Meet 3 Illinois Artists Competing To Become “The World’s Next Drag Super Monster”

Three Chicago-area drag performers compete in a battle of horror, grime and glamor for the chance to be “The World’s Next Drag Supermonster” on an upcoming reality show.

“The Boulet Brothers’ Cutie,” premiering Oct. 1 on Shudder and AMC+, enters its sixth season with three contestants from Illinois among the 12 monsters vying for the title and the $100,000 grand prize.

These include Aurora Gozmic, a mainstay of the Chicago drag scene for the past decade; Auntie Heroine, a camp drama queen who is also a community leader in the Rockford area, and Scylla, an otherworldly performance artist from Chicago inspired by fantasy and mythology.

The competition is hosted and judged by the Boulet Brothers, a drag duo from Los Angeles who have established themselves with extravagant nightlife productions. The show features drag artists from around the world who are judged on the three principles of “Dragula”: horror, grime and glamour. Each week someone is “eliminated” until the grand finale.

Dubbed “Season 666”, the next chapter of the series will put the drag monsters through a horror-themed performance and costume challenges, as well as a series of “Fear Factor”-style “extermination challenges” to see who is the last one standing. Previous exterminations have included everything from parachuting to electric shocks.

Aurora Gozmic

“This is going to be one of the craziest seasons of ‘Dragula,'” Gozmic told the Sun-Times. “We’re bringing the looks and we’re bringing the drama for one of the best seasons ever.”

Gozmic’s beloved character came to life for a “Rocky Horror Picture Show” screening on Halloween 2010. Gozmic was 16 at the time and lived in Gwinn, a small town in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.

Gozmic would watch online videos of popular Chicago drag queens like Shea Couleé, Kim Chi and Pearl — who went on to star on “RuPaul’s Drag Race” — and fell in love with the city’s drag scene from afar.

“I always knew this is where I would have to be one day,” Gozmic said. “After I turned 21, I was booked here from Michigan and moved to Chicago not long after that.”

Gozmic would perform in shows at the famed Berlin nightclub, which closed late last year, and eventually made a home at Scarlet, 3320 N. Halsted St., where she was the resident drag queen for four years until the COVID pandemic. said.

Tyler Pasciak LaRiviere/Sun-Times

“I learned so much at Scarlet,” Gozmic said. “I was hosting my own show and promoting everything, so I really found my own voice.”

Gozmic, who does many of her looks in collaboration with her darling daughter Vanda LaRose, draws a lot of inspiration from the past, she said. Her favorite decades are the 80s and 90s, but her references also go back to the 40s and 50s.

“I put a lot of care into my appearance,” Gozmic said. “And I’m definitely this season’s glamor ghoul.”

Aunt Heroine

Heroine, who started watching “Dragula” in its first two seasons, said she was always drawn to the show for its embrace of diversity and alternative drag styles.

While “RuPaul’s Drag Race” has been criticized for being slow to embrace transgender drag queens and alternative drag styles, “Dragula” has made an effort to include drag kings, trans and nonbinary contestants and drag queens with a beard, like Heroine.

“I didn’t see people or styles like me on other shows, but ‘Darling’ gave me a place to see myself reflected on television,” Heroine told the Sun-Times.

Heroina, who grew up in Winnebago, a small town outside Rockford, started doing drag while attending college at Illinois State University, she said. Heroine’s now beloved mother, Sharon ShareAlike, hosted a charity show and greeted Heroine after the event.

“Sharon showed me what I like to call ‘the heart of love,'” Heroine said. “It’s all about love and community.”

These values ​​stayed with Heroine as she moved to Chicago, where she was a frequent performer in Berlin and hosted Auntie’s Treasures, an all-ages darling show that creates opportunities for artists too young to perform in the nightlife .

The heroine later moved back to Rockford, where she now serves on the Rockford Area Pride committee, which just held the city’s first officially sanctioned Pride Parade.

“Pride in a small area like this is so important because a lot of people feel like they have to travel two hours to Chicago just to be themselves,” Heroine said. “This visibility shows Rockford that it’s okay to be yourself here, and I’m proud to represent this area on the show.”

Scylla

Scylla enters “Dragula” already bonded with Heroine, who became Scylla’s drag mother after they attended Heroine’s drag show for underage artists, and Gozmic, who booked Scylla for her first concert in Chicago.

“I’m back with the two of them, so for us to be together is a big full-circle moment that feels really surreal,” Scylla said.

Anthony Vazquez/Sun-Times

Scylla moved to Chicago at 18 from Dubuque, Iowa, and made a name for herself as an Internet performer and several all-ages drag shows before she turned 21, they said.

Since then, Scylla has competed in drag competitions for several weeks in Chicago, including Alexandria Diamond’s Survivor at Fantasy Nightclub and Crash Landing in Berlin, they said. Last year, Scylla won Ghoul School, a contest for alternative drag monsters at Splash.

“It was like pre-K at ‘Dragula,'” Scylla said. “These competitions allow you to really take criticism, build a name for yourself, and understand how your love translates into a competitive setting.”

Winning “Dragula” would be “monumental,” Scylla said.

“I’ve put so much work into this craft and prepared for this moment for so long,” Scylla said. “Now I can finally share it with the world.”