For ‘RuPaul’s Drag Race’ winner Jinkx Monsoon, everything is at stake

By Joshua Encinias

They say that life is tit for tat, and drag queen Jinkx Monsoon receives a lot of tat for her tits.

That bastardization of “When You’re Good To Mama” is inspired by her recent stint in “Chicago” as Matron “Mama” Morton. She’s the first drag queen and first non-binary actor to play the character on Broadyway. Monsoon uses she/her pronouns when in drag.

Monsoon is no stranger to New York City, though she prefers Brooklyn because it feels less performative than Manhattan. The two-time winner of “RuPaul’s Drag Race” lived in the Greenpoint during her run on the Great White Way.

She gave herself the drag name Monsoon because, in her words, she’s prone to having bad luck. But her recent marriage to musician Michael Abbott and becoming the most successful “Drag Race” winner in herstory makes us think the curse might be broken. Monsoon shares her story through song and comedy in the “Everything at Stake” tour, coming to Brooklyn’s Kings Theatre on Saturday, July 1.

Brooklyn Magazine Zoomed with the drag icon on Wednesday as she was getting ready in her hotel room for a sold-out performance in Albany. Monsoon tells us why she performed under her stage name in “Chicago” and what the future may hold for her legal name and identity, Jerick Roman Lamar Hoffer. She unpacks the meaning behind naming her tour “Everything at Stake,” and why drag both is and isn’t dangerous.

Photo by Alex White

What are some of your favorite venues to perform in New York?
Oh, I don’t even know. Here’s the truth about drag queens: I don’t remember the name of the venue or what city each venue is in until I’m there in the dressing room or on stage. Then I’m like, “Oh, I’m here in Montreal.” But I recorded my stand-up special “Redhead Redemption” at this beautiful venue in Greenpoint called Warsaw.

The thing is, I haven’t actually performed a lot in Brooklyn. I just like to be in Brooklyn because it feels like New York with the dial turned down a little bit. [Laughs.] Where it actually feels like you’re in a neighborhood with human beings and not in a TV show with characters, which is what Manhattan feels like.

One of Manhattan’s infamous characters, Lady Bunny, is DJing a disco tea dance at C’mon Everybody a few hours before your Kings Theatre show on Saturday. Will you be stopping by?
If I got into drag at 7 a.m., maybe I could make it for Bunny’s Tea Dance, but I’m not like Bunny. I can’t throw on a minuscule amount of makeup and a shapeless sack and call it drag! I’ve got to actually put some effort in. I’m teasing, I love Bunny Bunny. She’s one of my favorite people and a whole circus in one person.

Are you going to appear in more Broadway shows after your 10-week run in “Chicago”?
Oh, absolutely. Things take a while to plan and we’re waiting for the next perfect fit, but I’m in talks with the right people so when that show comes around, hopefully I’ll be right there auditioning.

Do you ever want to perform on Broadway under your birth name Jerick?
You know, very candidly, you’re the first person in the media I’m talking with about it, but I was just talking about it with my husband so it’s on my mind. I don’t know about what the future holds for Jerick. I don’t know. I think Jinkx Monsoon is the actor. Jerick’s just the body who puppeteers. But if you’re asking if would I appear on Broadway or TV and film out of drag? Absolutely. I have tons of stories and tons of characters inside of me, and I don’t want to be limited as an actor by gender presentation, just like how I want other actors not to be limited by gender presentation. I really believe you cast the right actor for the role and figure the rest out later.

Why did you call your tour “Everything at Stake”?
The French call it a double entendre. It’s a show about being queer, practicing witchcraft, and what the queer community is facing in the world right now as we’re being scapegoated by conservative zealot assholes — the kind of witch hunt mentality that we’ve seen in America for the last five years or so, where everyone’s pointing fingers at each other and everyone’s looking for one person to blame for everything. That’s the feeling right now, especially being a queer person as they’re actively making laws to try to eradicate or invalidate our existence.

It felt like a no-brainer to draw the parallels between the way we’ve seen witches scapegoated and persecuted in history and the way that the queer community is being treated. Plus, I love wordplay.

Do you think it’s a sign of progress that federal courts struck down multiple anti-drag laws in Florida and Tennessee?
It’s so hard to differentiate people on that side of the argument these days. It used to be that there were Republicans and there were conservative Republicans. Now it feels like the Republican party is 90 percent cult members and 10 percent people who actually care about politics. So it’s nice to see that there are people even on the Republican side of things or conservative in their politics, realizing that this legislation and the wording and the rhetoric around it is so vague that there is no way that it’s constitutional. I’m glad that people are calling this bullshit out for what it is. It’s written vague and it’s unconstitutional.

But do you think the laws affect culture?
The damage has been fucking done. Anti-LGBTQ+ sentiment is at an all-time high. The social media world is at an all-time hostile toward queer and trans people. Facebook and Instagram and all these platforms have loopholes so that people can defend being homophobic. Even if the legislation didn’t get passed and didn’t become law, the message has been sent out and the idiots have answered the call to arms and now they are taking their aggression directly to the queer community. So whether it became a law or not is kind of irrelevant at this point. The damage has been done, and now the queer community is fighting every single day, yet again, trying to undo the damage of this extremist rhetoric.

Some in the drag community are fighting back with the message that drag isn’t dangerous, but other drag queens are saying, yes, drag is dangerous to the status quo. I think the messaging is confusing if you’re from the outside looking in.
I completely agree with your sentiment. [Fellow “Drag Race” winner] Alaska said it best because she hosted the “Drag is a Dangerous Telethon.” She said drag isn’t dangerous if you’re on the right side of things, but drag is very dangerous if you’re a bigot. I don’t know how to thread that needle or reconcile that for a broad audience.

It’s frustrating because we are at this point where we have to pick and choose our battles, pick and choose how we represent ourselves to make sure that we’re not adding to a negative narrative, but also not censor ourselves for a straight audience that isn’t even our audience to begin with.

So drag queens have to walk the line between subversion and entertainment.
That’s what drag queens have always done. We’ve always had to walk that line. But I’m not worried about drag queens right now. I’m worried about the people who spin things and the people who believe the first thing they hear. I’m worried about the propaganda against us.

I’m really proud of the queer community for not lowering ourselves to their level. As much as I want the sex workers out there to release the names of all their Republican clientele and start fighting dirty in that way, I know that our community won’t do that because we operate with integrity and we operate with mindfulness. The LGBTQ+ community leads the way in operating with mindfulness to the rest of the world.

Last quick thing: do you know if Liza Minnelli saw your performance as Judy Garland on “All Stars 7”?
I don’t know. Here’s what I’ll say: I’m kind of anxious if Liza were to ever see it because she’s very protective of her mother. And my impersonations, while loving, are always irreverent. So I don’t know how Liza or her siblings would feel about the impersonation, but I hope they would see that it comes from a place of love. I also do a Liza impersonation, which is very loving but also very tongue in cheek. I don’t wanna poke the bear, but I feel like Liza must be used to people doing impersonations of her family at this point. I don’t know that she likes it, but she must be used to it.