Drag queen Miss Peppermint's journey from cheerleader to broadway

pic/sameer markande

It's a funny story. When Miss Peppermint (born as Kevin Moore) became a known name in New York City's nightlife circuit, people began calling her Agnes off stage. "I never made it up or told it to anyone. So, the Internet kind of assigned it to me," she tells us, as she prepares for her show as part of her maiden India tour that kicks off with a performance in the city today. "I just like Peppermint. And I am trying to get away from the idea that I need to have a 'non-drag' name. It's a challenge because it's not traditional, but I am not a traditional girl," she adds as she clicks her fingers, flicking back a lock of her beautiful long hair and delicately sipping on a glass of cold ice tea, sitting across us in the lobby of a five-star hotel in Mumbai. "Deeelishus!" she remarks.

Born in Pennsylvania, Peppermint was always inclined towards the arts and after high school, she moved to NYC to pursue a degree in music and theatre performance at the American Musical and Dramatic Academy. But her journey with womanhood began long before. "In terms of my trans-ness, I always felt that there was this female entity inside me. It was gradual and the moment I had autonomy, which was in high school, I did drag for the first time for Halloween," she recalls.

This was also the time when Peppermint became the captain of her school's cheerleading team. Touching upon that and the bullying she faced, the artiste says, "I wanted to wear the same uniform that was a skirt, but I wasn't allowed to. So, I was not cheerleading as a transwoman, but as someone who was perceived male. It is really interesting because gender helps us categorise each other, but it also holds us back, doesn't it? Look at the jobs that men and women do historically. Women can cook and provide for their family, yet when it comes to being a professional chef and running a restaurant, then men will do it."

For Peppermint, drag began with a simple question: What would satisfy her need to be seen and treated as a woman? "I thought that doing drag would be enough, and it was in the beginning. But once I began college and I got the opportunity to work at nightclubs, perform as an artiste and make money out of it, that's when things really kicked off," she recalls. Now, she is not only a drag artiste, but also a singer, actor, TV personality, model and activist who rose to fame after becoming the second runner-up in the ninth edition of the US reality show, Ru Paul's Drag Race in 2017. Things snowballed thereafter.

Last year, while on tour for Ru Paul's, the trans icon had another breakthrough when she bagged a principal role in a Broadway production titled Head Over Heels, making her the first transwoman to do so. In fact, renowned theatre critic for The New York Times Benjamin Brantley received flak for misgendering Peppermint's character Pythio: they were non-binary. Commenting on the incident, she says, "We all know the saying, 'With great power comes great responsibility.' And Brantley is one of those people who can make or break a show. So, if you have great power and you're going into a theatrical show, I think you owe it to yourself to do some research and understand what you're talking about. All in all, though, this production was necessary because it was inclusive."

The international drag queen makes no bones about her excitement around performing in the country for the first time. "My show is highly organic. It is affected by the chemistry and temperature of the people in the room. So, what I say, how I act and what I do, is a collaboration. That being said, it's just me deciding what I'll be wearing," she quips.

At: Kitty Su, The Lalit, Andheri East.
Time: 10 pm to 1 am
Call: 7777052330
Entry: Rs 1,000 and Rs 1,500 (for meet and greet)

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