Fay and Fluffy host the Junior Festival and make the world a little safer. And fabulous

09 MAY 2023 - photo credit: Brian-Medina, award photo courtesy of Fluffy Souffle)

"We've been at the JUNIOR festival since it first began," says Fay Slift. 

"Our fourth or fifth year? I'm not sure," says Fluffy Souffle. "I'm so confused by the pandemic." 

"It was the circus festival initially, the launch of their summer programming, summer camps and stuff," explains Fay. "We did a few things here and there and then they asked us to do a storytime and it was so wonderful. It was absolutely wonderful, so gorgeous and sweet. And then the next year they asked us to host. Now it's not JUNIOR until Fay and Fluffy walk out."

JUNIOR is an annual international children's festival featuring 'music, theatre, dance, circus, culinary arts, storytelling, and film' aimed at kids and their families. And Fay and Fluffy who this year are returning not only as hosts but as stars. "We're both very, very proud of The Fabulous Show with Fay and Fluffy," says Fay. "We got nominated for five Canadian Screen Awards and the one we wound up winning was the Kids' Choice Award. So it was essentially people, children, who support what we do."

"Sometimes I have to step outside of myself to see just how big it is," says Fluffy. "The Canadian Screen Awards are essentially The Golden Globes, they're the Emmys and the Oscars combined, arguably the biggest awards in Canada and a show with a bearded queen and trans tattooed person is recognized. I don't usually give a shit about awards but then I realized.my friends didn't win us that award, families across Canada won us that award."

But stardom and awards haven't gone to their bewigged heads, hosting JUNIOR is a job they take seriously. As well as hosting "we're doing our traditional story time, which is four or five books," says Fay. 

"But what's really exciting this year is we're concentrating on various accessibilities," says Fluffy. "Most importantly, one of the communities that gets neglected is the blind and partially-sighted low vision community. We've going to have descriptors about things, we are going to submit a bunch of our outfits and wigs, things that kids will be able to touch. When we do our stories, we're going to describe the pictures a little bit more. We work with ASL interpreters a lot so this is something we're really excited about."

"This is one of those opportunities, similar to the ROM or the AGO, where families are all over," says Fay. "People just wandering by Harbourfront are going to get exposed to us. Get to see the joy that families are having and see that we're not as scary as they believe." It seems odd that anyone would find the exuberant duo 'scary,' but Fay corrects me, "You'd be surprised."

"Does somebody have a problem with drag right now?" asks Fluffy. "Did I miss something?" 

"They hate glamour," says Fay. "Winning that award within this climate is so significant. It's incredible. Amid all the populist bullshit. It's all the usual tropes, history has a way of repeating itself if we don't learn from it. So we're right back to targeting groups like marginalized groups, disability and basically drawing attention away from the rise of fascism. None of this is new. The backlash to what we do has been going on for the seven years we've been doing Fay and Fluffy."

Drag queen storytimes are under attack from the right wing as part of a demonization of LGBTQers with an emphasis on trans folk. It is as disheartening as it is frightening. And loud. "There are so many platforms that allow people to spew stuff, loud and unchecked," says Fay. "You watch any media here and there are these vitriol spewing arseholes talking about trans this and queers and groomers . .  Their wild ability to scream into the void and have it echo back to them."  

"It's a bubble," says Fluffy, " we're just a couple of drag queens reading books to kids."
 
"Many of them are commenting on something that they are totally unaware of what it is," says Fay. "Sensationalized bullshit. This is how I look at it now: every obsession I hear or see is a projection. They're projecting their own garbage. It's embedded in self-loathing of people who are just living their lives. Lives of joy and family. They resent that in us." 

"They hate that we have freedom," says Fluffy. "To change your gender. That's a solid thing in their world, you're either this or that. We go, 'Na na.'" 

Fay's career began as the incendiary superstar of the Gaza Strip Club. The evolution to The Fabulous Show and storytimes was inspired by Fay's day job. "I'm an educator. I've been teaching for the TDSB for 27 years. A lot of how Fay evolved is from the perspective of the kids. The music they listen to. The opportunity to have kids perform with me. In the back of my head I always thought how amazing it would be to have a TVO show, one of those kids' shows. I didn't think that that would ever materialize. The whole thing of being able to do what I do in a daytime capacity with beautiful thick eyelashes and gorgeous full wigs, coloured dresses and platform shoes . . . It's a continuation of what I do in my work. I didn't think it would have this effect, I didn't foresee that this is where we'd be at this point. It was just a chance that Fluffy and I would get together and read books. Because we love that, we love the interactive. We started getting feedback from people about how important it was to them that we came to their communities. We became very aware of the fact that our existing and creating this safe and welcoming space was really important."

"It's so great that kids get to experience this," says Fluffy. "We have parents come up in tears to say how much of an impact this would have had on their lives. It's such an honour that people are so in love with what we do. We're just trying to have fun. I'm going on Cityline again talking about representation in media for kids. Talking about how the fact that there may be a same-sex couple on a show, suddenly people go 'Kids are too young to learn about sex.' It's no different, we see hetero couples all the time. We're not showing kids how to have gay sex, we're saying that this kid might have two moms. We're not trying to make the world a gayer place, we're tying to make the world a safer place."

"The vast majority of us were raised by straight parents," says Fay. "My only exposure was seeing Carol Burnett, Liberace, Paul Lynde and all of those camp specials of the day. The last thing I ever wanted to be was gay because I knew how my father felt about that. The truth is gay people are raised by straight people, so we need to hold a compact up to them and say 'Take a look at yourself.' Adults are the ones who are sexualizing everything. Why are you projecting? It's gross."

The kids understand. "Think about this, I am standing six foot three in platforms," says Fay "I have glittery leggings on and I've got on a big frilly wig, crinolines, big curly hair and my eyes are all beautiful and made-up with long glittery gloves . . . Of course children are going to go 'Oh.'"

"I mean I could do this in a tent at Cirque du Soleil and get paid," says Fluffy.

"And I wouldn't have to deal with the bullshit of getting death threats," says Fay. "Or get called a groomer and told to stay away from kids, you're disgusting. I'm a clown for god's sake. I'm Ross Petty except I'm not married to Karen Kain. What is amazing is the amount of support we get. It was a few years ago, we were up in cottage country doing a Fay and Fluffy storytime and there had been massive kickback up there. Politicians were totally involved in it too. We had 200 people show up at this small little library to show support. It was incredible. This is the thing, never, never doubt the power of queer people and our allies to rally, to stand up to this fucking bullshit."

And the kids make it all worthwhile. "We don't have the preciousness of some drag, and I love the preciousness of drag, but we both have a background of working with kids, we're just sort of approachable," says Fay. "We sit there and laugh and have a great time. There's an energy coming from the audience when you see them smiling and watching this whole thing because we all need to feel that, that spark of joy we had when we were curious and little. We just create that together because we have that in our audience. We have a great time. How is this our job?

Aren't an audience of children notoriously difficult to keep focussed? Even with fabulous costuming? "Very occasionally we might have to say, 'Hey, other kids are trying to listen,'" says Fluffy.

"We just tell them that we don't have an expectation of everyone having to sit and listen," says Fay. "If you need to get up and wander around, take a break, want to go somewhere else and get something to eat, that is really okay. We just deal with whatever happens in the moment if something arises. Their parents or caregivers are there and if they wander away they're welcome to come back. And if they don't come back, they don't come back. It's very much free flow. They're kids. They love to roll around. They have attentions spans that are short or long or non-existent. They need to move. So we'll sit, we'll stand, we'll dance, we'll sing along."

If the kids inexplicably do wander away, the JUNIOR festival has many other attractions. "On the grounds there is theatre, music outside and lots of tents with activities for kids," says Fluffy. "Some circusy things, some arts and crafty things. There are shows that are incredible. Lots of fun things." 

"There's also food trucks," says Fay. "I can guarantee that we get very hungry entertaining the masses of Toronto. We give, give, give so we deserve to go to the food trucks and try their wares. Inevitably, every Fay and Fluffy thing we end up talking about food in some capacity."

"It's not weather dependent either," says Fluffy. "Rain or shine. There was a huge rainstorm last year and they just shut it down for an hour and then we were back up and going. It's just Toronto weather."

"We wear rubber boots if it's raining," says Fay. "And we both have ponchos. Fashion ponchos. We are prepared."

"It's the highlight of the year for me," says Fluffy. "Kicks off the summer. And then we go into Pride."