Meet the charity champion behind north Derbyshire's drag queen of hearts Amandah Hart

Matt, who lives in Tupton, has collected thousands of pounds for good causes under the guise of flamboyant alter ego Amandah Hart.

He said: "I started raising money for Macmillan Cancer Support after my dad died from stomach cancer in 2017. I’ve raised £4,750 for Macmillan over the last six years by selling programmes for my shows.

"At my shows I do raffles and I pick a charity that I want to help. In October I did a gig at Clay Cross Social Centre and raised over £125 and bought loads of food which was handed to Clay Cross food bank. Just before Christmas I did a show at the Olde House in Chesterfield and ran a raffle for Chesterfield Animal Rescue which raised over £100 and bought cat food, dog food and toys.”

Now Matt is looking for three charities to benefit from raffles at shows in Tupton Village Hall on April 6, Holmgate Community Centre on May 18 and Clay Cross Social Centre on July 20. He is urging people to nominate good causes by messaging the Amandah Hart page on Facebook. Tickets for these shows are available at www.ticketsource.co.uk/amandah-hart-events.

All three shows will be Drag Me To Bingo, which Matt added to his repertoire six months ago. Matt said: “It’s an hour’s drag show at the beginning of the night, then a break and then we play bingo. It’s normal bingo and if a song’s played you have to get up and dance. People can win stupid prizes like a cardboard cutout of a cow or a toilet roll. It’s popular – I’m fully booked until October.”

Bookings have taken Matt from Scotland to Devon and he’s spent thousands of pounds on costumes over the past decade. Matt, 43, said: “Some of them are sequin dresses costing £100 or more, the most expensive one I’ve got is a nun’s outfit that cost £650. I’ve got six wigs that I use for hosting and a wig for each of the 20 costumes that I have. Make-up takes me about 45 minutes to an hour to do.”

He describes drag queen Amandah Hart as “outgoing, bubbly, wants to be the centre of attention, party-going.” Matt, who admits to being fairly shy, said: “I’m more confident in drag because you’re playing the character and you’re hiding behind the character. I’m a comedy act drag queen which is pretty much like old-school drag. I used to like Lily Savage when he was on TV...bless him!”

An entertainer thoughout his adult life, Matt’s first job was as a dancer in the parade at Disneyland Paris. He worked as an entertainments manager and performer at holiday parks in England and has trod the boards in pantomimes Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella and Beauty & The Beast at theatres, social clubs and schools throughout the country. Matt earned international drag queen status in Gran Canaria where he entertained customers at a cabaret bar in 2019.

He was initially drawn to the drag act world while living in Crawley, near Brighton. Matt said: “On a Sunday we’d go and watch shows with the local drag queens and I really got into it. I put on my first show for charity and it went from there. It was a different way to be on stage and entertain.”

Aside from his Drag Me To Bingo show, Matt also does a gig called It Should Have Been Me which goes down a storm at weddings. He said: “I dress up as a bride in a short white wedding dress, a veil, black and white wig, silly glasses and ugly teeth. At the end of the ceremony once they’ve done all the legal stuff I’ll burst into the song It Should Have Been Me, take the bride out of the room and hit the groom with a bag. Normally all the guests love it and the grooms play along and get involved. I’ve had one bad experience where the groom turned religious two weeks before his wedding and nobody thought of cancelling me or telling me; I turned up and managed to get 30 seconds done before I was pushed out of the room because the groom was getting quite angry!”

Matt’s own wedding will no doubt run smoothly when the time comes. He’s engaged to Jon Browett, a facilities manager at Auto Windscreens, whom he met on an 80s weekend in Butlins two years ago. Matt and Jon will be making plans for their big day after they’ve found a bigger house in the area.