It's All A Drag

WASHINGTON D.C. –– Dustin Michael Schaad sits on a stool in Three Fifty bakery, nestled in the corner of U Street and 17th. Oversized black sunglasses mask remnants of black eyeliner and sparse flecks of red glitter from the night before. A thick, plaid blanket-like sweater envelops his looming figure and drapes over his arms as he raises them to gingerly sip on his large iced coffee. The light scent of baby powder lingers in the air around him: soft, innocent, classic. An eavesdropper in Three Fifty would never guess that the 6-foot tall bald man perched atop the stool made a nightly transformation into a woman. Not any woman either, Schaad’s becomes Ba’Naka: a fun, loud, drag queen.

“Some people would say that drag is mockery and I do not think so,” Ba’Naka, 32, says. “I think drag is empowerment. We take the best of what we see in women and we make it bigger and bolder and bitchier and broader. You never see a drag queen imitate a meek woman. We always imitate the most powerful. So, I love it.”

Ba’Naka is extremely well-known in the Washington, D.C. drag community. He hosts Ba’Naka’s Trivia Night every Tuesday at The Dirty Goose, Tuesday night Bingo at Nellie’s, and Gay Game Show Night at JR’s Bar, to name only a few. Through his illustrious career, he has gotten opportunities to meet celebrities such as Ana Gasteyer, Anderson Cooper, Andy Cohen (who he notes that he did not like), Perez Hilton, Chris Crocker, and Rose McGowan.

“The money’s good, but entertaining is what I love to do,” Ba’Naka admits decidedly. “I love making people laugh and smile. And God, we live in such a crazy world right now, so I love to just take people’s mind off of the everyday. I get to pretend that I’m a beautiful woman. I get to pretend that I am a pretty, pretty princess and while doing that I get to make people laugh and forget about their shitty day.”

With a significant increase in viewership of shows like RuPaul’s Drag Race, the popularity of drag has skyrocketed in recent years. Due to this, Drag Race, which started on LOGO TV, recently transitioned onto VH1. Additionally, gay bars with drag shows are seeing an increase in attendance and demand.

“A typical day ends up with me waking up around noon, taking a shower, making sure all the makeup is sort of off from the night before,” Ba’Naka laughs. “If I have an early gig the next day I will try to be somewhat smart and my bags early - but that’s me being really careful. Normally I am flying by the seat of my pants, last minute walking out the door, I’ve lost my titty on the floor, grabbing it, tossing it in the bag. As I’m getting older I’m trying to be more responsible, but I’m not. I think anyone who’s drawn to being a drag queen is very artistic, eclectic, and scatterbrained.”

Ba’Naka grew up in Bradenton, Florida, a town just South of Tampa. With a very supportive mother, he had a fairly happy childhood, as he recalls the pre-Ba’Naka years with a smile.

“I was very obviously gay,” Ba’Naka says. “I mean, I loved wearing my grandmother’s hats, my stepmothers negligees, my mom’s heels. You could not stop me. They would try to take the Barbies away, and I would find a way to get them back. So, from a young age I loved all things feminine and I think a lot of drag is female worship.”

Ba’Naka came to Washington, D.C. at the ripe age of 18 after graduating high school. He worked for a men’s clothing company as a buyer for about nine years, which made him put drag on the back burner.

“When I moved to D.C. I had only been doing drag for about a year and a half before that - nothing good just high school theatre work,” Ba’Naka recalls. “When you’re in a gay neighborhood, working with gay clothing, you automatically have an in with gay nightlife. They always needed someone to host the fashion shows and emcee, so drag took a whole step up for me. I started getting my own nights here in the city and then in 2007, I was asked by what is now the number one gay bar in all of Washington, D.C. to join their cast and that changed my world.”

Ba’Naka attributes the launch of his career to three people: Kristina Kelly, Leena Lett, and the late Danielle Chrysler. Danielle Chrysler was a transgender woman from Florida who gave Ba’Naka his first chance when he was still living at home.

“She was this beautiful trans woman and she took me under her wing and put me on my first show cast ever. And taught me how to not walk like a trucker. She was the first one to give me a chance, in general, in drag.”

Ba’Naka began performing in drag long before it was considered mainstream, during the early 2000’s.

“Back in the old days before RuPaul’s Drag Race, drag queens ran the clubs,” Ba’Naka said. “We were the royalty! We got free drinks, decided who was coming in, who was going out. We could get people kicked out, and no one dared back talk a drag queen because if you did, you knew that you were about to be in a world of pain. But, since drag has become more mainstream people feel that drag queens are a household item and accessible. I’m sorry, but I like my drag queens drunk and bitter. I don’t want them child-friendly and accessible, but that’s the world we live in now.”

Ba’Naka thinks back to his humble beginnings as a drag queen who had to work hard in order to be successful.

“I literally had to claw my way to the top,” Ba’Naka recalls. “I learned how to do makeup in the back of a smoky bar, from a drunk drag queen who told me she’d do one half of my face, and I would do the other half.”

Ba’Naka plans to continue performing in drag for as long as he can, eventually retiring and doing something slightly different.

“People say, especially my mother, how much longer can you do this for? My goal is that I’d love to own my own bar. I would love to have a bar in New Orleans, especially on Bourbon Street where there is a niche market constantly coming in for entertainment.”

Ba’Naka takes a long drink of iced coffee, which isn’t even half finished yet. His eyes focus on the counter while he takes time to consider the transition of thinking about his future to the question of why he does what he does and what makes him continue to choose it everyday.

“I’ve actually had people say to me ‘my mother had died and I haven’t laughed for a month before I came to your show.’ It’s stuff like that that I take to my heart. Or ‘I just got diagnosed with cancer and I go to chemo next week and we wanted to have one last hurrah.’ I’m like ‘it’s not your last hurrah, honey. When you come back, girl if you need a wig I got wigs for you.’ It’s making people just forget the pain of everyday life and really enjoy themselves. All the while, I get to forget my own personal issues and don a character. And my character Ba’Naka is just a fun-loving party girl.”