WHAT MAKES A MAN?

As he wraps the first annual Mr Glory contest, one of the UK’s foremost performance artists, Jonny Woo, talks masculinity, maleness, machismo and mascara.

Words: Cliff Joannou

Oly Innés

When the world’s monotony gets you down, Netflix is on the blink, and Grindr has ground to a halt… there’s a light at the end of the tunnel that promises relief from life’s mundane, socially acceptable routine. As you wander along the tunnel, closer to the light, the distant twinkle becomes brighter, bolder, radiating, eventually revealing a shimmering glitter curtain framing a dark, dusty stage. And there you are… you’re at The Glory in London: the UK’s newest LGBT performance art cum club venue. Suddenly, the humdrummity of daily life is vanquished; you’re in a miniature utopia where the choking constraints of social convention are brushed aside, and the delectable chaos of breaking down cultural norms is embraced.

Zia Almous Yeshua

Located in trendy ‘Faggerston’ [you’ll find it on the Tube map “officially” listed as Haggerston] in the throbbing heart of fashion-forward East London, the self-styled ‘superpub’ stands defiant in a gay scene that just mourned the loss of legendary cabaret venue The Black Cap. The Glory is a veritable bastion against the tide of gentrification sweeping the nation that threatens our queer history, much of which was born in niche independent venues like this. Many of those venues have since struggled to fend off the swathes of developers that seek to transform our cities into a sea of boujis coffee shops and luxury flats.

Matyas Vasicza

The Glory bucks that trend. Founded by one of the UK’s foremost performance artists, Jonny Woo, alongside Colin Rothbart, John Sizzle and Zoe Argiros, the venue is the answer to the gradual commoditisation of British culture. So, it’s only right that the venue gives us Mr Glory: an acerbic take on the oft-ridiculed nature of male beauty pageantry that our community quite frequently takes too seriously.