Kristoffer Hughes grew up in the village of Llanberis in North Wales, at the foot of Snowdon, but since the age of 13 he’s lived on Anglesey.
© K Hughes
He started drag in the early 1990s and has had various incarnations of drag personas since then. It was on a journey to Brighton, with his partner of 30 years, that Maggi was born. “I was fast asleep in the passenger seat,” he recalls, “and Ian suddenly blurted out ‘Maggi Noggi!’” “As soon as he said it, this entire character came flooding in. Suddenly, I had this entire woman's family life and background in my imagination.”
Having studied, but also having become a teacher of Celtic history, ‘Maggi Noggi’ was a clever play on the word ‘mabinogi’ - ‘mab’ originally meaning 'boyhood' or 'youth', later also taking on the meaning 'a tale'.
“North Wales isn’t like the south - we don’t have cities, we don’t have that community. There’s nothing to gravitate towards here, so, my drag is simultaneously a response to that.”
Kris describes Maggi’s personality as innocent and naive. “She's aware that there's things going on in the world,” he says. “But she's also aware that you can make things better by bringing joy into people's lives.” Maggi is also far more bubbly and interactive than Kris, and loves being with people - Kris is a writer, and likes to spend his time in isolation. “I don't like pubs, I don't like nightclubs, I don't ever want to dance, and I don't want to be in places that are like a cattle market. Maggi loves those situations.”
She’s unapologetically Welsh, but makes sure her comedy is accessible to all, providing English translations too. “It was apparent to me that I needed to do something to address the vacancy in the Welsh speaking world, as there still aren’t that many drag queens who are Welsh speakers.”
© K Hughes
Maggi’s Welshness is one of the reasons she is so popular with the Welsh-speaking TV channel, S4C. Regular viewers of the channel will already be well acquainted with Maggi, having featured on Y Salon (The Salon) and Gwely a Brecwast Maggi Noggi (Maggi Noggi’s B&B) to name a few. Her most recent appearance saw her mentoring comedienne Kiri Pritchard-McLean on Iaith ar Daith (Language On Tour) - a series following a Welsh television personality teaming up with another personality who is learning Welsh.
Filming Iaith ar Daith was Kris’ first outing as Maggi in 12 months, due to the effects of the Coronavirus pandemic. She was also due to head out on a national tour, and work on a number of other projects, all of which had to be put on hold. “It just all dissolved overnight, but I was so fortunate in comparison to so many other queens that I know - performing is how they make their money, and then it just disappeared overnight.”
“I did drag for my own reasons, and primarily for the transformation of my own anxieties which I was riddled with them as a young gay man and drag helped me overcome them.”
Surprisingly, one of Kris’ other occupations is as a Pathology Technician at the North Wales Autopsy and Bereavement Centre. When the pandemic hit, he spent a lot more time there. However, as restrictions ease, Kris has returned to the role part-time to focus on his other commitments. When Kris comes home from the mortuary, he manages to leave the horrific things he sees there behind. Using drag, his writing, and his spiritual role as Chief of the Anglesey Druid Order as a way to circumnavigate the “landscape of horror” that he lives in.
Ian is very supportive of the work his husband does, especially Maggi, as she is somewhat of a joint project. Ian helps put together a lot of the jokes, and he also makes a lot of Maggi’s jewellery. "We've been together as long as I've been in drag,” Kris says. “So he's quite used to the fact that the house is full of wigs and stilettos, and ladies underwear. There’s more ladies underwear in this house than there is in a straight man's house... I would imagine!”
You can watch Maggi’s episode of Iaith ar Daith with Kiri Pritchard-McLean on S4C Clic now, and you can order Kris’ latest book Cerridwen: Celtic Goddess of Inspiration online.