World's oldest performing drag queen talks about the evolution of Canada's LGBTQ community

Michelle DuBarry, also known as Russell Alldread, is the Guinness World Record's oldest performing drag queen.

But as Russell told Candy, he hates being introduced that way—because at 84, he just doesn't feel old.

"I live a day at a time: I don't live yesterday, I don't live tomorrow," he said. 

Russell first dressed in women's clothes as a child, when his cousins put him in a strapless gown for a photoshoot. Later, he got involved in the Toronto theatre scene and performances that involved dressing up. 

"Drag wasn't a word in the fifties. Generally, the world didn't know about our kind of person that liked to dress up," Russell told Candy. "But it was very underground. We had little shows where we started dressing up, and police would come in to check we had male underwear on."

Michelle DuBarry was born in the 1960s, when Russell started doing drag professionally. She always made her own clothes, and Russell says he can still wear them all—nowadays, to monthly shows at an LGBT-friendly seniors home.