250) Ted Bishop Nieves
The longtime club DJ keeps the beat alive with hit parties like Purgatory at Rockbar and Revolution at The Hangar. A favorite of the bear scene, Ted was crowned Mr. Fire Island Bear this June.
249)
The funny musical queen and popular hostess of Icon’s Whip It Wednesdays is an Ultimate Drag Pageant All-Star, and an all around star on the rise.
248) Ninth Avenue Saloon
A folksy, divey oasis in the middle of the trendy and sometimes plastic Hell’s Kitchen scene, the Saloon remains the spot to get away from the artifice and flirt with some Real Guy bartenders while hearing real songs on an actual jukebox. Bonus: the bewigged Door Ho Hannibal is one of the friendliest people in town.
247)
Cherry Grove’s most surreal comedy queen Busted had another hit summer of Monday night shows at Cherry’s on the Bay, gracing her longtime fans with the same wig, beat and wrap dress we’ve come to know her for. Long time Lips queen Stephanie Stone, on the other hand, is as always the standard of drag fashion and poise. The two have long wanted to work together, and in autumn that finally happened with a Monday night disco bingo show at 3 Dollar Bill.
246) James Wilson
The frontman of one of the city’s only queer country bands The Paisley Fields did quite a bit of recording and national touring with his outfit this year, while also playing local venues like Bowery Electric and the Queer Country Festival at DROM. An ivory tickler at Uncle Charlie’s, James bravely left his other longtime pianist gig at The Monster after their racist exchange over his friend Honey Davenport’s show poster was exposed.
245) Maxxx Pleasure
This sexy, chic throwback performer who brings the Dapper to male drag won the Brooklyn Nightlife Award for Best Drag King this year, and has performed in several high profile gigs like Bushwig and Nightgowns.
244) Hedda Lettuce
One of NYC’s true legacy queens is a somewhat reclusive figure outside of her tremendously successful Fire Island summer residencies (this year saw her back at Cherrys). But “off-season” you can catch her making hilarious barbs while screening Hollywood’s campy classics in movie theaters across town, and hosting sold out cabaret shows in various venues.
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An epic mess queen that does not easily fit the mold of any existing drag template, Zalika will be a fall-on-her-face wrestling clown one minute and wrench the angst from you with a heartbreaking mix the next. One of the city’s busiest guest stars (and a GLAM-nominated comedy queen this year), you can find her paying monthly homage to pillars of queer history with her show “Legendary” at Bizarre while regularly performing for Polish The Queen at Stonewall.
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The sexy gogo boy and choreographer morphed into a more drag-centric performer in early 2018, making his unique style and high energy performances werk with guest spots and hosting gigs all over Manhattan. Currently, he’s bartending at Bedlam.
241) Digna
After a long break from the scene, the foxy Filipino Fashionista returned to nightlife, hosting Friday nights at The Ritz.
240) JD Samson
The musician, performance artist and former electroclasher with the band Le Tigre is today a popular underground DJ, best known in NYC for her monthly party PAT at Union Pool.
239) Merlot
This model and club kid with a magically unique beauty produced nightlife’s most soulful single and most gorgeous accompanying video clip of the year, “Bad For You.”
238) Izzy Uncut
The spirited and athletic queen has become a fixture of Shuga Cain and JanSport’s Wednesday night production at Pieces, and recently joined Jasmine Rice as co-hosts of a Friday happy hour show at Hardware.
237) Sucia
The GLAM nominated, multi-talented newcomer who ignites the stage with fun energy hosted shows at Vodka Soda Bottoms Up and Boxers WH–and competed in Miss Barracuda–this year. She also wrote and starred in the short film Neon Boys, and lest we forget her cute engagement video with fiance Rob Panos went viral.
236) Dorothy Bishop
The campy cabaret comedian is best known for her Dozen Divas revue–moved to the Triad Theatre since the sad closing of the Metropolitan Room–that lampoons (with deft verbal accuracy) our favorite ladies of song. This year she also became a regular presence at Club Cumming and took a fun role in the Icon Bar reading of Mother: A Drag Musical.
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Taking her brilliant skills as a stage costumer and his passion for immersive theater to Dragtown, Miss Ogeney surfaced as one of Manhattan’s most off-kilter queens with a popular brunch at The Standard Hotel’s Narcbar in the East Village. She also recently became the Saturday night hostess at Atlas Social Club.
234)
After winning last year’s Mx. Nobody pageant and making her way to the finals of this year’s MR(S) BK, sexy and dramatic burlesque star Qualms found herself with a huge following in the queer scene and gigs aplenty in venues throughout Brooklyn and Manhattan.
233) Jolina Jasmine
A great beauty and fierce dancer throughout the Tri-State area, Miss Paradise 2016 Jolina is a welcomed addition to any show or party in New Jersey and New York. And let’s put this out in the universe: a weekly show starring Jolina and her hilarious friend / foil, Rhedd Rhumm, needs to happen!
232)
Brooklyn’s Bearded Emo Princess co-hosts the monthly “No Pressure” baby queen showcase at Bizarre with Juno Tempest, and is a regular co-star of galpal Shiny Penny’s monthly show at Macri Park as well as that venue’s monthly Ghoul School” spoopfest.
231) Lolita Golightly
The graceful, Italian-born veteran of the drag comic ballet dance company
Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo (aka The Trocks) continually leaves the city on tour. But in 2018, she stuck around long enough to host a few Stonewall Invasions and score two coveted pageant crowns: Miss Industry and Miss Cherrys.
230) Lilith LeFae
The West Village is still mourning the loss of #BlackFriday, the long-running show co-hosted by Lilith and Princess Bitch at the abruptly closed Boots & Saddle. But her Village fans can still see this fun and fierce queen on Fridays, now at Rockbar with Viva Vidalia. She’s also a regular host of DJ FenanDITO’s monthly EuroCheesefest Scandalo at Trophy Bar, and the Princess and Lilith experience lives on every two Sundays at Brooklyn’s Macri Park.
229) Nicky Ottav
The world renown club kid, fashionista and performance artist had several Moments this year, with just two highlights being the launch of a line of jackets painted with scenes of iconic celebrity meltdowns and the reprisal his drag-meets-punk event the Bodega Ball.
228) T-Boy
Manhattan’s coolest DJ was without a booth for too long after the abrupt closing of his home bar Boots & Saddle. But thankfully now there are a few places to find him: two Saturdays a month at Phoenix with Ari Kiki and Alotta McGriddles, and every Thursday at The Ritz with Morgan Royel.
227) Flower Tortilla
The GLAM-nominated door goddess of Look Queen broke through in a big way this year, bringing a kind energy and killer singing chops to several city stages. Flower hosted bingo at The Albatross for several months, and starred in an original cabaret at The Duplex.
226)
Still soaring from her success as a contestant (both in and out of drag) on last year’s season of The Voice, Nedra’s on the road a lot and not performing too often in NYC. But when she’s here, you’re most likely to find her turning it Friday nights at Vodka Soda Bottoms Up.
225)
Pierretta Viktori
The non-binary Brooklyn Clown Queen has suddenly and rightfully become an essential designer for drag queens and other stage performers the world over. GLAM nominated for their fashions, they’ve dressed tons of NYC queens and Drag Race girls ranging from Peppermint to Sasha Velour to Asia O’Hara.
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Born to be a pageant queen, this glamorous and charitable songbird hosted this year’s Miss Liberty Continental pageant while also presenting monthly benefit shows at Therapy Bar for Our Youth Diversity Scholarship, a Continental-approved charity. And most impressively, she was crowned via another major national pageant system, becoming this year’s Miss Gay United States.
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One of New York and New Jersey burlesque’s essential ambassadors, Viktor’s troupe White Elephant remain the Avengers of the genre with a long-running weekly show at Rockbar, and now additionally a monthly presence at Bizarre Bushwick. Viktor also sat on the prestigious judge’s panel for the New Jersey Burlesque Festival back in March.
[Photo: Grace Chu}
222) Porsche
The Queen of a Thousand Voices has been a major draw among The Ice Palace’s entertainment offerings for many years now, and this summer was no different. Off season, she performed a few times at Stonewall.
221) Pinwheel Pinwheel
Mx. Nobody 2018 is a truly, wonderfully bizarre drag queen and a much in-demand costume designer and makeup artist to boot.
220) Ty’s
The small West Village neighborhood bar has been packing it in on weekends for decades now, drawing a traditionally older, laid back bearish crowd. We must again recommend the nights our favorite Bar Babe Julian is VJing–he throws back with some super-nostalgic deep cuts.
219) Clarice DuBois
The Broadway-raised queen (and GLAM-nominated designer) does good on her pedigree as the hostess of Musical Mondays at Rockbar, not to mention a monthly show at Astoria’s Icon Bar. This year she was also a Miss Baraccuda contestant.
218) Shiny Penny
“Brooklyn’s Favorite Door Pixie” has joined the staff of Lips, while still turning it with Ruby Roo and Ragamuffin for Mondays on Mondays at Macri Park and hosting her own Saturday monthly there as well.
217) Dan Jimenéz
Last year’s Mr. Fire Island Bear is now this year’s Mr. New York Unlimited Bear. Dan is the toast of BearTown, becoming one of the scene’s essential gogo dancers and the host of the monthly Rock The Rockbar, a rock music party at the titular venue.
216) Jacqueline Dupree
Manhattan’s busiest karaoke queen (The Toolbox, Boxers HK, Suite Bar) from the legendary House of Dupree slays us with those diva pipes of hers, and gives us a blessed night of Just Jackie monthly at Stonewall.
215)
Having blown the motherfucking roof off of 2018’s Halloween edition of the Lady Liberty showdown with a winning performance based on her spirit animal Kathy Bates’ role in Misery, FX Sorceress Robert reminded us why we call her Queen. And thanks to another recent pageant win, we can call her Mx. Mont Rose as well! Catch the film buff monthly at The Rosemont, screening movies and turning related numbers afterwards.
214) Thorgy Thor
This Drag Race All-Star was edited into a toxically neurotic caricature for two seasons in a row, but still enjoys a large global fanbase. It’s to Thorgy’s great credit that she never strayed from her roots as a trailblazer of the Brooklyn scene for too long, returning several times to Metropolitan Bar during the airing of her season to host its viewing party and subsequent Alotta Stuff auctions. Brooklyn will always show love to their quirky, whip-smart Mama, and vice versa.
213) DJ Reaubert
The disco and new wave DJ keeps our dancefloors refreshingly eclectic, with deep cuts and essential classics. Catch him spinning every Fridays at Narcbar and Saturdays at Metro, plus monthly Wednesdays at Nowhere Bar.
212)
A kindly and campy queen reminiscent of Broadway darling Sutton Lee Seymour, 2017′s Miss Rockbar winner Coco Taylor took her pageant duties very seriously, building an audience for her popular weekly show “Miss Rockbar Presents” and helping management to cultivate a roster of great house queens for other nights. She now hosts “Cuckoo for Coco” Tuesdays at Rockbar.
211) The Brides of Burlesque
Bringing equal doses of intellect and poop jokes to the burlesque stage, married performers Faux Pas le Fae & Aurora North performed consistently throughout 2018–both as guest stars of various revues, and via their own monthly show at Bizarre and self-produced showcases at Coney Island USA.
210)
This “Fashion Forward Ho” is a big draw in Brooklyn, and a popular edition to that borough’s ensemble shows like OOPS at The Rosemont. She’s also a frequent co-star of Merrie Cherry for her Macri Park monthly. And she loves berets!
209) Poppy
The dreamy, high-concept queen has turned out many of the most elaborate, narrative performances that the Lady Liberty seasonal drag competitions have ever seen, including her most recent take as the living embodiment of “Bohemian Rhapsody.” She hosts a monthly show at The West End.
208)
MiscAllaneous DomTop & Munroe Lilly
Nightlife’s most fetishistic performer MiscAllaneous keeps their clients as a dominatrix in ecstasy, and their audiences as a burlesquer (the monthly they host at Bizarre is called, aptly, Hardcore) somewhere between that and sweet agony. Their genderfucking sexy sis Munroe is one of the most booked burlesque acts in the biz, and rightly so.
207)
Serving the children of The Ritz their doses of jello shots and Lady Gaga pop-up numbers throughout the week, this Perfect Illusion of Ms. Germanotta is now the host of that bar’s Monday night festivities.
206)
A GLAM-nominated burlesquer this year, Vic is the host of Bizarre’s popular monthly variety show “Sinner’s Kit Kat Cabaret” and a guest performer wherever a sexy, furry leg splitter in a corset is needed.
205)
Last year’s Fire island Entertainer of the Year kept busy mostly in her home city of Philadelphia, but still turned it out plenty here in the Tri State. She placed third in the much-watched Miss’d America pageant in Atlantic City, performed in City Winery’s first ever drag show, hosted a weekly at the Ice Palace, and had a great turn as part of the Mother: A Drag Musical reading at Icon Bar.
204)
A producer of cabaret benefits and events, Mr. Eagle 2018 Joseph Macchia spearheaded many parties at the Eagle NYC after his sash win. He currently manages that bar’s daily happy hour.
203) Untitled Queen
Bringing artistic drama to the drag stage like no other, Brooklyn’s legendary Untitled has become increasingly more immersed in visual and performance art outside of the nightlife setting. But seeing her achingly intense numbers aglow with the glamour of Sasha Velour’s multimedia showscape Nightgowns–in the rare times those shows happen nowadays–is always a treat for the senses.
202) Madame Vivien V
Many of us miss Madame’s pyrotechnics, spinning her flaming poi across the stages of rare venues that had permits for such fire play. But Viv is more than just a Human Torch… her outlandish beats and costumes gag us, her writhing numbers disturb us, and her Drag Race viewing party at Bizarre co-hosted by Vic Sin proved she was one of the most hysterically intelligent gals in the biz. These days she’s the house queen at the House of Yes, and hosts a monthly amateur drag competition there.
201) Jessa Angel
This chic young hostess has been evoking classic Manhattan nightlife with her frequent events at the Museum of Sex, most recently via the weekly party Tropicunt.
Thotyssey 