When he was little, Christian Cook was obsessed with buses. He’d make National Express signs and destination signs to hang on his bunk beds, but he didn’t pass his driving test until the age of 28, and thought he’d missed his opportunity to follow his dream of becoming a bus driver.
Instead he’d spent his early working life mainly in hospitality management, running pubs, a restaurant, a coffee shop, hotels and then began working front of house at Urbaspa in Cardiff and Vale College where he also taught a level four qualification in salon and spa management. He balanced that with a drag career which started seven years ago with residencies in pubs and clubs in Cardiff. That too took off.
However the pandemic hit, and venues shut. His day job was impacted because the college’s spa and salon was shut to customers for a lengthy period. While classes remained, Christian was still teaching online. Then he realised, while he was enjoying his job, he hadn’t missed his chance and it was finally time to follow his bus driving dream.
“I loved working with the college, I loved the people I worked with, but I wasn’t in love with my job. I thought, ‘I need to do something that makes me happy’. I’m in a fortunate position because I have worked hard in my life so I don’t have a mortgage to pay so I didn’t necessarily need a massive salary but I just really wanted to do something I’d enjoy,” Christian, who’s 35, said.
One day he saw an advert on the back of a bus appealing for drivers and decided it was time to go, reports WalesOnline. There have been much-documented shortages of large vehicle drivers for buses and lorries and because he still follows the major bus companies’ exploits with interest, he saw the parent company of Adventure Travel had bought Megabus and thought that would offer him the most long-term options.
He applied and got through all the tests in seven weeks. There are six different stages of tests and the cost is met by the company, then a training bond comes from his salary every month as long as he stays with the company. He qualified with flying colours and had been working on a service bus but has now swapped to school buses and does the service for Llanishen’s Corpus Christi.
He now drives a double decker taking 80 kids to and from school and is loving his new work life. “Although it’s part of a massive company, it still feels small. Everyone knows each other everyone and chips in to help each other out. You get your day’s work at the beginning of the day and if you’ve got any problems you call.”
Despite spending time driving, which seems like quite a lonely experience, he says it’s quite a sociable job. When they arrive at the school, the four drivers have to take a 20 minute break so they go onto one of the buses and “someone brings the Kit Kats”.
While his night job may prompt plenty of chat and jokes, you shouldn’t have stereotyped images of bus drivers, he says. “There are women and I’m certainly not the youngest, there are a lot younger than me. There are your stereotypical bus drivers as well, but I think from doing drag and knowing the crowds and stuff, middle aged Cardiff men unbelievably are the biggest fans. They’re the most chilled out, they appreciate humour and entertainment. A couple of them want to come and see a show. “
The entertainment industry was one which really struggled in the pandemic, but for Christian moving his act online quickly meant his profile sky rocketed. He built his online following up quickly with a regular weekly show on a Thursday called Drunk Makeup where he would, as the title suggests, get drunk and then attempt a makeover of characters including, say a Disney villain. That got him between 8,000 and 14,000 viewers per video and a whole new legion of fans.
He said there were initial complaints he wasn’t drunk enough, but in the second week his mum, who lives nearby, had to come and put him to bed - leaving him in a full face of make-up. When the pandemic ended, his groundwork meant he had built a name and reputation for himself. “That totally worked in my favour,” he said.
The boom in his drag requests meant he was able to reduce his hours at the college to part-time and eventually leave. Now he is balancing his two jobs of bus driving and drag. “I do love doing drag, but bus driving is what I’ve always wanted to do,” he said.
His new employer has been really flexible, he said, and it means that he can commit to upcoming performances in Walsall, Manchester, Milford Haven and Warrington. He says his act has changed over the years, and now it’s mainly a comedy compare with lots of singing, bit of puppetry.
“It’s definitely a hard industry to be in in Cardiff because there are three or four queens that take up every position right? You have to fight to get established and to get a name and to get regular bookings. The biggest critics are ourselves and they are the hardest people to win round. So if you can get the support of a couple of drag queens - and one of my agents is is a drag queen - it helps you get gigs,” he said.
He describes it as “hilarious” the differences between his two jobs. “I say to my friends ‘I’ve gone from sequins and showtunes to a beard and a bus’. I think is absolutely mental,” he laughs.
He says that he gets the best buzz from being a bus driver because “that’s me”. “Gina is a character but the nice comments from old people really warm your heart”. “If you’re on the St Athan, Aberthaw or Rhoose, routes you are their lifeline and that’s why I really did enjoy it. I think everyone should do it. If you enjoy driving, you should become a bus driver because you got to drive around and chat to people all day.”
It’s also had a second benefit, easing his road rage. When he was rushing around to a drag performance, he’d always get double takes when he overtook someone on his way to a gig while fully made up.
“I was really bad with my road rage when I first got behind the wheel because I think we all drive ‘I’ve got to get here and I need to get there as quick as possible’ whereas in a bus, what’s the rush? and you’ve got to have lots of timing points. The first week I was going mad with timing points and rushing around but now it’s all about the safety and comfort of passengers and to take your time, what’s the rush? You can also never leave early.”
“At Culverhouse Cross roundabout I always get a lot of looks, it’s not so bad on the motorway because everyone’s paying attention,” he said.
As he’s become more established, both his act and look have changed. Now he prefers to get ready at home and has honed his routine to an hour and 45 minutes.
“I prefer to get ready at home and then drive when I’m 90% done, just because everything is at home and if I forget something it’s there and it’s a lot to pack to take somewhere. You never know if the room is going to be boiling hot or if there’s a mirror or what the lighting will be like. I always do at least a full face at home and sometimes drive with a cap and sunglasses on or sometimes I’ll put the wig on too if it’s tight timings.
“It’s a routine now. From a full beard getting in the shower, to leaving the house fully dressed, I’ve got it down to about an hour and 45 minutes. So I allow myself 20 minutes in the bath to shave, everything. An hour in makeup, 25 minutes to get dressed and glue the earrings on and the wig on.”
He is mostly self-taught, watching YouTube videos about how to style wigs and how other people do different bits of makeup, but mostly just learning over time. I love Trixie Mattel’s makeup but it didn’t work on my face. So it took a lot of time learning face shape and what works, I’ve got a hooded eye so I can’t do the graphic eyeliner because you can’t see it. So there was a lot of trial and error, drunk makeup helped a lot and I tried different things and just picking up tips and tricks off other drag queens. Other drag queens that are friendly with you are very generous with the time.”
He wants to carry on doing both jobs for the time-being at least. “I’ve got a good lifestyle that I’ve managed to build on the income but I don’t want to be 60 year old drag queen. There will be a time it comes to a natural winding down period but not for now”.
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