Feature photo of Alexa Fraser by Kathryn Knickford

By Andrea Loewen
@ms_andreajoy

Is fat a bad word?

“In what is colonially known as Vancouver,” says Alexa Fraser (they/them), “we are really confronted with the big F: ‘Fitness,’ and there’s always contention, I find, especially in communities where people are not plus sized and not fat, there’s an aversion to that word, whether in social settings or clinical settings.”

Fraser performs drag and burlesque under the name Alexa Borealis across Vancouver, including the Vancouver Burlesque Festival, Cinephiles Cabaret at The Fox, and Judith Fair at The Cultch. Recently, they co-produced Juicy Jems, a fat and plus-sized cabaret show, alongside fellow performer Dominique Wakeland.

“It’s interesting because that is the clinical term for the substance that is extra weight on someone’s body,” they continue, “or what the actual clinical term is so a lot of a lot of plus size and fat circles have reclaimed that word and brought it and that’s just what we are… I am a fat performer, I have fat on my body.”

Burlesque and drag has been one of the ways Fraser has embraced their body and reclaimed the terminology around it. Starting out as a stage manager and volunteer for burlesque shows, Fraser would realize that they were often the only fat person involved in a production, and they were working behind the scenes.

“I found myself seeing a lot of plus-size and fat people coming to shows and witnessing,” says Fraser, “and those were repeat people who loved to be immersed in the community on an audience level. But they were not necessarily being reflected and being and seeing themselves on stage… ultimately, it made me want to debut.”

That was six years ago. During that time, Fraser was often one of the only fat performers on a roster and they saw, first-hand, the value of representation.

“I was getting all these plus-sized audience members that I’ve been seeing coming to shows coming up to me and saying, ‘I saw you up there on stage doing it, maybe I can do it, too,’” says Fraser.

After a couple of years, the idea began to take shape for something more: an all-fat and plus-sized cabaret performance. After meeting their dream co-producer Dominique Wakeland, this vision started to take shape, and the vision that came to life was Juicy Jems.

They booked the Biltmore for a live show in April of 2020.

We all know what that means: about a year later, this live show became an online show, which Fraser describes as “a blessing in disguise.”

“We were able to set the tone of respect for the performers, through our social media, and through just the tone of the show, in a way that I think would have been a little bit harder to do… in a live cabaret space where substances are being enjoyed and that line between performer audience interaction is much, much smaller.”

There is more to come, however. Thanks to some Canada Council funding, Fraser and the Juicy Jems team are producing a photobook featuring fat and plus-sized cabaret performers that will be modelled after a cookbook. The book will feature glamorous photos of performers with a food that brings them joy or comfort, alongside recipes and stories about what the food means to them and their experience being plus-sized performers.

“There’s an inherent shame that comes with being a fat and plus-size person being witnessed enjoying food… And that shame can also translate into when they are eating by themselves,” says Fraser.

The inaugural performance of Juicy Jems was streamed on July 2 and will soon be made available on demand on the website for theatrecorps, the theatre company Fraser co-runs.

“My biggest dream for Juicy Jems is that it brings into question our own biases that we have around the word fat,” says Fraser.

Juicy Jems is not merely entertainment, but an invitation to think about our relationship to fat and fatness.

To stay in the loop about the Juicy Jems book and cabaret, follow the Juicy Jems Instagram page or check out theatrecorps.