"We’re All in Drag Every Day," says Amsterdam's Charlene Coco on daily work life
Charlene Coco believes that much of the modern hostility toward drag "comes from fear," yet she insists the art form is an exaggeration of the costumes and masks many people wear day in, day out whether exploring a hobby or entering the workplace. "We're all born naked and the rest is drag," explaining that we are "basically all in drag every day," choosing specific mentalities and aesthetics to navigate our jobs and social circles.
Coco, is the drag persona born from the mind of Charlie Robertson, a British performer based in Amsterdam who also uses drag to help offices become more tolerant and inclusive. "Once you put on the face and put on the wig, you just feel really powerful," Robertson, as Coco, said on the Dam Yankee podcast this week. Robertson spent years navigating high-stakes corporate environments in the UK and abroad, spending some time as an intern at the Clinton Foundation in New York, and later spending several years at PwC. It was his discovery and exploration of drag around ten years ago that helped him to find a sense of freedom he had not known before.
"For my 25th or 26th birthday, my flatmate put makeup on me and I wore her dress, and I was like, 'Yeah, I love that.' But then in London, I didn't really have a queer community at that time. So I would go out in really bad drag," Robertson told Dam Yankee host Zack Newmark. "Really like a rubbish wig. Didn't know how to do makeup, but I mean, I was having fun there. I felt very free."
However, stepping into the public eye in full makeup is not without its challenges. "Once you put on the face and put on the wig, you just feel really powerful. For a lot of people, drag is quite scary. They're like, 'What am I looking at? I don't want you near my children. I don't want them to be near me. They should be banned. They shouldn't be allowed near us because they're evil and wrong,'" Coco laments. "And drag is just a fun art form. They bring joy. They bring hope. They bring laughter, you know? So, I think a lot of it comes from fear."
For Coco, these reactions prove the necessity of her work. The visibility itself is a vital tool for breaking down prejudices and making the world a safer space for everyone. Robertson's career and corporate background eventually birthed Make it Werk, a consultancy that uses the art of drag to tackle diversity, equity, and inclusionin a way that is engaging rather than clinical. Coco brings a sense of playfulness to serious professional environments with keynote talks such as, "How we can all be like drag queens at work."
By showing up in full drag to host workshops, she challenges employees to reconsider the rigid standards of "professionalism" and find the courage to be more authentic in their collaborative efforts. "I think it's definitely gone from more of a niche to quite mainstream. I kind of think, yes, people are much more aware of drag now than they were, say, 10 years ago," Coco says. "People are aware of them. They turn up in offices now, like I'm doing, or at staff parties. It's much more accepted art form."
Despite the friction she sometimes encounters, Coco remains focused on the radical positivity of the craft, and bringing laughter and joy is the foundation of her nightlife collective, God Save the Queers, which provides a quarterly platform for a diverse range of queer performers. Whether she is moderating a panel at the Amsterdam Dance Event or performing for a local crowd, her goal is to foster a sense of belonging through creative expression.
"I still think it's a very subversive art form that does maintain like an underground feeling to it. I think it is quite punk rock. Like you're really playing with gender, you're playing with perception, you're playing with reality, you're creating your own reality. And that's really queer to create your own world. And that's so beautiful," Coco affirms.
Updates on Charlene Coco can be found on Instagram, as can the full schedule for God Save the Queers. Meanwhile, more information about Make it Werk! is available on LinkedIn. Listen to this entire episode of Dam Yankee on all major podcast platforms, or watch the full videos on YouTube.
