At the time of our exchange via screens, Alok Vaid-Menon seems tired. In Seattle, the artist has just returned to his hotel after an interview for local television devoted to his show, soberly titled Alok, played the day before to a sold-out crowd. Recognizing himself neither as a woman nor a man, Alok Vaid-Menon, about whom the Anglo-Saxons use the neutral pronoun they (translated into French as “iel”), is received with fervor by fans committed to his cause at each stage of his tour organized by one of the world’s biggest promoters, Live Nation.
Seven days later, on May 22, it is at the Alhambra in Paris that Alok Vaid-Menon will inaugurate the European sequence of his series of shows, given in English. Again, all tickets were sold. Another date is planned for May 26 in Marseille, for which there are still places. “I love performing in France. The first time was in 2016, and the audience is always loving, affectionate and loud. It’s so special”, comments Alok Vaid-Menon, who will then tour in several European countries.
Alok Vaid-Menon speaks calmly in his sky blue dress with Peter Pan collar and puffed shoulders. Glittering curls hang from her ears and azure polish covers her nails. A great fan of fashion, the comedian has made himself known on social networks thanks to his colorful makeup, his often dyed hair and his flamboyant clothes that some would like to confine to the feminine gender. He doesn’t care. Despite the insults he receives, it is in these same outfits that he goes out into the streets of New York, where he lives, revealing the thick hair on his chest and legs.
An early quest
Transgender and non-binary, Alok Vaid-Menon has become in a few years one of the most fervent defenders of the LGBTQIA+ cause in the United States. Throughout interviews and conferences, he recounts his experience as a queer child, then as a trans adult, and advocates a world where we do not live through the sole prism of binary. “I grew up in a small town in Texas with parents who often asked my opinion and taught me to follow my intuition,” he says. I think this is what led me, from a young age, to question authority structures and welcome skepticism. »
Doubt indeed accompanied him very early on. Harassed by his classmates who found him effeminate and couldn’t stand seeing him dressed “as a girl”, the Texan tried for a time to conform to gender norms to no longer be targeted. Then Alok Vaid-Menon chose to listen to himself. “I didn’t recognize myself in these narrow patterns where men and women have to dress and behave in a certain way, he explains. I decided to welcome the shame that others threw back at me to question what I thought of myself. »
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