Jake Dupree | ELLE
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00:00 Most of the gender-affirming care that I get is on stage and performing the way I do.
00:05 Burlesque has really given me everything.
00:08 I'm Jake Dupree, my pronouns are they/them, and I'm a burlesque performer.
00:12 This career path has definitely affected the way that I feel about gender, period.
00:21 I think coming where I'm from in Arkansas, I've been othered my entire life.
00:27 I never was exposed to people that were "different."
00:31 So I would hide or put things into boxes or compartmentalize.
00:36 I was in a very, very depressed place, and I had some thoughts that were scaring me in a way,
00:43 and that's something I don't really talk about that much because it's kind of dark.
00:47 My career has been a bunch of paths.
00:53 I was doing musical theater stuff, and I was a fitness teacher.
00:57 At one point in my 20s, for sure, I felt like, "Oh, Lord, you're just throwing things at a wall trying to see what sticks."
01:03 I entered this amateur drag competition at Revolver in West Hollywood, which is a gay bar.
01:08 It was this 10-week-long competition.
01:11 I did this number based off this amazing burlesque performer here in L.A.
01:14 Her name is Miss Miranda.
01:16 And I ended up winning the whole thing.
01:20 It was this kind of opportunity that really changed my life and kind of gave me an excuse to express myself in a feminine way,
01:27 which I'd always wanted to, but I think I needed the validation.
01:31 Miss Miranda saw that I had been inspired by her, and she sent me this huge email back being like,
01:37 "I don't even know what to say. I'm blown away."
01:40 It was just this surreal moment of being like, "I'm doing the right thing. I'm going to trust myself and keep going."
01:45 She told me about this audition for Dita Von Teese's show here in L.A. called Bon Follies, and it was at the Roosevelt Hotel.
01:51 She's an idol of mine, and she made me want to do burlesque.
01:55 And so when I went to the audition, it was this moment where the room just kind of stopped.
02:00 And it was just me in lingerie, my heels, and my finger wave.
02:04 It was a room full of all these burlesque greats from all over the world.
02:08 And I got picked to do her giant martini glass act.
02:14 That kind of set me on the path, and now I've gone on--this is six years now,
02:18 and I'm the first non-binary person to perform at the Crazy Horse in Paris.
02:22 Now I'm in Vegas doing shows with Kylie Minogue and Christina Aguilera,
02:26 and it feels really good to see where it's all gone.
02:29 Sometimes I was like, "I don't know where it's necessarily going to go,"
02:32 but I just kind of trusted the process of it, and I'm glad I did.
02:40 A lot of us have fought very, very hard to have the freedom to get out
02:45 and do what we want to do and present the way we want to present.
02:48 I was in a really, really dark place before I started performing this way,
02:54 and I don't--I don't want to cry, but I think about this a lot.
03:00 It's like some of the things I've been able to do and the spaces I've been able to inhabit
03:05 and the people I've been able to meet, it wouldn't have happened
03:08 had I chosen a different path or let that darkness really speak very loudly,
03:13 and I'm glad I didn't do that because if I didn't get to see myself at this point,
03:17 I would be sad to have my life cut short.
03:19 That's hard.
03:22 I think that being on stage, presenting the way I want to,
03:27 dancing the way I want to, having ownership of everything that I do,
03:31 it has been the most reaffirming thing in my entire life,
03:34 and I can't imagine my life without it.
03:36 [music]