0:01  
vibrant lights a room packed with sweaty partygoers alcohol all around loud music. glitter, this show. This is Scarlett Bobo, one of Toronto's most prominent drag performers.

0:45  
This drag queen performs almost nightly in various clubs in the city's Church Street village, dancing and lip synching to famous hits by artists such as Marilyn Monroe, and Jessie J. well dressed up in the exaggerated caricature of a woman that dragon tails. But there's more to Scarlet than just a persona. Behind all the glitter and costume is a man in his mid 20s named Maddie Cameron,

1:10  
like brushed them flat. And then you just dabble. Once your eyebrows are like brushed up flat, you dabble it on and you take something solid and just kind of brush them down, like push them in gear. So hardening in my eyes.

1:29  
This ritual of putting on makeup before a show all began around eight years ago, when Maddie first started out as a drag performer.

1:36  
I started in Ottawa, I did it as a Halloween costume. I thought it was really fun. I thought I really liked it and kind of just went from there. And a few shows in Ottawa and then I moved to Toronto, about five or six years ago, I started working in a bar called elders. And then I started working in the village more often. Now I'm full time and doing every day almost feels like the intention is really cool. Like everyone is looking at you on stage and everyone's you know, oh my god, good job. My god, that's a fear. At the same time, there's a big sister had to it too. Now all my friends are my sisters and colleagues. Like we're just so close with each other. The community is just really strong when it comes to drag and performing.

2:16  
So although Scarlett started out as a little bit of fun, she's now a full time career for Maddie and serves him as a creative outlet. But how did the Scarlet Bow Bow side of Maddie emerge?

2:28  
I've heard of

2:31  
I wanted to tell because I also do Maryland and you're like the cheaper, less expensive version of Maryland.

2:46  
Yes, that was a burp. And yes, that was indeed Scarlet dressed up as Marilyn Monroe cracking a joke about being the cheap version of the starlet.

2:57  
Scarlet kind of just came on like the persona was there and just didn't have a name yet. And then someone gave me my name and I was like yeah, that's her like we're just like sitting on a toilet and they were doing my makeup and they're like running off comedy names and then they're like well you your last name has to be Bobo because my dragon mother's name is Bobo and they passed it on to me. And then someone said Scarlett no and wait, say that all in one. And then once Karla Bobo and I went Yeah, that one.

3:23  
Aside from doing just classic dancing, lip synching drag performing. Maddie Cameron also has other methods of entertainment that he does is Scarlett.

3:32  
I do Ariel so nice qualifier. I was like, Oh, you know what, why don't I try it? Like why don't I just go on a limb and sign up for circus school. actually haven't done silks or fire as a boy always done in drag. It's just hard to find a venue that can do that. Right? Like for ourselves. I need like a super tall venue. And then for fire. Everyone goes, Oh no, she's wildfires. We're gonna burn the place down, if you like very heavily out of tune to music. My album is the one started off with one song called steel fucking going by Allison chains and myself.

4:08  
And then we're like, oh my god, this is hilarious. Let's do a whole album. A year later, we did a whole album. Like I always used to write when I was in school for writing. So it's just cool. That guy got to like write something and the lyrics are good. And I'd like to just like write stuff and not be the singer. Usually because I'm not thinking of a singer. And those I have a lot of attitude. Yeah, like I've always wanted to make music. My mom's really good singer. I was never like really good singer, but I like to pretend I am. All the drag race girls, there's a show called RuPaul drag race and they've all got tons of music. And I was like, well, that looks like if I'm gonna get anywhere like I need something. I guess I just pulled inspiration from them. I hope it sets me aside from other people. The more tricks I have in my box. The bigger my resume is, the more shows I'm hoping to get

4:58  
about performing as it Clean isn't always as glamorous as it seems when there are hurdles to overcome.

5:04  
I kind of stopped dry when I moved to Toronto because in Ottawa I was like, oh, Scarlett and Maddie are the same person, which obviously I am. But Maddie kind of got lost in the mix a little bit. So when I flew to Toronto, I was like, No, I'm not doing drag anymore. I felt like people just wanted to see me perform, which is good back that I was so young. So I've wanted to call me Scarlet. And I was kind of going through like a young life crisis being that way. Like, what about Maddie, what about me, I realized, moving to Toronto and doing this in Toronto and doing it on a higher platform and seeing so many other people like I realized this is a part of me, and it's not going to go away that I let it flow. And then I felt I was able to do better things and express myself better. Once I merged me and scar that together. At first I was like, Oh, crap, like everyone was calling me Scarlet. Even if I wasn't in drag. I was like, Oh, this is so weird. I guess I wasn't used to it. And I was like, Why is everyone just calling me by my drag name. When I moved to Toronto, and I realized, like, this is a thing. And I was super young, like I sort of drag when I was under age, I was started when I was 17. So I can get into the bar as before I was 19. So so young and naive, I didn't know any better. So I think I was still going through becoming small adult starting to mature and living on my own and stuff like that. So I think I wasn't okay with myself completely. And then I was trying to put it all in an outlet. And they felt like I put all of it in the outlet. And then I didn't take any back. There wasn't a balance. But now that there's this sort of balance between my personal life, my drug life, but then I when I kind of just separated the two and then realize that the one in the same at the end of the day, I kind of got over it when I moved to Toronto. I used to be so embarrassed by it too. Like I would go on dates with guys. And they'd be like, what do you do, I'd be like nothing. I'm a makeup artist. So I used to hide the fact that it did drag from everybody. A guy wanting to date a guy didn't want to date a guy who does stuff like a girl. That was kind of like what I used to get all the time. They're like, well, I'm gay, I want to date a guy and I want to date someone who dresses up like a girl. And I'm like, Why don't dress up like a girl like every day, like I'm not living my life like that. It's just something I do. It's performance art. There's so many people on musical theater who have to play a drag queen roll when you're not going to turn down a roll on stage if you have to put on a wig and some heels. And so I think people just didn't understand that back then everybody has their like masculine and feminine sides. And I have a boyfriend now and we he used to not be okay with it like years ago and like now like we've gotten over that and, and so I think that was a little bit of a struggle. And you know, it was a little bit of setback like he just needed to realize my part of everything. And now that Nepal's drag races down, I feel like people kind of got to see the other side of the drag queen, they got to see the man behind the queen. And I feel like that was really important. I've gotten cyber bullied and I've gotten verbally bullied and everything. Like when I started becoming more popular in the village and in the drag scene, there was a certain person and a few others that are negative to a lot of people and I get constantly bombarded about how I wasn't good enough and how I shouldn't be performing and how I'm not talented and so happens to me like now after like doing dry for eight years and being in the city for almost six. It's just funny how like, they continue to go on but I would get Facebook messages or text messages or email like everything like they would hit me through every social media outlet commenting on my photos on Facebook. It's just like something you have to go through while you're going up the ladder and I just just focused and did what I wanted to do and stuck to what I was good at and stuck to the people that were awesome around me and push through.

8:42  
Maggie's mother Angel helped him deal with the bullies and protects him from them too.

8:47  
I think the bullying part affected us as a family a lot more when he was younger because he started out performing so young. I was really afraid for him when he was performing and I would go to every show and we would take the bus home at like three o'clock in the morning. And like people would be like Oh, she's cute, whatever and then they would see his Adam's apple and then he get harassed and I will move on to do Bo and they would start going after him and there was a couple times that I had to like stand up for him and you know go and stand in front of these six feet tall guys and tell them to go eff off or whatever. And it's you know, I get all mama bear when people attack my son

9:25  
through all the struggles. Fortunately, this drag queens got his family by his side, especially his younger sister Christina, who looks up to her big brother.

9:35  
Every like year my birthday 2019 if and when it comes down to be all your shows front row Santa's cheering you on and now here I am. He has this huge atmosphere sparkle bubble on him when he performs when onstage crying to a lot of this stuff he does and I know running up on stage and hugging him and crying together having our crying moments for I look at

10:02  
my mom and my sister and my dad and my brother like they always come to my shows whenever they can. And it's a lot of fun and like their support means a lot to me and having them support me. There's nothing else more I can ask for.

10:23  
Currently, you can catch Maddie Cameron as Scarlett Bobo performing in Toronto's drag scene along the Church Street village.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai