Rupaul’s Drag Race Season 16 Miss Congeniality winner, Sapphira Cristal, joined nine other drag performers in the Joe Crowley Student Union ballroom packed full of students and ASUN staff on March 18.
The drag show was hosted by Cristal alongside a panel of judges and ASUN staff. It was a friendly competition where contestants competed in various challenges over the course of two rounds.
The first round was a runway exhibition. Each performer catwalked across the stage while Cristal introduced them to the audience. The second round was a talent show challenge where participants were tasked with entertaining the judges and crowd. The talent show featured acts including death drops, big wigs concealed by even bigger wigs and strip teases, to name just a few of the performances displayed.
Contestant Ari Arsyn was victorious and won ASUN’s annual drag show for the second year in a row.
Arsyn is a trans woman and drag queen based here in Reno. She is also a proficient dancer and costume designer. Arsyn lip-synced to multiple pop songs during her talent act, pairing songs with hidden outfit reveals and switching from costume to costume without breaking a sweat.
The other competitors included Mia Mor, Destiny Moore Starlight, Braun Burgundee, Armani The Star, Cynthia Wolfe, Miss Thang Luv, Donna Sux Does Moore and Aphrodite’s Pearl.
Each one of the performers interacted with the audience during their opening runway appearances and individual talent show segments. The enthusiasm from the crowd had an impact on their performances.
“The crowd, oh, I love it,” contestant Donna Sux Does Moore said. “Well, you sometimes feed off of their energy, it’s very nice,” Moore added.
This is Moore’s third time competing in ASUN’s annual drag show. She has a master’s degree in classical singing from UNR, using her background in the arts to sing an opera ballad for her talent show performance.
Mia Mor, another one of the show’s drag performers, also described the effect an energetic audience has on her.
“When the crowd is just cheering you on and just hyping you up it is the most amazing feeling. Like, I could get tipped zero dollars, but if the crowd is just giving — I leave with something,”Mor said.
Donna Sux Does Moore and Mia Mor both touched upon the comfort a performance art like drag can provide to others.
“Money comes and goes no matter what, but the influence that you put upon people or help people find in themselves is… It can’t be bought,” said Mor.
“Sometimes people go to drag shows just for an escape,” Moore said. “Drag is an art form. Drag is protest. Drag is everything that you want and in turn, everything that you could want it to be,” Moore added.
Freshman UNR student Ivana Hernandez felt that there was a lot for her and others to take away from the annual event.
“She [Sapphira Cristal] said some inspiring things at the end, like the part about how to accept and love yourself for who you are, which is something me and a lot of people have trouble with. She just helped me. Hearing her advice was nice right now,” Hernandez said.
After the talent show segment, Cristal had delivered a brief but vulnerable speech on self preservation.
“The person you are today will be the one who takes you to your dreams in the future, but you must nurture that person, you must let that person know that they are worthy of love. The only person who can love you the best is you,” she said.
Cristal often worked directly with the crowd, even recruiting a mixed group of audience volunteers to compete against one another in wacky tasks for free signed memorabilia during the show’s last segment.
The show’s winner was determined through elimination and crowd favor.
UNR student Shmab Grisha was the last woman one standing after lasting through a twerk-off, fake college acceptance reactions-off and a 10-second “lip-sync for your life” against fellow student Fiona.
“It was so fun to be up there with everyone and to be next to Sapphira was a dream come true,“ Grisha said.
Although they found being up on stage to be slightly nerve-wracking, Grisha said they were glad to have been one of the audience members chosen to join the drag queens that night. “I will remember it forever. The drag community changes my life constantly and I am forever grateful for the queer spaces we have here in Reno,” Grisha said.
