Tranny Trivia Q&A – Tammy Paks
When Miss Tammy Paks sashays through the crowd gathered at Polit Bar, she’s greeted like a celebrity. They cheer and holler and wait in anticipation for her to speak.
“I see some new meat in the audience. Get ready bitches!”
The only people looking at each other in shock and awe is the table of ‘new meat’ to which she was referring, my table of eight ladies who actually thought they were coming to a conventional trivia night.
Paks asks the first question and then walks over to our table. She caresses my face with the back of her hand and tells us softly that she’ll be the one taking our Tranny Trivia virginity tonight. This tells us everything we need to know about how this night is going to go.
She talks to each table and makes jokes, laughs with them and takes questions. She oozes confidence and commands the room with her tiny 5’6 frame propped up on glittery red Dorothy-esque platform heels.
“Question 2, name five terms for masturbation you know I’d like”
With this, she melts back into the mixed crowd. There are older people enjoying cheese platters with their friends, young people hovering at the bar and business folk enjoying drinks with their co-workers.
This isn’t a family event by any stretch of the imagination but it’s a free weekly trivia night for those looking for more than the usual casual drinks with friends.
Tammy Paks was kind enough to share some of her thoughts with me after the event.
Q. Have you always performed in Canberra?
A. I started doing drag here in Canberra but then moved to Sydney to study Music Theatre at the Australian Institute of Music and came back to Canberra to get my footing and then became a producer.
Q. How long have you been organising Tranny Trivia?
A. I’ve been doing the night for two years in August
Q. Have you seen a change in the crowds attitude in that time?
A. I have. When I first began, people thought this is a bit weird and fun, and then it sort of gained a snowballing effect. Now it’s always packed!
Q. What are you trying to promote with Tranny Trivia?
A. As a performer, I really promote human connection. So what I sort of try to do, even though trivia is just an avenue for people to be like “oh well this is what we need to do for the next two hours” I think it’s better to just engender this sense that everyone’s just sort of normal people and at the end of the day, everyone is just as dirty as each other and that’s why I’m so fucked up in what I do. So I think it’s better that way because I can just try and connect people and it’s fantastic and I love it.
Q. Do you get a mixed bag at Tranny Trivia?
A. I do. I’ve had interesting people come before where they haven’t been very supportive but I’ve had the support of the entire room, it’s usually as busy as it was up there tonight. So I’ve had people come up and be all homophobic towards me so I’ve said “Who the fuck are you?” and can we get everyone to boo them and they do so they just fuck off. It’s all about commanding the energy of the room and being able to know what your audience wants and what they like.
Tranny Trivia with Tammy Paks is on at Polit Bar in Manuka every Wednesday night at 8pm.
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