right before I
go on, is addictive. If I ever lost that fear
before going on stage I would probably
quit drag because at that point it’s not a
risk or a challenge anymore.”
Sunshine is a drag fixture, and when
we talk about the future, she has a very
clear idea of what she wants to achieve.
“I want to expand my ‘empire’ and show
the world my love of drag,” she says. “So,
who knows where I’ll be, but I do know
I will always perform in Vancouver
because without this city and the
people that raised me up, I would still be
that new boy in a dress walking around
Bingo collecting donations.”
Catch Raye Sunshine on January 13 at the
Commodore Ballroom for “It’s Just Drag.”
Photo by Chase Hansen
28 QUEER
December 2016