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Ep. 78 - The Edges of Drag (TESTO)
PuSh's Artistic Director, Gabrielle Martin, speaks with Wet Mess about TESTO, coming up at the 2026 PuSh Festival: February 7 and 8 at Performance Works.
Show Notes
- Gabrielle and Wet Mess discuss:
- The origins of TESTO, particularly in what it meant to take hormones like testosterone
- Drag as a tool to discover oneself onstage
- Drag as a devising tool to generate choreography, narrative, etc.
- The historical aspects of drag
- Making gender explorations joyful
- The different personas that Wet Mess explores
- The oscillation between comedy and vulnerability
- The origin of the name "Wet Mess"
- What did the process of making this work reveal to you?
- What is next for Wet Mess?
About TESTO
TESTO celebrates transitions, testosterone and the edges of drag–a chaotic, heartfelt, and hilariously unhinged deep dive into the mess of becoming. Here, performance and reality blur until what's made-up somehow feels truer than truth. Expect moustache meals, dykey desires, and a choreography of guttural sexuality that pinches at the dull flesh of everyday life until it sparkles. At once absurd and sincere, TESTO finds the magical in the mundane—the moment when laughter curdles into revelation, and fantasy becomes flesh. It's awkward, erotic, disarming, and deeply human: a love letter to transition, embodiment, and all our leaking edges.
About Wet Mess
Wet Mess is a wet mess, horny for your confusion. Let it all out and guess again at the insecure balding white man/pussy prince/alien baby. Have a lollygag, think about your fantasy flesh suits, call me sweet prince, and remember Roger in a robe. Choose to make some silly campy decisions, with all the hairy thems and dykey men. All I really wanna do is strip for the stripper and drive her homen with the dogs.
Land Acknowledgement
This conversation was recorded on the unceded, stolen and ancestral territories of the Coast Salish Peoples: the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish) and Səl̓ílwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh), colonially known as Vancouver.
Wet Mess joined the conversation from London, UK.
It is our duty to establish right relations with the people on whose territories we live and work, and with the land itself.
Credits
PuSh Play is produced by Ben Charland and Tricia Knowles. Original music by Joseph Hirabayashi.
Show Transcript
View all episodes
By PuSh FestivalPuSh's Artistic Director, Gabrielle Martin, speaks with Wet Mess about TESTO, coming up at the 2026 PuSh Festival: February 7 and 8 at Performance Works.
Show Notes
- Gabrielle and Wet Mess discuss:
- The origins of TESTO, particularly in what it meant to take hormones like testosterone
- Drag as a tool to discover oneself onstage
- Drag as a devising tool to generate choreography, narrative, etc.
- The historical aspects of drag
- Making gender explorations joyful
- The different personas that Wet Mess explores
- The oscillation between comedy and vulnerability
- The origin of the name "Wet Mess"
- What did the process of making this work reveal to you?
- What is next for Wet Mess?
About TESTO
TESTO celebrates transitions, testosterone and the edges of drag–a chaotic, heartfelt, and hilariously unhinged deep dive into the mess of becoming. Here, performance and reality blur until what's made-up somehow feels truer than truth. Expect moustache meals, dykey desires, and a choreography of guttural sexuality that pinches at the dull flesh of everyday life until it sparkles. At once absurd and sincere, TESTO finds the magical in the mundane—the moment when laughter curdles into revelation, and fantasy becomes flesh. It's awkward, erotic, disarming, and deeply human: a love letter to transition, embodiment, and all our leaking edges.
About Wet Mess
Wet Mess is a wet mess, horny for your confusion. Let it all out and guess again at the insecure balding white man/pussy prince/alien baby. Have a lollygag, think about your fantasy flesh suits, call me sweet prince, and remember Roger in a robe. Choose to make some silly campy decisions, with all the hairy thems and dykey men. All I really wanna do is strip for the stripper and drive her homen with the dogs.
Land Acknowledgement
This conversation was recorded on the unceded, stolen and ancestral territories of the Coast Salish Peoples: the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish) and Səl̓ílwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh), colonially known as Vancouver.
Wet Mess joined the conversation from London, UK.
It is our duty to establish right relations with the people on whose territories we live and work, and with the land itself.
Credits
PuSh Play is produced by Ben Charland and Tricia Knowles. Original music by Joseph Hirabayashi.
Show Transcript