If you’ve recently attended a screening at Kan-Kan Cinema and Brasserie, you may have seen Vanity Rex‘s homage to Nicole Kidman’s AMC promo, which starts with “We come to this place …” In it, Vanity wears a skimpy robe and sits in the theater, in awe of the films on screen.
Since November 2021, following in the footsteps of beloved cult movie hosts throughout film history, Vanity Rex has been earning a reputation for entertaining audiences at Kan-Kan Cinema with their takes on cult classic movies, including crowd favorites like Prince’s “Purple Rain” and John Waters’ “Female Trouble.”
“I decided to shoot my shot,” said Vanity, who pitched the idea via email to Kan-Kan in September 2021. “I knew this newly opened independent theater was looking for ways to connect with the local community.”
A longtime fan of other movie hosts, including alternative drag icon Peaches Christ and queen-of-horror-movie-screenings, Elvira, Vanity wanted their screenings at Kan-Kan to be homages to the films, while being mindful of what didn’t age well.
“I was very excited to have Vanity do a series at the Kan-Kan,” said Abby Specht, director of operations for Kan-Kan. “Working with Vanity and other community partners can help get audiences to see (and) enjoy films they may not know about, bring people together … and help everyone feel welcome at our screenings.”
So how did Vanity Rex become a host of films and a performer in Indy’s alternative drag scene?
For Vanity, it started about 10 years ago at Ball State University, after attending a “massive drag show,” hosted by Spectrum, the school’s LGBTQ+ organization founded in 1974. Vanity described it as “the event of the semester.” A self-described “very shy” person when not on stage, and never having seen drag before at that time, Vanity decided to get on stage in 2014 as a college sophomore.
“It really did awaken something in me. It made me realize I am a performer, and I am an entertainer,” Vanity said. They moved to Indy a year after graduating from BSU with an English degree.
Vanity describes having started in stereotypical drag, but then later becoming bored with the act about a year in. “I started experimenting and doing different things. That’s when I became more of an alternative performer,” they said. “I tried to make more of a monster-y, more of a trash aesthetic of myself.”
For those unfamiliar with the “alternative” description of drag performances, Vanity says it is akin to the themes of the films of John Waters: just outside of the mainstream, rough around the edges and always pushing the boundaries.
“I just wanted to use my art to just be loud and destructive of a mold I was already growing out of,” said Vanity, who is also Inspired by the performer Divine.
For their first screening at Kan-Kan, “Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?” in November 2021, Vanity dressed in a costume they describe as a “methy Dolly Parton” and invited the performer Virginia Slimm, who is Vanity’s co-producer and co-host for a quarterly show at State Street Pub.
“I’m an amalgamation of all the art I consume,” said Vanity about their evolution as an artist. “I describe myself as the child of Dolly Parton and the Babadook. Very wholesome campy imagery, but also horrors and the depravity of the world.”
Bunny Beaumont, who is one half of spooky performer duo The Good Time Ghouls and a member of burlesque troupe The Rocket Doll Revue, is one of Vanity’s recent co-hosts for the film “Silent Night, Deadly Night, Part 2.”
“One of the most entertaining things for me is to watch everyone else react to Vanity,” Beaumont said. “These movies and Vanity mean something to people, or they wouldn’t pay money to see movies in a theater that they probably have already seen before.”
Gabe Ellington, operations and programming manager for Kan-Kan, has seen Vanity’s shows at Kan-Kan since the beginning. Both Ellington and Specht offer to work all of Vanity’s screenings because, as Specht said, “We’d come to enjoy the show anyway!”
While the format is fairly consistent, no two shows are the same, featuring different guests and sometimes live entertainment. In October 2022, Vanity showed the film “Häxan” (1922) while a local DJ played a live score.
“Their performances are always upbeat, light and hilarious,” Ellington said. “(Vanity) and their guests use dark comedy quite often, but they manage to keep those jokes lighter than they would normally land, and the audience loves it.”
Vanity Rex is scheduled to present “Frankenhooker” on Saturday, June 21. Click here to see more Kan-Kan showings.
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