This hairy, smiling, cross-dressed man is the latest sensation in Japan, but his fame is growing beyond the borders of the Asian country! He's Australian and his real name is Richard Magarey, but you can call him Ladybeard. Ladybeard is a man of multiple talents, and looking pretty nice in feminine dresses is only one of them: he's an actor, a wrestler, a martial artist and metal singer.
All these ingredients have been useful to turn him into an idol. "I’ve been wearing dresses to parties and rock shows for years. It’s good fun, and everyone has more fun when a man in a dress is at the party," said to Tokyodesu. "I’ve also been attacked several times, but I don’t think that reaction could be called strange, at least not in Australia."
When he was 23, he moved from Australia to Hong Kong to pursue a career in kung fu movies, and because he was a martial artist, he got stunt training
"I’ve always had an interest in pro-wrestling because it combines all the things that I love — acting, martial arts, character performance, and everything"
"When I began wrestling I decided to wear a dress in the ring and make Ladybeard my ring name too. Everyone loved it."
"After I started wrestling, I still wanted to sing heavy metal, so I kept the same character because I already had a fanbase for it. I was doing metal covers of Cantonese pop songs while wearing a dress."
"After every show people would come up to me and say, 'That was crazy, you should go to Japan, because the Japanese would love this'.”
Later on Ladybeard started appearing in Japanese magazines and was offered to form Ladybaby, a kawaii metal band, along with 2 teenagers
Ladybeard, Rie and Rei released their first single as Ladybaby last July, and they haven't stopped touring since then!
What plans does Ladybeard have for the future? "Ladybeard plans to ride around on a robot triceratops when those get invented."
Hopefully, someday we will see him around the rest of the world too!
