Story of a drag queen artise

So I got hold through a friend of a guy named VC Latimoore who is a drag queen artist. His Alter Ego name is VuDaur Cologne (sounds spicy hehe) he's 29 and gay born in Auckland, currently residing in Kaitaia. He has a boyfriend (LUCKY) named Antony and they've been dating for 2 months. And here's his story so far :)

Back when I was a child, not much older than a year old- I remember the day Whitney Houston had debuted in New Zealand. My Older sister was a huge fan so as a child growing up I also grew up with Whitney. I also discovered I was different in terms of feeling things that I wasn’t so sure about and always had thoughts of wanting to be like her..... the fact was I was born a male and just couldn't admire an artist but be her at the same time? This was not how it works. Years to come will express how I became a drag artiste and the struggles, acceptance, battles, sacrifices, pain and the love I shared with so many people and how I dealt with becoming something more than just the gay male I am today.

As a child, I wasn't near the most popular pupil in primary school, in fact I was the dirty lil poor "Maori" boy as they would say to me (my pairs and also some teachers) and this is how I was treated everyday of every year I spent in Primary and regardless of what people would say or do I did not let it bother me and got on with my days. It was hard to be Maori for me as I wasn't treated humanly or with respect getting picked on, shoved, abused, called names, people wouldn’t walk passed me in class time, they would walk right around the class just to get to the other side of me and if they had no choice but to walk passed, they help their noses as if I stunk as well as being vocal screaming out eeewwww. I would go home everyday and carry on like nothing ever happens to me cause it was a daily thing and I was so use to it. at the age of 6yo, My parents moved us down to Dunedin and I tell you we LOVED it there. My new school I actually had friends! it was at this school I discovered I had a feminine streak. My hair was shoulder length and curly and my sisters use to tie it up in a pony tail on my crown every morning for school and I loved it. I also had my favourite uggboots and every time I walked through school halls and classrooms I liked the sound they made as if I was wearing high heels but I was still puzzled amongst this feeling I had about myself, at 6 years old I felt a huge boost of confidence in myself from my hair tied up to how I looked to how I even sound when I walked. Before school every morning I would lock myself in the bathroom and sneak into mums make up bag, I had seen the video clip many times of Whitney Houston’s- I wanna dance with somebody and her rosy cheeks so I snuck into mums make up bag where I knew she had a bright red lipstick and I would put a dot on each cheeks and gently rub it on. As far as I knew.... no one ever had a clue. I would then go to school and have the best years to come. Unfortunately One of my grandparents got very sick and we had to move back to Auckland a year later. I was enrolled back into the same School although this time I made friends instantly. Given my experience in Dunedin with my confidence and somewhat expressing something I felt within myself this would be the beginning of the struggle with identifying what that was.

I lived not knowing what it was, what it meant and was it ok to feel this way? This time I was 7 years old and I remember on a Saturday afternoon I always rode my bike and my brother would ride his skate board or we would both race down the hill on our skateboards. Well this time it was just me and I was riding my bike when I was approached by this Asian man, possibly late teens to mid 20s asking if I knew where the park was and me being a kid trying to give him directions I just rode my bike slowly and showed him, you had to walk a bush path and as we went down this path he went off the track as he had his camera I thought he was taking photos till I decided to go over to him and has standing there with his P**is in his hand and pointed it to the direction of my mouth. This time I was really unsure and because I had never seen or heard of this behaviour I didn’t really think it being a bad thing or it was wrong or not ok, it took a while for me to register what was going and so I did.... it was disgusting. I didn’t know what I was doing, then I began to enjoy it. At 7years old this was my first sexual encounter with a male. Over the next couple of years I would encounter those feelings again but this time I would think back to that incident at the park and still didn’t know what it mean and then I hit Intermediate. Within the first 6months I started feeling something for another student. By then I had seen things all over the television and knew what this was. I found I was attracted to boys! At this time I found it very confusing because this sort of thing wouldn't go down well at the school I was at and then made more friends and started feeling the same way about some of them too. By this point I knew exactly what I was and accepted it almost immediately and found a lot of comfort in it. No one ever knew till I got a bit too comfy and as I still do now, I would talk with my hands and sometimes without knowing, on the slightest angle the top of my wrist would show and people started picking it up. For about a year I was always being called a FaFa from the islanders and because I wasn't Pacific Island, I didn't give a rats what they say. Then after a while it just turned into a big joke and I adopted FaFa as my nickname at school but I never spoke of it, no one ever asked so no one never really knew.

I started College and those same people that use to call me that name also went to the same college which was ok but it got around the school pretty fast and it was a lot harder to deal with. By this time I was known as the rich kid and this is what I was judged by. I would get picked on and bullied for the next 2years for assumptions of being gay and rumours and also rumours of having a wealthy family. Through out these 2 years it got intense where I was singled out and being verbally abused by groups of people (Pacific Islanders) never was it one on one. my friends were too gutless and never had my back and I felt fear a lot and felt like hiding away. I would go to school each day and deal with the same crap that it took me back to my Primary years and how I was treated back then. Given all the rubbish I’ve had to go through, verbal abuse and sometimes physical..... at this stage I was a black belt in Tae Kwon do and remember my father always telling me if you ever get bullied or picked on by a number of people in a group, you go straight to the leader and that I did and from that day onwards I gain a lot of respect from students, teachers, friends and all these groups that would abuse me everyday. I became someone people never messed with and it spread through out other schools and all these people I never met all knew who I was. It felt extremely amazing to be recognised for once and not pushed aside and enjoyed the glory that maybe I will be at peace with my surroundings. After several months to a year the glory faded and I was back at square one. My life wasn't going too bad and had things I enjoyed doing but something was in the air and I couldn't see it or see what it was, At this stage I noticed my friends were slowly pushing me away.... neglecting me and by the end of that year I was a complete loner, I had no friends. They all turned their backs on me and I couldn't do anything about it so I remained a lost soul and people would point at me and talk about me and laugh at me for having no friends, in classes I actually sat on one half of the room by myself while the rest all sat on the other side and this is me experience the feeling of being ALONE. I experienced going to my school ball and took my sister because no one wanted to go with me and I played it cool and made out I wanted to sit away from everyone when the table we sat at was surrounded by empty tables because I was invisible to everyone anyway while all of my form were all having a great time and enjoying each other and I had no choice but to sit there with a fake smile and watch! I played it out so my sister wouldn't pick it up but I was all alone in a world I came into, felt like no one cared and it was lonely being there. I fell into a deep depression after that cause when I think about it, I fought through 10-11years of rejection. I got my first Job working at AUT in a cafe and I loved it there and was another shot at making friends there with the uni students. At this stage I’m 15 years old now. My time working there I made some amazing friends that have stayed! It was May, 1999 I started working there part time while I went to college and remember having a conversation with my sister, she say’s to me, " you should try modelling?" you have the physique for it" and I shrugged my shoulders and said "nah, that’s pansy stuff" and wasn’t really interested and several months later I went shopping in my local mall-Westfield, Glenfield and walked passed a lil stall, guys dressed up in suits and the woman in clean cut silhouettes with amazing curvature so I stopped and took a leaflet and thought about what my sister had said months before, so I asked what is it all about after skimming through the leaflet, signed it. 6 days later I receive a call on a Thursday arvo (because the day before was my pay day). Asking to speak to me, so I answer the Phone and it was Management from Vanity Walk, A Modelling agency in New Market wanting to book an appointment for me to see them so we did all that. I had a position with them, they had done me a portfolio explain if I had any interests in other courses they had within the agency, Make up artistry, camera work, runways, hair dressing etc.... so I became a student/model for the agency as a make up artist and by this time I owned all Whitney Houston’s albums to date. My Love is Your Love was the latest. while being isolated in college I would lock myself in the music room and thrash Whitney Houston on a tape deck radio that I would borrow from the resource room as well as jam the electric piano to it. From years of following from such a young age I knew her voice inside out down to her hand gestures, lyrics to every song and down to what she wore, her hair down to her naming her concerts, when and where she done them so now I’m a massive crazed fan. I had my day job at the cafe so I had left school to do Vanity Walk. The more I understood make up, the more I would be creating something. I became a model for a fashion show because a graduate thought it would be brilliant to have a guy dressed as a girl and that was a lot of fun!! one of my most memorable. after I graduated I didn’t want to be in that industry because I had a Love for an artist and one night locked up in my room I pulled my kit out, started playing with make up and doing myself up and I could see something appearing before my eyes. I would do this countless times over the space of a year and found out my old college were having their school ball so I decided F**K these C**TS I’m going to show up so I asked my boss if I could use the staffroom on this night, without hesitation he say’s go for it so I trundle everything in and go at it. days before I had asked my aunty who I trusted if she could pick me up and take me to the venue where I would turn up to the ball with a face full of make up and dressed in woman’s clothes. This was the moment of truth, extremely confident and without fear I stood there amongst my old school mates in what I called back then "drag" it took some a while to warm up to it and once again I stand isolated in a room full of people and a guy I remember having a brief conversation with at school came up and said hello... how are you?? "I just want to say I know what you went through at school and I wanted to be your friend, I was scared of what people would think of us because everyone knows at school that I kissed a boy but it was a very long time ago." From that moment everything went away, my heart goes out to him where ever he is and he changed my life in a way, Thank you Andrew. Eventually people would come over to me and start talking, even my old mates that turned there backs on me gave me the old head nod or hand shake it was a massive relief to have your past acknowledge you the way these people did. I will never forget that night.

My first night out dressed up and god knows what I was doing but I had a good time doing it! this would carry on as I met other gay people like myself out clubbing at Wonder Bar and Flesh Night Club. For a few weeks I remained a nameless cross dresser and didn’t know the meaning or terms of anything in regards to the gay world. The first Drag queen I ever met she was Just a mega Stunner by the name -Bambi Slut. I would come out every Night I could just to see here again but couldn't build up the courage to talk to her because I didn't know what these people would be like so I would still do my own thing and during the week nights I would continue playing dress ups in my room late at night. I also had an Avon consultant that would come over every week to promote her products etc and I bought a men’s fragrant "Cologne" For men. I would listen to the radio a lot while I play dress ups or thrash Whitney, I remember hearing an advert on the radio about some rage and ticket sales featuring Deja Voodoo and I Loved the name Voodoo But also loved the name Cologne and one night while I’m playing with make up and dressing up, I would think of a name so I would be all dolled up, outfit, handbag, wigs, make up and stood in front of the mirror finding a name for myself. Because of my image I looked like I could be a Voodoo or a Cologne?? so 5hours I think it was, I was juggling "Voodoo" "Or" "Cologne", "Voodoo" "Or" "Cologne" and then I was struck with brilliance and added "Or" to the end of "Voodoo" and made "Voodor" and kept "Cologne" as a last name and changed the Spelling for Voodor but made it sound the same and then..... BOOOOMMM!!! VuDaur Cologne was born. Now I do drag. Drag queen, to this day I still feel it is not a name, description or a label but a Title one must earn! This was the beginning to a new journey that I was made to fulfil. I think back to being a child and wanting to be like Whitney Houston and this was my chance to do it. My very first onstage outfit my mum made for me (17yrs old and performing Flesh night clubs stage) was a Whitney Houston outfit from the mid 80's was a deep purple velvet strapless one piece cut just above the knee with a matching waste coat (Whitney fashion but not something she had worn) and I remember performing one night to a live version of- I wanna Dance with somebody, Hand gestures to a Tee and lip-syncing with microphone in hand till I look over the crowd and out of all the people dancing and clapping, screaming, singing, laughing, audience members with hands in the air....amongst all that and the stage lights I spot a hand in the air and a Wrist full of gold bangles and bracelets and fingers swallowed in diamond rings and I stopped lip-syncing, my jaw dropped and I froze for a second to find my mother in the audience of a nightclub after midnight cheering me on. Performing to Whitney in the Whitney outfit she made for me I seriously couldn't have it any other way. I go on to meet other Drag Artistes of a higher Callobar over the months and built the courage to approach Bambi Slut, this amazing queen I’ve admired from day one and she was just so amazing to me, as well as Miss Kola, Buckwheat, Cindy of Samoa, Misty Blue, Wanda Lamour, Chi Chi La Qua, Fonda Boys, Ling Ling, Zoe Devine, Felicia, Davina Douche, Alec McQueen, Jackie E.Lation, Lucy Fur and many more all welcomed me with open arms and it was the love they all shared as a sisterhood and this was my place and where I finally felt accepted by others. I go on to make a name for myself in the Drag scene and there were a lot of ups and downs that came with it, some bad, some very bad and some that were unforgettable. I got involved in a lot of Charity Events with NZAF (New Zealand AIDS Foundation) Cartier Bereavement Trust and Big Gay Out with promoting safe sex awareness and safe sex campaigns. Launch of NZ's "Get It On" Being apart of "Wigs on the waterfront" being a Yearly fundraiser for the Cartier Bereavement trust held at Viaduct Basin. Hired to do private gigs, Birthdays, Stags or Hens parties, Staff doos, Christmas Parties, Hamilton Garden Festivals, Hamilton Fuel Festival, Organising own events etc... from costuming to props. I also was a show girl at Caluzzi Cabaret on Krd and represented Caluzzi at various events. Performer and Hostess for Flesh Nightclub. Performer/spectacles at Family Bar in honour of Costume Extraordinaire/Grand Artise and Club Artiste Provocateur DeezaStar!!!! You name it, I was pretty much there and over the years I was fortunate enough to have Partners that respected, supported and loved VuDaur just as much as they loved me and all of them still remain as good friends with today.

This was a short story about my raise from a child to a sister of the Draghood, Mother of up and coming drag artists and a mother figure to those who face difficulties in life. I am proud to say I have accomplished things that aren't about the real world. I base my experiences on the strength I had to not give up. There is a higher power out there and if you are reading this then my finger points to you, you are in control of who you want to be and when life gets harder, you have to work harder at correcting it. I dedicate this to the people that I found comfort in and helped me along the way and also helped me perfect the inner person I am today. Bambi Slut- The one who taught me what I know today and that you are not with us anymore I’m just proud to say I had the Honour to share it with you and the Honour that you were my Drag Mother. I also dedicate this story to those who feel lost, lonely, alone, confused, unsure, worthless, hurt, Broken hearted, who needs a shoulder to lean on, to have an ear to listen or a voice to listen to, a hand to hold, or an idea to share, a heart to give, or just to reach out and touch I hope this story one day will inspired someone out there who needs it. Just remember, when you're feeling down and sad or upset about something, ya’ll need to talk about it because I am living proof of someone that didn't!!! take the time to think about yourself before someone takes that from you and most of all, regardless of what happens, its because of you where you end up. Give and take but it's what you do with it.

And to my Mother of all time!!! In a way you guided me but I had to find it myself, I loved you for 28yrs and my love for you continues. You have been an extreme Inspiration to my life in a way I couldn't explain to people till now, You helped my find who I am, you stayed with me through this journey and I’m forever grateful to have your name in my hands- Thank you Miss Whitney Houston.

Much Love,

Vc Latimoore X.

Well I must say that is really quite a story :O I love hearing things like this, stuff I never knew about and things others can learn and know about. Drag Artise :D I love it. It sounds so... professional and obviously VC has had quite the journey. Good stuff man, no. Great stuff :)