The drag queen and SAS: Who Dares Wins star is ready for battle
Part- time drag queen — the towering Cybil War — part- time CrossFit champ, Mark Whistler, 31, decided against heels when he joined the latest season of SAS: Who Dares Wins
What came first — drag or fitness?
Drag, I’ve been doing it for six years. I’ve always been active but I never found something I could commit to for any length of time. I started drag when I was living in New York and it kind of took over my life while I was there. I was going out four or five nights a week in drag and doing my own show on a Wednesday, all while holding down a nine- to- five job. It took a toll on my body, then just before I moved back to the UK, a CrossFit gym opened at the end of my street, and I thought I’d give it a go. I’ve been hooked ever since because there’s a community to it: you essentially have someone telling you what to do and it’s so varied. It can seem intimidating but I joined with a load of people and we were all bumbling our way through it together.
Where did the idea to apply for SAS: Who Dares Wins come from?
I’ve been a fan of the show since series one, and my dad was in the SAS for 20 years — his entire military life, so it’s always been there. I watched the first three seasons, then spoke briefly to a producer for series four, but I’d just started a new job and the timing wasn’t right. Watching that season and knowing that I could have been there, I was like, “I have to do this.” I also realised that that whole side of my dad’s life is a complete mystery. I knew nothing about his time in the SAS, and this was a way to get a small glimpse into the selection process he went through and to give us something to talk about, to bridge his world and mine.
How different is the show to his experience of the selection process?
What we did is more boot- camp type stuff. Dad said the show pulls from all different Special Forces regiments, not just the SAS. He never did team- based stuff, and the biggest difference was that he got fed and was allowed to sleep. Of course, there are aspects of it that were similar — they obviously did escape, evasion and interrogation — but what he went through was much more intense and for a lot longer.
Did it live up to your expectations?
It was much worse! When all you’ve seen is what’s on the TV, you just assume that’s what you’re going to be doing — and that’s terrible enough. But there’s so much that doesn’t make the cut, and you can’t prepare for the lack of calories and the lack of sleep. Everyone in that room was at a certain level of fitness, but much of the challenge is mental and there’s no way to prepare for that.
You were only on around 800 calories a day —
how many would you normally consume?
About 4,000. On that first day, we’d been up at 3am, on a jetty at 4am, on a boat at 5am, mic’d up by 6am, then thrown out of a boat into the sea. I was the first overboard, so after I’d swum to shore, I was standing on that beach — dripping wet — for more than an hour waiting for everyone else. Then we were “beasted” up the hill and had to run five kilometres back to base. By this point, it was about 10am, and we still hadn’t eaten... When you watch the show, it’s like day one, day two, day three, but it doesn’t feel like that when you’re in it, it’s one continuous day and you don’t know when you’re going to eat or sleep.
What do you think other recruits made of the fact that you are a drag queen?
We were all sequestered when we first arrived and weren’t really allowed to talk to each other, so it was only when we properly got in that I said, “I’m a drag queen.” And everyone was like, “No way!” We’re in a room full of people who are PTs, parole officers and business managers, and I’m this bearded giant, who’s also a drag queen. It had caused me some anxiety going into it the show because it’s very macho, this was only the second series that women have
“I was running on empty, no way was I going to make it up the hill again”
been allowed on and it’s got such an alpha male following, that I was like, “I don’t know who I’m going to be with, and I’m in a room of 25 people, we have to sleep together, we have to change together, there are no showers...”
But everyone was very accepting, and I think being a drag queen helped me through some of the harder bits, because it gave me a chance to bring a bit of levity to the situation.
Did you censor yourself at all?
When I first arrived, I was definitely a little bit guarded but the thing the show does very well is completely strip away all pretence instantly. So, the parts of Cybil that are Mark and the parts of Mark that are Cybil came out straightaway. They strip you naked as they do in the real military because you’re supposed to be getting rid of your old self and you’re like a blank canvas. Then you’re so exhausted that you can’t have any sort of guard. You’re literally shitting next to someone else. Once that’s done, you’re like: “You’ve seen everything of me now, so you’re going to experience all of me.”
You left in episode three — what are your feelings about how far you got?
I wish I could have gone further. I don’t have much memory of the task — we had to carry this log up a hill — or VWing [ voluntary withdrawal] because I was so out of it. The voice- over guy was just like, “Mark, who’s the tallest recruit, is at the back of his team. As the incline gets steeper, he will be taking the brunt of the weight of the log.”
And that hadn’t occurred to me. About three- quarters of the way up I was starting to run on empty. We made it, then we went back down, thinking, “We’ve made it.” But then they said: “No, go back up.” That was when I VWed. I was done; there was no way I was going to make it up that hill and back down again. The stuff that came after, I feel like I could have done, but I’m proud of how far I got, and I would do it again tomorrow.
Did your dad’s background make it more difficult for you to accept your sexuality?
We’re a very close family but you never know how people are going to react. My mum is this small, fiery ball of Mediterranean energy and my dad is this stoic, military man, very disciplined and controlled. It was difficult to read him, so I had no [ way to] gauge how he was going to take it. I’ve always been myself, and I was out clubbing when I was 16. I was into the small glam- rock scene that there was in the heart of London: I’d leave my house wearing one of my sister’s sequinned tops and have glitter make- up on my face, and my dad would always say, “Yeah, have fun!” So there had definitely been indications that I wasn’t the classic army son. But when faced with the actual words, he was stoic. My mum took it a little bit harder to begin with, which I wasn’t expecting, but we got past that.
Was there an expectation for you to follow your father into the military?
He never wanted to join himself; he stumbled into it at the age of 17 or 18. So to me, he was very much like, “If you want to, fine, but no expectations, I wouldn’t advise it.” As a young gay teenager, military life didn’t seem like it would be terrible — we’ve all seen that porn!
Has the experience of going on the show brought the two of you closer?
Definitely. I think he’s always been proud of, and respected, me but my life is so alien to him. I think that’s true of a lot of queer people. Some of us are lucky to have accepting parents, but even though they love and embrace us, it’s very difficult for them to relate to anything that goes on in our world. So, it’s always been tricky to find that bridge that connects us — and drag certainly wasn’t it. I think being on the show has given us a jumping- off point.
How do people typically react to your drag?
I always say my drag is the meeting point between masculinity and femininity. I want to try to build up the masculine aspects of my personality so that I can feminise them even more and force people to confront their ideas of what is considered masculine and feminine. When I started drag in New York, being a drag queen was a status symbol. Then when I moved back to London, I’d set up dates with guys and they’d find out that I was a drag queen and be like, “Oh, yeah, it’s not really my thing, so...” It played with my head a little bit to begin with, then I thought: “Fuck these people. I’m just going to embrace it and make it part of my drag.” Cybil’s goal in life is to make big men feel small and make small women feel fantastic.
Has there been a softening of those prejudices as drag becomes more mainstream?
I think people are taking that moment to consider why they have a negative reaction to drag, or dating a guy who does drag. Before RuPaul’s Drag Race, there were a handful of drag queens who performed in a handful of bars and they were 40- year- old men in wigs and gowns who were singing show tunes. Now, you’re hard pushed to find any
“They strip you
naked to get rid
of your old self”