Your quirks are your superpowers learn from the lobster
stop
stop it stop it no don’t stop it i need
the attention hello
you’re very good thank you hello my name
is cougar morrison cougar as in rar
and morrison like the scary street in
midland where i grew up
i am a drag queen
it’s one of the most fun jobs in the
world because i get paid to play extreme
dress-ups
it’s also one of the most confronting
jobs in the world because looking like
this there’s no possible place i can go
where i blend in
so if you’ve ever felt like you don’t
quite blend into society good news this
talk is for you
before i was brave
vivacious cougar i was also
very terrified clint
because growing up i’d believed the
world’s biggest lie that if you are
different
you
are doomed
clint grew up in a conservative town
called midland this is a place where if
you wear the color pink you get bashed
i knew i was different
that put me in direct danger
so i had to hide
eventually i’d had enough of hiding and
i came out to my family which went down
like an anchovy flavored milkshake
so dramatic little me packed my life
into two suitcases and boarded a plane
for new york city not knowing where i’d
be living once i got off the plane
there was no plan b
i was convinced i could not go back to
my family so this had to work
in my first 12 months living in new york
city i was working three jobs at the
same time making about nine dollars an
hour
i got so sick i was nearly hospitalized
and i got mugged
i’m very efficient
was this stressful yes
but as i said i didn’t have a plan b so
any time i found myself in these very
difficult stressful situations i somehow
had to make it work
at which point i would always remember
my mum’s voice in my head going
stress is a silent killer stress is so
unhealthy
so you can imagine my confusion with
here i am on the other side of the world
trying to make stress work for me i’m
either being very brave or very stupid
i finally got a sign that i might be
doing
something right and that sign came in
the form of a video
about lobsters
go with me it will make sense
it explained that a lobster’s shell is
also their skeleton on the outside of
their body so the only way a little
lobster can grow and get larger is to
painfully shed that shell and grow a new
one now they do repeat this process many
many times in their lifespan each time
getting a little bit larger and a little
bit stronger
but what
truly fascinated me was that the
stimulus for making this entire
transformation possible
was stress
if there was no stress in a lobster’s
life it would never get
stronger
i was stunned i was also a little bit
concerned that i now shared so many
similarities to a crustacean
and i really hope those similarities did
not include smelling like a crustacean
[Music]
looking back at my time in new york city
i could actually now pinpoint specific
moments where i had certainly shed a
shell
like yep when that happened that was a
shell popping off and when this happened
possibly even two
and as that process was going on and on
something quite remarkable started to
happen there was this crazy idea locked
in the back of my mind and it started to
bubble up to the surface
this idea was locked away for very very
good reason it was scary
it was about taking all the things of
clint that do not fit in and making a
career out of it it’s nuts
but after two years of shedding shells
that idea was not quite as scary anymore
and cougar morrison was born
you see cougar
is made up entirely of everything about
clint that’s different that’s quirky
that does not blend
and instead of hiding and suppressing
those differences cougar takes them
nurtures them
and champions them
cougar put a pair of killer heels on top
of the feet to show you all just how
graceful a boy really can be
clint has very wide hips what does a boy
need with those
but rather than covering them up in a
baggy t-shirt
cougar puts on a corset to accentuate
that curve
when i am cougar morrison and i’m
rocking out all of clint’s differences i
get to say and do all the things that
they would feel
damn scared to do it’s
it’s almost like i become the superhero
version of myself
clint is to clark kent as cougar is to
superman we’re both the same person we
both have all the same abilities but you
will find that one of us has a much
snazzier wardrobe
spoiler alert it’s me
i certainly never would have guessed
growing up that my superhero self would
have be of all things a drag queen
never would have guessed that in a
million years obsessed with wigs and
makeup because when i was growing up
what i was obsessed with was the x-men
oh yes
the theme song the powers
now if you’ve seen the films of the
x-men you’ll remember that these
characters are just regular folk
until they reach adolescence and then
bam they have the most incredible powers
but that is not how you work or how i
work
we are not born with it we have to work
for it
and by the time i did start finally
working as cougar morrison well i had
shed many many shells to get to that
point and i was pretty proud of that in
fact maybe a bit cocky um and i had a
very
humbling realization that i
may have a few more quite a few more to
go and i realized this as i was having
my uber driver dropped me directly in
front of the club week after week
and i was having that done because i was
really scared of how people would react
when they see me
you see being heckled and receiving
abuse is a very
common experience for drag artists
and that bugs me
why are people so offended when they see
me when all i’m doing is walking to work
i desperately want to change their minds
out there on the street but how am i
meant to do that if i only exist hidden
in the dark
in a nightclub with only like-minded
people
so
i leapt out of my comfort zone and i
started doing drag not just in the dark
but in broad daylight too which is a
miracle in itself because drag is not a
daytime sport
fluorescent lights are the enemy
so there i was having
photo shoots in the city and posing for
artworks in the cultural arts center and
it worked the shelves were flying off me
fast and furious i was feeling great my
confidence was soaring that instinct to
hide that clint had well that was still
there
but because of this newfound strength
that instinct was no longer in control
of me
the more that
cougar and clint get to coexist
in this itty-bitty body the more i find
that the line that separates us is
actually blurring now that’s not to say
that clint wakes up every morning
already in a wig and makeup no
that’s to say more that because of
cougars fire and strength clint now has
the courage to be seen
and to stand up for themselves
in fact many of clint’s family and
friends would even say that they enjoy
arguing a bit too much
so
find out what it is about yourself
that you’re hiding
what makes you different what makes you
a bit quirky
think on that find it nurture it and
champion it
will this be a wonderful
all-round glowing positive experience
no it will not
but as we all now know shedding a shell
is not an entirely pleasant experience
so when you do inevitably find yourself
in a very difficult uncomfortable
stressful situation
before you freak out try to remember
that this discomfort is a very natural
part of your growing process and if you
use it correctly
you’ll get a step closer to finding your
very own superhero self
so good luck brave lobsters
thank you
[Music]
you