Spy: Meet the King of this year’s Pride Festival

George Fowler (AKA Hugo Grrrl). Photo / Ezra Simons

Internationally-renowned drag king Hugo Grrrl is set to dominate the Auckland Pride Festival next month as the host with the most.

The man behind the alter ego is George Fowler, who took out the first season of TVNZ’s House of Drag with his Charlie Chaplin-inspired aesthetic. His comedy stretches to very funny dad jokes.

The 31-year-old came out as a trans man nearly five years ago and credits drag as helping him to become himself.

“I’m one of the many people for whom drag opened the door to coming to terms with a trans identity — a safe and fun way to try on masculinity before donning it full-time. Now I’m a man dressing up as a man who used to be a woman,” Fowler tells Spy.

“I’m basically the babushka doll of gender crisis.”

Fowler says he loved his time on House of Drag. “I like to joke that it actually didn’t change my life. After I won I went straight back to Wellington and kept working in the local fringe arts scene.”

He says he will be rolling around the floor of gay bars until he’s “old and grey” and hopes no amount of fame or fortune changes that.

One opportunity that did come out of the competition, he says, was being asked to headline the Austin International Drag Festival in 2019.

“Getting to experience a taste of drag in the big USA was pretty dreamy,” he says.

Fowler moved to Auckland a year ago and is excited to be a part of the city’s celebration of the rainbow community.

“I’m slowly falling in love with the city — finding its hidden gems and pockets of queer weirdos. The art and drag scene here has been wonderful, there’s boundless opportunities. You can catch me most weeks as a showboy at Phoenix’s Drag Dinner Cabarets, doing rainbow readings at libraries, grinding at late-night drag shows and all sorts of other sparkly nonsense.”

If you haven’t seen Grrrl before, Fowler describes him as a “happy, humpy little dude you’ll find wearing sparkles and screaming into a mic”.

During Pride, Grrrl is hosting the Trans Pride Drag Show at Phoenix Cabaret, as well as Show Ponies — a poetry extravaganza — at the Basement Theatre.

He has also organized Elder Queers Give Advice at Pride in the Square.

“It’s exactly what it sounds like — a handful of older, queer legends will be hanging out, available to chat about anything with any youngsters who so desire. It’s a really simple idea, aiming to bridge inter-generational divides and provide younger rainbow people with visibility and hope for a queer future.”

Fowler will also host smaller community gigs like Rainbow Reading at Howick libraries where he and friends will host Story Time, full of songs and stories about love, acceptance, diversity and inclusion.

Fowler’s recommendations for the Pride Festival month include Irregular Objects, CHURCH, SADBOI, Takatāpui, Te Tīmatanga and She’s Crowning; Rebirth.

Check out the month’s schedule ataucklandpride.org.nz