When Drag Meets Math: An Interview with Kyne

How can drag inspire people to learn more about math? As a part of Ansys’s celebration of Pride month, we sat down with world-renowned drag queen and entertainer, Kyne. Kyne is a math-education enthusiast, TikTok and YouTube content creator, Canada’s Drag Race contestant, and all-around superstar. 

Kyne joined us over Microsoft Teams from her home in Ontario, Canada. She inspires fans with her unique brand of performance art — a combination of math and drag!

Q&A

Who or what inspires your drag? 

In the beginning I was very inspired by visual artists and people who were playing with those lines of gender, such as RuPaul. Now my drag is very inspired by Diana Ross, Céline Dion—all the Divas that I grew up singing.

Did I hear you say you make your own wigs?

Yes! I started doing drag in a small town, so I didn't really grow up in the drag scene as everybody else did. I didn't have other drag queens and drag mothers and people to teach me what to do. My drag mom was YouTube, and so I've always been a bit self-taught in that way.

Do you have a favorite mathematician? 

I do. I would probably say my favorite is Euclid. I just like the ancient Greeks. I like the way that they built our foundation of proving things and building things up from the axioms.

I've been reading a lot about the history and the foundations of math, and I guess I'm just a bit of a romantic that way. I really like the classics.

Ada Lovelace is another great choice. 

How do you decide what topics you're going to talk about in your TikTok’s? 

I draw from my own experiences from school, and I read math books. When I started making videos on YouTube, I could have just gone on and on for an hour talking about pi. But I think forcing myself to make them really short and sweet — that's what makes them popular.

I've recently been branching out of math and talking about things like the history of the Philippines. Last month was Asian History Month in Canada, so I talked about pride and my story. Whatever people want to see, I'll do it. 

Can you share a story where you shocked someone in a funny, good-natured way? 

My husband is British, so one time I went to go visit his family for a few weeks. I brought my drag. I was doing my videos. I was doing my TikTok's at his house. One day I came down to eat dinner in drag, because at my house, that's just normal. But I think it was a bit of a shock to them. They've all come around and accept it now. 

I'm very lucky to say that everybody in my life is supportive. 

Is it possible to do drag for a living?

Drag is definitely challenging, but it's also evolving so much. Drag queens these days can do corporate events, speaking engagements, or brand deals. And if you're successful enough to even have a TV show and sell products and all those things, I think it's definitely viable to make a living on it. If you don't, you really just have to stick to the clubs. But I would love it if anybody could get up and do this as a full-time job. 

Do you have any advice for people who might want to start getting into drag? 

Drag can be very expensive. And it's really a labor of love. You spend a lot more money getting into it than you do making it. I think if you're passionate about it, if you want to start doing it, start small. Start with just playing with makeup and learning the artistry behind that. Then start making your own persona.

Do it because you love it. Do it because you want to. Be a beacon in the community because you want to entertain people and make people smile. 

Biography

Kyne was born in the Philippines and moved to Canada when she was six years old. Growing up, math and science were always her best subjects in school. 

She came out in high school and began experimenting with makeup, dancing in talent shows, and creating YouTube content.  

Makeup and entertainment became one part of her life. Another part was her passion for math. She participated in math contests throughout high school, and she landed a scholarship to study math at the University of Waterloo. 

This was when her drag career began. She was a math student by day and entertainer by night. In her own words, she "was just living [her] Hannah Montana fantasy!"

Drag was my outlet for being artistic and fun, just like painting on a canvas. I was painting my face, and I wanted to create art and have hair and costumes, so for me it was all about the theatricality of it all that I really loved. 

Kyne was cast on Canada's Drag Race before the COVID-19 pandemic. The show aired during lockdown, and Kyne was unable to watch it live in bars, perform on stage, and celebrate with others in-person. That's when she started posting math riddles and math education videos on TikTok. Since then, she has become world-renowned for her enthusiastic, engaging, and fun math content. 

I like to tell young people that you can do whatever you want. If you want to be an engineer with a funky wig or if you want to be a super girly mathematician, that’s OK. At the end of the day, all that really matters is what's in your brain. 

To learn more about Kyne, you can visit her website. Her TikTok is a one-stop shop for math riddles, history lessons, media statistics analysis, and, of course, high-glamour drag.