Brigitte Bandit
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Brigitte Bandit | |
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| Website | https://www.brigittebandit.com |
Brigitte Bandit is the stage name of Cheri Lake,[1] an American drag queen and activist based in Austin, Texas.
Bandit grew up in northwest Austin.[2] She was also interested in music from a young age, with the first two artists she saw in concert being Cher and Dolly Parton;[3] she later played flute in her school's marching band.[2] Bandit's mother was also an influence on Bandit's love of performance; she worked as a stripper, and later fought to be included in a Cher impersonation contest, in which she won second place.[3]
At age 15, Bandit began working with children, first as an art instructor, and later as a swim instructor.[4]
Drag career
Bandit, a flamboyant dresser, had long been interested in drag, but thought, as a person assigned female at birth, she would not be allowed to perform.[2][3] After watching a performance by Sin Wai Kin, she realized she had been wrong, and began pursuing drag.[3] She began performing in drag in the late 2010s, at age 26.[2][4]
Bandit has performed as Dolly Parton multiple times,[2][5] and has been called the "Dolly of Austin".[4] She has also addressed political and social issues in her shows, such as underfunded schools, poverty, policing, and laws related to abortion access and drag performance.[6] She has performed in shows at Oilcan Harry's[4] and at the Austin City Limits Music Festival.[7] During the COVID-19 pandemic, Bandit participated in Extragrams, a drag queen telegram service.[3]
She has also been involved with drag storytime events, during which she has dressed as Dolly Parton, as well as characters like Ariel (The Little Mermaid) and Jessie (Toy Story 2).[2][4] In 2023, one of Bandit's TikTok videos, in which she lip-syncs to Katy Perry's "Firework" alongside several children, received nearly 4 million views before it was removed by TikTok for "child safety purposes".[8]