UPDATED: Feb. 21 at 11:12 p.m.

Lizanga walked onstage to receive her judges feedback with a Chipotle burrito bowl in hand. Only minutes later, she was accepting first prize in Pride Union’s 15th Annual Drag Show finals — this time grasping a large soda.

After receiving her honor, Lizanga, played by Trevor Miller, plopped down on the lip of the stage surrounded by her many supporters. Once she had posed for endless photos she let out a sigh.

“I need to poop.”

Milk and Trixie Mattel, former “RuPaul’s Drag Race” contestants, hosted the show at Goldstein Auditorium in the Schine Student Center, entertaining approximately 400 screaming fans.

Drag is a style of performance where the performer dresses in clothes commonly worn by the opposite gender and puts on a lip sync and dance show. Sunday’s show featured eight drag queens and two drag kings.

“How many are you of underage?” Trixie asked the audience as she strode out onto the stage with co-host Milk, both met with a loud cheer.

“You know why I started drag? Not to f*cking fraternize with children — but here we are,” Trixie quipped back, her blonde wig perched high on her head.

Milk was the first performer to take the stage with her rendition of “Firework” by Katy Perry. She performed in a dress made entirely of plastic bags and danced to the repeated lyric “Do you ever feel like a plastic bag?” The “RuPaul’s Drag Race” veteran was hosting the show for the third year in a row.

“I really love college drag shows because the energy of the performers is really amazing and so is the crowd,” Milk said. “And when offered the opportunity to come back to Syracuse — my hometown — and host, I’m always so down.”

Student performers started taking the stage after the professionals kicked it off. Helga Felga took the stage at her first Syracuse University drag show, although she has performed at many events previously. She stunned the audience with flips, tricks and costume changes.

For dual act Belladonna, it was a first to perform in drag. The two queens, whose name is inspired by a hallucinogenic flower, go to different universities and had only practiced via Skype before Saturday.  

Quincy Nolan, a sophomore at Clarion University in Pennsylvania, and Ian Laih, a sophomore environmental biology major at the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry, are childhood friends. Nolan had wanted to try drag for a long time and persuaded his best friend to enter the Syracuse show.

“I was reluctant at first, but then the first time we did it was just so much fun together,” Laih said.

Belladonna’s act involved a lot of bending, strutting and high-energy tricks.

“Anything I can do in sneakers, I can do in heels,” Nolan laughed, fixing his pink wig as it fell in his eyes.

Next up was the only drag king act. Rachel Ameen, an undeclared freshman in the College of Arts and Sciences, and Zoe Shannon, a sophomore anthropology major, performed to a mash-up of classic rock and 2000s pop.

“It sets us apart because people tend to take drag kings a little less seriously,” Shannon said. “We’re not as glitzy and glamorous and cool and fun, but I think we’ve got great song choices seriously.”

Performing with the stage names Neil Down and Mike Hunt, the pair wore button down shirts and slicked-back hair with drawn-on beards.

“Drag kings, at least in our particular case, are more comedy than we are about trying to be sexy and cool,” Ameen said. “We’re goofy and over the top.”

“Yeah, we’re just gals being pals,” Shannon added.

Following the intermission, last year’s winner Courtney McGuire took the stage. She pranced around the stage with six backup dancers and a roaring fan section sitting just offstage. She twirled pink feather fans while clad in a silver, glittery costume.

The three judges were gobsmacked by McGuire’s performance, and all agreed that she had stepped up her game since the preliminary rounds.

The hosts kept the audience entertained throughout. At one point, Milk asked if there were classes the next day. Trixie was horrified at the answer, exclaiming that there shouldn’t be class on “Not My President’s Day.”

But it was Lizanga who stole the hearts of the crowd and the winner’s title. She was the final student performer of the night, brandishing a musical theater-themed set. She started with “I Can Hear the Bells,” from the musical “Hairspray,” before switching to “Bend and Snap” from “Legally Blonde.”

Audience members were infatuated with Lizanga’s mess of blond curls and smeary blue eyeshadow.

“I’m a big fan of drag looking crazy as long as it’s on purpose, and her whole thing’s is a crazy mess — it’s the best,” Trixie said. “And remember, we are all born naked, and the rest is Sallie Mae student loans.”

Lizanga said her favorite moment was “blacking out” and losing herself in the performance.

“I came on this stage and became someone else, and I’ve never felt more proud to be gay in my whole life,” said Lizanga, a senior English and textual studies major.

Although Miller is a senior, he is staying at SU for a fifth year, and said he may consider reviving his Lizanga alter-ego for next year’s drag show. But for now, he will finish his Chipotle.

Said Lizanga: “To all of the beautiful, thick, in-the-closet, out-of-the-closet children in school, f*ck what people say because you are all 100 percent beautiful.”

CORRECTION: In a previous version of this post, Sallie Mae was misnamed. The Daily Orange regrets this error.

Published on February 20, 2017 at 12:53 am

Contact Rachel: rcgilber@syr.edu