Maid to make your mouth water, Sally Vate‘s goal in life is to bring a little joy and happiness to LGBTQ+ venues and punters. Here, the Brighton sweetheart chats to Graham Robson about her divine and definitely drunken plans for Easter Weekend, why crafting is her key to getting through lockdown, and watching her drag sisters tear it up online!
Hey Sally, been up to much?
I haven’t been performing online; I’ve tried to find the silver lining and class the first couple of weeks as the holiday I never get! If you’re old enough to remember To the Manor Born staring Penelope Keith, where she pretends to go on holiday, but in fact she’s in her sitting room on a sun lounger with a record player with a recording of teach yourself Spanish, it’s been like that.
Living the dream…
I’m very lucky that I like my own company, so isolation isn’t quite getting to me at present, and I can always find things to keep me occupied. I’m ace at procrastinating, and anything crafty is the perfect way, so I’ve been doing little things and posting on my Facebook page @SallyVate and on my web site www.sallyvate.com for people to download and print, like a dress up Sally that you can colour in and cut out. There’s also lots of other games for all ages and families in lockdown…
Cut Out & Keep Sally Vates taking the world by storm…
Feedback has been great, my handy hints have caught on! I do love it when people post what they have done, and find the humour in it. My crafting printable downloads are being well received, like the Put Some Clothes on Sally Vate printable, which has reached as far as Brisbane in Australia!
And I am very grateful to those that have donated to Buy a Drink for Sally… For those who are self employed it’s a very difficult time, and until we find what we can receive from the government it’s a very penny pinching time indeed, so thank you.
There’s been loads of great performances from other drag queens online. Have you seen many of them?
I’ve seen a few of my fellow artists doing online shows, and it must be so strange not to hear a response from the audience, I know that they can leave comments, but that is multitasking at its best lol.
I do have a few thoughts in the pipeline, but I’m wanting to do it organically and when the time is right for me to do something camp, at the moment I’m enjoying the time off… Currently going into week three, might extend my holiday as I quite like having a beard – though I didn’t realise how grey it was!
But I do enjoy watching my sisters entertains on the screen of my iPad, Mrs Moore’s kimono episodes are always fun to watch, plus I’m keeping in close contact with John (Mrs Moore) so we are often FaceTiming and discussing crafting projects and sharing ideas – I miss that man!
Any tips to not climbing the walls?
Get yourselves into a little routine. Mine is get up at about 8am, watch a bit of one of my favourite programmes, normally The Golden Girls, have a coffee or three in the kitchen or garden if it’s nice (I’m lucky to have one), then it’s daily exercise/walk with one of my house mates… I take a different route each day, but within the recommended safety distancing, so giving space to on-comers, while giving them a cheery ‘hello’… This stops me from feeling rude from practically crossing the road to get away from them.
Plan a nice dinner, I’ve been making desserts too, that and cooking dinner can quite easily kill three hours, I do like to faff. A bit of Facetiming friends and family. And a few times a week the household family have a drink and also a games night, then we go back to ignoring each other for a while, otherwise we’d end up either fighting or killing one another, so giving personal space is important… Respect each other’s space.
What are your plans for when this is all over?
Shaving! It’s the longest I’ve had a bearded, I normally only let it grow when I go away to family Panto, and that’s only just two weeks. Can’t wait to get back on a stage and see everyone. But hopefully keep the exerting up as I’ve never walked so much, and I really enjoy it, and also noticed how easy it is to walk to anywhere in Brighton, I’ve discovered parts of Brighton I never knew existed around in my neighbourhood, some lovely independent shops! When it’s all over go and have a look inside and support local businesses.
Any words of wisdom to get us through?
The more we stick to keeping our distance, as well as the rest of the guidelines, the quicker we can get back to normal. Common sense will prevail. And then we can have a good old knees up and a laugh!
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