When Shea Coulee hit the catwalk in the first episode of season nine of the Emmy-award winning show RuPaul’s “Drag Race” for the hometown look challenge she was there to let everyone know what city she was from. Her look was a jumpsuit with French fry adorned boots and a hot dog atop her head. The hot dog with accompanied by yellow mustard, chopped white onions, green sweet pickle relish, a dill pickle spear, tomato slices, pickled sport peppers and bit of celery salt all inside poppy seed bun. When she got the to the end of catwalk she said four simply words, “Bitch, I’m from Chicago.”
Just like the hotdog on her head, Shea was presenting drag Chicago-style. Chicago drag, much like a Chicago hotdog, is many different parts and pieces together to create one thing where the different parts still stand out on their own. It is a wonderful mix of camp queen, theater queen, glam queer, artsy queers, and pageant queens all wrapped into one place.
The breadth of Chicago Drag was fully on display when Hinkypunk hit the stage at DePaul University’s annual drag show on April 14 in DePaul’s Student Center. She did it fully painted in red with a huge, anemone-like head piece, long fingernails and creepy body movement to match. Her head piece in conjunction with her platform shoes had made her presence even larger. The crowd, packed around the runway, took a collective breath to take Hinkypunk in before they began to scream, clap and hand tips her way.
Hinkypunk’s dramatic, conceptual looks are usually the first things people notice about her. Hinkypunk had always had a strong vision and styling skills, but it took a couple of years to be able to translate that into her makeup looks. Now, when she hits the stage, from head to toe, her vision comes through clearly.
Hinkypunk’s name and drag is inspired by the mythical creature of the same name. Hinkypunk, other times refer to as will-o’-wisp, draw wayward travelers in with their misty light leading the travelers further of the path. Hinkypunk are like the Sirens from Greek Mythology; however, they trade the sea for land and enchanting songs for alluring light.
“My creative take on the folklore was that we no longer see the hinkypunk because they are all around us, inhabiting bodies of other magical creatures as a parasite across space, time, and species,” said Hinkypunk.
With her looks, Hinkypunk is tapping into many different ideas. She has used the character to express and explore her own struggles with mental illness as well as her identity as queer trans woman. She is horror. She is comedy. She is presenting an inclusive, diverse concept.
Hinkypunk describes the Chicago drag scene in many of the same terms that she describes her own drag.
“We self-police and do our best to hold each other accountable for being inclusive, respectful, and professional.”
The next performer enraptured the audience just as Hinkypunk did, but instead of looks, she gave the audience tricks.
“Please welcome back to the stage Chicago’s stunt queen, Denali,” said hosts Bambi Banks Couleé and Khloe Park.
When hosts Bambi and Khloe introduced Denali as a stunt queen, it did little to capture the level of skill the former figure skater brought to the stage. Denali had already impressed the audience with a front walkover, but when she did a back walkover which led to a wig reveal the crowd immediately surged to its feet. The already loud screams and claps reached deafening levels. The technical skill behind her movements were clear.
Before Denali was performing on stage as a drag queen, she was cruise ship figure skater Cordero Zuckerman. Zuckerman would put on a few shows a week on the onboard skating rink for the guests aboard the ship. It was during this, with little else to do, that Zuckerman first started to get interested in drag.
“We had a lot of down on the ship, so we ended up watching a lot of shows,” said Zuckerman, “At one point, we started watching ‘Drag Race’.”
After his initial experience with the program, Zuckerman started to look for any opportunity to come to cruise events in drag.
“I would take any theme and find a way to show up in drag,” said Zuckerman.
After spending years at sea, Zuckerman decided to move to Chicago and to start pursuing drag more seriously. Zuckerman’s drag has largely influenced by his life. His polished, stunt queen style is all based on his years as figure skater. All the technical abilities he learned while under coaching from two queer instructors appear in his performances.
Even his drag name, Denali, comes from the territory of Alaska in which he grew up. “I associate that place with so many influential people in my life, especially strong women, and that’s what I want to portray in my drag,” said.
When Zuckerman came to Chicago, the first drag queen he saw was Bambi Banks-Couleé. Bambi’s “passionate, soulful” performance inspired Zuckerman and began to open his eyes to all of what Chicago drag encompasses.
“It’s limitless,” said Zuckerman.
The Bambi describes her own style of drag, only reaffirms what Zuckerman saw when he had got his first sight of Chicago drag.
“My drag tells people that I not be played with. I might be friendly, but I’m also confident in myself and my art,” said Bambi.
The passion that Zuckerman noted in Bambi’s performance comes from Bambi’s confidence in her art that she has built from years of performance both in and out of drag. She began to feel unfulfilled as a performer following graduation and competed in a drag competition randomly.
“I eventually started getting booked and never stopped doing drag until it became my full-time job,” said Bambi.
The style of drag Bambi does is not the same as Hinkypunk or Denali’s. It is once again a style of her own creation, that combines her background with existing style of drag to add another addition to the Chicago scene. It is glam, with, as the Met Gala said this year, notes on camp.
Chicago is known for variety,” said Bambi, “We have everything you need.”
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