Better known as Bitch Sassidy, Kayla Bigras is a prolific Calgary-based performer and community builder.
Bigras first worked as an actor before coming across burlesque during her time in Vancouver. Once in Calgary, she became entangled in the city’s burlesque world. Bigras co-founded and heads The Cabaret Company, which was named the number one production company in the country last year by Imperial Burlesque Canada.
Bigras loves how performing both as an empowered high-femme in burlesque and as a drag king named Smokey Waters satisfies the spectrum of her gender fluidity.
- “The Trop! When we started doing drag shows there, we had some pushback from their clientele, being like, ‘Not drag, boo,’ and the general manager handled it really well. She was basically like, ‘If you have a problem with what we’re doing, then you don’t have to come.’”
- “It was my birthday the other week, and I decided to do a bunch of little celebrations … I tried a bunch of places for the first time. There’s a place called Rise ‘N Shine. It’s a breakfast place in Forest Lawn, it’s a Filipino fusion place. So that was good. Then, I tried Redheads Cafe, which is a Japanese street food place. That was really good.”
- “Somebody turned me on to Nuxx Vomica. It’s this electronic sort of vibey gothy thing … I guess that’s the kind of music I’m into.”
- “Most of my hours are consumed by running the business, and then we have three dogs that have a lot of energy … Heather Cox
Richardson does a newsletter summary to keep you in touch with what’s going on in the world. That’s where a lot of my focus has been.” - “We’re doing a lot of TV shows right now. The Traitors is the new gay obsession, and I want them to do an all-queer cast because they keep bringing on [drag queens] like Peppermint and Bob the Drag Queen. I feel like all these people who exist more in a heteronormative society are like, ‘They’re a traitor,’ and we’re like, ‘No, they’re just gay. That’s just how gay people talk.’”
