Growing up in Rayne, LA, 32-year-old Jude Doucet described his childhood self as a “little thinker,” who would always let his imagination run wild.
With very little access to extracurricular activities, like a drama club or general funding for the arts at his high school, he turned to oil painting and teaching himself how to play instruments. When he moved to Lafayette after high school, he quickly discovered and connected with the local theatre and drag community.
“It was more like affirming something that I already always knew about myself,” says Doucet.
Doucet is the creator of Goregasm, a horror sideshow made up of local drag queens, artists, and performers who perform bloody and comically grotesque drag and burlesque. For the last five years, Doucet has curated his show to shock the audience and encourage Lafayette’s local queer community to make their own spooky spectacle.
At about 19 years old, he started attending goth events, which in turn introduced him to drag. He saw his first live drag show at Tonic, a since-closed gay bar and nightclub on Pinhook Road, where LGBTQ+ pioneer Roxy C. Black performed at the time.
Soon after, at 23, he began experimenting with his own drag, spending about a year as a “bedroom queen” because he wanted a perfect stage debut. He performed for the first time in 2019, at the Hi-Ho Lounge in New Orleans — a “complete and utter mess.”
“I’ve always had these very ambitious ideas even in the beginning,” he says. Gore also played a role from the very start.
In his first act, he planned to take his wig off to reveal an exposed brain, a costume made with materials he could find: a swim cap in place of a bald cap and a prosthetic jello mold of a brain on top. “Which, by the way, does not work,” he sums up the experiment dryly..
But his self-assurance and clear understanding of what he was looking to achieve, helped him stick with his program, despite the early defeat.
His ambition isn’t to be like the queens on RuPaul’s Drag Race he’s going for something…grittier. The expectation, he says, is that “you have to spend like $5,000 to put yourself together, when that’s just not the case.”
Over the years, he’s worked closely with fellow performers and spent time practicing how to organize independent shows, including shows with bands, themed shows, and lip-sync theatre. A friend and fellow performer, Mangant, encouraged him to put a cast together to perform at venues where their bands played. After a year of organizing and networking, he saw his opportunity when he began working on a film with a friend who worked at the Blue Moon Saloon.
He agreed to do the film under one condition: “Give me a day at the Blue Moon.”
And so, in 2021, Goregasm was born at Blue Moon Saloon. The promotional flyer, designed in the format of a VHS tape, became the signature design for future shows. The first year had no specific theme, but the overall idea was based on the horror trope “death by sex,” leaving it up to performers to interpret it as they pleased in their looks and acts.
“The turnout exceeded all of our expectations,” says Doucet.
After the show wrapped, he found himself in the dressing room with the rest of the cast and took a moment to admire the scene around him. They were all sweaty, out of breath, and covered in blood while counting sticky, bloody money given by the crowd.
“It made you feel like that camaraderie, or I think it just kind of became a metric by which to measure my creative growth,” he says. “I just remember knowing that I would do it again after the first one.”
This year marks the fifth year of Goregasm and this time this circus is in town. The lineup features six performers delivering a total of 12 performances, alongside two sets of live music by Lady Stranger. While dressing up to match the theme is optional, there will be a costume contest featuring “a little twist.”
Goregasm takes place Oct. 30 at the Blue Moon Saloon, and audience members can expect clowns, gowns, and tricks at a Halloween celebration they won’t forget.
