L ifestyles /C ulture
Award-Winning Drag Queen Reflects on Art
PERFORMANCE SELAH MAYA ZIGHELBOIM | JE STAFF
IN ERIC JAFFE’S HOME,
there’s a shelf lined with wigs, a
closet full of glittery dresses and
a menorah by the front door.

Jaffe, 29, was named Drag
Queen of the Year at the annual
Philadelphia Drag Awards on
Nov. 30. Sitting at his vanity
— piled with makeup, brushes,
books and another wig — Jaffe
explained his approach to drag.

“In the mainstream, drag
is mostly identified as female
impersonation,” said Jaffe, who
is Jewish. “I do not identify it
as that. Drag is sort of anything
that elevates you to an exten-
sion of yourself or of another
character, and it can be defined
by physical things, like the way
that you dress in appearance, or
it can be from within. Drag has
a very broad definition. There
are a million kinds of drag.

“For me, my drag is a per-
spective on gender itself because
I am a bearded drag queen.

That’s beautiful, that you can be
a glamourous creature who still
has a hairy chest, a beard and
those kinds of features.”
At various venues through-
out the city, Jaffe plays uku-
lele, sings and does comedy
as a drag queen. He also has a
monthly cabaret show at Tavern
OnCamac. Its takes him two
hours to do his makeup, he said.

He wears wigs and an assort-
ment of different dresses, includ-
ing pieces made by his partner,
balloon artist Greg Laut.

This was the first year Jaffe
was nominated in a category
other than alternative drag at
the annual Philadelphia Drag
Awards, Jaffe said. While he
has performed in cabaret shows
for the past five years, he has
transitioned into performing as
a drag queen over the past two.

This year, he won best alter-
native drag queen and best
host, in addition to drag queen
of the year.

20 FEBRUARY 21, 2019
Eric Jaffe at his vanity
“Over the years, I just
started experimenting more
and more with what it would
be like to play with gen-
der,” Jaffe said. “I’ve always
enjoyed and relished the fact
that gender was a man-made
construct. As I got more and
more comfortable on stage,
I decided to play more and
more with those concepts.”
Recently, he has blended
drag with theater. In October,
he played the host in Basic
Witches at the Arden Theatre.

In January, he starred in a
satirical version of Sweeney
Todd called Thweeney Todd:
The Flaming Barber of Fleek
Street, which he also wrote.

The show took two months
of rehearsal and had a cast of
15 in “various states of drag,”
Music Director Foster Longo
said. This included drag queens
and drag kings but also other
expressions of queerness.

Both Longo and Jaffe
expressed interest in continu-
ing to make these satires.

“We definitely want to con-
tinue making these Broadway
parodies and these fully staged
productions,” Longo said. “We’re
figuring out what exactly that’s
going to look like, but we’re defi-
nitely interested in making this
a company that produces work
regularly. We’re still feeling out
what exactly is on the horizon,
but there’s something there.”
Selah Maya Zighelboim
Jaffe is a Philadelphia-area
native. He grew up in Elkins
Park, where he went to services
and was Bar Mitzvahed at Beth
Sholom Congregation. He dis-
covered a love of theater when
he was young, performing
in community productions,
including shows with the Beth
Sholom Players.

He sometimes brings his
Judaism into his drag. He has
done Chanukah-themed songs
and plays Moses in an annual
Passover skit.

Jaffe also credits his Jewish
background for his shows’ humor.

“In my family, there was
never a fart joke that wasn’t the
funniest thing in the world,”
he said. “We were a big, loud
Jewish family, and a lot of my
humor stems from that.”
After high school, he stud-
ied theater at Florida Atlantic
University, but felt disillu-
sioned when his teachers told
him he needed to deepen his
voice and act straight.

“It was always very import-
ant to my parents — because
they knew who I was from early
on — it was always important
for them to stress to me to just
be myself,” Jaffe said. “That felt
really hurtful to me that I was
constantly being told to change
and I wasn’t really get casting
in college at all.”
He starting turning away
from theater and took up the
JEWISH EXPONENT
Eric Jaffe was named Philadelphia’s Drag Queen of the Year at the 2018
Philadelphia Drag Awards.

Photo provided
Eric Jaffe dressed as a menorah in a piece designed by his partner,
balloon artist Greg Laut
Photo provided
ukulele instead, performing at
open mic nights.

When he moved back to
Philadelphia after college, he
performed in cabarets, playing
ukulele with a glitter beard.

It wasn’t until this past year
that the community started to
see him as a drag queen, he said.

His recent work has marked
his return to theater.

Most drag queens, he noted,
have a drag name. But he goes
by Eric Jaffe in honor of his
parents, who both died when he
was in his early 20s. His older
brother is his biggest fan, Jaffe
said, but his parents never got
to see him perform drag. He
thinks they would have loved it.

“At the end of the day, I’m a
performer and an entertainer,”
Jaffe said. “They would defi-
nitely see that and respect it
and appreciate it.” l
szighelboim@jewishexponent.com; 215-832-0729
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